ollie.grapefruitin Giving Fragrance · Manchester ·
QuestionOur office drew Secret Santa names early this year and I've got a lad from accounts I've spoken to twice. Is fragrance a bad idea when you don't know someone?
hamish_heather Skip anything that goes on his skin. A wee bag of good coffee is safer.
big_dan_vetiverin Wearing Fragrance · Leeds ·
QuestionLong shift moving pallets, and the warehouse heating's on full now it's turned cold. By the end I'm sweaty and my morning vetiver smells sour on me. Do I just spray more over it before I drive home, or is that daft?
hamish_heather Aye, a long shift does that to anyone. Spray over it and you'll just loose the vetiver under the sour, ken.
ollie.grapefruitin Wearing Fragrance · Manchester ·
DiscoveryOur kid wears the eau de toilette of a grapefruit and pepper scent. In town I tried the eau de parfum with the same name on a tester strip and it wasn't just stronger: the grapefruit was quieter and there was something woody underneath I never get from his.…
ingrid_berlin Not imagined. A different mix, not only a louder volume knob.
thiago.berlinin Everyday Smells · Berlin ·
Snapshot
The chestnut stand at the U-Bahn exit is back. Smoke, sweet and burnt, the first smell of the cold here.
joon.yuzuin Learning to Smell · Seattle ·
ReadingTL;DR: training your nose does seem to work, with caveats. Read this on the bus: an open-access meta-analysis on olfactory training that pools 36 studies. What it found: - training improved overall smell function - the biggest gains were in identifying…
ingrid_berlin Identification first. That is the part we practise here.
tallulah.teain Wearing Fragrance · Brighton ·
QuestionMy hand cream has the little open-jar symbol with 12M on it, but the box of my fig and tea perfume has nothing. Does perfume just never go off?
mags.lavender This explainer on cosmetics shelf life, perfume section included says the alcohol base usually keeps perfume stable, hence no symbol, but it can…
Class no. 4 · 6 min read
Since the 1860s, perfumery has mixed natural materials with synthetic molecules, and neither is better or safer by default. You'll be able to date the molecules that changed perfume, from coumarin to Iso E Super, and read the word natural on a label without reading too much into it.
mel_from_adelaidein Giving Fragrance · Adelaide ·
QuestionSpring's here and my sister turns forty next month. I know exactly which wine she'd pick at the cellar door, but I've no idea what scent she'd wear. Is that any help at all?
hamish_heather More than you'd think. Read a gift guide that picks a woman's perfume by personality rather than age , then match it to what's in her glass.
trudy.lilacin History, Bottles & Houses · Ottawa ·
QuestionMy mother wore a lilac scent all through my childhood. I smelled it again recently and it's thinner, greener, not her at all. Is it me, or do perfumes really change?
frankie.incense IFRA's explainer on its standards says a material can be prohibited, restricted to a maximum quantity or given a purity specification, and that the…
harriet.hayin Everyday Smells · Bristol ·
Question
Last mow of the year at the garden centre this morning, and I had a friendly argument with a colleague about the smell. To me fresh-cut grass is sharp and green, like a split stalk, while the clippings heaped by the compost bins smell sweeter by the…
dougie_newcastle It's coumarin, isn't it? That's the hay smell in an old fougère.
aroha.rainin Welcome to the Club · Wellington ·
Introduction
Kia ora, I sell tickets at the ferry terminal in Wellington. It's spring here, and after a southerly the whole bush smells wet, green and a bit peppery, kawakawa leaves mostly. Pretty new to fragrance and keen to learn heaps.
harriet.hay Hello and welcome, aroha.rain. Spring for you while we're raking leaves in Bristol, I do love that about this club. Wet, green and peppery after rain…
aroha.rainin Woods, Mosses & Roots · Wellington ·
Scent diary
Kia ora, big southerly overnight and this morning the bush track behind the ferry terminal smelled heaps green. Crushed a kawakawa leaf: peppery, a bit like bay, a bit like a wet fern. Its spring here so everything is soft and new.
gus_saltmarsh Same up in Auckland, the bush behind the yard smelled like pepper and rain. Kawakawa every time.
aunty_valin Wearing Fragrance · Liverpool ·
QuestionSince the cold weather came in, my neck goes red and itchy where I spray my rose and powder perfume. Should I put it somewhere else, love, or rub some cream on first?
harriet.hay A red, itchy neck needs someone who can look at it, so your GP or a pharmacist first, before anyone here guesses.
Class no. 3 · 6 min read
A fragrance's concentration is the share of perfume oil dissolved in alcohol: highest in an extrait, lowest in an eau de Cologne, with ranges that vary from one reference to the next. You'll learn what those names change for longevity and sillage, what they leave alone, and how to check it yourself on two blotter strips.
ingrid_berlinin Florals & Bouquets · Berlin ·
ReadingRead the Wikipedia page on methyl dihydrojasmonate , the molecule sold as Hedione. A Firmenich chemist characterised it between 1957 and 1962, and Dior's Eau Sauvage, in 1966, was its first major commercial use. Jasmine with the bass turned down. /Ingrid
kasia.berlin Is this the same molecule that makes lily of the valley in perfume, or another one?
ollie.grapefruitin Citrus & Fresh · Manchester ·
Snapshot
Half six, still dark, rain on the van roof. Half a grapefruit over the sink before the first job, and the bitter peel wakes me up better than coffee.
kasia.berlinin Home Fragrance & Candles · Berlin ·
QuestionMy flatmate put a reed diffuser in our small bathroom. The first days it was very strong, now I smell nothing. Do you turn the sticks? How often? It is a fig smell, I like it.
mags.lavender Kasia, I turn mine when I can't smell it from the door any more, and not before, otherwise it's a lot in a small room.
priya.cardamomin Woods, Mosses & Roots · Toronto ·
ChallengeThread of the week: describe one wood without using the word 'woody'. 1) Pick a wood you can smell right now: a pencil, a cedar hanger, a log by the fire, a chopping board. 2) Give us three things it smells of, real things, not adjectives. 3) Name the wood at…
juniper_jules Hamster cage, the inside of a hope chest, my sketchbook pencil. Easy one, cedar.