RB: I know that your grandmother inspired you, what was your early experience of fragrance with your grandmother?
Every time I think of my grandmother, I see a small child who was entranced by this woman who was so elegant and refined. Fragrance was very important to her. She placed sachet discs in her drawers to make her leather gloves, scarves and silks fragrant. Upon arriving at her apartment, I would immediately go to the chest of drawers and my small hands would pull out the sachets and silks and marvel at the scented gloves and inhale the aromas. I would watch her get out her big powder puff and powder her body after a bath. Most of her perfumes were Prince Matchabelli's. I loved the Abano bath oil. Delagar bath pearls were particularly delightful as I was allowed to choose the color and aroma that I desired for my own special bath. I learned early on that aroma filled me with delight and transported me to other realms. Even though my grandmother passed away when I was 12, I still feel very connected to her today.
RB: How did Kingsbury Fragrances come to be, that is your grandmothers maiden name, Kingsbury?
My brother Sherwood and I were talking about what name to call my perfume company. My mother's maiden name is Gassen and my maiden name is McCall and neither of those communicated the feeling that I wanted for my company. I thought of my grandmother's maiden name "Kingsbury" and I loved it. It felt right, it sounded right and it would honor my grandmother who had such a profound influence on my experience of perfume. I found the coat of arms for Kingsbury and had it redesigned more in keeping with my symbolism. Of course the butterfly is a symbol of transformation and many of us use perfume to transform ourselves in some way or another.
RB: How did you discover the world of fragrance? What compelled you?
I was introduced to the world of fragrance not only by my grandmother but also by my mother's
garden of Scented Stock, Sweet Peas, Honeysuckle, Gardenias and Roses. I would feel very serene when
I would arrange bouquets of these highly aromatic florals. Of course, boyfriends bought me perfume
and my first important bottle was when I was 15 and I was given a bottle of Shalimar. I have bought
perfume for myself ever since I was a teenager. I loved to burn very expensive highly fragrant candles
that would fill an entire room and move through the house. I couldn't afford to do this very often so
I was compelled to go on a quest to learn how to create perfume candles. That led me on a journey
of buying all kinds of oils and to practice blending. It took me quite a bit of experimentation to create
candles that would do what I needed them to do. What continues to compel me is the creative process
of perfumery and the journeys that I go on when I inhale beautiful aromas as well as the satisfaction
that I get from happy customers.
RB: What led you to become certified in aromatherapy from the Australasian College of Health
Sciences?
I had been studying aromatherapy on my own since the early 1990's. I thought if I was going to work
with all these oils I had better find out more about them, what they could be used for and what oils
blended well with which oils. I found the Australasian College and appreciated what I would be learning
from them. Actually, taking the aromatherapy courses helped to prepare me for a basic course in
perfumery from Perfumers World. There was a lot of overlap.
RB: You went to summer school in Provence, Grasse, please tell us about that.
Going to Provence for summer school at Dr. Malte Hozzel's retreat is one of the highlights of my life. We
went to a farm where we watched lavender being distilled. We also got to see the distillation of rosemary.
We had classes from morning to night taught by faculty from around the world. Some of the classes were
in the field where we were introduced to numerous herbs that had wonderful medicinal uses. We were
able to smell the difference in the "high" Lavender versus Lavender that grew on lower elevations. Our
class had much fun in aroma composition by blending oils and using our tester strips to evaluate our
compositions. My partner Michael came with me and this is where he photographed some of the images
that I use in my packaging.
RB: What led to the desire to create perfume in Grasse, going on Aromatours and creating the perfume that launched Kingsbury Fragrances? What led you on the journey to creating your first fragrance Tres Bon?
Every step on this journey, Raphaella, was leading to creating my own perfume. One day I was online and started searching for perfumery tours. I don't know why I would even think this would exist and up popped Aromatours. I contacted Jim Lewelyn and Robbie Zek and found that there would be a perfumery class on the tour. I was sold. To be able to create perfume in Grasse, the Mecca of perfumers, well it couldn't get much better than that. There was no person that influenced me during the creative process of Tres Bon. All my teachers were all the oils, absolutes, resins, spices and fragrance oils that I had experimented with all the years before that determined what essences I would choose to be in Tres Bon. What guided my selection was to choose everything that I loved that I knew would go together and smell what happened. And Voila!
RB: Were you inspired by any one perfumer?
I was inspired by the perfume that they had created. Only later was I to learn of Francis Fabron, Jacques Guerlain, Bernard Chant, Germaine Cellier and Josephine Catapano. Although I am currently wearing approximately 72 perfumes, not including my own, the perfumes that have particular importance to me are: Edmond Roudnitska, Le Parfum de Therese; Caron, Narcisse Noir; Lorenzo Villoresi, Dilmun and Garofano; L’Artisan, Oeillet Sauvage, Molinard, Habanita; Guerlain, Shalimar and Liu; CdG Avignon Incense; Nina Ricci, L' Air du Temps; Clinique, Aromatics Elixir; Estee Lauder, Youth Dew; Balmain, Vent Vert ; Guy Laroche, Fidji. There are so many…
RB: What was your favorite fragrance growing up-any favorite scent associations?
