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 Just as I was trying to do a comparison, in my head, of the most typical smells of New York City and Paris, I happened on this article in the Boston Globe which attempts to assess the scents of Boston. More particularly Harry Slatkin of Harry Slakin & Co. was invited to tour the city to give his opinion on the way stores are perfumed, normally to attract customers. And let me tell you how this is important. Only the other day I overheard someone complain about how a section of a store smelled as soon as he approached it. It smelled he said. It smelled of something that was difficult for him to identify. That person literally freaked out and had to leave after a few moments because it was apparently unbearable to him. The people accompanying him were not noticing anything and he seemed even more upset for that fact. The sense of smell can be so visceral...
Continue reading "Harry Slatkin Turns Scent Critic for the Boston Globe {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
 The Irish Independent has the best article I have seen so far written about the new version of Chanel No. 5 - that eternal classic - called Eau Première. One of the reasons, besides the fact that it is a detailed piece, is that we are offered a rare and informative interview with perfumer Christopher Sheldrake visiting the Chanel or rather Jospeph Mul's jasmine fields in Grasse for the first time; Mul has been under an exclusive contract with Chanel since 1987. Journalist Sarah Caden has managed to put the perfumer enough at ease so that he confides a bit. Of interest for those who have followed Sheldrake's work with Serge Lutens is to learn that the perfumer was born in Madras, India and that his father was in the spice trade! Ensues more biographical details....
Continue reading "Best Article on New Chanel No.5 Eau Première {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
 "Scientists in Italy have found bacteria in the root of a tropical grass
whose oils have been used in the cosmetic and perfumery industries.
These bacteria seem to promote the production of essential oils, but
also they change the molecular structure of the oil, giving it
different flavours and properties: termicidal, insecticidal,
antimicrobial and antioxidant."
Read more in Science Daily...Photo credit: Kris Kumar
 Reading about the role scent may play in the mating behavior of Kakapos reads like a dream come true for a member of the human male species. Why? Because even more so than for women, the # 1 motivation for the average man to wear fragrance is to attract the opposite sex, or whatever sex they are interested in...
Continue reading "Role of Scent in Reproductive Strategies: The Case of the Kakapo {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
An interesting talk by perfumer Christophe Laudamiel entitled "Design for the Invisible" about orientations he sees for the future of perfumery defined very broadly as the art that has to do with olfaction in general not just fine fragrances as he is quick to point out. For example, he says he would love to see a scent curator be hired by MOMA to curate perfume installations and keep up to date with what is going on in the world in this field. Watch his lecture given at MOMA in April 2008 as part of the conference Mind 08, courtesy of Seed Magazine,
 Stellar Spire Eagle Nebula, Wikimedia Commons
Here's a short article in the Times describing the smell of outer space and explaining why company Omega Ingredients is working on recreating it for Nasa. The guy in charge of the project is Steven Pearce who confesses to stumbling upon the problem of offering a well-crafted dupe for the scent of hot metal. "Outer space smells like hot metal, fried steak and the welding of a motorbike,
scientists suggest. A chemist is recreating the smell to help Nasa to train
its astronauts."
Read more...
 An article in the American Chronicle discusses the issue of allergic reactions to fragrances, based on one illustrative case, and compares perfumes' toxicity to that of second-hand cigarette smoke. There is just one reference used: Lessenger, JE. "Occupational acute anaphylactic reaction to assault by
perfume spray in the face." The Journal of the American Board of Family
Practice...
Continue reading "For Some Wearing Fragrances Is A Criminal Act {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
 As all Chanel devotees and cultural observers are waiting with baited breath for the upcoming biopics (three, no less) about Coco Chanel, including the one by Anne Fontaine starring Audrey Tautou, Coco Avant Chanel, Lifetime Television was all ready to show their own version the past weekend. And according to Matthew Gilbert, it did not smell of anything much, "Coco Chanel," tonight at 8, also doesn't feel like the story of a
fashion icon, never mind one who revolutionized women's clothing. The
movie, "freely inspired" by Chanel's life, plays like a generic,
picturesque, gauzy tale of romance in France during the first half of
the 20th century, with world war, and not world fashion, as the
backdrop. The heroine's name could as easily be Smith as Chanel. There
are castles and horses and bucketloads of l'amour, all loosely strung
around a few vague facts about Chanel's life. Let's hope that
Lifetime's "Project Runway," due next year after the series finishes on
Bravo, is less beside the point. Lifetime appears to think viewers will
have little interest in the evolution of clothes design. (...)
The movie looks great, like a very extended perfume commercial. But it
has no substance. Indeed, I don't think the owners of the Chanel label
themselves could have made a more harmless movie."
Read more in Just A Faint Scent of the Woman...
David Wiegand is a little bit more tender, seeing enough pages taken out of fashion history books to quell his thirst for knowledge in this field...
