My first memory of grandmother’s field of flowers was when I was no more than five years old. I vividly recall sitting among her prized flowers as bees droned lazily around me. I remember the blue summer sky above me, the sun shining down on me, butterflies dancing about and a soft fragrant breeze.
I remember being completely aware of the incredible beauty of flowers in their natural state, growing right out of the earth and I knew I was close to God. As the bees went about their work, never bothering me as I sat transfixed, I pondered my first thoughts of life and of a world that was simple and perfect.
I loved staring deep into the petals of a flower as if looking into its soul.
The jewel-colored irises were a favorite. The velvety deep beauty of purple, lavender, yellow and blue nearly broke my tender heart!
Oh, and the smell of the earth from which those flowers grew. Even that rich, Southern soil was fragrant in its own way.
Have you ever gazed into a flower and thought, as you deeply breathe its essence, “I want to be one with this flower”? That was me at age five, and still, I feel that today. Flowers and their fragrance have that effect on me, as I know it does for many of you.
I remember one hot summer’s day, I picked some of my grandmother’s prized roses, though I must have known that I should not. I used her pestle and mortar and ground the precious petals, trying to discover their essence, trying to produce oil.
I must have had a longing for the alchemy
of perfume even then.
I can still smell the fragrant beauty of the
many-colored rose petals, red, yellow, pink,
white and my favorites, peach and deep
orange. Of course, my grandmother found
me, happily trying to produce rose oil and
rose “mash” mixed with iris.
I was sent to my room. I know now my
grandmother understood a child’s fascination,
as she smiled at me patiently and explained to
me why I could not pick her flowers. The next day, she allowed me to gather any roses that fell to the ground and play to my heart’s content.
To this day I miss my grandmother and wish she were here to share my love of fragrances. She passed at the age of 88, but is still with me in spirit very much today. Her flower fields are gone now, the trees cut down, having been replaced by now blighted apartment buildings.
I still do, however, feel blessed to have grown up in that rarified “perfumed air”. So please remember, my fragrant friends, you all have fragrance stories that you have lived in your own lives. Recall those memories and keep them close to you.
Because my grandmother lived during a time when most people didn’t have the opportunity to splurge, she may have been shocked to know the extent of my fragrance collection today.
I have no excuses. And it’s all because of her fields of flowers.
Fragrance Articles
Couer de Fleur....
Heart of the Flower
Ruth Brescia
Ruth Brescia 1920
The ART OF SHAVING offers men an opportunity to view shaving as something more than just a “chore to be dealt with”.
According to the ART OF SHAVING, a man shaves more than 20,000 times during his lifetime and how he shaves is essential to attaining healthier, smoother skin. The Art of Shaving is a unique concept guided by the expertise of its founders, the young husband and wife team of Eric Malka and Myriam Zaoui.
Their vision was to offer truly exceptional men's
grooming products with the benefits of
aromatherapy and natural ingredients.
Realizing their dream, Eric, one of the world's
foremost experts on men's shaving and Myriam,
a Certified Aromatherapist with extensive
background in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine,
opened their first retail shop for men in
1996 on New York's Upper East Side and later,
The Art of Shaving Barber Spa, also in New York.
Within the first year, they launched The Art of
Shaving product line. Based on aromatherapy
and created to maintain, treat and nourish the
most sensitive skin, these unique products are
formulated using high-quality botanical ingredients
and 100% pure essential oils, no synthetic dyes
or fragrances, no alcohol.
In addition, The Art of Shaving re-introduces the shaving brush and razor, two essential tools beautifully handcrafted, offering proper weight, balance and grip to ensure the best results. It brings art and passion to a daily routine.
The Art of Shaving is available at all fine department stores.
THE ART OF SHAVING
FLOWER POWER
“A rose is a rose is a rose...
until it becomes perfume.