When I was really young I wore Chantilly, Intimate, Emeraude, Heaven Sent, Shalimar, Tigress and Aphrodisia. The spicy Orientals really work with my skin. I found my beloved Aphrodisia once again through "Long Lost Perfumes" at the Irma Shorell website. Aphrodisia is a Chypre. I can wear that fragrance family very well also. Tres Bon is also a Chypre.
RB: I know you already have many fans for your fragrances-can you tell us what makes your fragrances special?
My customers tell me that what makes my fragrances special to them is that they don't give them a headache. They love how they smell and how they make them feel. They enjoy the element of customized fragrance and the individual attention they get. I create a lot of soap and make hand painted bunnies called "Love Bunnies”, hand painted roses and peonies called "pretty spots". They love coming in buying unique gifts that are not costly and that they would not find anywhere else. I have also created a replacement for the dreaded mothballs through natural moth away closet sachets using patchouli or patchouli, spike lavender and clove. I sold a lot of these at Christmas time. Since using these I have not had trouble with moths. I also think my customers enjoy knowing that they are a part of this creative process and I honor their visions and contributions in my products.
RB: You seem to have developed a sacred mission with aromas, can you tell us about that?
It is a sacred mission when it comes to creating fragrances because I understand very well the power of aroma to move the human spirit into other realms, to help rebalance disturbing emotions -- to uplift or to calm. Fragrance is evocative. And so I feel a certain responsibility with that. And always my intention is to create a fragrance that has the power to do that for my customer. I smile when I think of one of my customers who is on an antidepressant and she was feeling down, tired, just not looking forward to the day. She decided to shower with "Silver Water" and as she showered and inhaled she started feeling more energy and motivation. She had energy for the whole day. She returned to the boutique to tell me "I didn't need to "up" my medication; I just needed to shower with Silver Water." I have also been given very special commissions for memorial candles. We are moving into the realm of the grieving heart. And what fragrance can be created to honor that loved one and to connect with him or her in the symbolic light of the flickering flame. What words need to be written to bring comfort and how do the oils chosen, represent the intention to provide an atmosphere to support the expression of those memories? I have also sent memorial candles for beloved pets that have died.
RB: How do you use aromatherapy with your clients in helping them with rebalancing their lives? You have talked of a harried and stressed mother with a son that suffered from night terrors and a woman with panic disorder-
As you know, I am a social worker Monday through Thursday. As a mental health provider I do a lot of work with helping my clients to rebalance their emotional worlds. Anxiety, panic, depression, post traumatic stress and chronic stress can be debilitating to the body and we can create all kinds of stress related illnesses. Again, aroma goes straight to the emotional brain. Depending upon the aroma it can create rapid mood shifts positive or negative. So I teach my clients about the power of fragrance to help with stress reduction. I worked with a harried mother who was irritable and who had a very young boy about 3 years old who suffered from night terrors. The family was not able to sleep through the night and as a result everybody was pretty cranky. The mother started taking lavender baths as part of her treatment plan and her young son walked in and refused to leave stating "It smells too wonderful in here." When she told me this I devised an evening ritual with her to do with her son whereby they would express appreciation for what was good about the day, read a story and she would place lavender diluted in oil on his forehead and a drop under his nose. He would sigh and go to sleep. Very quickly the night terrors diminished in quantity and frequency until they were entirely gone. Everybody received a good night’s sleep and the stress level went down in the household.
Another client would have terrible anxiety attacks. She reported Vanilla was one of her favorite fragrances. You know patients have been given Vanilla to help them get through closed MRI's. Anyway, I created Vanilla oil for her and she would use it to help herself rebalance when she was experiencing an anxiety attack. There was the interweaving of the comfort of the office, the comfort of the Vanilla and the comfort of my words all contained in those drops of Vanilla oil. The Vanilla oil became an aromatic anchor that could bring all of that together for her instantaneously.
RB: Some perfumes are created from a place of beauty and some, well not so. Tell us what you think-
I know that not all fragrance is created from a place of beauty and healing. Some fragrance is created "Just for fun" and there is no real seriousness to it. And it doesn't have to be. There can be the challenge of "What new aroma can I create today that will be fun, or shocking or downright raunchy?" Look at the coffret that has been advertised to represent the smells that were depicted in the movie "Perfume". I heard that there were a couple of really disgusting compositions in there. I haven't smelled them myself. But they were to represent that particular time and movie theme.
RB: I understand that you believe that perfumery helped you to rebalance after 9/11.
A pivotal point came in my life for my own health. In August of 2001, Michael and I had just returned from our glorious tour of Provence. I had brought back my Tres Bon that I had created in Grasse. It was such a happy time. A few short weeks later 9/11 hit and I was crying every day as so many of us were. I couldn't stop crying, the grief was overwhelming and relentless. There seemed to be no end to it. Out of that traumatic grief emerged a wellspring of creativity that drove me into developing new fragrances, creating soap, hunting for packaging, designing labels, creating text, getting a webmaster and website up and on and on. I created so much that my dining room was overflowing with products and fragrance was taking over the apartment. Needless to say a new company was born and became Kingsbury Fragrances. As a result of all this creativity, my emotional, physical and spiritual worlds came into balance. I became happy and energized again. I often talk to my clients about creativity being a force for healing. When they find a passion for themselves they are happy and fulfilled also.
