Tag: Perfume

On a chipped porcelain tray edged in worn gold and dotted with tiny painted flowers, a glossy black volcano rises where a perfume bottle might stand. Molten lava glows in oversaturated reds and oranges, spilling thickly over its sides and pooling across the tray. Around it, elegant glass perfume bottles—amber, blue, and crystal—remain poised and intact, their refinement contrasting with the central eruption. Created and described by ChatGPT for “The Woman in the Perfume Department Asks What I’m Looking For.”

“The Woman in the Perfume Department Asks What I’m Looking For” * Poetry * Annie Przypyszny

aromatica poetica March 3, 2026

Something brash with a touch of bashful. An active volcano hushed by alpine snows, or some other less aggressive sister of cinnamon. But that’s for special occasions: my twenty-ninth birthday, my second twenty-ninth birthday. For everyday, I want to smell like a sixteen-year-old girl at the beach. You get what I mean— Like a saltwaterlogged corsage; like honeysuckle forced to walk the plank; like gardenias flung amok in a mid- summer sunshower. I remember hearing from some old man that …

A cluster of delicate jasmine flowers with soft pink and white petals is displayed prominently. The flowers are bathed in warm light, highlighting their gentle hues. Beyond the flowers, there is no distinct background visible, just a soft, neutral backdrop that doesn't provide specific details about the surroundings. The parts of the flowers, such as the petals and buds, are prominent and clearly visible, showing their delicate structure and suggesting the sexy scent of indole.

“Jasmine: the Indole Paradox” * Nonfiction * Fiona Lindsay Shen

aromatica poetica April 17, 2025

It starts as a faint whiff of horse sweat and stables. On Spring nights when I walk home from the subway through our compound in Shanghai, I can map where I am in relation to the jasmine vines surging over the rockeries. Under lantern light, these boulders look as though they are capped with snow. From twenty feet away, the scent is seductive – a mix of barely-ripe banana, paperwhites, and pony muzzle. Ten feet away, it’s intoxicating. Especially if …

A soft pink background sets the stage for this layered erotic lit perfumes collage. The base layer features a subtly blurred photograph of an elegant silver tray with curved, ornamental handles extending outward on both sides. The tray rests on a neutral-toned surface, holding an oval-shaped perfume bottle labeled “Les Cahiers Secrets”, with a gold spherical cap. Surrounding the bottle are scattered yellow flower petals, adding a delicate, natural touch. Superimposed on this background are five distinct perfume bottles, each slightly transparent, creating a dreamy, layered effect. These bottles are arranged in a balanced composition: 1. Far left: A rectangular glass bottle labeled “Delta of Venus” (Eris), with a black cap and a pale, translucent liquid inside. 2. Slightly left of center: A vintage-inspired bottle with vertical ridges, a golden cap, and a black velvet bow at the neck. The label reads “Marissa Zappas”. 3. Center: The original bottle from the tray, “Les Cahiers Secrets,” remains clearly visible, reinforcing its role as the focal point. 4. Slightly right of center: Another tall rectangular bottle labeled “Belle de Jour” (Eris), with a black cap and golden liquid. 5. Far right: A modern, minimalist square bottle labeled “Nishane”, featuring a gold cap and a warm amber-hued perfume. The semi-transparent effect of the superimposed bottles gives the impression of a layered memory, a sensual haze, or a soft-focus dream—an aesthetic that evokes elegance, nostalgia, and a sense of intimate luxury. The pink background adds a warm, romantic, and slightly playful touch, while the metallic accents from the tray and perfume caps create a subtle contrast.

“Erotic Literature Hits the Bottle” * Nonfiction * Beatriz Zimmermann

aromatica poetica February 12, 2025

You always remember your first erotic book. That deep unexpected stirring that comes from mere words suddenly pulsating on the page. It’s safe to say D.H. Lawrence’s long-banned Lady Chatterley’s Lover inspired a whole generation of lady of the manor fantasies while taboo tales like The Story of O and Venus in Furs swerved into a decidedly S&M space, immediately taking their place as classics for the whipped-into-a-frenzy crowd. Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying (recently feted for its 50th anniversary) …

Black and white illustration of a woman sitting at a desk looking at her computer screen from a back/side angle. Her hair is in a loose bun on the top of her head and she’s wearing a tank top. Beside her is a window with curtains that are bunched and tied revealing a night sky: a crescent moon and some stars beyond. Glowing light shows a portion of face and arm, but all is mostly black. On the desk is a big computer screen, keyboard, a cup with pencils, some books, and a tissue box. On the screen is a color promo photo of Fille en Aiguilles. The sleek black bottle, skyscraper like, with a rectangular body and cylindrical top is resting in an amber pond surrounded by pine needles. Illustration by Alabaster Rhumb for The Sillage Series. This one about trauma.

