Persolaise Smelly ABCs
When people are learning a new skill or craft, you quite often hear them complaining about the fact that they’re forced to spend hours mastering the basics. Budding pianists can’t…
Review Showcase: Tauer Perfumes
Andy Tauer’s creations have just been added to the lines stocked at London’s Les Senteurs, which makes this is a perfect time for a retrospective review of one of the…
The Science Of Scent At London's Royal Institution
Please click here to be redirected to my Basenotes article about a lecture I recently attended on the topic of turning an idea into a scent. Thanks very much. Persolaise.
Smoky Mozart
Today the Persolaise household will be busy packing for the imminent trip to India, but last night I managed to find some time for one final, formulation session. I closed…
No Formula Changes Permitted
I recently decided to celebrate my return to the real world by popping out for some pre-holiday shopping, an activity which is always accompanied by a certain amount of perfume…
Review: A*Men Sunessence Edition Orage D'Ete by Thierry Mugler (2010)
As far as I’m aware, Mugler’s key scents (Angel, Alien and A*Men) are still serious commercial contenders. So I don’t quite understand why the firm insists on diluting their impact…
Like This Sample Giveaway Result
Many thanks to everyone who entered the draw for the sample of Like This. Today’s winner is… Christof. Don’t worry if you didn’t get lucky this time: I expect it…
Tauer Perfumes Lily Of The Valley Project + Sample Giveaway Reminder
Some of you may be interested to learn that Andy Tauer is currently seeking submissions for a charity ebook project entitled ‘A Moment With Lily Of The Valley’. A wide…
Sample Giveaway + Les Senteurs + Review: Like This by Etat Libre D'Orange (2010)
How do you bite your thumb at the stream of cynical sub-scents that emerge every summer? Here’s a pretty good, two-word answer: Like This. Need more detail? Well, you start…
Preview: Bleu De Chanel by Chanel (2010)
Here’s a fact: Chanel will soon release a new men’s scent called Bleu. And here’s another fact: most bloggers haven’t had one solitary sniff of it. Put these two facts…
Review: Gucci By Gucci Sport Pour Homme by Gucci (2010)
Ah, the dangers of prejudice. When I saw that a sample of this new flanker had made its way into one of my shopping bags, I immediately condemned it to…
Wonderwood Sample Giveaway Result + Momentary Hibernation Lull
Thanks to everyone who took part in the Wonderwood draw. You’ll see from the image above that the winner is the second person who a left comment: Ines. Hopefully, I’ll…
Scent Gathering With Andy Tauer
I recently had the good fortune to attend one of Ronny Geller‘s Scent Gatherings and spend several hours in the company of Andy Tauer, creator of, amongst others, L’Air Du…
Roja Dove’s Haute Parfumerie
One of the perks of publishing on the Internet is that you can change posts with which you’re not entirely happy. This one is a case in point: over the…
Sample Giveaway + Review: Wonderwood by Comme Des Garçons (2010)
What kind of scent is conjured up in your mind by the words “wood gone mad”? Not, I reckon, a scent like Wonderwood, although that’s precisely the term CdG are…
Amouage – New London Boutique
On a peaceful street in Knightsbridge, hidden behind an unsightly pyramid of scaffolding, is London’s first stand-alone boutique for Amouage, the highly-respected house founded in the early 80s by a…
Smoke Interrupted
Squeezing in a few, manically rushed moments of formulating never seems to produce worthwhile results. Despite the inexorable encroachment of the day job, I’ve tried to spend a few moments…
Perfect Preservation
The next time you go shopping for food, ask yourself if you can smell any of the fresh fruit and vegetables as you approach them. And if you can, then…