Continue reading "Coco Chanel On Lifetime TV: Critiques of a Biopic {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
 Promoting a perfume as being the most expensive in the world is not new. Joy by Jean Patou is probably the best-known example of this genre of ultra-competitive globally-framed advertising. Clive Christian is the current official holder of the title as the Guinness Book of World Records has handed him the sceptre. Derek McCormack writes an ironic and funny piece about the branding efforts of Clive Christian around an interview with Victoria Christian, his daughter. It helps to show how perfume as a luxury product, not necessarily a work of art, is immensely susceptible to effects of prestige. In fact one sometimes sense that promoting a perfume is an operation that must feel like walking delicately on egg shells to the people in charge of the luxury image. Queen Victoria, a crown logo, a noble motto, crystal, gold, diamond etc. are all needed to make it look legitimate and steeped in tradition. These efforts certainly do not just stem from the brand owners' own dishevelled thoughts however. Customers, rich and not-so-rich, love royalty too so it makes good business sense to indulge, "Fax animi honestae gloria," she says, reading the Latin motto
inscribed on Clive Christian's coat of arms. " ' In honourable
thoughts, glory is born.' The coat of arms was granted us by the Royal
College of Arms." Royal regalia is of paramount importance to the Clive
Christian company. "You see that each of the stoppers on our bottles is
in the shape of Queen Victoria's crown," she says. "It was the only
time that Queen Victoria gave an image of her crown to be used by a
company."...
Victoria in L'Illustration, 25 août 1855
Continue reading "Clive Christian ≈ Queen Victoria, Who Knew?: Deconstructing The Royal Ad Copy {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
A funny, almost sensible article by columnist Kate Muir in which she spits fire at fashion derelict ways this season and at perfume-wearing in general. Wait till you hear what Karl Lagerfeld says and does to control his smell-environment...isn't his nickname Kaiser Karl? OK, I just can't resist a bitchy statement by Karl Lagerfeld because he always tries to wrap it up in gentle forewarning words as if what he was going to say next is absolutely a breakdown of his usual niceness and rules of polite conduct, but he has to burst. You have to love and appreciate the style of the master,
"I have no problem with journalists - many are friends," he once
said. "Only not if they are really stupid, or if they've got bad breath, or
if they smell. Yesterday [at a Chanel show] I had a problem. I said, 'I'm
sorry, you've got to tell this woman that she needs to be taken away. Her
smell is not possible.'"
...
Continue reading "How To Bitch About Perfume {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
 Here is an article about Aveda's senior perfumer Ko-Ichi Shiozawa. It touches upon the difficulty he currently experiences producing wholly desirable organic perfumes in a competitive market that has an increasing demand for such scents seen as ideals of cleanliness, greenness and purity. It is no mere chance if the Aveda perfumes are titled "Pure-Fume". For Shiozawa it mainly seems to be a critical problem with finding an organic-grade solvent (see for comparison the issue that was raised around tap water being used by Bayliss Ranch as a so-called "organic" ingredient). For the President of Aveda Dominique Conseil it is about investing in a higher proportion of organically-certified ingredients, passing from 25% to more than 90% for the new generation of Aveda products (no further precision added). According to organic certification grades recognized and controled by the USDA, if it is less than 95% - 70 to 94% - the products can be called "Made with Organic Ingredients" as opposed to the next level, "Certified Organic", i.e., 95% or higher. The highest organic grade is "100% Certified Organic". The lowest grade is found at below 70% and the product then cannot be called "organic", only the relevant ingredients...
Continue reading "Organic-Grade Solvent is the New Holy Grail for Aveda & a Note on Organic vs. Natural {The 5th Sense in the News} {Green Products}" »
 Desperate situations call for desperate means. After local inhabitants repeatedly complained about the suffocating stench emanating from nearby landfills in Mumbai (Bombay), India, the city government decided to remedy the bad odors with an herbal perfume. We know the relationship existing between perfume and hygiene, it can only be a temporary fix...
Continue reading "Mumbai Takes a Sniff and Perfumes Landfills {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
 There is an interesting article about our individual capacities to smell which, as the way the research is conducted, seems to depend primarily on rather solidified given cultural and genetic variables. Certain pathologies like Alzheimer show a link with the sense of smell. There seems to be a regrettable propensity to interpret the current data as information to be taken into account when designing flavors and scents to target people that will find them pleasant, which appears to me to be on the static side. I wished that the role of education were better emphasized in showing how the senses of taste and smell can be educated, improved, refined etc. According to this article however, it would seem that there might be genetic and cultural limitations to such an optimistic vision about (the possibility is not even considered here) making people be more intelligent and sensitive smellers and tasters....
Continue reading "Smell IQ Still in the Research Stage {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
 A warning was issued by the Ministry of Environmental Health in Bahrain regarding excessive consumption of incense, Middle-Eastern style (on burning coal), "A WARNING went out yesterday that one of the most ancient
traditions, which is still being practised in almost every Bahraini
home, may cause cancer. Smoke from Bakhoor (incense) can be a health
hazard if it is inhaled continuously and excessively, according to
health officials. "The burning process of Bakhoor, with the use of coal or other
means, releases carbon substances that are harmful when inhaled," said
a Health Ministry's Environmental Health spokesman. "Particles 2.5 microns in size are released in the process, but nose
hairs can only prevent 10 micron or larger particles from being inhaled. "Such small particles reach the lungs and continued excessive exposure may result in cancer."
Read more....
 Alexandre Menais Director of eBay Europe is reported to have said today that the French court ruling against his company, ordering them to pay over 60 million dollars in fine is "indecent". In consequence and while waiting for a ruling on their appeal, the often-dubbed "biggest garage sale on earth" will for now continue to carry perfumes from the Guerlain, Givenchy, Kenzo, and Dior brands all owned by LVMH. The latter through their spokesperson M. Malka have declared feeling "shocked" by eBay's decision to disregard the ruling and the law. eBay is insisting that LVMH is attempting to control distribution networks in an abusive fashion. (Via Fashionmag.fr)
See previous posts: eBay Risks Paying 80 Million Dollars In Damages; Landmark Ruling In Favor of Luxury BrandsPhoto © rmfphoto.net
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