"Traditionally trained perfumers, their instinct is always to go with something that smells pretty," says Brosius. "I'm not interested in pretty. It's reality that I find beautiful."
— Perfumer Christopher Brosius of CB I Hate Perfume, quoted in Coming to a boutique near you: scent of a naked man at Globe and Mail.
It's a great art, and I love the idea of exploring the limits of scent. Personally, I would not like to put on the contraption that allow me to sniff the groin and armpit of someone before I date them. Or perhaps for a long while after meeting them.
I still wear perfumes to smell like something interesting, but that interesting thing has to be beautiful, instead of “what the hell is THAT?”
Let's hope a few perfumers still want to make those.
Some of CB's accords are not what I'd call pretty or beautiful, just interesting, but he does plenty of beautiful fragrances too
When I read that CB wants to recreate the smell of skin I determined that he truly has read “Perfume” too many times. But as long as he doesn't resort to putting young maidens in the press or distiller, more power to him. I enjoy his work.
I do occasionally like to smell interesting over beautiful sometimes. I put on Jicky yesterday after being mesmerized by the scent on the test strip and instantly felt like I had been taken over by aliens – the smell was so weird and rotten and terrible and somehow alluring all at once I left it on for about a half hour doing nasal inspections before scrubbing. I told the SA that it smelled like rotting vegetation and she said, “well, you don't want to smell like THAT!” and I murmured, “well maybe sometimes…”
lol
Tama
HA — I agree entirely with “well maybe sometimes….”
Which concentration of Jicky was that? I find the EdT pretty easy to take. The Parfum is gorgeous but harder going.
I'm not sure what it was – just whatever was the tester, so not parfum. I can't quite stop thinking about it and will probably get a sample or two to dab at different levels – I inadvertently gave myself a pretty big squirt. I was so taken with the smell on the strip that I had to sit in the handy velvet swooning chair and meditate on it for a minute so it was doubly jarring to have it smell so freakish once it was on my body. I came home and read The Guide review and thought, Lavender Vanilla?? Need more for further testing. lol
I like him but uhh…pretentious, much? I guess he deserves to be.
My first post here after a long time lurking :-).
I think there's a place for pretty scents, but I can also appreciate scents with an ugly side to them. Calling something pretty is so subjective, anyway. I kind of get the feeling that he's referring to a lot of the mainstream sweet fruity florals in this quote as being what perfumers think of as pretty, but frankly, I find most of those kind of cloying and wouldn't describe them as such.
I don't think I would ever want to smell like a naked man, however. At least, not in public ;-).
It seems like all perfumers want to recreate the smell of skin, but I wear fragrance because I want to smell better or more interesting than plain old me! (And better than a wet mitten or the dry cleaner’s, hopefully).
<< Ironically, while perfume was almost certainly originally worn to mask the body's natural odour, we seem to have come full circle. In the Age of Purell, the most revolutionary thing may be to smell like our own bodies.>> This make me think of a favorite scene from the movie “Black Narcissus” from 1947 (it’s about a group of nuns who set up a school in the Himalayas). During a study period, a young Indian prince who is attending the school takes out his handkerchief and fans his face. It obviously has a strong fragrance on it, because the nun in charge of the class wrinkles her nose in distaste. The prince asks, “Do you like it? It’s called Black Narcissus. I got it at the Army-Navy store in London”. The nun sniffs, “I don’t like scent at all”. “Oh, sister”, replies the prince reproachfully. “Don’t you think it’s rather common to smell of ourselves?”
The civet note can be jarring. The parfum has more civet, but at the same time, it is softer, less harsh than the EdT.
Gosh, I didn't find his statement pretentious. It's true that he has something of an “us” vs “them” attitude towards mainstream perfumery, but since I see his point it doesn't bother me.
Hi and welcome!
I think you're absolutely right, he's talking about the mainstream sweet fruity florals, etc.
I remember that movie! But not that scene, so thanks — what a great quote.
And entirely agree with “the most revolutionary thing may be to smell like our own bodies”.
The “revolutionary” part about smelling like our own bodies was a quote from the article, I can't take credit for that. But if I wanted to smell like myself, I wouldn't need to buy a fragrance from Mr. Brosius, I'd just go “au naturel”. If we all did that, we'd put these guys out of business, so maybe they'd better rethink their philosophy!
Isn't that interesting, I wear Jicky perfume all the time! And I don't smell like rotton vegetables. Or if I do no one has mentioned it out of fear I would turn on them. I love almost all Guelain scents and wear quite a few: Shalimar, Jicky, Vol de Nuit, Angelique Noir. I have a skin Ph that makes alot of scents turn very easily, but Guerlain in general just works for me. Jicky is a favorite summer scent.
LOL — true!
Wow, Jicky was my first grown-up perfume – I was 17 or 18 (in the mid-'60s), the one I bought for myself for the first time. I still adore it. It probably was the EDT. I've never actually smelled the parfum.
Well, you know, CB is not the one trying to recreate the smell of an unscented human. It all got sort of mixed up in the article, but he's more about creating the smell of an experience, or a place in time and space. I'm sitting here wishing I had a bottle of Memory of Kindness right now…
It was a different article where I found the bit about the skin (it is linked on his “noses” section on here):
“As a matter of fact, I'm working on a “Skin” series now – they're going to be a small collection of scents that just make the skin smell like SKIN! I'm hoping to have this collection complete by the fall of this year – I'm planning on having these individually available but am also planning on using them in the bases of some of my custom perfumes. I'll keep you posted!”
I want a bottle of Memory of Kindness too! Very much. Have used up my decant.