Photo by Beata Cervin. You can read more here.It?s not that I?ve stopped wearing Miel de Bois, thick velvety chypres, or any old amber-vanilla-sandalwood bombs. I do it with aplomb like we all did in the  80s, with one extra spritz for good luck....

Pierre Amédée Marcel-Béronneau, Parfum Caressant, circa 1897There?s a YouTube genre of videos called ?reactions?. People film themselves as they watch or read something semi-controversial, from the Red Wedding to celeb plastic surgeries, clips by...

Christian Dior photographed by Lord Snowdon, Anthony Armstrong-Jones, for Vogue 1957. Just a bit of a cultural and memory reboot.This has been on my mind for more than a month now, since reading this opinion piece by Sarah Marrs about Johnny Depp...

Summer is the season for perfumed body powders. Sometimes it\'s for physical comfort, for other people it\'s the preference to go with something lighter than an actual perfume (don\'t ask me. I use them together). I love a good lashing of...

It\'s been two since I checked my perfume wearing statistics on Basenotes.net where I try to keep a somewhat accurate log of my daily scents. I confess to not being diligent enough, but I make an effort most of the time. Still, I\'ve probably...

I\'ve been stuck writing this review for weeks. Many weeks. I bought my bottle of Guerlain Black Perfecto La Petite Robe Noire in Italy back in early March because I fell for it on the spot and the husband had his "this is good stuff" face on....

This one comes to us from the "never say never" category of perfume picks.  I think I\'ve mentioned before that I\'m having a gentle rose moment this year, which is surprising even to me. I\'ve made two such purchases, Etat Libre...

I will remember this winter as a time of searching for comfort as well as increased awareness. Two concepts that can be seen as contradicting. I prefer to think of them as complementing each other when one gains comfort from the hope brought on by...

I have an attitude when it comes to new perfume lines. It comes from a lifetime of sniffing and collecting fragrance, but mostly from blogging about it for eleven years and eight months. It\'s easy to dismiss new brands that keep popping up with...

Usually when I take a perfume for a test run I also compose the review in my head as I\'m going about my day. Once in awhile just as I\'m building the argument why a fragrance is an utter disappointment I keep getting compliments from random...

The year was 2005 and people who love perfume had more places to visit on the Internet. Just as independent blogs provided more venues to discuss fragrance, people who has small businesses making and selling their own perfumes opened online stores....

The Parting of Lancelot and Guinevere, photo by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1874*The sample of Aftelier\'s Memento Mori has been sitting on the side table for many months. I\'d carefully open it, take a whiff, and quickly put the cap back on....

My perfume picks this summer will focus on the here and now. Or mostly on the "here". Scents that evoke life in suburban New Jersey as I know it. The image above is a vintage postcard from Cape May, the southernmost point in the state (lovely bed...

I\'ve mentioned Aristoqrati by Moresque as one of my top perfume picks this spring, and true to that it\'s the perfume I\'ve been wearing the most over the last couple of months. In another life I might have picked it as my signature scent for...

We usually go to Italy in the early fall around our anniversary, because that\'s where the Blond and I have spent our honeymoon. Three years ago we went in early April, and it was decidedly different. The light, the taste of the air, they were...

In this still place, remote from men,Sleeps Ossian, in the Narrow Glen;In this still place, where murmurs onBut one meek streamlet, only one:He sang of battles, and the breathOf stormy war, and violent death;And should, methinks, when all was...

The name Edward Bess is probably familiar to those interested in elegant makeup. In the early days of his eponymous line Edward himself used to man the Bergdorf Goodman counter and help his customers and admirers choose the right colors. If you were...

When it comes to iris perfumes my opinion is that more is more, and even that is barely enough. I\'ve already told you that I\'ve been hoarding the last of my Iris Fauve sample so I can drench myself and get the full experience. It was worth it....

I realize that I\'m one flanker behind. Aromatics In Black was a 2015 release, followed by Aromatics Black Cherry last year. Prior to that Clinique has released Aromatics In White (2014) which I couldn\'t stand because of its generic musky rose...

It\'s becoming a numbers game. How many of the year\'s over 1500 new perfume launches can we even get to smell given the 365 days a year, one nose, a finite perfume budget, and only so much skin surface (and patience)"  This year even more...

Because one cannot wear Cadavre Exquis every day in a 90-degree weather.It\'s a good time to remember that Bruno Fazzolari has a special gift for handling floral notes. Jimmy and Monserrat were among Fazzolari\'s original five perfumes from...

I\'m a sucker for Chanel No.5 paraphernalia. A hopeless sucker. Which reminds me that I\'ve just finished my most recent tub of body powder (must rectify soon).  I \'m devoted to the limited edition body oil (a backup bottle is stashed away),...

Art by Chris BuzelliMany things went through my head over the course of wearing Cadavre Exquis, the new limited edition perfume by Bruno Fazzolari and Antonio Gardoni. The one thought to which I\'ve kept coming back was irony. There I was...

The last theme I thought Serge Lutens would want to revisit is gingerbread. It seems like I\'m the only one who truly loved his 2008 Five O`Clock Au Gingembre, while others have been busy lamenting the fate of latter day Serge. Yet, here we are,...

I\'ve heard from people who regularly forego regular perfumes in the heat of summer. For some it\'s a matter of sillage. I guess not everyone wants to waft their Fracas four blocks down. Others have a very real concern about  photo-sensitivity...