RB: What is the most amazing fragrance you have ever smelled?
The most amazing fragrance I have ever smelled is "Gardenias from Heaven". I had returned to Texas to see my father before he died. As I drove up to the family home, my brother Jon was in the front yard looking better than he had looked in a long time. He had a special glow to him that day, like he was lit up from the inside. I was hoping to be able to smell my mother's gardenias this visit, but it was too hot and too late in the season and there were no gardenia blooms anywhere. Jon hated to disappoint me with this news knowing that I was on a quest to create a gardenia perfume. That night Jon died of a heart attack. My father was dying in the Veterans hospital. We were all in shock and grief as my brother's death was completely unexpected. And we needed to attend to our father. The next day as my brother Michael and I left the hospital and we sadly walked towards the car, a breeze from nowhere came to us filled with the aroma of gardenias. It left us only to return again and again filled with the unmistakable fragrance of gardenias. For months to follow my siblings and I continued to receive "Gardenias from Heaven." Guggenheim and Guggenheim wrote a book called "Hello from Heaven". Olfactory after death communication is very common and often experienced by more than one person at a time. In ancient times fragrant offerings were sent to communicate with the Divine. In our case we felt like the gardenia fragrance was sent from the Divine to us to comfort us and to reassure us that life and love is eternal.
Different strands of threads that connect us…
RB: What makes the art of perfumery accessible to individuals that was never available before?
As I was preparing for presenting at the Sniffapalooza luncheon on April 1, I couldn't help but think about this whole
journey for myself. And I couldn't help but ask myself what has enabled a Texan; who is practicing social worker in
Pittsburgh, PA to be able to engage in the art of perfumery. Historically, there has been a veil of secrecy which
has surrounded this art form. Today this veil has lifted. Books which educate about the creation of perfumery
and aromatherapy are available to the lay public. As I read magazines on health, I came across a college that
taught aromatherapy. The Australasian College of Health Sciences provided for long distance learning. The College
arranged for summer school in Provence to give us direct access to the experiences of distillation and meet the
farmers who were carrying on the tradition of growing the plants that we use in aromatherapy.
The invention of the internet changed everything. I now had access to a virtual global community that has exploded
in its offerings. I found Aromatours online and was able to tour Provence and make perfume in Grasse. The large
perfume houses in Grasse such as Molinard and Galimard offer perfumery classes so visitors like myself could
walk away with a fragrant creation. There are aromatherapy schools and online perfume schools. After Grasse,
I found online the long distance perfumery school, Perfumersworld which is based in Thailand. I was now able to
have access to different types of perfume materials and to explore what these could do in my perfume compositions
which would not have been possible without the internet. Finally I have become aware of different virtual
global communities such as Natural Perfumery, Botanical Perfumery, Natural Perfumery Boards, Perfumemaking,
Sniffapalooza, Perfume of Life and Makeup Alley.
How wonderful to have found these communities that are filled with people who are passionate about perfume.
I love learning about the perfumers and learning about the structures of perfumes from people who come
together to create perfumes. There would not be this incredible explosion around the art of perfumery without the
internet. I love being a part of this wonderful perfume community that continues to support and nourish my creative
process.
Raphaella, I must compliment you on how you are pulling these various cultural strands together and weaving them into a virtual magazine that supports the perfume community. Thank you so much for this.
RB: Thank you. The niche fragrances have also exploded due to the internet, don't you agree?
Absolutely! People have become very tired of the same old fragrance profiles that seem to be created over and over and over again that end up in the department stores. People are tired of feeling like they have allergic reactions and headaches, I get all kinds of reports and so people are turning more to the niche houses like L’Artisan and Lorenzo Villoresi, there are many now, the niche houses are wonderful and they are sources of inspiration to students of perfumery.
RB: I have heard you say many times “The fragrance needs to “speak to you”, “it needs to move you” and it’s so true. -So, what moves you?
What I mean by that is a perfume must take me on a magic carpet ride. It must take me someplace where I get visions, images or a story emerges or I will not buy it. It must communicate with me plain and simple. Sasha Bard's Ministry of Fragrance’s Malachite is a perfect example of what I mean. I have written about my experience on Sniffapalooza some months ago, however I will share it with you now. I have a ritualistic way that I access this magic carpet ride experience that I talk about. First, I take a bath. And then I spray the perfume that I wish to experience into unfragranced cream which I blend and stroke from my feet all the way up my body. Finally I spritz a few more sprays on different parts of my body. If the perfume is successful, I start getting images right away. Sasha had given me a sample of Malachite, a composition of hers that I wanted to try. Here is my description of Sasha’s perfume:” I sprayed the whole vial all over my body. And then the magic carpet ride began. I am walking under trees, wound by vines of ivy. It is morning and the streaming sunlight has created spotlights of dewy crisp aromatic delights wherever I walk. Each step lifts up subtle woody notes from the soles of my feet to the top of my head. Surrounded by the cool morning, the fragrance promises a lovely day. I can feel a spring in my step. I am surrounded by colors of spring green shading into darker green, subtle shades of earth and wood, sunshine yellow from sunbeams and crisp white linens. The breeze is gentle and fresh." Sasha's perfume was a success for me and so I contacted her right away to buy it.
