The marketing of perfume tends to be an intensely gender-specific business, so it’s always interesting to think about which materials and accords signify ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ at any given moment…
I’ve already hinted at the fact that Rodrigo Flores-Roux is a great interview subject: he talks at length, but he doesn’t waffle, and he remains focussed on each question he’s…
In her Author’s Note at the start of Coming To My Senses, Texas-based Alyssa Harad explains that she decided not to reveal the identity of some of the perfumes she…
THIS POST WAS SHORTLISTED IN THE ‘DIGITAL’ CATEGORY OF THE 2013 JASMINE AWARDS Wearing Ylang 49 has reminded me of a claim several perfumers have made about fragrance critics: apparently…
Predicting trends is a dubious business: as long as you do it often enough, a few of your pronouncements will inevitably turn out to be correct. That’s one of the…
I don’t really like Angel. There, I’ve said it. I acknowledge that it is a supremely well-made fragrance with an important place in perfume history, but in terms of my…
This time, I seriously considered throwing in the towel. When Carrie asked us to pick one of the seven deadly sins for our next joint-list project, I immediately claimed ‘wrath’…
When I chatted with Alberto Morillas at the London launch of Penhaligon’s Iris Prima (the full interview will appear on Basenotes) I asked him about co-authoring Amouage‘s Opus VII with…
A few weeks ago, the consistently readable Eva Wiseman addressed the topic of scent in her Observer Magazine column. Here’s an extract: I often think about M&M’s World. It’s a…
You can’t blame me for getting excited by the prospect of two new colognes from Jean-Claude Ellena. If there’s one thing the man knows how to do well, it’s producing…
When I met Rodrigo Flores-Roux at the London launch of the John Varvatos range of scents, I asked him about his work on the reformulated, 2010 version of Fougère Royale,…
It’s time for me to lock the study door, pull down the blinds and calm my nerves with a sniff of my beloved Habit Rouge. The Invasion Of The Day…
Persolaise