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Samsung have released two new cellphones, the SGH-L310 and SGH-L320, which are said to have been specially conceived for women and which therefore, include a scent-matching system. It is often reported that women have a more sensitive sense of smell than men and for some reason this seems to be reflected in the perfume industry practice of hiring mostly women as perfume evaluators. There are traditionally more men perfumers than women though, which seems here to draw a traditional gender barrier in the professional realm. Think about the minority of women chefs that exist as opposed to cooking seen as a feminine specialized activity in the domestic realm......
Continue reading "Samsung Perfume Cellphones For Women {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
World leaders gathering at the World Economic Forum in Davos summit next week will be subjected collectively, whether they like it or not, to the subtle atmospheric pressures of perfumes diffused in rooms to enhance the spirit of the meetings and influence the moods and emotions of delegates. In a possible and hopefully milder redux of the collective craze engendered by the virgins' perfume in the novel and movie Perfume, one might see people bond together once more through the sense of smell. Knowing that perfumer Christopher Laudamiel is behind this operation, reinforces the connection as he is the one who had to think about creating such a perfume for the Thierry Mugler coffret. There is something in the Zeitgeist as people are becoming more and more interested in applying pre-tested olfactory marketing tools to momentous political events. The Korean presidential campaign last fall was premised upon that concept and a perfume called Great Korea was sprayed in meeting places to garner winning votes; Lee Myung-Bak eventually won. The Catalan Socialist Party also just launched a perfume in January of 2008 called "what does socialism smell like?", a deeply introspective scent, which they recommend using also outside of political meetings, for example " in offices to create a pleasant environment of equality and fairness." The US presidential candidates must be using this guerilla tactic otherwise they would really be behind, but they are not saying anything. In the midst of this efflorescence of political agendas expressed via perfume compositions, the question we asked in our post My National Parfum in the summer of 2006 when it felt like sci-fi still holds: can the intent of a perfume be interpreted in the same manner by everyone involved, across cultures and personal histories if scent is also about associations?.......
Continue reading "The Politics of Perfume at Davos & Elsewhere In The World {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
Apparition of the face of the Aphrodite of Knidos, 1981 There is an interesting article regarding the collaboration between Jean-Pierre Grivory chairman of Parfums Salvador Dali and the artist himself. It details how the relationship came to be and how Dali started sketching the first perfume flacon on the spot; he was more interested in leaving his mark on the packaging than on the scents themselves. His bottles are instantly recognizable and the juices they contain are distinctive too. The original Salvador Dali for Women was great when it came out, offering an extremely soft and sensual texture. The one for Men is also wonderful (see review). There are many more to explore. "In a marriage between art and fashion comes perfumes in bottles designed by the great master Salvador Dalí. Of the five senses, the sense of smell is incontestably the one that best conveys a sense of immortality. – Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) WHEN your name and work not only endures but also inspires others, that’s another sense of immortality. The master of surrealism Salvador Dalí certainly lived up to the reputation for being eternal.".....
Continue reading "How The Dali Perfumes Came To Be {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
Leven, Fife In an intriguing and revealing piece of news, it is reported that a small town in Scotland, Leven, Fife, was considered to be too working class to carry Chanel products in an effort to protect the brand's image of luxury. The town's inhabitants were therefore not able to make their perfume holiday purchases at home, but had to travel 8 miles to a Boots branch located in Kirkcaldy.......
Continue reading "A Small Scottish Town Is Not Allowed To Carry Chanel {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
A series of research studies on auto-immune diseases reveal some links existing between perfume addiction, over-application of fumes, and depression, “Our scientific findings suggest that women who are depressed are also losing their sense of smell, and may overcompensate by using more perfume,” explains researcher Prof. Yehuda Shoenfeld, a member of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. “We also believe that depression has biological roots and may be an immune system response to certain physiological cues.” [....]......
Continue reading "Perfume Nuts Might Be More Depressed Than Nutty {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
 Technology to communicate scent sensations in public areas and via the internet continues to develop. Spectrum Online whose audience are "Tech Insiders" reports on progresses in the field, "If you thought the art of communication had reached its zenith in multimedia technology’s ability to grab the attention of our eyes and ears through text, video, and sound, think again. Japan’s NTT Communications Corp., of Tokyo, is busy developing its Kaori Tsushin, or Fragrance Communications, as a way to pull our noses into the equation. The telecom and network services company has come up with an Internet-linked fragrance system that can be used to generate a wide variety of scents on demand with the aim of heightening experiences, influencing moods, and maybe opening wallets. [....] It all started in a rather unusual way,
The first instance of its use was in December 2004 when the company hooked up an Aromageur—a small sphere-shaped fragrance dispenser for rooms and personal use—to a PC used for telling fortunes at an Internet café. The type of fragrance released would depend on the fortune being delivered." Read more..... Image of an Aromageur from Digital Lifestyles
Gentlemen of the human species, please take note! The male orchid bee might be your new master in scented courtship. There is a lovely and interesting article on the Channel 4 News website where we learn that males of this species need to blend a multi-layered complex individual perfume to attract females. The scent features notes of decaying wood, sap, and flowers...mmm......