RB: Where do you draw your inspiration?
I draw my inspiration from the needs of my clients, from the photography of my partner Michael, from the poetry of my brother Patrick, from the signature "1000 Kisses" from my brother Michael, from the mentoring of my brother Sherwood, from the rose petals from my sister's garden, from the vision of a customer's child and from beautiful perfumes. Raphaella, When it come to perfume there is no end to learning about it because it taps into various cultures, ancient rituals, how we communicate with ourselves, how we communicate with others when we perfume ourselves, how we use perfume spiritually to communicate with God (for example; Avignon Incense, which creates sacred spirals for me.) Inspiration is everywhere.
RB: Tell us about your rose fragrance Twilight Rose.
I wanted to create an ethereal rose fragrance. I presented the final composition to my muse, Florence, and she remarked there is something mysterious about this fragrance. All of a sudden I began to experience an ethereal rose garden. Day is meeting Night and surrendering to the gradual enveloping darkness. It is cool and a few stars are captured in the darkest part of the descending night. The floral aroma is fresh, cool and green. Although I am still I can smell the perfume moving all around me. And so this experience led me to call this fragrance "Twilight Rose" I wanted to invite my customer to share in my vision and so I invite her to "Step into the place where Day surrenders unto Night and experience the mysterious floral freshness of --Rose in twilight." My niece Sonia who is 13 loves how this fragrance "wafts." This fragrance is composed of a Tea Rose bouquet with touches of Rose Otto, Citrus, Clary Sage, Narcissus, Green Leaves, Vetiver, Musk and Civet. The sillage is like a garden of roses in the coolness of the Twilight hour. All is aged in organic Grape Alcohol fixed with less than .001% of Benzoin. Available in parfum, cream, soap, candles and potpourri.
RB: Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about you or your perfumes that we have not discussed?
I think it is important for people to know that I keep a few standard perfumes in stock e.g., Tres Bon, Kingsbury for men, Avignon Fougere, Twilight Rose and Fern. However I am always coming up with new products and creating new fragrances -- mostly in small batches. I am always exploring and seeking aromatic perfection. Once I have discovered what I need to know, the creative purpose has been fulfilled and I don't need to make that one again. Also, I work with a lot of naturals and my ability to be consistent is limited by the accessibility of my materials. For the boutique I make perfume products of EDP and EDT, crèmes, candles, potpourri, a full line of men’s products; Kingsbury for Men. I am always exploring different ways to create. I have a completely natural perfume called “Fern” which is composed of all naturals; I like to have one perfume that is all natural. When I move into the aromatherapy part of the business I never use any synthetics-you have to use naturals. Some perfumers use 100% naturals such as Mandy Aftel, Anya McCoy of Anya’s Garden and Ayala Moriel Parfums. That is their passion. I don’t know anyone that works 100% in synthetics. The human nose, I believe, doesn't really care for a totally synthetic fragrance, there has to be an addition of naturals for balancing.
Each person’s nose is unique to him or herself with how they experience the fragrance that they have chosen to wear. They can be choosing the fragrance for it's therapeutic aspects to strengthen themselves for the day, there are many reasons.
Additionally the synthetic Freesia that I use in "1000 Kisses" is no longer made, the Boronia absolute is very dear. Once these materials are gone I will be on another quest and sourcing beautiful freesias is very difficult and Boronia can smell very different depending upon the source. Customers can be challenged to be open to new aromas that are not the same and yet still wonderful. The best course of action for potential customers is to contact me by e-mail and discuss their needs with me. I send out small samples to interested customers who belong to Sniffa, MUA and POL as they are serious. I am unable to update my site at this time. Too busy with projects right now. Hope to get to this later this year after things settle down. Kingsbury Fragrances also carries a full line of soaps with different bases for people with sensitive skin and allergic reactions. The fragranced soaps are also very popular and I have over 50 types of soap molds for special orders.
Raphaella, thank you for sharing my story with the perfume communities at large; and, for showing that this art is available to anyone of us who has a passion to go on this journey.
Dorothy, thank you so much for your time. You are such a beautiful woman and perfumer and have been such a treat to talk to. We all are very excited about seeing you in New York City very soon! We wish you the very best for your continued success.
Dr. Dorothy McCall is currently involved in private practice for individual, conjoint and family therapy and counsels in the field of chemical dependency. Dr. McCall is listed in the “Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Women, Who's Who in Emerging Leaders in America, and Who's Who in Medicine and Health Care”. She is a certified aromatherapist as well as the owner and perfumer for Kingsbury Fragrances in Pittsburgh, PA and devotes all of her free time to Kingsbury Fragrances creating new perfumes and products.
