parfum pour moi!

“just a drop on each wrist and two in the bath were enough to send silver running down the walls. it set the world throbbing out of control when i wore it. i became a little weird."
- former french vogue editor joan juliet buck, on her favorite perfume

i'm officially obsessed with perfume. i suppose i've always been into fragrance (though until now i've been fairly monogamous, sticking to one scent at a time)-- when i was little i would sneak sprays of my mother's perfume (calvin klein obsession), and by the time i was a teenager i had fallen in love with lilac oil from the body shop. when tommy girl came out, i was all over it. for a couple of years i rotated tommy girl and cool water (obviously i had a serious thing for crisp, clean scents at the time), and finally retired those for marc jacobs. i quickly got bored with the mj, so my husband gave me dkny be delicious. i wasn't blown away by the simple fruity scent, but thankfully i found minnie wilde magic (a scent created by yosh). magic is a fruity floral blend of pink grapefruit, tiger lily, vanilla and egyptian tuberose. it's pretty nice, but when i finished my bottle i didn't rush out for another. since then, i've been in perfume limbo... until now.

my current craze began when i read somewhere that celia birtwell's favorite perfume is après l'ondee by guerlain. i googled the perfume and discovered a seemingly endless number of reviews and blog posts singing this fragrance's praises. the word "melancholy" was frequently used to describe it, and more than one person confessed the scent had brought them to tears. since then i've spent hours reading about perfume, entranced first by the names of these unknown perfumes (iris silver mist, black march, the unicorn spell, let me play the lion) and next by the luminous and passionate discussions entered into by the perfume-obsessed. people that are into perfume-- and i mean really, reeaaally into perfume-- consider it to be an art form on par with poetry and painting. to get a sense of the level of contemporary perfume discourse, see chandler burr's ny times perfume column scent notes or sites like basenotes and perfume posse. even brian eno has written an essay about perfume!

needless to say, i've already ordered a number of fragrances. thank god for sources like the perfumed court, a site that specializes in samples and decants of just abouty every perfume out there (commercial, niche, indie, vintage and discontinued!). the notes i'm most intrigued by (for now... i'm trying to fully explore these scent families before moving on to others) are iris, violet, tea, smoke, and earth/dirt (i'm not sure this last one is considered a true note, but i'm drawn to scents that smell of damp or frozen earth).

here are images of the fragrances i have at home or on the way:

iris silver mist


l'eau d'hiver


l'heure bleue

(from bois de jasmin: "Guerlain L’Heure Bleue parfum is a marvel. The former director of the Osmothèque, Jean Kerléo, mentions it as a fragrance that every perfumer should study for its unique sillage. Wearing it is pure joy. It clings to the skin like warm cashmere and trails like gossamer ribbons of silk. It is a fragrance with which to seduce oneself, not to mention others!")

jicky


dans tes bras


mitsouko


the unicorn spell


apres l'ondee


philosykos by diptyque


strange invisible perfumes
(these are botanical perfumes from essences that are organic, wild-crafted, pesticide-free or biodynamically cultivated... set in a base of 100 percent organic grape alcohol. the website is worth a look.)


cb i hate perfume
(this site also warrants some exploration.)



soon enough i'll have my hands on a copy of perfumes: the guide by luca turin and tania sanchez, but in the meantime i'm content with perfume videos like these on youtube:

la maison guerlain


guerlain


luca turin on "the science of scent"(his theory of smell)


and, as if this newfound interest wasn't extreme enough as is, i've already envisioned vintage guerlain ads in frames hanging on my bathroom walls...