In this hour of “To the Best of Our Knowledge”, the power of the flower, a science journalist introduces us to Luca Turin, the most amazing nose in the business, with a new theory about how we smell. We'll talk with photographer Joyce Tenneson about her new collection of flower portraits. And, Sharon Lovejoy is back with maggot martinis and other recipes for your garden.”
The below link is an invitation to listen to the live interview featuring excerpts from the perfume reviews of Luca Turin, voiced by Doug Gordon.
Then, Steve Paulson talks with Chandler Burr, author of "The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the Last Mystery of the Senses." The book explains Luca Turin's theory of how we smell and recounts his amazing ability to recognize the odor of particular molecules. You will also hear some excerpts from the book.
To listen please click on link below, then click “listen” on the website.
well-known beauty lines, such as Lorac, Hard Candy, Urban Decay, Philip B., and Peter Thomas Roth. Additionally, Ron Robinson has pioneered such mainstay brands as Kiehl’s Since 1851, an APOTHIA staple for more than twenty-five years, Creed and L’Artisan Perfumer fragrance lines. Some of the most prestigious, exclusive lines have been supported from their beginnings at APOTHIA. Skincare lines like Arcona, Aesop, and Osea, and fragrance makers such as Czech & Speake, Lorenzo Villoresi, and Child.
Synonymous with beauty, fashion, and style, APOTHIA now introduces its own aromatic candle and fine fragrance line - blending art, innovative design, world-class ingredients and craftsmanship. Produced with intensely perfumed oils combined with the highest quality premium waxes, the candles delight any living space with a modern fragrance experience. APOTHIA also presents their highly acclaimed line of three unique and fashionable fine fragrances, IF Eau de Parfum, Velvet Rope Eau de Parfum, and L Eau de Parfum.
Ron found inspiration for the aromatic collection from the vibe of the city that has been a vital part of his daily life for many years – Los Angeles, an internationally recognized city – renowned for its fashion, progressive culture, energy and sunshine.
Every aspect of the candle is exceptional – from the premium one-of-a-kind fragrant blends to the exclusive patented “halo”, a translucent silicone band that wraps around the candle and serves a variety of functions, both visual and practical. Distinctive and sensually tactile, the silicone overlay refracts light and creates a heavenly glow when the candle is lit, as well as disperses heat so the candle may be touched easily, moved if needed and reduces the chances of the slick glass slipping from one’s hand.
The entire collection of eight aromatic candles has just won the Interior Fragrance of the Year Award from the Fragrance Foundation. The award, known as the FIFI, is the fragrance industry’s equivalent to the Oscars. In addition, on June 10th, the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), the oldest and most prestigious organization of professional graphic designers, selected the APOTHIA Los Angeles candle collection as a winner in their annual design competition. As a result, the entire collection will be housed in the institute’s permanent museum. APOTHIA fine fragrances have been touted in W, Dallas Modern Luxury, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar as some of the coolest, most innovative new fragrances in years.
The collection is available at some of the finest and most highly acclaimed stores in America - Fred Segal, Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman and the Montage Resort and Spa in Laguna Beach, to name a few. In Tokyo, the new Louis Vuitton owned shop CELUX, and lifestyle stores CIBONE are our proud retail partners.
(reprinted with permission from Apothia press office)
Sniffapalooza congratulates Lorenzo Villoresi
ITALIAN PERFUMER LORENZO VILLORESI WINS THE PRIX COTY!
The 7th Prix FRANCOIS COTY Award Ceremony took place this past November at the Château d’Artigny. Around 250 people attended this prestigious ceremony at the Chateau, the magnificent house of the founder François COTY. After the prize was awarded, the guests enjoyed a gala dinner prepared by the famous French Chef, Francis Maignaut. Chef Maignaut created a “perfumed” cuisine for the special guests.
The Prix FRANCOIS COTY is an international award, now in its seventh year, which celebrates the perfumer of the year. It is similar to our “Oscar Awards” ceremony for fragrance creators held at the Château d‘Artigny, one of the most beautiful castles in the Loire valley, built in 1912 for François Coty, the famous perfumer. Open to the world’s leading perfumers, the prize celebrates the winner’s career as well as recent creations with a special trophy created by Lalique. He is the first Italian perfumer to win the Coty Prize.
