Perfume is Pleasure

Some wear fragrance as a private conversation with self and those close by. Leaning in for a kiss, that’s the time another should detect your fragrance, according to Anya McCoy, who created cult favorite scents Kaffir, Pan and Fairchild and heads the Natural Perfumers Guild. Many are frustrated, however, when their scent goes unnoticed by a broader audience. They expect those compliments to keep flowing even after they’re gone. “Wasn’t it nice when Mona was here? Too bad she left, but at least we have her perfume in the air to remember her by…”

I have close friends in both camps.

Some perfumes that won’t let us forget you:

Addict
Agent Provocateur
Alliage
Aromatics Elixir
Calandre
Coco
Estée
Eternity
Farnesiana
Fracas
Habitana
Opium
Paloma Picasso
Youth Dew
Yvresse

Sillage (pronounced see-yaaaj) is the French word for wake. To see additional recommendations for “great sillage” read Perfume of Life, a playful and informative blog.

Photo by Sara Zarrella, my neighbor at the Grace Ormonde Grand Bridal Show. Sara’s photos make a cameo on this bridal show video by Bruce Cullen at Dream Images - look for a wire cage sporting her great shots. You’ll enjoy the gorgeous runway show, jazzy music and may even catch a glimpse of my home page banner, 16 feet tall!

What a riot! Just when we were supposed to fade from a long day of lectures, out comes the exuberant Jeanine Recckio, founder of Mirror Mirror Imagination Group. She’s a double espresso, the world’s only beauty futurologist. Jeanine brought us Jessica Simpson’s lick-able scents based on her work in the porn industry. That’s Recckio’s work, not Simpsons’. And by work, I mean…oh dear! Hope you are OK with all of this. Too late to leave the room and no time for seatbelt fastening.

Virtual air, augmented reality, clouds, non-moments, fresh air for sale in fragrance-free zones. Bubble-ologists. Anti-aging flavors. Time-release fragrance injected under the skin and programmed for future delivery. Emotional engineering, sexology, digital pheromones, heterosexual and homosexual fragrances now in clinical trial. Scents to extend the benefits of a three-hour nap so you get the eight-hours of rest you wanted. Living, breathing and scented wall-space. Fragranced germ warfare. Fabrics with ceramic polyesters to generate emotion while regulating sweat. iPod scent play lists. Endorphin-branding.

We all knew the developments mentioned above were on their way before attending Fragrance Business 2008, didn’t we? Oh wait, Jeanine corrects us, we are not talking futures; many of these unbelievable technologies are already in use. Tell us more, Jeanine. A guest post on Perfume is Pleasure?

Just Axe! Women will tell you that men who smell good look better too. Axe is the American name for a popular deodorant called Lynx in Europe.

The Economist reported that women find men who alter their natural scent with fragrance more attractive than those who do not. Interestingly, it is not the direct effect of scent on women, but rather, the body language of scented men’s increased self-confidence that drives women wild. The December 18, 2008 issue detailed findings of Unilever’s collaboration with University of Liverpool researcher Craig Roberts and his team.

Here’s how the study went. Two groups of men were given identical-looking spray containers, one with a scented deodorant, while the other was devoid of scent and deodorant properties, a dummy. Researchers did not know which containers were which, double-blinding the study to eliminate potential bias. No research subjects knew the purpose of the experiment, so participants with the deodorant dummy did not question its impotence.

Psychological tests conducted over several days showed that self-confidence of the men with real deodorant had increased by their own report. And here comes the “Lynx effect” – this occurred to the point that women watching short videos of deodorized and scented men, without smell-o-vision, found them more attractive. The operating explanation is that these men carried themselves in a visibly more appealing way and female observers caught the vibe. Still photographs of men in the scented and unscented groups did not provoke differing reactions in the women.

The Economist concludes: “To attract a woman by wearing scent, a man must first attract himself.” Cool cats are onto the Lynx effect.

Because Raffaele Ruberto’s products and skin care advice have taken at least a decade off my looks? Maybe on account of the bio-active organic ingredients so richly concentrated that high-end celebrity skin care types want to buy him out, dilute the formulas and Still make money? No. Because he sources organically and generously donates profits to reforestation and other environmental efforts? Try again. Do we care because mod.skin products deliver premium results at prices you would never expect? True, but not the answer I was looking for. Tired of guessing why mod.skin products are news here at Perfume is Pleasure?

