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Most days I’m a fragrance nudist
I heard someone years ago say they feel naked leaving the house without perfume on. If that’s how it works, then most days I’m a fragrance nudist. For the company I work at (a perfume distributor), complimenting or guessing each other’s scent choices is something of a ritual. So not wearing perfume when I walk…
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A home perfume gallery
Some people collect fragrances for their artistic merit, and instead of wearing them spray them occasionally in solitude or for guests as a way to ‘display’ these ephemeral works like paintings in time and space. I have a few in my collection that I love but rarely wear: Guerlain’s Jicky and Hermès’ Épice Marine for…
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What are perfume notes?
Someone recently asked me what the ‘notes’ in fragrances are. It’s a little complicated, but I’ll keep the answer brief. 1. Ingredients What probably comes to mind for most people is the actual ingredients in a fragrance. This used to be mostly true in times past, when formulas were quite simple (I’m talking well over…
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What I’ve been wearing this summer
I never really notice how much the days shorten each year until I watch a sunset, which is rare considering I’ve been living in urban Sydney (those ‘Look up’ billboards feel a lot more pertinent here than in Brisbane where I used to live). After recently moving to Sydney’s suburbs, where buildings are shorter, the…
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C Is for Chanel N 5
When it comes to iconic fragrances, Chanel No 5 is in a league of its own. And I don’t just say that because of the marketing billions have been poured into it over the last century. Time for some history. It’s not often that an entire industry can be defined by its relation to a…
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Arabian Perfumes
Perfumes from the Arabian Peninsula have always been dominated by powerful woods, ambers, and florals such as rose and jasmine, and thanks to the Silk Road, these notes are now sealed into European minds as symbols of wealth, sophistication, and mystery. This post might as well be called ‘My Favourite Intense Winter Scents’, as this…