Lorenzo Villoresi from Florence, Italy creates fragrances for the perfumery that bears his name. From his studio overlooking Florence, influences from far off lands give life to decadent fragrances. During his many years of study and travel he widened his knowledge of spices and aromatic substances, developing a real passion for rare and precious ingredients, like Osmanthus and Mignonette flowers, Oud and Cascarilla, Nardo and Atractylis, Sweet vernal grass, Chaulmoogra, Karo karounde and many others.
His fragrances, inspired by real “visions of fragrance”, evoke exotic and dreamy worlds, atmospheres and landscapes. Those who attended the Sniffapalooza Spring Fling ’06, remember the excitement of receiving our very own miniature sample bottle of the specially produced perfume titled “Sniffapalooza”, graciously created for us by Lorenzo Villoresi. Our very own Sniffapalooza perfume was presented and distributed to the members through the Lafco New York boutique on our visit to the store.
What a precious honor to receive this gift during our trip. I know that many of our “perfumista” members wish that this fragrance would be released for sale.
Mr. Villoresi, on behalf of Sniffapalooza and its members, we would like to congratulate you on your FRANCOIS COTY Prix Award.
Press release information gathered from Château d’Artigny and L. Villoresi site.
The Lady of the Amber Fumes
By Dora Truong
This is the story of how a painting becomes more than a mascot though not exactly the inspiration for a fragrance collection.
I will never be a nose, not in this life at least.
Until pregnancy, over a quarter century ago, I never
knew how sensitive my sense of smell really was.
Those first three months of nausea I smelled among
other things someone lighting up a cigarette a car
lane away. How sensitive was my nose if hormones
could amp it up to this extreme? Never mind the
time my husband decided to fry smelts in a closed
apartent!
When the child grew up; I finally had some cash
that seemed discretionary. What to buy, what to
collect that would actually hold my interest?
After the agressive assault of Giorgio in the eighties
and the discontinuance of the gorgeous Mandarin,
Ceylon and Attar by Isabelle, fragrance wasn't
something I much considered anymore.
Around the start of the new millenium Providence
opened a new mall with Nordstrom as an anchor.
In my happy perusal in this the first substancial
retail to grace litte Rhody's capitol for thirty years;
who should approach me but a fragrance rep with
a sample of Ghost in her hand. So sad that the
beautiful hypnotic jasmine scent is no longer there.
Nonetheless my scent obsession was born anew;
and I still treasure that deep blue, moonshaped
bottle.
Many years earlier I had become enamored of a
picture by John Singer Sargeant that he painted
in 1880. The genre scene is of a woman, life sized
and swathed in white robes. What drew me to the
picture was the amazing bounteous depth that
Sargent created with the many tones within the
white. The fabric over her head has the palest
yellow traces and the folds of blouse around her
chin and elbows stand out with bluish gray against
her rosier skin. Only foreams, hands and the
smallest part of her face between the eyes and upper lip are visible.
She is standing over an intricately drawn silver incense burner.
The only real color is in the Oriental carpet and tiles on which she stands.There are hints of orange in her garment and her elegant, long fingers have red nails, but these remain mere color wisps in that ocean of white and off white.
You can see her, too, if you go to the Francine and Sterling Clark Art Institute web site and visit collections. Her image may still grace their calendar although mine is quite old, now.
Only after the pleasurable and sometimes agonized indecision of which fragrances to make my own did an idea occur to me. This lady of the amber fumes is my Goddess of Scent. She belongs with my fragrance collection. Indeed she resides there as I write; she is nestled among my samples. Hopefully she is helping me to pick the good scents that will not just mak
(story re-published with permission from Dora Truong, painting courtesy of the Francine and Sterling Clark Art Institute)
Ron Robinson of Apothia Los Angeles is getting ready to introduce Apothia to world wide distribution. "We want to become a significant brand," said Robinson. "We are in the ‘who's who' stores. We are going to capitalize on that and let them capitalize on us." He said in a recent interview in WWD.”