Because they smell good, silly!

I love the Samurai Scrub. Forget the complexion enlivening enzymatic effects, turbo charged by spherical jojoba beads that do not micro-gouge your face like other harsh abrasives. Focus simply on the transporting essence of geranium, long known to aromatherapists for its anti-depressant effects. Geranium is a soothing gift to our nerves and emotions.

Another favorite is the Alchemist’s Mask. Yes, I watched a woman complaining of roseacea transformed from ruddy to sallow by her facial with the mask. Though becoming “sallow” is not a big sell for olive-skinned types, is comes as great news for the unwillingly pink. What I love most about the mask is being transported to the great outdoors. Linden, birch, lavender, rose hips, chamomile, wheat grass. When the mask is activated and applied, you are in a sunny field of wheat. Richly vegetal, earthy and clean, nutritious. You know it is good skin nutrition by the smell.

While the Daily Re-Vital Cleanser (a cedar, lavender, white grape and chamomile treat), Samurai Scrub and Alchemist’s Mask deliberately create spa experiences with their scent. The mod.skin moisturizer and face and eye serums are very low-key in the fragrance department but not on functional benefits. Mod.skin founder and developer Raffaele Ruberto is too mod.est (so I should leave the puns to my father-in-law?) to advertise the serums as an instant face-lift in a jar - but just listen to his clients rave. Models hip to the serums would not think of doing a photo shoot without first sculpting the look. Mod.skin adds no scent for its own sake - you just get the glorious smell of natural ingredients chosen for their skin treatment benefits. My olfactory delight is an accidental by-product!

The Fragrance Foundation is the non-profit educational arm of the international fragrance industry. Rochelle Bloom has been President of Foundation since 2001. Before that, she had a rich corporate career in beauty and fragrance. In 1979, she launched Prescriptives and served as its Vice President and General Manager for seven years, building it into a major cosmetics brand. In 1986, Rochelle was promoted to Senior Vice President and General Manager of Estée Lauder International, where she tripled sales and quadrupled profit in her 13-year tenure. Under the Lauder umbrella, Rochelle also served as President of Bobbi Brown Professional Cosmetics, Inc., ushered the brand to its position of global prestige.

Perfume is Pleasure: What makes you most proud about the fragrance industry?

Rochelle:  I think the collaborative nature of the industry, which are strong competitors, but always think of themselves as an extended family and reach out to each other very often. It is not cut throat!

Perfume is Pleasure:  How are you seeing the industry innovate to assure that consumers continue to enjoy scent even in today’s challenging economic climate?

Rochelle:  Right now, the industry is in the mode of learning as much as possible about the (new) consumer, their desires and needs, and how they can remain relevant during these times. We realize that sampling takes on new meaning and smaller sizes are also important. It is a new business model that we all have to understand and accept before forging ahead.

Perfume is Pleasure:  What has given you most hope for the industry?

Rochelle:  Companies’ willingness to change. They are more willing to listen and learn from the consumer. In the past, the marketers thought they knew all of the answers. In this environment, the rules are broken and they are willing to start again. What is hopeful is that out of bad times comes good…even brilliant ideas. I am hopeful this will be the case in the Fragrance Industry.

Perfume is Pleasure:  For a long time, we’ve seen consumers behind the scenes with movies and into the kitchen with celebrity chefs. We would never buy a car before consulting Consumer Reports. But perfume has traditionally been clothed in mystique. Now, knowledgeable bloggers, critics like Luca Turin and Chandler Burr and even the perfume-lovers’ group Sniffapalooza are shining bright lights on the inner world of fragrance development and marketing. Have we lost something in the process? Though it is difficult to get the genie back in the bottle, does the industry yearn for days of a little more allure and a little less information?

Rochelle:  No. Informative and knowledgeable consumers are good. I think that is not the problem. The problem is that there are too many fragrances introduced, confused consumers and the aspiration and emotional connection has been lost. It’s not about critics and knowledgeable consumers, it’s about raising fragrance from a commodity as it is today back to being mysterious, sexy, and alluring. I also want to add that there is a lot of bad information out there. Fragrance gets a bad rap…..not good for the environment, can’t wear to work or school, causes allergies, etc. Consumers are asking for natural or organic fragrance without really knowing what that means. An educated customer is our best customer as Syms used to say. It applies to the fragrance industry as well. We need to stop giving incentives to get people to buy, making it a commodity and not a luxury, sample more, offer more affordable sizes and teach people what fragrance does for their psyche. It will do wonders for the business!!!