Conversation with Christopher Brosius by James Dotson
All the most interesting artists seem to have moved to Brooklyn and that’s where you
can find Christopher Brosius’ gallery on Wyeth Avenue in Williamsburg. In this handsome white atelier stacked with silvery bottles, and accompanied by his scent hound Zephyr, Christopher has assembled hundreds of accords and his signature collection of perfumes. Custom work is his forte and during an individual consultation he can guide you from basic layering into more elaborate personal compositions and fragrance wardrobe development.
I was crazy to sample his leather accords: baseball glove, new shoes, football. And my favorite “old leather” which smells like an antique Parisian opera glove. It seems that the whole cuir genre has never been popular in the general public so I asked him what motivated him to be able to capture these elegant and subtle variations on leather.
JD: Why does someone love a certain note?
I’ve always really kind of liked it and it’s hard for me to say whether I like it because it reminds me of buying new shoes when I was a kid or whether I just automatically liked that smell the first time I went into a shoe store. But it’s definitely a note I’ve really, really liked and I do tend to use them a lot in the basenotes of the scents that I do. A lot of my clients like them and that goes back to that idea that leather scents have always done poorly in America. Because I began to notice back in 1999 that there are groups of fragrances that I myself love and that people who come to me really love as well. Leathers are definitely a group of that, smokes are a group, and tobacco scents. And it’s curious because a lot of the people who love those and buy them are women.
JD: And supposedly leather is a masculine note...
Exactly. And these are perfectly normal women who love that smell for various reasons and
come to me because that is never a part of what the traditional fragrance industry offers them.
It’s just not there. Now they may well be a very small percentage. I can’t say that every woman
in America longs for the scent of leather or the smell of pipe tobacco. It’s been one of the major
tenets of what I’ve always done, which is to offer scents that people want but can’t find elsewhere,
or to make the kind of scents for people who might not be interested in what would be thought of
as perfume or cologne. This is where they can come because they really do enjoy “smells.”
I’ve worked a lot on leathers over the years and there are about twenty-five that I have at the moment,
only a few of which are actually out or on the list. I can go back and get them for clients. But there
are two main scents that I myself really just love: things that are incredibly fresh and green and
always reminiscent of the country, woods, the river, and fields. Or things that are really really sensual,
and leather definitely fits into that category. It is skin so that when it’s on the skin it gives this
wonderful warm deep erotic aura to the skin and that’s hitched into why I think that in this country
leather is rarely a successful note. I’ve often found that even though people will put on a fragrance
because they think it’s sexy or attractive; that is an artificial construct. It has nothing to do with how
they think of the scent itself and when it comes to things that really do smell of human or skin or
sex those same people will run a mile in the other direction.
There was one woman who came here from a blog last summer and fell in love with my musk. And I made that musk to be a really erotic smell. A lot of times when it’s on the skin it doesn’t even smell as if there is fragrance there. You just get this oh my god impression from it which is what it is supposed to do and that’s what musk originally was used for. So it’s been kind of curious because March brought it to my attention that there is this whole group of people who absolutely love it and other people who find it the most revolting, repellent, frightening thing they’ve ever smelled in their lives. And that’s a touchstone for people. And that’s not to say that either group is right or wrong but it’s still a curious thing for me to observe.
JD: Muscs Koublai Khan is just like that. It’s either “this is the skankiest thing ever, and I’d never be able to leave the house with it” or “I don’t like musk but this is the most amazing thing that I’ve ever smelled.”
I’ve loved all the Serge Lutens scents that I’ve smelled and Christopher Sheldrake’s work in general. And that dirty edge... that’s what I think is most attractive about a successful perfume. Leather is as close as I can really get without resorting to animal materials to capture that fabulous natural skin smell. The musk that I did is a first in a series and I have been working on other skin notes that smell wonderful but not as if there is a scent on a person . There was one woman who came in and said she made a special trip here because she had been hearing all this commotion about the musk. William dipped a blotter into it and she smelled it and she said, “This is it? This is what all the fuss it about? This smells good ,” and she took a bottle.
JD: I want to ask you about layering. What about someone who comes in and looks at all of your accords and says, wow this is fascinating but how do I start?
