Smile & Shine is not something that I would have ever purchased for myself; my forest witch/eldritch librarian aesthetic doesn’t support much sunny citrus. But it is a bit of technical wizardry, which makes it interesting to me, and remarkable enough to write about. I’m a fangirl of Christophe Laudamiel, precisely because of things like this perfume.
Like Perfume Nostradamus, Chris Rusak has once again delivered the timeliest of remedies. At the end of April, we got After Every Ounce of Joy (Leaves My Body), a reflection on trauma that was deeply introspective and affecting.
Our collective trauma has only intensified in the six months since. Now, when everything else in the world feels so complex and heavy, Rusak gives us Relief, his new studio limited release. A perfume for pure enjoyment, for conjuring moments of beauty and ease.
A personal discussion of the ups and downs of perfume collecting, and the lessons leaned after the death of a close friend.
I’ve wrestled with writing about Beast Mode for ten months now, and I still haven’t come up with anything that conveys its simple genius, the way it’s both beautiful and serious, austere and profound, how it feels like a safe embrace and a soft armor against the world. Rather than just continue to flounder, and say nothing at all, I’ve decided to take a collection of various thoughts and feelings that I’ve written down during different wearings of Beast Mode, and simply share them. I hope you find them intriguing.
Most people learn of the Monell Center when they (or a loved one) have suffered a sensory loss. The Monell Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the world’s only independent, non-profit scientific institute dedicated to interdisciplinary basic research on the senses of taste and smell.
I became personally connected to Monell in quite a different way, through the loss of a friend. This week would have been his birthday, so I am taking time to remember him in a number of ways, and this is one. Here is a little part of our story.
“Think of it as Glade air freshener for billionaires.” (Ralph Gardner Jr. – The Wall Street Journal). After writing a review for the new release from Fūm Fragrances titled “Jurassic Flower,” it was brought to my attention that Frédéric Malle has had a scent for many years called Jurassic Flower, and it’s based on a very similar concept — the ancient magnolia tree.
Book of Shadows is a very inky scent, but it doesn’t smell like your typical “ink” perfume. It’s not the sludgy, sooty scent of India ink, and it’s not just some murky, mothbally cypriol to suggest inkiness. It’s the crisp, flowy, and purple-black scent of iron gall ink. Bitter and fruity-nutty like gum arabic, with a metallic sheen (that just flirts with being reminiscent of heme), I can imagine thick, dense downstrokes, hairlike upstrokes, and dainty flourishes. The “throw,” when I get a random sniff from arm’s length, sometimes reminds me of the sweet, rubbery-tinged smell of a good print shop ink
It’s been a while since I was moved by a fragrance description. But when I saw the photos on Instagram of magnolia flowers with their waxy leaves and curly carpels and a caption that promised “a unique twist on magnolia,” it grabbed me by the heartstrings and I pretty much had to try Jurassic Flower by Fūm Fragrances. Maybe it’s the inability to travel right now, or even be outside really, that filled me with a longing for this magnolia from the sea.
Find your perfect woody pine forest fragrance! Reviews and ratings of 80+ coniferous niche, designer, and indie fragrances in a convenient, searchable and sortable table.
This year for my Halloween/Samhain scent, I’ve chosen the very special SVAHA from NOT Perfumes. SVAHA was created by perfumer Johanna Venables, and released in 2019. It’s a serious contender for my favorite release of the year.