• About
  • Login to comment
    • Facebook
    • RSS
    • Twitter

Now Smell This

a blog about perfume

Menu ▼
  • Perfume Reviews
  • New Perfumes
  • Perfumers
  • Perfume Houses
  • Shop for perfume
  • Resources
Browsing by tag: reformulations

Death and sex, entropy and excess

Posted by Robin on 17 May 2021 13 Comments

The scent, created by the legendary French parfumier Bernard Chant, was tangy, feral, and almost too naughty to wear to work, but this mildly transgressive quality was a big part of the appeal. The seventies were an unbridled and messy time, when loucheness was a life style born of postwar nihilism and economic decline. If the city was crumbling around you, why not smell like death and sex, entropy and excess? The new formula does not smell like these things. It cannot clear elevators or persist through a night of heavy dancing. It evaporates quickly and smells a little like soap. Still, I bought a bottle recently, because I knew that a new Netflix miniseries about Halston (called, simply, “Halston,”) was coming, and I wanted to turn my viewing experience into a kind of Smell-O-Vision. As it turns out, the synthetic, exasperating reformulation was a perfect match for watching the series.

— Read more in The Freeing Fashion Behind the Halston Saga at The New Yorker.

A larger-than-usual number of bans, restrictions and specifications

Posted by Robin on 22 April 2021 3 Comments

Then in 2020, the International Fragrance Association (IFRA), the industry’s self-regulatory body, imposed a larger-than-usual number of bans, restrictions and specifications (such as purity criteria) on ingredients, with implementation required by early this May for new creations, and by May 10 next year for existing perfumes. (An estimated 80 to 90 percent of the perfume industry are members of IFRA and follow its standards.)

— Read more in A Big Stink in the World of Perfume at The Washington Post Magazine.

Reformulation is much more difficult than it seems

Posted by Robin on 9 June 2020 9 Comments

Reformulation is much more difficult than it seems, to the point of becoming an integral part of the perfumer’s job. We are often asked to alter a fragrance slightly, make a fragrance more floral, more diffusive, creamier. In the case of reformulation, we have to do the same thing. We have to change the fragrance without really changing it, without losing its character, because some consumers have been buying a perfume for such a long that they know it by heart. So the challenge is to figure out how to change without changing.

— Read more in Olfactory reformulation a delicate exercise at Premium Beauty News.

A third force

Posted by Robin on 20 May 2011 8 Comments

In the past, changes were driven by Mother Nature—or accountants. One caused variations in the quality and availability of natural ingredients, the other substituted less costly ones... In recent years, there’s been a third force: industry efforts to cut back on allergy-causing ingredients, to avoid labelling requirements or outright ingredient bans.

— Kim Pittaway, writing in This ain’t my mama’s L’Air Du Temps at Maclean's.

Bourjois Evening in Paris / Soir de Paris ~ vintage and new

Posted by Angela on 23 February 2009 52 Comments

Bourjois Soir de Paris perfume

Sometime in the late-1920s, Bourjois executives sat in an office building in Manhattan and plotted how to conquer the American market. Bourjois was mostly known for its lipsticks and powders, but it had had some success in France with Mon Parfum in 1923. Bourjois was owned then, as it is now, by the Wertheimer family, which also owned Chanel.

In my mind’s eye, it was a warm day, and the rumble of traffic competed with fans whirring in the corner of the office. The visiting French executives bemoaned the bottle of chilled white wine they would have had at lunch had it not been Prohibition. “Coty has a stranglehold on lipstick in this country. Let’s try a fragrance,” one of them said. “We can get Chanel’s perfumer to do something for us, but nothing as upscale as No. 5. We want something friendlier, something that will appeal to the businessman’s wife in Iowa, or even to Margaret.”

Margaret was the stenographer…

Read the rest of this article »

Older articles »

Advertisement

Search

From NST at Twitter

  • "The Biggest Fragrance Trends for 2023, According to Experts" (marieclaire) https://t.co/tVmxnyMEXX, 1 hour ago
  • "Cult Shop: the perfumer drawing on her Māori heritage" (financial times) https://t.co/9HmkvBfcvm,
  • Imaginary Authors' limited edition Decisions, Decisions from 2020 is available again for a limited time… https://t.co/CL55QrsyTB,
  • "Scent-a Fe: New Mexico could be first state with official aroma" (guardian) https://t.co/zt7NB3n20L,
  • "The Smell of Magic: A new crop of scents reference long-held beliefs about the connection between perfume and the… https://t.co/6OeiuFOYtf,

Browse by...

Topic

Perfume talk New fragrances
Shopping Books :: News
Body products Home fragrance
Polls Another subject

Date

January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022

Prior months

Author

Robin Jessica
Angela Kevin
Erin Guest Author

Tag

Celebrity perfumes
Cheap thrills
Collector bottles
Perfumista tip series
Video
The complete tag index

Recent reviews

Atelier Cologne Love Osmanthus
Moschino Toy Boy
Arquiste Misfit
Diptyque Eau Capitale
Zoologist Bee
Parfum d’Empire Immortelle Corse
Comme des Garcons Series 10 Clash
Frédéric Malle Rose & Cuir
L’Artisan Parfumeur Le Chant de Camargue
Yves Saint Laurent Grain de Poudre
Régime des Fleurs Chloë Sevigny Little Flower
Chanel 1957
Gallivant Los Angeles
Amouage Portrayal Woman

Blogroll

Bois de Jasmin
Grain de Musc
Perfume Posse
The Non-Blonde
More blogs...

Perfumista lists

100 fragrances every perfumista should try
And 25 more fragrances every perfumista should smell
50 masculine fragrances every perfumista should try
26 vintage fragrances every perfumista should try
25 rose fragrances every perfumista should try
11 Cheap Perfumes Beauty Outsiders Love

Favorite posts

The Great Perfume Reduction Plan
Why I Love Old School Chypres
New to perfume and want to learn more?
How to make fragrance last through the day
Fragrance concentrations: sorting it all out
On reformulations, or why your favorite perfume doesn’t smell like it used to
How to get fragrance samples
Perfume for Life: How Long Will Your Fragrance Collection Last?

Upcoming

List of upcoming Friday projects

4 January ~ damage poll
4 February ~ winter reading poll

TBA April ~ swap meet

Back to Top

Home
About Now Smell This :: Privacy Policy

Shop for Perfume Online
Perfume Shopping in New York
Perfume Shopping in London
Perfume Reviews
New Perfumes
General Perfume Articles
The Monday Mail

Glossary of Perfume Terms
Perfume FAQ
Perfume Links
Perfume Books
Fragrance Awards

Noses ~ Perfumers A-E :: F-K :: L-S :: T-Z

Perfume Houses A-B :: C :: D-E :: F-G
H-J :: K-L :: M :: N-O :: P :: Q-R :: S
T :: U-Z

Copyright © 2005-2023 Now Smell This. All rights reserved.