When Laudamiel walks around New York City, he says, the city’s many aromas don’t just blend together into something inscrutable. He smells hints of wood and green bell peppers in a cup of coffee, tuna cans in a glass of bad cabernet, spinach in fine green teas at the market, and notes of freesia and mushrooms in Central Park in the morning. “Once the brain has seen something, it can recognize it in other places,” he says.
That’s a phenomenon I can attest to: As a perfume lover who has spent the past few years smelling hundreds of different fragrances, I can now identify and understand odors that would have barely registered before.
— Courtney Humphries talks to perfumer Christophe Laudamiel, and others, about smell, in We Weren’t Designed to Appreciate Good Perfume at Nautilus.
Thanks so much for posting this. I loved that bit about perfumery being less of a science than a storehouse of knowledge and experience.
And I loved hearing that Laudamiel has a line coming!
I haven’t tried any of his scents and most wouldn’t be available here but i will visit the Estee Lauder counter today, just in case. Which are your favourite Laudamiel perfumes?
He did some really interesting fragrances for Humiecki & Graef. Theo Fennell Scent has something of a little cult following, but I’ve never tried it.
While I will always read what Laudamiel has to say, in this case the whole article was excellent. Thanks so much for the link.
I hope his tentative name for his line –“The Zoo”– doesn’t get mixed up with Zoologist.
Agree, not the best name choice since Zoologist already exists.