January 2014

Sugar and Spice

“What are little girls made of?    Sugar and spice and everything nice.”

             And it’s true, isn’t it?  Little girls and not-so-little girls.  It’s part of the mystique of  femininity.  But then again there is the famous men’s scent, “Old Spice.”  What does this mean?  I don’t know.  However, I will hazard a guess.  All products of the perfumer’s art are combinations of scents.  Except for the single florals, which mimic the scent of just one flower.  So I propose that women’s scents designated as spicy often contain strong floral elements.  I know for certain that many do.  All?  Not sure.

               Like so many things sensual they originated in the East. Cinnamon, black pepper, ginger, cloves, coriander, etc.  I know of only three which came from the New World—allspice, vanilla, and chili peppers.

                Now there are spices that are not used in food preparation, with which we may be less familiar.  And there is some overlapping of herbs with spices, but none of this really has anything to do with the perfumer’s art, so I won’t go into it.  You’ll thank me for that. 

                We usually describe spicy scents as “warm.”  They make good scents to wear in cool weather.  Estée Lauder’s Cinnabar and Chanel’s CoCo are two new ones that I like.  An old one that I don’t think they make anymore is KL by Karl Lagerfeld.  I used to wear it often.  I loved it and, of course, my initials are KL and I believe in omens.  Well, I’m not sure that qualifies as an omen but I frequently choose a scent because I like the name—Live in Love, Beyond Paradise, Samsara, etc.

             But back to spicy scents.  Their fragrance seems to be less fugitive than that of the florals.  Since many of the spices used in perfume are also used in cooking, they tend to appeal to a broad range of people and evoke pleasant associations.

December 2013  

About Flowers and Their Scent

             Well, I have looked high and low for my biochemistry paper on “Making Sense Of Scents”  and can’t find it, oh darling readers, drifting near the shores of sensuality hoping for guidance.  I must proceed from Memory, which is a most poetic guide, of course,  but probablement, not exact.  

            Here is what I know.  The scientific designations for classes of scent differ from those  of the perfumer’s art.  And scientists who have undertaken this task have found the sense of smell resistant to such efforts.   We here on the Wilder Shores tend to be more interested in increasing our store of knowledge so better to live the Life of the Senses.  Art is always elusive. 

            One of the primary families of scent is the floral.  Flowers have a mystical dimension because of their visual beauty, their place in the reproductive scheme of the world of Nature, and for their fragrance.  Do you know that the Neanderthals buried their dead with flowers?  This is tremendously important in the study of  human origins as it points to a level of consciousness  that recognizes the existence of a world unseen, a realm of the spirit.

            Have you ever heard the term “Odor of Sanctity?”  Apparently, according to records, there is a pleasant, sweet-smelling odor (sometimes described as “heavenly”), most often compared to flowers, especially roses, which is at times emitted from the bodies of saintly persons when they die.  This has been attested to in modern times, most famously in the cases of St. Therese of Lisieux (d. 1897), and Padre Pio (d. !968).  Scientists have advanced scientific explanations, as scientists are wont to do. But this does not detract from the mystery of the phenomenon. 

            Now I will tell you a story.  My friend Dianna has a friend named Jean.  One evening we were chatting about various things when Jean mentioned that she had been somewhere in the Southwest, perhaps New Mexico, and had been told about a picture that cried tears or some such thing and she wanted to see it.  Jean is not a believer—she was just curious.  So she found the place and it was either in a back room of a church or the priest’s house, I forget exactly, but the thing that captured my attention was that she said there was a deliciously sweet smell attached to it.  Make of this what you will.

            My point is that flowers and their fragrance are mysterious and magical, and if you would live fully the Life of the Senses you must be aware of this and make use of them.   Flowers are associated with femininity.  It is customary for a man to give flowers to the woman he loves.  We wear them in our hair.  And it is the women in the wedding who carry the flowers, from the bride to the flower girl.  In other kinds of religious processions where flowers are carried, it is done by the girls.  

            Floral perfumes are among the most popular.  There are single-floral fragrances and floral bouquets. Some of my favorites include lilac, hyacinth, honeysuckle, jasmine, orange blossom, iris, gardenia, rose, and my number one favorite, lily of the valley.  There is a new scent out there called Modern Muse, which smells distinctly of lily of the valley.  There are several scents which smell of gardenia—one of them is Sand and Sable.  The name does not always give you a clue.  You must ask the perfume counter ladies, or read about them on the Internet.  White Shoulders, a very old scent which I still love, is a combination of rose and lily of the valley.  One scent which I have had no real success in locating is oleander.