Perfume is Pleasure:  Wars about synthetics vs. naturals have erupted. The rhetoric gets pretty hot at times. What do we need to keep clear? Should we focus less on ingredients and more on the spirit of a scent?

Rochelle: It’s all about education. There are very practical reasons why you need both. In some cases, you cannot capture a scent in its natural form. Natural fragrances don’t last long which is a negative to some, etc. Synthetics are not good or bad and the same for naturals. It is just that the words ” natural” or “organic” seem to be the buzzwords for the consumer without knowing why. So I say, we need to educate and not focus less!!!!!

Perfume is Pleasure:  What tips do you have for consumers to get the most pleasure from their perfume?

Rochelle: Apply it correctly. You can go to our website to get all types of tips on how to wear fragrance. Also, find a certified fragrance expert at your local store and work with them on finding fragrance that will complement your current taste in fragrance or try a different form to add to your wardrobe such as a body lotion or shower gel. Also fragrant candles enhance your home life and relax you after a tough day.

Perfume is Pleasure:  Some of us enjoy scent on ourselves and on those around us, while individuals and even lobbying groups who stand for the right for a scent-free environment are increasingly vocal. How did we get to this point? How do we strike the balance?

Rochelle:  It’s about educating the consumer…..and the environmentalists on the facts. There is no reason why people cannot wear fragrance, if they wear it properly and it will not disturb anyone or anything. We have all been assaulted by people who wear too much fragrance, fragrance on their clothes and hair. There is the correct way to wear fragrance in the daytime and in the evening and, again, the better educated the consumer, the less flack the industry will get.

Perfume is Pleasure:  I have done work with youth education on scent and believe this is tremendously important. The Foundation has also taken action in this area. What can you share about your goals and progress?

Rochelle:  I think our efforts working with Weekly Reader to bring the appreciation of scent to our school children. We are just completing a project which will go out to over 5,000 public school teachers as a class lesson about scent which encompasses spelling, reading and writing. There are scratch and sniff elements to the program as well as games etc. This is in addition to our annual career day which is for high school students to learn about the opportunities in our industry.

Perfume is Pleasure: How are you seeing the industry innovate to assure that consumers continue to enjoy scent even in today’s challenging economic climate?

Rochelle:  Right now, the industry is in the mode of learning as much as possible about the new consumer, their desires and needs, and how they can remain relevant during these times. We realize that sampling takes on new meaning and smaller sizes are also important. It is a new business model that we all have to understand and accept before forging ahead.

Perfume is Pleasure: What has personally been most satisfying to you as President of the Fragrance Foundation?

Rochelle:  Bringing The Fragrance Foundation into the 21st Century.

Perfume is Pleasure:  Thank you, Rochelle, for sharing your passion for perfume with us. And thank you for your work to promote the health of this great industry.

As a professional fragrance educator and coach in a world that says: “You’re a what?!” I must infuse cyberspace with my presence. The mission: Paint my solution to the big problem - Consumers Lack The Language of Scent - on the canvas of the Internet. Normally, I would contain myself to perfume, home fragrance, scent marketing and the like.

Social networking (code for online marketing, but in a friendly, personal way) is new to me, but my future depends on it, I am told. In a prior corporate incarnation, I looked with disdain on “reply to all” and other mass broadcasts of information that could and should have been delivered discreetly from one individual to another.

Now, compelled by the advice of people who know, as well as by the gut sense that I can no more successfully resist this than I did voicemail, I am nominally “on” Linked-in and Facebook, but not yet “up” on either.

For the record, I’ll twitter over my own dead body. Maybe I take myself too seriously. “What are you doing now?” they ask me. A fabulous woman and new Facebook friend reports that she just had oatmeal for breakfast and I cheer. High fiber. Filling. Great protein in a carbohydrate. Astounding cholesterol-lowering properties. I write a private e-mail to commend her and offer my exhortations to carry on in her pursuit of a healthy diet. Would no sooner post this on her Facebook wall than report my plans to head for the bathroom. That was a week ago. Today another new Facebook friend and respected real friend announced to the world that she was off to make a batch of granola. What a coincidence. I, too, made granola today! But is it news? Two oatmeal posts in a week? This seem to be a thing.