Sillage 4: Fille en Aiguilles * Poem + Essay * Jehanne Dubrow

aromatica poetica April 18, 2024

Aromatica Poetica is delighted to present the fourth in the Sillage series by Jehanne Dubrow. She is the author of several books of poetry and prose that dance with our heart’s senses, including Taste: A Book of Small Bites, which we highly recommend! Each of the 12 poems are written in the voice of a specific perfume—this one is Fille en Aiguilles[i]—and were begun during the height of the pandemic. For this Sillage series, the poems are paired with a …

Sillage 3: Carnal Flower * Poetry + Prose * Jehanne Dubrow

aromatica poetica January 11, 2024

Aromatica Poetica is delighted to present the third in a series called Sillage by Jehanne Dubrow. She is the author of several books of poetry and prose that dance with our heart’s senses, including Taste: A Book of Small Bites, which we highly recommend! Each of the 12 poems are written in the voice of a specific perfume—this one is Carnal Flower—and were begun during the height of the pandemic. For this Sillage series, the poems are paired with a …

Cabinet of Curiosities colored woodcut features a circular design with a border of small circles. Inside, there are four mythical creatures in different colors (pink, purple, blue, and green) at the cardinal points, connected by a chain that forms a cross in the middle. Behind them is a fiery background with yellow, orange, and red flames. Each creature is part human, part animal: the pink one has a bird's body, the purple a lion, the blue a monkey, and the green a sea serpent. The illustration has a vintage or antique feel, reminiscent of old alchemical or mystical texts.

“Cabinet of Curiosities” * Excerpt from ‘The Museum of Scent’ by Mandy Aftel

aromatica poetica January 7, 2024

Choosing which chapter of Mandy Aftel’s gorgeous The Museum of Scent: Exploring the Curious and Wondrous World of Fragrance to publish here was both pleasurable and painful. The pleasure was in lingering on passages and pictures that I loved, painful because we couldn’t excerpt the whole book! I highly recommend this generously illustrated book to the aromatically wise and naïve alike. The Museum of Scent was published last October and is a natural and cultural history of scent that was …

Sillage 1: Chanel No. 19 * Poetry + PROSE * Jehanne Dubrow

aromatica poetica September 6, 2023

Aromatica Poetica is delighted to present the first in a new series called Sillage by Jehanne Dubrow. She is the author of several books of poetry and prose that dance with our heart’s senses, including Taste: A Book of Small Bites, which we highly recommend! Each of the 12 poems are written in the voice of a specific perfume—this first one is Chanel No. 19—and were begun during the height of the pandemic. For this Sillage series, the poems are …

Sleepless Blossoming: 1 of 3 digital flower collages for AP by Bill Wolak that resembles a mosaic made by repeating an image of wildflowers in purple, white and yellow.

Poems by PM Flynn * Collages by Bill Wolak

aromatica poetica August 16, 2023

To the Silence I pick a lowly plum from an overhanging limb: bypassing judgment of those closestto the sky, in high rise stones, thosewho ride their thin skin higher than heaventhat fits in the smallest hand. Below thick branches the narrow weaveof this moment casts gray and black shade,on the faded sun of your summer dressand blonde wooden sandals: each small thought rises and fallsunder the pregnant silence inside you;all eyes curve with this sunset: dirt from every sunrise covers …

Two photos (curtesy Anna Novakov) of women having a sensory experience in the gallery. They are smelling scent strips with misty vertical bands of the 7 colors of the spectrum behind and suffusing through them.

Sensory Transposition: A Triadic Exchange Between Ron Hutt, Andreas Keller and Anna Novakov

aromatica poetica May 12, 2023

Sensory Transposition: A Triadic Exchange Between Ron Hutt, Andreas Keller and Anna For the past several years, composer Ron Hutt and olfactory artist Anna Novakov have worked together in a collaboration they call Provisional Art Space (PAS). Through a process of sensory transposition, they create performances that bridge sounds and scents. Inspired by a palette of seven chromatic hues, they compose fragrances and movements that, when performed together, shapeshift between sensory associations. Their performances, hosted in 2023 by Andreas Keller, …

Spirit Becomes Concrete: Mandy Aftel’s Jasmine Grandiflorum Concrete * Leona Godin

aromatica poetica December 2, 2022

“Is Jasmine then the mystical Morn—the centre, the Delphi, the Omphalos of the floral world? Is it the point of departure, the one unapproachable and indivisible unit of fragrance? Is Jasmine the Isis of flowers, with veiled face and covered feet, to be loved of all yet discovered by none? Beautiful Jasmine! If it be so, the Rose ought to be dethroned and the Inimitable enthroned in her stead; suppose we create a civil war among the gardens and crown …