Mr. C

One of my favourite perfume blogs features again Mister Colombina reviewing a scent: Today on http://www.perfumesmellinthings.blogspot.com/. Not to miss and as refreshing as a May rain after a humid pre-summer day, washing off yellow layers of pollen and cleaning a lilac saturated air. I love Mr.’s post for his naturalness and the questions that he raises. Reading his comments and following a little debate on basenotes about the influence of forums like basenote on the industry yesterday… here a few thoughts:

- Some perfumers give strange (French) names to perfumes that people do not understand. Like L’air du désert marocain. Now, the sun king Louis XIV left this planet long ago. You remember him from school? This was stinky Louis, who never washed, because it was considered unhealthy back then, but he perfumed himself and his surroundings to compensate, a king who said that the sun would never go down in his empire, the king with the many mistresses and his lengthy toilette routine. Hence, French isn’t understood anymore all around the world. I got this comment a few times, like “ how to pronounce this name air du…”. I promise to do better the next time. Lonestar memories will be shorter and very english. But still, who knows what “Lonestar” really means?

- An untrained nose brings things to the point. Like “Where’s the beef?” Or.. “where’s the hemp?”… (No offence, Mr. Colombina…) I appreciate a certain naivety very much (my dictionary tells me that I could also call it simplicity… back to Luca Turin’s line of thinking….). Why? Approaching a piece of art or craftsmanship without much knowledge about how and why it was produced, you will approach it without searching for a hidden message, without your x-ray glasses on in search for a sublime line of associations, a formula that secretly introduces a twist and you will not wonder what the artist’s message and inner motivation was. You rather look at it and you like it or you don’t. The question that comes up is of course: Why do people like certain fragrances more (AND LONGER!) , like for instance Eau sauvage, than other scents? Because Eau sauvage is truly beautiful, beauty being harmony and asymmetry at once, being elegance and simplicity joined, and composition with love and care, and an untrained nose will see this inner beauty, too.

- Finally. Some perfumes carry names that evoke scent expectations that are not fulfilled. This is, of course, a very personal matter, depending on the background and experience of an individual. On the other hand… do you really expect Angels to smell like Angel?