Gentle Rebel
In my university years, I attended The Boston Conservatory of Music and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts. There were only a handful of students in my graduating class; most of the undergrads had dropped out along the way. I always thought it strange in the moment, but in retrospect, I realized that [Read the full story]
Frustrations of a Mutinous Perfumer
I know I should be writing about something new or relevant in the world of fragrance. There is so much out there to report, speculate and review upon that I could undoubtedly write forevermore and never run out of material… But I’ve got panties, and they’re starting to bunch… I guess I just don’t understand [Read the full story]
Attack of Old Lady Perfume!!!
I think that Old Man Winter and Old Lady Perfume are secretly lovers… equally offensive and vile in their practices, making the perfect bedfellows… While navigating my way through the Twitter-verse yesterday, I searched the words “perfume” and “fragrance”, just to see what was topical. Aside for the preposterous amount of “discount” and “best” perfumes [Read the full story]
City of Aromatic Offenses…
While on a recent vacation to a major metropolitan city, I had a reoccurring experience as I meandered through the busy streets. I smelled, much to my aversion, people wearing perfumes that were not only awful but they smelled particularly wrong for the individual wearing them. Since our olfactory intake is an impulse that happens instantly [Read the full story]
Anointed Architect
The sunlight streams in through the window as I gaze, eyes fixed on a black perfume bottle. As the bottle picks up the light of the sun, I discover it’s not black at all, but a deep, regal amethyst meant to shield the delicate essences contained within. The world within this bottle is one divined [Read the full story]
Of Lemons and Mermaids
I’m a pusher and I know it… I make no apologies for it either. I’ve been in the fragrance trenches for over 20 years (gasp!!!), and I feel like I’ve earned my conclusions. I’d like to believe that I give everyone a fair shake, but the truth of the matter with perfume is that it [Read the full story]
Bazaar Obsession
Its early afternoon in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, circa 1971 and the merchants are in full haggle at the bazaar along the dock. The unfaltering breeze is rolling in off of the warm waters of the Indian Ocean carrying with it the scent of pepper, nutmeg, mint, and burning incense along with an amalgamation of [Read the full story]
My Tryst With Serge Lutens
I am having a dizzying love affair with Serge Lutens’s “Fleurs d’Oranger“… The orange trees are blooming here in Phoenix and I ritualistically die and am reborn with every contraction of my lungs… My neighborhood and all of its occupants, animal, vegetable and mineral, are unwittingly under the bittersweet enchantment of this hypnotic bloom. It’s [Read the full story]
Why Do We Perfume Ourselves?
“Why do we perfume ourselves, if not to express what neither clothes, nor words are able to do?” Why do we so covet the invisible and sacred world of fragrances? This is a question that I have pondered for many moons past, and many more to come, I imagine. If you break it down [Read the full story]