I always give people general directions but I will never tell someone that you have to wear this. Or this is the perfume for you. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about what you think and feel when you smell. So I’ll ask what kind of smells do you like and they’ll say, I like this perfume and that, and I’ll say no no no.. let’s just back up. What kind of SMELLS do you like. And that becomes a much more difficult process because people rarely think about it so specifically. They know it when they encounter it but they have a tough time recalling it. So we’ll go through what do you think about flowers of a certain kind, what kind of flowers? And when the grass is cut? Do you like sitting by the sea and smelling the air? And that’s when we really get to the kinds of smells this person might like best. Then I can point them to various parts of the accord collection and say sniff through some of these and the ones that you smell that you think, oh wow, or even
the ones that you think oh, I like that. Let’s set those aside for a moment. And from that we can get down to the smells that someone is really going to enjoy. Now there are occasions, and it happens fairly regularly with custom clients where the majority of fragrances that they pick are earthy, green, a couple of flowers and maybe some fresh water smells, but then they’ve got this group over here
that’s hyperspicy or hypersweet or rubber cement or something like that. And they have very specific reasons for responding and loving certain of those things but it doesn’t really fit in with the general group. So we can put a blotter in the ones that you like best and put them together and smell them and just start by smelling them on the paper and thinking about do you like the way that the combined smell smells or don’t you and if you don’t then let’s try another variation. Because the thing that a lot of people don’t truly realize is that they automatically know what smells are going to fit them and what smells are not. People are schooled to think that these smells are bad, even though on some level they are drawn to them which creates this whole level of hypercomplex stuff which is best worked out on someone’s couch. But, at the end of the day, on a really simple level, it’s not that people can’t tell what’s going to go well together, but that often they don’t have the confidence to really say this is for me. Because for years when I first started doing the individual thing with the old company and suggested layering, there were journalists who would interview me and I would say these can be worn singly or you can wear them together. Or you can wear them with another perfume if you like, if you want to bring out a certain flower in your favorite scent , why not? Well, traditional perfumers were horrified.
JD: I’m with you. Open it up to experimenting. Sometimes you get a muddled disaster and sometimes you get something really stunning and you have to have a sense of humor about it.
Disasters like that happen to everyone. The only way you’re going to know is to try it out. For the average person who is just trying it out it’s not going to result in an olfactory stinky mess. So much of that process has already been done for them. Oftentimes with clients who come here wanting to layer, I’ll recommend that they start small and gradually build up because it really does take time to stand, even if they pick two or three things. Give them time to really live on their skin. Think about them under different conditions and situations with different ways that you feel. See how all of that works and then you can start to add another or another or try the more complex fragrances. It’s exactly like learning a new language. You don’t go to french class and think that you’re immediately going to be reading Colette the next day, but as you work with it, it becomes more familiar to you. You become more comfortable and confident speaking it and then you really can become as creative as you like with trying things out.
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.
A VISIT WITH MANDY AFTEL
By James Dotson
“ From these scent boxes whose odors once perfumed rosy faces, long ago turned to dust, from these perfume fountains which no longer retain their ‘ scented memory,' and above all from these infinitely graceful and profound pages, it seems that something troubling and delightful, although supremely intangible, escapes: namely, the melancholic odor, the ‘imperishable Perfume,’ of the Past.”
Proust, Contre Sainte-Beuve
Mandy Aftel’s brown-shingled craftsman house is planted smack in the
middle of the gourmet vortex of North Berkeley, immediately around the corner
from Alice Waters’ restaurant, Chez Panisse. After traveling to Paris in the 60’s,
Miss Waters had a gastronomic awakening which eventually led to the “delicious
revolution” of nouvelle cuisine, a revolution that has forever altered our local grocery
stores which now carry fine coffee and exotic produce. Mandy had a similar
olfactory awakening that occurred while she was researching a novel and began
to collect turn-of-the-century perfume books, as she explains in her essay,
“Perfumed Obsession,”: “The books were charming, beautiful and eccentric,
and before long I had amassed a collection of more than one hundred of them.
I felt the thrill of being the first one into the cave that harbored the relics of a lost
civilization....” You can see the passion in her surroundings: engravings of
civet cats, sterling perfume compacts, strange old bottles and all the impedimenta
of a 19th-century lady’s toilette. But of course, center-stage, as it should be, is
the perfume organ with its extraordinary ingredients. Many of her natural materials
represent single harvests or dowager oils which are so limited that they may
disappear after she has composed a scent. Her philosophy is: “ I live on that
edge... it’s not repeatable.”
On the afternoon that I was visiting, she was just back from teaching a class at the French Laundry; it was a special fragrance and aroma seminar for master chefs, vintners and sommeliers. She has a hands-on technique of leading you through various scent combinations, starting with a horizontal pairing (both top notes for instance) and then a vertical pair ( top and base ) where the participants add a drop at a time until they perceive a synergistic locking of the two notes. Mandy has developed her own classification system too, a natural perfumery color wheel that links groups of notes to specific hues, such as the fresh spices ginger and coriander to the color orange. It is a much more accessible key than the family categories like fougere and chypre, and it is significant that she has chosen a symbol system that is entirely natural (the physical spectrum of visible light) as her guide. Her website has a kit and workbook that allow you to experiment at home if you can’t make it to a class in person. Or you can hone your nose by mixing the essence minis with one or more of her perfumes. My recent favorite pairing was layering her Leather Essence over Tango which made for a serious slice of Marlene Dietrich style smoky floral goodness.
For the connoisseurs, Mandy offers a few of her obscure essential oils and absolutes at Aftelier.com. There is a rich boronia that smells like freesias and creme de cassis, and an antique patchouli which is the most ethereal precious-woods patchouli you will ever smell. But here’s the amazing super secret find: Africa Stone Tincture, which is a cruelty-free alternative to civet and castoreum, a product freely given by the fluffy little rock hyrax when it relieves itself in the wilderness. This animalic stuff has a remarkable ability to resurrect perfumes that have been gelded by modern reformulators. I added a miniscule amount to Chanel’s Cuir de Russie and it was as if the composition leaped into a fourth dimension. Just don’t use it straight out of the bottle unless you want to feel like a giraffe is squatting upside your head. I have two bottles at home for perfume restoration purposes.
