The daily lemming

Posted by Robin on 25 February 2025 3 Comments

Issue 18 of Nez is out: "Whether on packaging, in bottles, nature or our brain, can we smell it in Technicolor? In this latest edition of Nez, titled The Color of Smells, the relationship between color and odor is explored from all perspectives for a fascinating look into the connections between the visual world and the olfactive one. Nez invites us to explore the world via our sense of smell, adopting a novel approach that encompasses art, literature, photography, science, history, gastronomy and perfumery to illustrate the essential role that olfaction plays in our lives." 160 pages, $39 at Luckyscent.

A simple passive system

Posted by Robin on 18 February 2025 Leave a Comment

Before Olofsson started his research, he “viewed the sense of smell as a simple passive system” in which airborne molecules attach to mucosa in the nasal cavity, setting off a biological chain reaction that leads to a smell sensation in the brain. Now, he realises, “olfactory processes start not in the nose but in the brain, even before the odour molecules reach their destination. Olfactory processes are shaped by expectations and experiences.”

— The Financial Times, on the new book The Forgotten Sense: The New Science of Smell by Jonas Olofsson. Read more in The Forgotten Sense — why do we underestimate the power of smell?; hat tip to Kevin!

Florian Mormann, lead author on the study, told Salon in a video interview from Bonn that “the surprising finding to us was that we found cells that responded both to an odor and to the picture … of an object that is associated with the odor. For example, the smell of a banana, the picture of a banana and the written word ‘banana.’”

The daily lemming

Posted by Robin on 6 December 2024 6 Comments

A lemming for serious fans of Comme des Garçons: the new coffee-table book, Comme des Garçons Parfums 1994-2025, written by Dino Simonett. "Comme des Garçons Parfums is happy to celebrate its thirty years of excellent and progressive scents and design. The entire collection of pebbles, series, special editions and collaborations is presented here for the first time, together with the packaging and hilarious printed matter. Never the same twice, never looking back. From the still irresistible „Eau de Parfum“ (1994) to the futuristic eau oxygénée „Odeur 10“ (2024), the wild bunch is united in a thick book with large images, printed in brilliant colours on thick paper: Comme pour les enfants, de grandes enfants comme nous!" €125 for the threadbound paperback directly from the publisher, Simonett & Baer.

A faint note of horse piss

Posted by Robin on 11 May 2024 7 Comments

Discovering that entrepreneur Estée Lauder once rejected an entire scent because she detected a faint note of horse piss was not on my bingo card for 2024. But according to author Michael Edwards—who highlights this moment in his latest book, American Legends: The Evolution of American Fragrances—the colorful anecdote helps Lauder seem more relatable to those of us who know her exclusively as beauty royalty.

— Read more in American Legends Reveals the Backstories Behind Some of Your Favorite Scents at Harper's Bazaar. (And you can see a partial list of the fragrances covered by the book here.)

It’s an interesting question. American fragrances, when you smell them close up, they’re not always that pretty, but in the air they resonate. That’s the American spirit. Estée Lauder believed that women expect American fragrances to start the way they end. She had little patience with this idea of top notes, of fragrances changing over time: It has to be straight, she believed. It has to be direct.

— Michael Edwards on the difference between American and French perfumes. Read more in Spotlight: Michael Edwards, Debuts American Legends at Fragrance Foundation Accords.

“To the French, perfume is liquid art; to the Italians, liquid style; to the Americans, liquid money,” Edwards said.

— Read more in A Journey Through American Fragrance with Michael Edwards at FIT Newsroom.

The daily lemming

Posted by Robin on 7 February 2024 Leave a Comment

A special issue of Nez in association with IFRA: We Love Fragrances. "Fragrance is an essential part of our lives. Its many perspectives – cultural, economic, social and emotional, as well as agricultural, industrial and technological – are explored in this book, showing just how much fragrance is an element that links us together.[...] We Love Fragrances brings together numerous testimonials and gives voice to all players in the value chain, from growers, suppliers of natural and synthetic raw materials, creators and producers to researchers, engineers and chemists... A book to discover and rediscover fragrance in all its different facets and understand its present and future challenges. 160 pages for $55 at Luckyscent.

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Now Smell This

a blog about perfume

The daily lemming

A simple passive system

The daily lemming

A faint note of horse piss

The daily lemming