Playground Perfume
Persolaise I think I ought to start charging for perfume shopping consultancy services. The other day, another close relative – a young woman who recently left home to go to Uni…
Persolaise The Personal Shopper
For the last week or so I’ve been playing the role of perfume consultant for a very close relative who’d like me to buy him a bottle of something for…
Still In India…
All this talk of Arctic winds makes me feel like sticking to the Indian theme I started yesterday. Visiting the perfume shops on Muhammed Ali Road is probably similar to…
Thinking Of India + Grossmith Sample Set Winner
Now that the weather’s getting colder, my mind seems to keep getting drawn back to thoughts of the summer in Mumbai: raucous rain, sweltering heat and, of course, the perfumers…
SoOud London Launch + Giveaway Reminder
Please click here to be redirected to my Basenotes article about the launch of a brand new range of perfume in London… and here for a chance to win a…
Penhaligon's In Cambridge
Putting London aside for a moment, perfume shopping in Britain can be a disheartening experience: sales assistants are often clueless and the stock itself uninspiring. However, there are a few…
Give People Credit
Here’s a conversation between a couple overheard in Boots the other day: She: What about this one? He: Umm… don’t know… too sweet, maybe? She: Yeah, you’re probably right. And…
Blood And Other Bodily Fluids? You Smell Wonderful, Dahling!
The other day, the unthinkable happened. I was at a perfume shop, chatting with a sales assistant who at one point asked me to smell the wrist of her male…
Tauer Perfume Giveaway Reminder
This is just a brief, pre-weekend reminder that you’ve still got a couple of days left to enter the Tauer Perfumes draw for a bottle of either Une Rose Vermeille…
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…
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…
Relatively Mainstream
One thing I never take for granted is my wife’s patience. During our brief pop into France, we had to go into every single – and boy, do I mean…
Spring Bargains
Don’t ever let me say that good luck never comes my way. Today, at an antiques fair, I spotted a pristine, sealed box of 10ml of Diorissimo Esprit De Parfum.…
Of Time And Salisbury
Time for formulation has been almost non-existent over the last few weeks. The inevitable delays caused by the ach-cloud-induced rail journey from Istanbul meant that it took a while for…
All Rosy In Istanbul
Istanbul’s Spice Bazaar doesn’t offer nearly as many olfactory temptations as the markets in Marrakesh and Tangiers, but I can’t deny I’ve spent a good deal of time sniffing the…
Evasion Tactics
As a rule, I’m not a fan of big gatherings. Today was Easter Sunday. The entire clan came over to our place for lunch. Was I a happy bunny? I’ll…