The new Maison Diptyque store (remember?) at 7 rue Duphot in Paris.
You don’t just smell an aroma; you fall into it
“You don’t just smell an aroma; you fall into it,” writes artisan perfumer Mandy Aftel. And entering her exquisite small museum, the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents, tucked into a backyard in Berkeley, is to fall into an ancient, mysterious world. Amid centuries-old books, bottles and curios are natural fragrances that come from the secretions of civets and the bowels of sperm whales, as well as from resins, rare flowers, roots and so much more. We talk to Aftel about her collection, the art of building a fragrance, and her new book, “The Museum of Scent: Exploring the Curious and Wondrous World of Fragrance”.
— Listen to Mandy Aftel at Berkeley Perfumer Mandy Aftel on the 'Curious and Wondrous World of Fragrance' at KQED.
How to translate this Italian identity
Perfumers Jacques Cavalier and Camille Cavalier talk about Bvlgari Allegra Chill & Sole.
They bought stuff
When Dallas Pratt worked at an outpost of Aesop in an outdoor shopping mall outside Chicago, one of her and her co-workers’ favorite ways of drawing in new customers was making a concoction they called “sidewalk tea”. They would put a few drops of scented lotion in a cup of hot water, and then they would pour it onto the slab of concrete outside the shop. As the water evaporated, the smell of the lotion would fill the air.
“It drew people in,” Pratt tells me. “They asked questions. They spent time.” And, crucially, they bought stuff.
— Read more in ‘It’s the brand speaking to you’: the scent firms making smells for Subway, Abercrombie and more at The Guardian.
Diorissimo captures the essence of Muguet with rare realism
A week late, but from Dior, two May Day videos. First up, a bottle porn video for the re-release of the Baccarat bottle for Diorissimo. It is a numbered limited edition, and sorry but I don’t know where to get one or what it costs. Below the jump, perfumer Francis Kurkdjian on Diorissimo (in French, you can generate English subtitles in the YouTube settings).