This fall, something exciting is coming to a resort near you! Renowned Perfume critic Chandler Burr continues his very unique and exciting series of Scent Dinners at a select number of Rosewood Hotels and Resorts around the country. These innovative and interactive dinners combine the artistry of perfume and gourmet cooking and promise to be an unforgettable experience you won‘t want to miss! I recently sat down with Chandler to get an in-depth view from the head of the table…
Mark David: How did the idea for the scent dinners first come about? Had you been thinking about it for a while or was it more of an idea that you acted on impulsively?
Chandler Burr: Actually I'd been thinking about the idea for years. I've always been instinctively drawn to the food perfumes, and I found it fascinating that what in France is a very well-known category, culinary perfumes-les parfums gourmands-is virtually unknown in the United States. Americans don't talk about them, don't even realize that for professional perfumers they're a standard class along with florals, orientals, woods, etc. I'm an instinctive teacher. I was literally a teacher in Japan, where I taught English in my early 20s, but all journalists are simply story tellers and teachers. Combine that with the fact that I'm also an inveterate performer, plus the fact that I write on food, and it was, I think, merely a few weeks after discovering my first culinary perfumes that I thought up the idea for the dinners- a lecture on perfume that I would do in the context of a dinner that illustrated those perfumes via other senses, the senses of sight, hearing, touch, and of course taste.
Mark David: What made you choose the Rosewood chain of hotels? Did you approach them or did they approach you?
Chandler Burr: Neither and both. It was pure coincidence. I had drinks at the Bryant Park Hotel with some of Rosewood's communications people to discuss their properties as traditional travel destinations. Then at the end of the meeting they asked, naturally enough, "OK, so what perfumes should we buy? For boyfriends, mothers, ourselves, what's good?" and I was talking about what I admired, and one of them said, "You know, you really like food perfumes." I hadn't realized it, but I'd been recommending scents like Safran Troublant from l'Artisan Parfumeur and talking about the vanilla in the classic Guerlains. One woman said, "You know, you sound like our chefs" and she pointed out that each Rosewood has its own restaurant, and their chefs are constantly seeking to innovate, find new approaches, do dinners that delighted and surprised. I said, "Funny you should mention that, there's a category called gourmand perfumes, and I have this idea.." They loved it. We started working on it immediately. It took eight months to put together.
Mark David: To plan for this event, where did you start - obviously with the fragrances themselves, yes?
Chandler Burr: Yes. Which is not necessarily the way I'm going to be doing it every time. It looks like I'll be doing a charity fundraising dinner at the James Beard House on West 12th Street on December 7. I've had one meeting with the chef with whom I'm going to be collaborating, Paul Liebrandt, had him smell some perfumes, but we're getting together again in a few weeks for our next creative session, and I may actually take quite a few cues from him. He's know for his inventiveness and creative daring, and if, for example, Paul has specific spices or fruits or vegetables he's interested in creating with, I'll write our script around those. At the Carlyle, Jimmy Sakatos, the Carlyle's Executive Chef, and I departed from the perfumes I proposed to him. So you can approach it either way.
Mark David: What was the process of choosing the particular fragrances that corresponded to the courses like? Once the fragrance was chosen, did you work with chef Jimmy Sakatos closely to conceive the course or did you let him have complete control over the food part of the event?
Chandler Burr: With Jimmy it was extremely specific: At our first meeting I brought in about 40 perfumes that were either in the gourmand category or contained gourmand raw materials, like Estée Lauder's Pleasures, which has a spectacular Firmenich natural pink peppercorn. We went through them, and for the first hour Jimmy just thought I was completely crazy. He's a good Jersey boy, and these guys, as Jimmy said, don't really have much contact with
perfume. I was getting a little worried, and suddenly he tentatively smelled Bois Farine by l'Artisan Parfumeur. The name means "Wood / Baking Flour" and the concept is the smell of baking flour on a wooden plank. It's an astonishing scent. Jimmy stopped dead, and all five of us in the meeting were staring at him. I thought, "Oh, Christ.."
He smells it, he smells it, and he starts smiling and thinking about it hard and he says, "Now this.I could make a terrific bread that smells just like this." And that, the bread course, the very first course of our meal, was the first course we put together. I enhanced the olfactory bread course with some other materials-I actually serve a virtual bread course, I won't tell you how, come to the dinner and see-and Jimmy filled out his culinary bread course in a very interesting way, an idea that at first I thought was strange but that winds up working great, and we were off. Jimmy started re-smelling every single scent and raw material and saying, "I can do a fish with that one! I wanna do a tomato glaze with that.!"
Mark David: What kind of work did you have to do to prepare for the dinner - research, etc.?