I am having a change of heart. Oatmeal is important.

But Oatmeal’s importance is as a grain of sand on the beach when compared to that of coffee. Perfume is pleasure and coffee is the best smell in the world. Some of you have heard me profess oakmoss to be my very favorite smell, maybe even on TV.  Either I’m lying or I have more than one very favorite smell. Please comment on your very favorite smell(s).

Bois de Jasmin, great perfume blog, lists Givenchy Very Irresistible for Men as a fragrance with a coffee note, well, mocha, actually, but don’t hold a little chocolate against them.

What bride does not want to smell wonderful on her wedding day? Artfully selected fragrance is a great way to start a new life and to share something personal with bridesmaids and wedding guests. Brides at the Grace Ormonde Grand Bridal Show loved the choice of fragrance matchmaking services for ready to wear scents, perfume parties and exquisite custom scents designed note by note, just for them. All-natural options, of course! Environmental scenting is another way to personalize a festive event - I scented the Grand Bridal Show with green tea and lemongrass.  See lauradonna.com on Grace Ormonde’s site for 2009 Platinum Vendors.

Official Grace Ormonde Grand Bridal Show photographer, the talented Matthew J. Wagner,  shared this photo with me.

Hideous shoes on feet attached to otherwise fabulously turned-out people are sometimes perfect. We imagine that disgusting colors seem right, even those producing eerie flashbacks of refrigerators, Twiggy and Peter Max posters. Given repeated exposure to the latest look, ugly becomes beautiful. We succumb to groupthink and the Emperor is oh-so-chic, new duds or no.

Arguably, in the case of clothes, the mandate is visible, the standards, clear. We must have those perky, flouncy, unnaturally tight, loose, short, long, bright or dull items in the magazine. We all go along, victims and perpetrators of style. I get it.

What I don’t get is this: Why do so many fragrance shoppers ask for the latest thing? Hand-held computing devices get better. Medical technology gets better, notwithstanding the social and personal dilemmas that result. Admittedly, new aroma chemicals have created perfume possibilities that never existed before. But should we conclude that new, not-yet-improved and highly promoted fragrances are automatically superior to the rest? No.

Pause to consider the subset of folks noticing your scent who will enjoy it more or think better of you if this scent launched in 2009 instead of 2003 or 1956. Do they know or care?

For some, it is the pilgrimage to Grasse, for others, the Osmothèque. You readers without a long history of perfume obsession, consider the birth of a baby, sunrise over the Grand Canyon, falling in love for the first time. Am I making myself clear?

Mascara severely threatened, I dabbed gently as Michael Edwards begin his address to the large gathering at Sniffapalooza’s recent Holiday Fête. Fragrance classification rapture. A peak experience for one lured out of corporate life to transform the way Americans buy scent, armed only with her nose, extraordinary concern for the happiness of others and Michael Edwards’ Fragrances of the World.

It started in 2000 when a friend thought she could put me off talking about perfume by getting me to read about it instead. Marjorie, you failed. Thus began the tour through Chandler Burr’s The Emperor of Scent, a biography of Luca Turin, with its goosebump provoking stories about a biochemist’s first love, the smell of wonderful perfume. Burr’s account of Dioressence, as heard in one of his many interviews with Turin, captivated me. The serendipitous mixture of a Miss Dior knock-off, in soap form, and the finest ambergris. Enthralled, I read about Turin’s comment that a new fragrance reminded him of two-tone fabric shifting color in the light, and his subsequent discovery of the written brief (narrative blueprint for a new scent) including the very image of a fabric he described. Turin’s lush prose describing scents, to me, was poetry more poetic than Poe.

I could blame my new career as a fragrance educator and coach on Burr and Turin, and I often do. It is Edwards, however, who should take the heat.

While fragrance critics and connoisseurs abound, only one chose to transform the overwhelming array of modern fragrances into a catalog indexed by scent name, by manufacturer, by intended sex(es) of the wearer, by fragrance family and by style ranging from fresh, “the most effervescent fragrances in a family,” to crisp, “lively interpretations with a crisp accent,” then on to classical, “balanced notes characteristic of the family,” and ending finally with rich, “the richer, deeper fragrances.”