After reaching 70 U.S. stores in just over a year, Apothia is expected to enter all Harvey Nichols stores in February with his three fragrances, IF, Velvet Rope and L, as well as 10 candle scents. Robinson has also set up a company titled “Apothia Japan”.
Tanya Killeen, the beauty buyer at the Wynn in Las Vegas, recently stated that “Apothia's candles have surpassed Jo Malone to become the number-one seller in the category at the Drugstore, a perfume and body products outlet at the hotel, and Apothia is among the top five fragrance resources”.
Ron Robinson helped shape the beauty industry, starting in the early 1970's, at the renowned Fred Segal in Los Angeles. Ron Robinson effectively helped make FRED SEGAL a world-famous fashion, beauty and shopping destination.
A decade later, his own company, Ron Robinson Inc., became the independent owner and operator of APOTHIA at Fred Segal Melrose in Los Angeles that carries hundreds of beauty and fragrance items as well as Ron Robinson’s full line of products.
Apothia won the prestigious 2006 Award from the Fragrance Foundation Award for Interior Scent of the Year during it's star-studded FiFi Awards. "I am proud beyond words to have won this prestigious honor" says Ron Robinson,"we intergrated our knowledge and passion in this product and the recongition is very rewarding. It does not get any better than this award from the Fragrance Foundation!"
Apothia Aromatic Candles combine one of a kind fragrance blends. Each scent is inspired by it's muse-Los Angeles, where the Apothia boutique is located. "I wanted a candle to capture the city's many diverse characteristics-the nightlife, ocean, air and fashionable people" Robinson says. "There's an energy and a personality in this city that is unique to anywhere else in the world.
For the past three decades, Ron Robinson’s Apothia and Fred Segal’s in West Hollywood has been the “hot spot” for the ultimate shopping experience.
Ron Robinson and Apothia were the gracious sponsors of Sniffapalooza's first West Coast event in February at Apothia at Fred Segal’s in Los Angeles.
The palace of Versailles is set to launch a perfume based on the fragrance once used by Marie-Antoinette. The perfume, which is based on the original composition, was unearthed by a historian the palace says. Austrian-born Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793) was married to King Louis XVI of France and had a reputation for lavish tastes. She was executed by guillotine at the height of the French Revolution.
She has come back into fashion of late following a recent biography by the UK's Lady Antonia Fraser and the ensuing film directed by Sofia Coppola released this summer. Visitors have been flocking to Trianon, Marie-Antoinette's retreat in Versailles, which was reopened this summer and is now among the palace's star attractions. Historian Elizabeth de Feydeau discovered the authentic formulas used by the former queen's perfumer Jean-Louis Fargeon.
The scent - to be launched on next month - was developed by French perfumer Francis Kurkdjian, who combined the ingredients after detailed research.
The perfume is said to adhere to the 18th-Century custom of combining "100% natural primary materials" and is "intensely floral". It combines various scents including rose, iris, jasmine, orange blossom and sandalwood.
On All Things Considered - Listen!
Based on notes from an 18th-century royal perfumer, the Chateau of Versailles now sells the perfume once worn by Marie Antoinette. It's not cheap. Francis Kurkdjian, who developed the scent, speaks with Melissa Block.
Some perfumes are like musical phrases, and others like a photograph or a one-act play. Mandy Aftel’s perfumes are like beautifully bound antiquarian books. Reading a book is not a passive act. You have to make the effort to sit quietly until you enter the world of the writer, until her mysterious lodestone of creativity falls into your head trailing with it bits of places, characters and events. Her perfumes require the elements of attention and time to unleash their stories so they will never appeal to those who do not possess a passion to explore antique fragrant worlds.
