Scented Thoughts: More on Eau de Stilton & on Milk, Seduction, and Fragrances

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The pilot launch of Eau de Stilton is generating quite a stir. People are adopting a wait-and-see attitude to see if this perfume concept will flounder or not. The dairy farmers who have come up with the idea are selling at this point about 200 sample-bottles (the price was not mentioned) hoping that the perfume will catch on. If it does, it will go into mass production. At any rate, even if the perfume does go down, the SCMA will have succeeded in drawing much attention to themselves. There is indeed a successful advertising campaign going on right now for the association of Stilton makers...

Reportedly, the makers of Blue Stilton have attempted to capture the notes that are found in the cheese in the early stage of its development before it matures and becomes characteristically pungent. Is a new perfume olfactory nuance born, like fresh as in fresh cheese? Some people might perhaps relish smelling of fresh buffalo mozzarella with a tomato leaf note thrown in and, finally, odoriferous basil crowning the composition? Or fresh chèvre?

I was trying to come up with references to other dairy-inspired perfumes and could only think of two very different ones at first. One is the condensed milk theme you find in CSP Matin Câlin and the other is the yak butter being used as a protective cream on the skin in the Himalayas (but not really worn for its perfume although its scent is pervasive in Himalayan societies and probably associated with fond childhood memories.)

I wouldn't mind a fresh, sweet butter note being added to a perfume and now that I think of it, there is one such note in Laurence Dumont Crème Brûlée; it smells very realistically of sweet butter and cream. Gourmand scents must abound in milky notes. Sira by Patou perhaps? I could also wear a kulfi scent without any problem, if it's well done.

So, maybe it is a slightly creamy Eau de Stilton we shall smell?

Another perfume reference comes to mind also when I try to imagine the moldy, earthy scent that emanates from a Blue Stilton -- Demeter Dirt! Yes, I'm sniffing it now and with a little bit of tweaking here and there it could approximate very well the scent of a blue cheese.

The biggest hurdle for Eau de Stilton, in case it does smell interesting, would be to impose itself as a desirable perfume, that is, to project the desirable image of a cheese-based scent since what we buy with a perfume is also its symbolic capital. In the current historical context, this perfume is going against the grain of mainstream aesthetic preferences encouraged by the advertising culture. If a cheese cannot be easily desired and admired can it, instead, be fun? I did not detect any sign of humor in the SCMA declarations. Is it rather then an eccentric scent and could we find some aesthetic satisfaction in that idea?

At least the association of cheese with seduction has already been done numerous times in France. I remember an ad for a Camembert where a half-naked woman, wearing only her bra, panties, hose and garters was posing next to a robust Camembert. Hey, maybe some people like the association of dairy with sexuality, a perfect combination some might even think -- this being said on the eve of Mother's Day. Eau de Stilton might awaken some primal desires and recollections in milk-nurtured human beings, who knows?

Previous Posts in Scented Thoughts:

Scented (Good) Thoughts: Mother's Day Fundraising for Orphans of America

Scented Thoughts: Perfume List-Making and The Meaning of It

Scented Thoughts: Double Take

Posted by Marie-Helene Wagner on May 13, 2006 | Permalink

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