Continue reading "Male Orchid Bees Are Born Perfumers {The Fifth Sense in the News}" »
Uniformity, Inez Storer, 2005
This morning we wanted to make sure we would quote another perfumer besides Jean-Claude Ellena before we would call your attention to his latest interview. He is obviously the darling of the media - some, more nastily, call him a "media whore" (courtesy of The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr). Sorry, this is nothing personal because we do not know him on a personal level, but we are experiencing JC-Ellena fatigue, what with his prestidigitator gestures each time he meets members of the press showing them the magic smell arising from two blotters meeting on his lab table. Is this a parlor trick? Please, there are other noteworthy, interesting perfumers that breathe air on this planet and know how to articulate their thoughts on perfume. And please don't refer yourselves for inspiration to his own list of perfumers in his little book on perfume, Le Parfum, because he makes it sound like the perfumers' community has been depleted by WWIII.
Scent of a Man in the Times online
Business 24/7 reports about a particular extremely fine-grade limited edition oudh perfume in the Dahn Al Oudh collection created by Ajmal, a fragrance brand based in the United Arab Emirates. The scent is dedicated mainly to the beauty of oudh, profits being secondary in this case. It is a noteworthy attempt to maintain balance between profit and cultural dedication to the art of fragrance thanks also to the support of customers that are collectors. Since 2005, 1000 flacons have been sold and 1500 more are available. A 12 ml flacon of this perfume retails for 5,000 Dirhams or US $ 1,360.......
Continue reading "Oudh Perfume by Ajmal: It Is About Beauty, Not Money {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
With major perfume launches amounting to $50 million in investment these days, it has become increasingly hard for brands to see profit emerge out of these ventures. Armani Privé 3 years after its launch remains unprofitable but is kept afloat in order to generate an intangible value: cachet.....
Continue reading "The Madness of The Perfume Industry {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
We don't know if the new patent called " LSS - Less Smoke Smell" that the third largest tobacco corporation in the world, Japan Tobacco International wants to apply for would be really effective - cigarettes reek anyway - but at least they are trying to dispel the bad-omen smells associated with cigarette consumption. Of course under this semblance of "improvement" brought to our collective quality of life or rather that of Canadians as the action seems to concentrate in that country for now, public health issues debated ad infinitum by the tobacco industry and health groups would only be further blurred rather than solved. Rather aptly and ironically the new cigarettes are called "Mirage Cigarettes" and like an odorless gas they might kill you even more surely apparently. This, shall we call it, "cosmetic cigarette", is considered even more dangerous by watch-groups and denounced by them. The tobacco people were just trying to pacify the Canadians who are noted for their hyper-sensitivity to manufactured smells in the public space..........
Continue reading "Nice-Smelling Cigarettes Are Still, Nay, Even More Dangerous For Your Health {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
 Perfume remains the gift of choice during the Holiday season and women are the biggest buyers. According to the NPD Group, which is quoted in an article in the Los Angeles Times, "More than Valentine's Day and Mother's Day combined, this is the season when scents translate into cents for the $3.96-billion fragrance industry. It pulls in a third of its annual revenue in December and 20% of the year's total in just the two weeks before Christmas, said Karen Grant, a beauty industry consultant for marketing information company NPD Group."
Perfume Gifts Smelling Good To Shoppers..... Poster available at allposters.com
The Great Korea perfume is leading Lee Myung Bak to victory; the flacon may not look too fancy but the juice itself has reportedly been made to feel irresistible. Photo Dec 12, 2007 © Reuters/Jo Yong-Hak
In Korea, presidential front-runner Lee Myung Bak must have a keen nose and believe in the powers of olfaction like no other since his campaign staff has decided to implement a very unusual strategy for "branding" the candidate's image. Drawing on marketing experience and department-stores' olfactory branding of which Korea is an early practitioner, the idea has been taken a step further by attempting to associate feelings of "hope, victory, passion" with a perfume called Great Korea that was secretly sprayed at public gatherings and will be again sprayed when voters enter the polling booths. Obviously no law forbids this type of political manipulation since it has never been done before (?) and can be accounted as one more publicity tool or can it be?..........
Continue reading "Presidential Candidate Lures In Voters with Great Korea Perfume {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
The Sunday Herald is running two pieces on celebrity fragrances. The first one by Paul Dalgarno features perfumer George Dodd who is asked to evaluate popular celebrity perfumes. His conclusion? They all smell more or less the same and only pretend to be distinctive. Dodd much prefers "traditional French perfumery" to this non-offensive "cheap plonk", "George Dodd is a world-renowned perfumer and the founding father of the psychology of smell. Drawing on decades of experience, he creates personal perfumes at his Aroma Sciences studio in Wester Ross, based on a series of in-depth interviews with his clients. He has agreed to give me the lowdown on a selection, by no means complete, of the celebrity fragrance range. In turn, I have smuggled him as many free samples as I can carry: a whiff of Kate Moss in my pocket, a sachet of Paris Hilton in my hands; I've snatched the Beckhams (his and hers), a bottle of Covet by Sarah Jessica Parker, the scents of Kylie, Britney and several others.......
Continue reading "George Dodd Sniffy About Celebs Perfumes, Others Are Believers {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
An American study published in the journal Psychological Science indicates that so-called "subliminal smells", ones that are not consciously perceived by the brain because they derive from extremely minute quantities, play a key role in our evaluation of a fellow human being (drawn face in this test) and bear more impact actually than consciously perceived smells.......
Continue reading "Role of Sub-Conscious Smells in Affective Evaluation {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
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