Chandler Burr: Basically smelling lots of gourmand perfumes and then spending lots of time figuring out which raw materials we wanted to use. Because of ethical considerations due to my position at The Times, I very consciously chose perfumes from a variety of houses-Lauder, Mugler, Missoni, Dolce & Gabbana,, Tom Ford, etc.-and I use raw materials from all the major scent makers so that I can tell diners about them: Firmenich, Givaudan, IFF, Symrise, and even some from Charabot for one particular perfume I love. Remember that this is a lecture. Its purpose is as much didactic as it is entertainment, guests come to learn-they're simply not learning in a dry lecture hall with a podium but instead in the entirely sensual context of a gourmet dinner whose moving parts and process are the 3D illustration machine. Rather than some Power Point. And central to that is that I systematically deconstruct perfumes, break them down into their crucial components and show the exquisite pieces inside them, like taking apart a Swiss watch and showing watch enthusiasts how the cogs fit together. The point is to allow people to love perfume by understanding it better and by reconceptualizing it. It's self-evident that the more people know about perfume, the more they'll appreciate the immense, difficult work and creativity that goes into this art, the more interest they'll have in it, and the better, more discerning consumers of perfume they'll become.
Mark David: What did you find was the hardest thing about the entire process?
Chandler Burr: Actually the hardest thing in my view was simply our rehearsals. Making the timing work. The thing has to run like an atomic clock. We have pre-dinner champagne for arrivals at 6:45, then curtain promptly at 7 for Act I, an intermission about an hour later, Act II opens after that, and curtain falls, depending on the audience, at around 10 or 10:30. Late arrivals are seated at the discretion of the management so as not to disturb the show. It took us several rehearsals to get it right, get it organized. Logistically it's extremely complex. But as a diner, you don't see the half of that, of course. Any good lecturer-on painting, sculpture, wine, or literature-will try to be as polished as possible. We simply have more moving parts.
Mark David: Did you only use gourmand fragrances? Would you ever choose a Chypre or a White Floral?
Chandler Burr: In Jimmy's and my dinner, it is basically gourmands, but we stretch the boundaries. There is a perfume-again I don't want to say which-that I use for one of our two dessert courses that most wouldn't consider a gourmand. I bet the designer doesn't even consider it a gourmand. But it has a fascinating Givaudan gourmand natural raw material in it. So that's the "traditionalist"- if you will- scent dinner I'll be doing at The Carlyle hotel in New York on Sunday, October 21. But actually I very well may be using chypres and florals and so on in future dinners. Each Rosewood chef will be recreating the dinner from scratch, and thus each property will be unique. My next dinner will be at the Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe on Thursday, October 25, and I already know that Executive Chef Martin Rios has some raw materials particular to the South West that he wants to use, peppers and smokes. On Friday, November 9 I'll be collaborating with Executive Chef Fabrice Guisset at Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos, Mexico, and then on Wednesday, November 14 with Executive Chef John Tesar at The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, and Guisset and Tesar will also take the raw materials and perfumes in my script and create their own culinary illustrations. When we go to Tokyo and the Caribbean in 2008, we'll recreate the experience in those places.
Mark David: What was the most surprising thing that has happened during one of your scent dinners?
Chandler Burr: Um.no one was able to guess one of what I consider the simplest of scents. It was weird. It's like everyone froze for a moment. And when I told them what it was, everyone exploded, "Oh, God, of course!..."
Mark David: As a guest of your scent dinner, what should I know before attending?
Chandler Burr: Don't wear any perfume, and try to avoid using any heavily scented soaps or shampoos before you come. If you're a woman, try to wear a sleeveless top so you can try the perfumes on. Other than that, just fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.
Mark David: How interactive is the dinner for a guest? What kinds of things are asked of someone in attendance? Need they be well-versed in fragrance before they attend?
Chandler Burr: The dinners are, in fact, extraordinarily participatory and interactive. You are smelling, guessing, judging, thinking, tasting, drinking, listening and talking the whole evening. You smell naturals, synthetics, and finished perfumes constantly. But you don't need to know a single thing about perfume, and there is no "expertise" necessary. I ask you to try to identify scents, and everyone has a pad of paper and pen to take notes. Sometimes we play perfume games, it all depends. But the experience is for everyone, from lovers of Serge Lutens and Andy Tauer to those who don't know Charlie from Chanel No. 5. It's about experiencing and interacting.
Mark David: What are your future plans for the Rosewood Scent Dinners? Can we expect a regular series of them?
Chandler Burr: Actually we're working on it. We have some plans...
I would like to thank Chandler Burr for taking the time to speak with us on this most exciting of ventures. If you would like more information, or to reserve your place at the dinner table, all of the details can be found at www.rosewoodhotels.com or www.chandlerburr.com. Bon Appetit!
Upcoming dates for the Scent Dinners:
Sunday October 21, 2007, The Carlyle, NYC
October 25 - Inn of the Anasazi, Santa Fe, NM
November 9 - Las Ventanas, Cabo, Mexico
November 14 - The Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas, TX
See press release below for more information. To make reservations for Sunday, October 21 in New York City at The Carlyle please contact Karen Adams as soon as possible at Kadams@sniffapalooza.com