Tango is composed of choya nakh (smoked seashells)
and champaca. It is described as a winter fragrance but
what I see when I open this book is a story of darkness
and spirituality. At midsummer, for only a single night,
the Night-Blooming Cereus produces a waxy white flower
scented like a phosphorescent jasmine shimmering
over honeydew melon and wisteria. Tango starts with
this glistening white flower but the flower transforms into
a full moon above the sea. Out of the waves arises the
indigo-skinned goddess Yemaya, and around her neck
are black pearls, corals and purple cowries dripping with
seaweed and spices. From her hair emanates an incense
of storax and balsam that fades into an imperial leather.
Tango and Cognac were created as a pair and are meticulously crafted with Ms. Aftel’s palette of extraordinary essential oils and absolutes. Like most naturals they stay close to the skin and fade to a soft powdery presence after a few hours. Due to the scarcity of the materials, they will never be produced on a large scale, but they are available at Henri Bendel’s in NYC and online at aftelier.com.
Sniffapalooza members will be happy to note that Mandy offers her perfumes in samples and minis so we don’t have to run out and look for decants on ebay.
Available at Heni Bendel's in NYC and at
Cognac is her newest perfume and it is created almost entirely from food notes: green cognac, sarsaparilla root, fresh ginger, olive absolute and blood orange. This opens to a candied orange with notes of cherry liqueur and buttery olive bread. The sarsaparilla is uncanny.
It makes me feel that I am seated in a 19th century apothecary sipping a root tonic but then it hovers into invisibility. Next there is something tactile like cat fur (is it costus?) and I can picture a smoke-blue Scottish Fold cat with large cognac eyes quietly lapping at a porcelain bowl on a marbled green floor. The drydown is an egg-cream soda amber. Like a cat, Cognac is quietly chic and will only approach if it senses you are a cat person.
"Heaven" original artwork by perfumer and artist Roxana Villa
L'Heure Bleue
Dark, soft purple of Twilight
Like a dusky cloche over the
fair hair of Day,
descends in magickal reminiscence
of anise, the poignant redolence
of carnation, and heliotrope's
clean promise.
- Mary Mitchell
Amnosia; The Loss of Smell
THE FINAL SNIFF
Dr. James Dotson
When I am dead I don’t care what I’m wearing because I won’t have to look at it...but I’d better smell good. Obviously, I’d prefer to be embalmed pharaonic-style with myrrh and gold leaf though due to technical constraints I can see the need for a back-up plan:big sloshes of Etro’s Messe de Minuit for that instant odor of sanctity, altars and old books.
Did I mention that Egyptian embalming features a long hooked spoon that goes up your nose, punches through your ethmoid bone and scoops out your brain? Yes, the nose is a vulnerable place. Way up at the top of the nasal vault between your eyes sits the olfactory epithelium, a piece of tissue about the size of a bullet hole. A delicate slip of bone, the cribiform plate, conducts the olfactory nerves up through your skull. It can all go wrong so easily.
Anosmia is the general term for any loss of smell, something we’ve all experienced temporarily during a bad cold. For the unlucky, it’s a permanent thing. Another creepier variation is a dysosmia which causes a profound sensory distortion so that when you reach for a delicious warm bit of apple tart which you actually smell is a dead cat.
It’s not surprising that people afflicted with smell problems lose their appetites. Anosmics also tend to suffer from severe depression and a profound sense of being withdrawn from their families and familiar environments as if they were ghosts passing through the halls unable to touch anything. To make matters even more bleak, most physicians have no training in olfaction and dismiss serious disorders of smell as trivial complaints as if you were just dropping into the office for a tiny rash on your elbow. Luca Turin put it bluntly, “There are few diseases of smell , and those that exist are usually incurable and get little sympathy.” Fortunately there are now a few academic medical institutes with specialists and if you live on the East Coast there is the Monell Center in Philadelphia which is probably the premier smell research facility in the world.
Now that I have horrified you, let me lead you on a tour through the more common causes of anosmia so you can develop a strategy for avoiding them. Or if you are a hypochondriac you can develop new and more vivid obsessive fantasies.
