Patrick Süskind's novel Perfume repulsed many with its description of 18th-century Paris: a world redolent of flesh, rot, manure and reeking stews, where even the king "stank, stank like a rank lion". And yet the fragrance industry has never turned up its nose at the riper aspects of human, and inhuman, existence. Many classics contain more than a glimpse of "something nasty in the woodshed".
— Columnist Hannah Betts talks about the "feral underbelly" of fragrance ingredients in Let us spray at the Guardian.
Another great post, Robin! I really enjoyed the article…”knicker scents”! I'll have to try some of these.
“Apply to your wrist and you will desire only to hack it off.” Oh yeah.
I am so glad you posted the link to this – I saw it in The Guardian yesterday and have just popped the article round to my neighbour, another perfume fan. She had a test sniff of my Dzing! sample and was amazed when I said there was extract of beaver's private parts in there.
I love it when you give us links like this! Wouldn't it be something to find a bottle of the Who Me? What a historical artifact that would be for a perfumeholic!
I will never think of my beloved Bandit the same way again…
What a great post for my perfume fix of the day! Thanks for the link.
L, That's truth in advertising, LOL…
It is a fun article. I've heard that anecdote about Germaine Cellier before…wonder if it's true!
LOL — yeah, best not to think about it!
Might be best left unsmelled, LOL — can't even imagine what that smelled like!
But have always wondered if that story was apocryphal…it's almost too good to be true…
I don't believe a word of that particular story. As I said elsewhere, people in the Resistance were too busy blowing up German convoys to faff around with creating perfumes.
I say, Thank God and everyone responsible for invention of perfume! Having a very sensitive nose, I find that most people stink anyway, so fortunately we have a way to at least tolerate each other.
Just had to respond with a chuckle….the other day i tried a sample of d and g's sicily body cream on the back of my hand…. i couldn't believe that after about an hour, it smelled like a faint whiff of a dirty bottom to me… i scrubbed and had a hard time to remove it…glad to know i'm not completely out in left fiield!!! thanks for that!
I have to be honest: I find that Germaine Cellier story very hard to believe. Still, I'm sure stranger things have happened….
However, I do like a spritz of Kouros from time to time, regardless of the reaction it may inspire in some. It's a true classic and belongs in the pantheon of scents one must sniff at least once.
Agree on Kouros — great stuff.
One would hope!
How funny, I think of Sicily as so clean! Will have to smell it again 🙂
I figured the bit about NASA must be b.s. or at least hyperbole, but Google proved me wrong — here's another fascinating article about it:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.03/smell.html
Thank you for a wonderful link, I have just been exploring the, ahem, earthier scents after reading the “Dirty Boy” post by Kevin, revisiting the amazing Kouros, and scouring the internet for Helmut Lang (I remember this as smelling like tanned skin).
I admire MKK by SL but I cant imagine wearing this anywhere but home alone, I tipped my expensive decant into my bottle of Annick Goutal Musc Nomade, it was just what it needed (nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more!)
I knew that one was true — we posted about it in the past 🙂
Wow, you were brave to take the chance with your Musc Nomade!
What a fun link! Some of the info wasn't new to me – I've known for years what civet, ambergirs, etc. really are, of course, and I've been very happy that these ingredients are now synthetically derived – otherwise, my enthusiasm for scented things would cause feelings of guilt and be a little too decadent for my sensibilities. The 'story' [legend?] behind Bandit made me chuckle out loud. A couple of the details [ingredients cut w/baby poop?!] simply induced my gag reflex. haha I love the smell of cumin and never correlated it with the smell of BO, so I had to run to the spice cabinet, open the cumin jar and take a big sniff, and IMO that would be the most inoffensive BO ever.
Being on a search for leather scents, I recently acquired a bottle of Bandit, which I love. Funny thing is…I did notice that quality in the fragrance. What I really like about it, besides the leather aspect, is that scent of a person; it seems to be an enhancement of your own skin, rather than a different fragrance applied on top of you. Luckily for me and everyone around me, Germaine Cellier's models seem to have put on clean underwear before they hit the runway!
LOL…whenever I make my chili recipe and add cumin, I always think, “Ya know, that kind of smells like armpits…”. The chili tastes good though.
Thanks for the link to this fun article. A good reminder that a fragrance doesn't have to smell like fruit, flowers, or sugar to be appealing.
Sometimes that's a toss-up, for sure!! I'd rather smell fresh sweat than 3-day-old Hai Karate any day!
I really don't get the equivalence to BO from cumin either. My BO sensors must be calibrated differently though, since so many people make that association.
I also don't find civet particularly “fecal,” but perhaps more like sweat and a hint of cat urine.
Has anyone ever heard of someone being anosmic to musk and unknowingly clearing out a room (or making their colleagues run for cover) with Musc Ravageur or similar?
I don't get BO from cumin, either. I get it from chicken soup, though. Lordy.
I do not smell BO in “real” cumin, but fragrances w/ cumin make skin smell sweaty, at least to me. Small amounts are fine, too much & I find it unwearable…
Would you list some fragrances that contain cumin? This way we will be forewarned. lol Actually, I would like to sample some though and see if I can detect that certain quality. I don't have the most sophisticated 'nose'.
It's always smelled like urine to me. *yick*
Knicker scents, ha! This article was great fun.
Who am I to shy away from anything civet, (I love the stuff). Anything cumin on me is musty sweaty gym socks galore! It's a mushroom cloud of sweat and stink!
Do a search for cumin in the search box on the right sidebar…you'll find them!