After a lot of festivities and W.-related comments on this blog: Back to perfumery! Hurray, there was time and money left this week end to visit my favourite perfumery in Zurich again, Oswald, where I was –as always- treated like everybody else, which translates into …being treated like a king. I really love this perfumery! So, I was presented a few scents and had a chat with a charming lady. We discovered a few scents that she considers wonderful fragrances…. But ….not to wear. So, I asked her, what is the use of a perfume if you do not wear it? And she said, Oh…there are perfumes that I really like on a Kleenex, or I spray them in a room to make me feel comfortable and enjoy the scent. But I do not want to carry it with me on my body. So, I said, OK but the perfume needs the body to develop and bloom and she says Nope! Some perfumes might even be spoiled on skin. The composition shows best when just sprayed in a room and it is only there that you’ll get all the notes at once. “Hmmmm”, I go and am still not convinced. Ambergris needs a body. It needs the warmth of skin, blood heated layer protecting us and barrier, multilayered interface with the world. One of my favourites is: “Watch out for interfaces, it is there where things happen”. This is true for science, or for society. Look at the interface between east and west, north and south. Watch out and see things happening!
Tomorrow: A short post in the morning only, because I have to rush out for a 3 day meeting in Geneva. Depending on my WLAN access there will be posts or not.
Tonight: some pixs of a party, eventually.
3 Comments:
I agree Andy! Perfume does need the skin to bring out it's otherwise undiscovered nuances. Skin is the 4th level of the fragrance pyramid.
Looking forward to seeing the photos!
Funny you should mention that, because I have just realized that while most of my favorite perfumes must bloom on skin to reveal their full beauty, there is a small selection of things I have for which the heat of the body accelerates them such that they're spoiled. Their effect is better on paper and fabric. Which ones? Patricia de Nicolai's florals, Odalisque, Mimosaique, and Balkis, strike me that way. On skin, they bloom and vanish. On paper and fabric, they slowly unfold, luxuriously. Also, the reformulated Vent Vert is a disaster on skin (the florals become too heady and strong) but presents a cool green radiance on fabric. My favorites, though, remain the ones you have to wear, because nothing beats that warm cocoon when a scent seems to be something your body itself has managed cleverly to produce.
Dear Barry.... the private details follow in a minute.
Dear Tania
thank you so much for your comment. I liked your last sentence very much, because this is very much my picture that I would use to describe scents where I fell good and comfortable in. They become part of me, form an aura and somehow they seem to be part of me. You hit the nail (if this translates into English). Cocoon is perfect, except that in this cocoon we do not have to dream of becoming a butterfly anymore, it is enough being encapsulated and dreaming fragrant dreams...
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