Mille Facettes

Posted by Robin on 11 October 2018 Leave a Comment

The installation, called Mille Facettes—A Thousand Facets of Olfactory Lights, was presented as an artistic interpretation of the new fragrance, purporting to take the visitor for some 90 seconds inside a diamond, or more accurately inside a Plexiglas box in which a white light was diffused into a million facets of colors, plunging the visitor into the creative mind of the perfumer.

— Cartier's pop-up installation for Carat can be found at the Cartier pop-up shop on Wooster Street in NYC, or at rue Vieille du Temple in Paris. Read more in At Its ‘Rendez-Vous’ Experience, Cartier Mines the Past and Present to Reinvent Classic Luxury at ArtNet.

Curious labels like Rose Otto and Osmanthus Absolute

Posted by Robin on 2 March 2018 4 Comments

The vials on the display rack bear curious labels like Rose Otto and Osmanthus Absolute. If you ask about them, you are likely to get some fascinating back story. The lavender, for instance, which boasts 1,200 natural compounds, is harvested in the Alps by delinquent French teenagers from Nice who are sent to the floral farm for emotional healing.

— The New York Times checks out Manhattan boutique Enfleurage, which specializes in aromatic materials. Read more at The Sweet Smell of Osmanthus Absolute (and see Alyssa's interview with the owner, part 1 and part 2, or Jessica's review of a few of their finished fragrance blends).

The daily lemming

Posted by Robin on 22 June 2017 16 Comments

How about a trip to Soho to visit the pop-up St. Ives Mixing Bar? "The first-of-its-kind, this 1800-square-foot store is inspired by the joyful, vibrant energy of nature and St. Ives' key ingredients. It features a mixing bar where guests can choose from more than 50 unique ingredient combinations and desired body lotion richness or facial scrub exfoliation levels. In addition to showcasing many of the St. Ives ingredients people know and love, the St. Ives Mixing Bar will also offer guests the chance to experience over 20 new, on-trend skincare ingredients such as pink lychee, kale, ginger and volcanic sand. All custom face scrubs and body lotions will retail for $12 each." It's open Monday through Saturday from 11-9 and Sunday from 11-8, through July 30 at 577 Broadway (at the corner of Prince). More information at St. Ives Mixing Bar.

Asian American women & carpenter ants

Posted by Robin on 16 May 2017 4 Comments

When visitors enter the exhibition, canisters spritz scents derived from body odor originating from Asian American women and carpenter ants in a work titled “Immigrant Caucus.” To create the fragrance, Yi sampled the women’s sweat and worked with forensic chemist Kenneth Furton to identify the chemical constituents of the human body odors. [...]

With a list of the women’s sweaty top notes in hand, Yi then worked with a Parisian perfumer to recreate a synthetic interpretation of the armpit aroma and spiked the concoction with smelly chemicals emitted by carpenter ants.

— Anicka Yi’s exhibition “Life Is Cheap” is open at the Guggenheim through July 5. Read more at Olfactory science meets contemporary art, plus ants at Chemical & Engineering News, or see Please Smell the Art: Anicka Yi Will See That You Do at The New York Times, or Artist Anicka Yi’s Scents and Sensibilities at Vogue.

Distracted by a cloud of incense

Posted by Robin on 4 April 2017 Leave a Comment

The excursion started uneventfully, when I detected familiar fumes of gasoline on Delancey Street, but turning onto Eldridge toward Broome I confronted a pungent, intriguing miasma of garlic, cigarette smoke, rotten melon, roasted meat, and plastic. I trailed this scent to further whiffs of steamed dough and menthol outside a massage parlor, then got distracted by a cloud of incense and darted after it in pursuit—directly into the path of an oncoming biker, whom I admittedly hadn’t smelled coming.

— Bianca Bosker takes a Smell Walk in New York City, using Kate McLean's Smelfie Guide to Smell Walking, which you can download here. Read more at The Graphic Designer Who Maps the World’s Cities by Smell at The New York Times.

« Newer articles

Older articles »

Now Smell This

a blog about perfume

Mille Facettes

Curious labels like Rose Otto and Osmanthus Absolute

The daily lemming

Asian American women & carpenter ants

Distracted by a cloud of incense