aroha.rainin Seasons & Celebrations · Wellington ·
Snapshot
Kia ora, spring here and the jasmine on the fence by the terminal is out, it's heaps sweet after the rain. Christmas will be a beach one, sweet as.
pip.rhubarbin Everyday Smells · Wakefield ·
Discovery
Did the Saturday market in Wakefield with my nose instead of a list. Onion sacks first, then apples (proper autumn ones, a bit winey), then the fish van, then wet cardboard everywhere. The last stall was the flower one and it smelled of chrysanthemums and…
bridie.hobart My apple stall at Salamanca smells of last season's fruit out of the cool store at the moment. Yours sound better.
ingrid_berlinin Seasons & Celebrations · Berlin ·
Memory
In Sweden the saffron buns come at Lucia, and I start missing them when the light goes. The dough smells of hay and warm metal, a thin high note over the butter. Nobody bakes them in my part of Berlin, so I bake them myself since three winters, badly. /Ingrid
kasia.berlin In Poland we have piernik. My grandmother made the dough weeks before Christmas, it must rest. I can help to eat your buns.
grace_rose_nzin Home Fragrance & Candles · Dunedin ·
Memory
My roses are only in bud this spring, but I opened my mother's old biscuit tin of dried petals and geranium leaves and it still smells of her hallway.
mags.lavender Morning all, Grace, that's lovely. My nan's potpourri had rose geranium leaves in it too, and I always thought they smelled alot more of rose than…
mo_from_leicesterin Florals & Bouquets · Leicester ·
Memory
Cleared up after my niece's wedding this morning. The garlands had been hanging all night, roses and marigolds on string, and the hall smelled of honey, tea leaves and something green and bitter from the marigolds. Took a few petals home in my pocket.
brynn.pinein Seasons & Celebrations · Minneapolis ·
Snapshot
First cold morning raking the parkway. Wet leaves like a tea bag left in the cup, and somebody's woodstove down the block.
Class no. 13 · 7 min read
Niche perfumery means fragrance houses that sell through selective channels to a narrower audience than the mass market: the word describes a way of selling, not a guarantee of quality. By the end of this Class you'll be able to tell niche, independent and auteur perfumery apart, and smell a fragrance without being carried away by its story.
theodora.figin History, Bottles & Houses · Bath ·
Snapshot
Rain on Walcot Street all afternoon. Beeswax polish, damp umbrellas by the door, and a row of empty scent bottles with their glass stoppers, no labels, waiting for someone who loves old glass.
aroha.rainin Everyday Smells · Wellington ·
Scent diary
Kia ora, first proper warm day of spring and then a southerly shower hit the car park at the terminal. Hot tarmac, wet dust, a bit of diesel from the ferry, and the bush smell drifting down off the hill behind. People call it petrichor, I just call it the…
nell.wattle Okay, nerd moment: in Melbourne it's wet bitumen, eucalyptus and the footy oval, and it's actually gone before the tram comes. Rant over.
shona.whinin Welcome to the Club · Aberdeen ·
Introduction
Hello from Aberdeen. I do the paperwork at the fish market, so my mornings are salt and ice. My favourite smell is the gorse on the cliffs in spring: coconut, from a prickly bush, and it gets me every year. I'm a quiet one, mostly here to read.
ambrose_leatherin Home Fragrance & Candles · Northampton ·
Scent diary
Right then. Sunday job: boots on newspaper in the back porch, a tin of dubbin and a brush. The porch smells of the factory floor for an hour after, wax and hide and a bit of something smoky. Forty years around a good hide and I should have known you never…
sinead.smoke Dubbin and smoke, that's my whole comfort zone in one porch.
hamish_heatherin Woods, Mosses & Roots · Edinburgh ·
ExerciseAye, a wee one for a dreich weekend. Sharpen a pencil, bring in a pine cone, crack a black peppercorn. Smell them in that order, then backwards, and write down what each one shares with the next. Don't loose the shavings, they're the woodiest of the three.
callum.peat Did it on my break at the depot. Pencil and peppercorn share a dry, dusty bit. The pine cone is the odd one out, sticky and sweet.
nell.wattlein Florals & Bouquets · Melbourne ·
Scent diary
Okay, nerd moment: the silver wattle on our street has finished. A week of spring rain and the pompoms went from yellow to rusty brown. Perfumers' mimosa is this tree, Acacia dealbata, from south-eastern Australia, and not anything in the genus Mimosa. The…
aroha.rain Its on the weed list over here in NZ, the mimosa page says so too. Still smells sweet as on my walk to the ferry.
Class no. 12 · 6 min read
To give fragrance without guessing, start from what the person already wears, stay in that fragrance family or the one next door, and let them try before anyone commits to a full bottle. You'll learn to read someone's taste without asking, set up a proper skin test and know what you can and can't return.
ingrid_berlinin Wearing Fragrance · Berlin ·
Scent diary
I wear orris at the studio since two years and no colleague has ever said a word. Good. I want it like room tone: there only if you stop and listen. Who else wears scent mostly for themselves? /Ingrid
jess.in.philly Me, with musk. Though some days I wonder if I can even smell it, or if I'm just remembering it.
aoife_mintin Learning to Smell · Cork ·
TipTwo things from the Class on smelling strips and nose fatigue that changed my sessions. A study there found one natural sniff tells you as much about whether a smell is there, and how strong, as seven or more. And the blind exercise has you take three breaths…
joon.yuzu TL;DR: fewer sniffs, better notes. I was hyperventilating over ramekins. That's my two cents.
rafa_azaharin Citrus & Fresh · London ·
Scent diary
Hello friends, in Seville the bitter orange trees line the streets, and right now the fruit is still hard and green. Reading the club pages I learned that one tree gives perfume three materials: neroli, distilled from the blossom , plus the absolute that…
hana.neroli Neroli is my favourite of the three. The same still gives orange flower water: Wikipedia's page on steam distillation calls that watery part a…
mo_from_leicesterin Giving Fragrance · Leicester ·
QuestionMy daughter is thirteen and has asked for 'a grown-up perfume' for Diwali. At weddings her older cousins wear something heavy with oud and rose, and that's what she wants. I'm not sure it suits a thirteen-year-old. Any thoughts?
kemi.cocoa I teach kids not much younger, and the ones who wear scent always want what the big ones wear. Mademoiselle Bulle's guide to gifts for a young woman…