Several years ago I made a scent about forgetting: forgetting your ego and the glorious connection we feel to people and things when we do this. Most scent is evocative and reminds us of things past. How about scents that explore the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind? What does forgetting smell like? My conclusion: forgetting smells like the forest. I drew the connection after years of reading the G-rated, PG-rated then grizzly versions of fairy tales, where everything transformative happens …
Tag: Geosmin
Digging into the Chemistry of the Creepy Smells of Blood, Death, and Darkness
When we think of scary, we ordinarily think of the sights–dark hallways and spider webs, bloody masks and crumbling gravestones, and to a lesser extent, sounds–creaking doors and spooky voices–cue Vincent Price’s Witchcraft Magic!–but what about creepy smells? So many write about the nostalgic scents, the comforting ones of kitchens and gardens, lime-flower tea and madeleines, but what about those creepy smells we prefer to avoid or forget–those of blood and the grave, caves and decay? What makes them provoke …
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From Art to Bats: Review of Perfumes The Guide 2018 by Luca Turin & Tania Sanchez
Perfumes: The Guide 2018 presents more than 1,200 perfume reviews by Tania Sanchez, a writer with interests in perfume, aesthetics and culture, and Luca Turin, a biophysicist, perfume critic and olfaction-science rabble-rouser of The Emperor of Scent fame, and accomplishes its mission to assert perfumery as an art form, worthy of criticism. I discovered their first guide Perfumes A-Z while researching Aroma Victoriana, where I quoted their admonishment of the perfume industry and its medieval secrecy–a secrecy that has helped …
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