SMELL & TASTE: Perfumes in America
In Time of March 31, 2008 Jenine Lee-St. John writes an article entitled: “Scents and Sensivity. Some perfume lovers have a passion for rare fragrances made in small batches”. She mentioned that America's $ 2.9 billion high-end-fragrance industry sales declined slightly in 2007. She discussed also: “The perfume industry's capital is Paris, but you can find its heart online at http://www.sniffapalooza.net
Since 2004 founder Karen Dubin and manager Karen Adams have led 500,000 fragrance lovers in exploring the compositional notes and emotional impact of perfume . Dubin, who owns too many scents to count, highlights the six she can't live without:
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MITSOUKO (Guerlain); Key notes: floral, oakmoss, peach
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BOIS DE PARADIS (Parfums DelRae); Key notes: bergamot, french rose, cinnamon, blackberry, wood, amber;
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AMBRE SULTAN (Serge Lutens); Key notes: oregano, bay leaf, coriander, myrtle, angelica root, sandalwood, patchouli;
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NEW HAARLEM (Bond No. 9); Key notes: coffee, patchouli, vanilla, cedar, lavender, bergamot;
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POIVRE PIQUANT (L'Artisan Parfumeur); Key notes: white pepper, honey,black licorice, milk;
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AIMEZ-MOI (Caron); Key notes: anise, clove, violet leaf, musk, amber.
As you see all the key notes are derived from pure naturals, which is questionable. Furthermore the author mentioned the blogs of Christopher Voigt (http://www.vetivresse.com) and that of MarchDodge (http://www.perfumeposse.com), which had 50,000 unique visitors in January.
What can one learn from this interesting article? First of all according to the number of viewers of the blogs there exists a tremendous interest in scents in the United States. Secondly according to the describtion of the perfumes the writers en readers show an extreme naivety.
Since 2006 Chandler Burr has a column in the New York Times entitled “Scent Notes”. Chandler Burr is a journalist, which studied economics and wrotes articles about Indian politics and the development of Chinese economy. Moreover he published two books, e.g.:
- The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the last mystery of the Senses (2002);
- The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York (2008).
The first book was negatively discussed by Avery Gilbert in Neuroscience (2003). Fundamental olfactory scientists (nobelprizewinners) reject the book. The second book meets a good acceptance in America. However one finds it too wordy and it could be 30% shorter. One reviewer exclaimed: “And finally, finally! I understand why the majority of American fragrances smell the same to me – because they ARE the same (common ingredients in standard proportions) and also why French perfumes are so vastly different ... “
Chandler Burr maintains three criteria for a good perfume, e.g. its longlastingness on the skin (skin substantivity), the harmonizing of the raw materials (melting together to one structure) and finally the fusion of the perfume (release on the skin). One may doubt whether Chandler Burr has sufficient experience to be an capable critic of perfumes.
The most interesting website about perfumes in America it that of Sense of Smell Institute, The Fragrance Foundation (http://www.senseofsmell.org/resources)