QUCK SNIFF: Is perfume really just an animal thing?

“Eighty percent of love is smell” — Tom Robbins It’s pretty common (isn’t it?) to think of our olfactory sense as somehow baser and more animalistic than, say, vision. Maybe partly because we are so close to snuffling animal familiars — dogs who seem driven and guided more by snout than eyes — we think […]

Beast-mode performers: Masculinity and the bro perfume community

When I first fell into the perfume rabbit hole, I limited myself to the artier, more intellectualized side of Fumetown, at sites such as Bois de Jasmin, Kafkaesque, Persolaise, Now Smell This, The Non-Blonde, and Grain de Musc. While these sites certainly do often address factors such as price and “performance,” these are usually secondary […]

Quick Sniff: Signature scent? No way! But…..

It seems to me that most serious perfume-heads reject the notion of a signature scent because we are drawn to such a wide array of perfumes. Though I am in this category, sometimes I entertain the fantasy of finding a single scent that feels “like me.” I think this is partly a reflection of my […]

Lessons from a tempestuous romance with Coromandel

Though lots of people say we live in a post-modern era, common sense ideas about what’s “merely in our heads” versus what’s “actually out there” in the world haven’t really changed much. We know, of course, that when we’re in love, our “rose colored glasses” make the “external” world shimmer with magic. And we know […]

QUICK SNIFF: Weird? According to whom?

I’m curious: What perfumes do you wear that other people think are weird? Are there any that even you think are weird but love anyway? Are there any you love BECAUSE they are such weirdos? What makes something “weird” anyway? For me, Bulgari Black still feels unpleasantly weird, no matter how hard I try to […]

Skanky perfumes in the Age of Febreze

To those who are disgusted by so-called “dirty,” “skanky,” or “animalic” perfumes — and many mainstream folks may never actually have smelled one — it can be utterly baffling that anyone would find them appealing. And this may be more than a trivial difference about individuals’ attraction to particular notes, of the “I like lavender […]

QUICK SNIFF: The perfume of no perfume at all

I’m curious: Are there times when any perfume feels to you like too much? I’m wondering especially about days when, for the sake of simplicity or just to take a break, you choose to go without. Do you have commitments to simplicity or minimalism that ever conflict with your love of perfume? Do you ever […]