HEAD TRAUMA: When your head flies through the windshield you can actually shear off your olfactory nerves where they enter your brain (insert gruesome mental image here). Other blunt traumas can cause localized swelling or bleeds that might knock out your smell. The solution? Wear a seat belt. And if you are a boxer or roller derby queen please wear proper headgear or get a new job. Avoid bar brawls.
STRUCTURAL: Nasal polyps and severe sinusitus can sometimes impact one’s olfactory acuity. Take care of these now before they get big and scary.
INFECTION: Rarely someone gets an upper respiratory infection which leads to odd neurological problems leaving half your face paralyzed and drooling, with a bonus of anosmia. Prevention? Wash your hands a lot and avoid preschoolers.
TOXINS: In a word, do not put strange chemicals up your nose. If you have to scrub your toilet don’t mix up those chlorine and ammonia products while leaning down to suck up a storm of toxic chlorine gas. And over the counter nasal sprays that contain zinc and decongestants have been linked to anosmia so I would avoid these. Stick to saline spray or make sure it is something prescribed by your doctor for a limited period.
DEGENERATIVE: Both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases cause smell loss. You can only avoid these by dying young.
IDIOPATHIC: 22% of cases fall under this rubric of “we don’t know.” But happily most of the time they improve with time or topical steroids
Barring the rare exotic tumor, bizarre seizure or genetic disorder these are the main worry categories. Your take home advice is to reach up to that back shelf where you keep your incredibly obscure and expensive perfumes that you are always sort of “saving for later” and just go wild with them, because you never know how much sniffing time you have left.
James W. Dotson, M.D.
As soon as he could crawl, James dragged himself into the garden and began smelling the scented pelargoniums and purple bearded iris. He began precociously reading peculiar old herb books and attempted to prepare Hungary Water from rosemary. Since alchemy was not a contemporary career choice, he became a psychiatrist with a fondness for deeply strange things. His current interests include the neuropsychiatric aspects of olfaction, cross-disciplinary studies of smell, healing and magical perfumes, and all things odorous. James enjoys meeting fellow flaireurs and olfactophiles and feels they represent a superevolved form of humanity.
For those who do not know-James Dotson's board name is osmomantis-
Since 1730, the seductive and captivating quality of Floris fragrances has provided their products with a unique connection into the worlds of literature, politics and entertainment. Today, while continuing to expand its presence among high-end specialty retailers, hotel amenities offerings, and corporate gift collections, Floris is looking to build on its special brand heritage with US consumers by reaching out to trendy, young people who spend much of their time online, and like to “layer” different fragrances in order to create their own “custom” aromas.
Located at 89 Jermyn Street, for centuries the epicenter of distinguished London near the Royal Court of St. James, Floris was first appointed by King George IV in 1820 as 'smooth pointed comb-makers' to the Crown, and to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee in 2002, they reintroduced their 1860 scent 'Bouquet de la Reine.'
Floris customers have included Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, who requested that friends purchase her "favorite combs" only at Floris, and 19th century dandy Beau Brummell, whose elaborate Regency fashion style, magnified by his affinity for Floris men's fragrances, has been dramatized in several films, plays, and a 1960's band named after him.
Floris’ tradition of elegance and suave sophistication has also enabled the brand to penetrate pop culture by way of James Bond, who famously wears Floris No. 89 on his exotic adventures around the world. It’s also reported that Floris is popular with film celebrities Michael Caine and Sharon Stone, and Al Pacino's blind character in Scent of a Woman found Floris fragrances extremely helpful when identifying a woman he knew was in the room.
The founder of Floris, Juan Famenias Floris, arrived in England from his native island of
Menorca to seek his fortune. Shortly after his arrival, in 1730, he secured premises in
Jermyn Street in the elegant quarter of London`s St.James. Juan Famenias Floris initially
set up business as a barber and comb-maker, however, he soon missed the aromas and
Press release information gathered from Château d’Artigny and L. Villoresi site.