Edwards saw the opportunity for manufacturers, retailers and consumers alike to match taste with juice. He understands and articulates every year, for a growing number of new launches (last year 800, now 1,000), the qualities that link and differentiate perfumes. While some retailers have invested in Edwards’ books and software, I believe that the use of his work is only in its infancy. Edwards’ classifications have boundless potential to increase the joy of perfume lovers everywhere.

But back to the ostensible topic for this post: Music and perfume. A growing trend in fragrance critique is to draw parallels between music and scent. Burr did this to the delight of a sell-out crowd at last week’s New York Times TimesTalk. Turin has previously compared Shalimar to Chopin’s Nocturnes, Silver Iris Mist to Schumann’s Arabesque, Tommy Girl to Corelli or to Prokofiev’s First Symphony and Mitsouko to Brahms. Many other comparisons can be found in Turin’s online and print opus.

I hadn’t truly heard the music of perfume until Michael Edwards sung to me, a capella, the differences among lily of the valley, gardenia, rose and tuberose. In a falsetto, he began, “Diorissimo…the muguet,” still high, but moderated, “Marc Jacobs…the gardenia,” lower, “Paris…the rose,” then finally, with deep resonance, “Fracas…the tuberose.”

Standing ovation, of course. So maybe I was the only one actually cheering. Did you say Michael or Michelangelo?

Photo by Linda Gerlach, artist and former Wall Street executive turned fragrance designer - Love the Key to Life, her first fragrant creation

You probably have responsibilities: a job, family, house, maybe some other things you need to take care of. Call that “work.” Then there is spare time where you pursue the occasional interest. Start spending a lot of time at it and telling people: “Oh, Saturday mornings I always go _____ ing,” and you’ve got a hobby. Come Saturday night, if you’re still doing it in preference to food, sleep and other essential activities, you are officially obsessed.

But the last condition mentioned is not yours. Yours is the well-balanced life, a pleasant mix of gainful, recreational and community-oriented activity. You enjoy creature comforts in moderation, neither glutton nor snob. A nice meal, a little wine, a light workout, Netflix, pretty dress, new drapes. Sensory stimulation, good, wholesome fun. Once in a while, you enjoy applying fragrance. A little perfume or cologne is uplifting. It feels good.

But always that niggling question: Which one? In 2007, according to Euromonitor, $3.3 billion was spent on fragrances in the U.S. alone. A good percentage of that on bottles opened once, only to sit on the dresser, maybe yours, as the sad reminder of an uninformed choice.

You want a great scent, but where is the fragrance equivalent of The Food Network, Cigar Aficionado or Consumer Reports? Where is someone to tell you the magic words that will send a cosmetics clerk scampering for your perfect scent?

If perfume is already prominent on your radar screen and you’d like to read more about 1,500 of your favorites, read Perfumes: The Guide, a spirited survey by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. See Amazon’s customer reviews for consumer and fragrance industry responses to the authors’ no-holds-barred reviews. To preserve the peace, the French used to say “les goûts et les couleurs ne se discutent pas” a rough mix of “to each his own” and “keep it to yourself.” Luca Turin, whose first guide was published in French, threw that advice out the window long ago.

Maybe you are still lost about finding your next perfume. Before we go further, please decide: Do you seriously want to spend six months or six years learning about top notes, middle notes and base notes, naturals vs. synthetics, dry-down and sillage? Do you see yourself making and trading decants on the Internet? Would you leave a decent paying corporate job to do this full time? Are you crazy?

My recommendation: Leave these expensive and time-consuming pursuits to the perfumistas, denizens of fragrant cyber-spots like Bois de Jasmin, Perfume Smellin’ Things, Sniffapalooza, Vetivresse, Glass Petal Smoke, Perfume Posse, Now Smell This, Scented Salamander and Basenotes. After browsing sites like these, if you remain unconverted, consider yourself an occasional perfume website user. Still wondering about that perfect scent? Skip the next paragraph, but read on.

Having visited the sites above, you no longer view life the same way. I greet you as a brother, sister, friend. Please send me your contact information and receive details of my 12-step program for the likes of us, expected to begin 3rd quarter, 2009.

Take heart. It is reasonable not only to hope for, but also to find a wonderful scent without becoming a fragrance fanatic or researcher. Just as you would hire an accountant, dentist or electrician, you can hire a perfume consultant to ask you the right questions, have you smell some things, do all the thinking and move you quickly to the right bottle. Makes scents, no?