            Now there are different varieties of oleander, many of which have no smell at all, or a very faint one.  But on the Caribbean island of Saba, where I lived for a year, there was a fuchsia colored variety which had a distinct and lovely fragrance.  There is a place on the Internet, Lily Bermuda, which sells an oleander-scented fragrance.  Maybe I wiil buy some and try it.

November 2013

A Guide to Choosing Perfume

            When I say perfume, I refer to all perfume products.  That would include toilet water, cologne, scented soap, bath oils and other scented bath products, lotions, and body powders (which are out of fashion now and hard to find). 

            Now, as I’ve said elsewhere, don’t let another person lead you, but only show you the way.  You already know what you like.  I will help you find it.  What I’ve discovered is that people ‘s tastes in scent can be divided into families.  If you have a friend, for instance, who expresses delight in your perfume, it is more than likely that she will like other perfumes that you like, and not like those you don’t.  And when you dislike a particular scent that someone uses, chances are you won’t like the other scents she likes.

            So if you have a friend with similar tastes, ask her what scents she likes especially, then go to the perfume counter and sample them.  In fact, do that often.  You can only smell a few at a time.  The nose is a very delicate organ and the sense of smell becomes discombobulated with too much sensory bombardment.

            The ladies who work at the perfume counters are more than happy to share their knowledge with you.  Pick their brains.  Ask them about their own preferences.  Another thing I might mention is that scent is expensive.  I have nothing against imitations except that they don’t smell good.  Frequently, they smell nothing at all like the scent they are supposed to be imitating.  With scent, as with ladies of the evening, I’m told, you pretty much get what you pay for.  There are some exceptions.  Places like Perfumania, T.J. Maxx, etc. often have good buys on the real thing. Also, when you talk to the perfume ladies, ask them to identify the various components in perfumes so that you learn to know which scents you tend to gravitate to.

October 2013

Some Thoughts about Scent

            How do you distinguish between a man’s fragrance  and a woman’s?  Well, broadly speaking, you can’t.  There are a few rules that apply, however, that do make such a distinction possible in some instances Men’s fragrances run to the spicy, woodsy, and citrusy families.  Women’s may be spicy, woodsy, or citrusy also, but the florals and orientals are more strongly identified as feminine.  Lime is most often encountered in a masculine fragrance..

            Men don’t usually wear perfume—the most distilled form of scent.  At least not to my knowledge.  That is usually reserved for women.  So a man’s scent is going to be lighter.  But women wear lighter versions of scent, such as cologne and toilet water, also.  I myself prefer them as I like to spray on scent rather than to dab it.   

            I saw my friend Sonia last night at a Latin dance where we often go.  She told me that as soon as she walked in, and the place is dark and fairly large, she smelled her ex-boyfriend’s cologne—quite awhile before she actually located him. 

            My friend Darlene says she doesn’t like to smell cologne on a man until she’s less than a foot away from him.  A former paramour said to me that he liked to smell scent on my skin when he was close to me, but not from across the room

            Make it a point to know how long a certain scent will last on you, and how much you need to apply or refrain from so doing in order to achieve the effect most pleasing to all.  In this case you must rely on the observations of others as we do not make good judges when we smell ourselves–the nose becomes confused quite quickly.

            There is a never-ending controversy as to whether one should stick with the same scent (thus making it your “signature”) or vary your scent according to whim, occasion, or mood.  Such devotion to one source of pleasure to the exclusion of all others does not come easily to many of us who dwell on the Wilder Shores.  Variety is our desiderata.  Wearing one scent at all times will assure that thoughts of you must always arise whenever anyone who knows you inhales it. But they will be smelling it on someone else.

            For myself I like to wear fragrances that are rare, forgotten, or out-of-fashion.  There are many.  But exercise caution here.  My children call some of these “old lady perfume.”  Store your perfumes, toilet waters, and colognes in the refrigerator.  They will stay fresh forever!

September   2013

Scent in the Life of the Senses   

               Never underestimate the importance of the sense of smell in expanding our esthetic horizons to those Wilder Shores.   Since ancient times the power of fragrance has been recognized, and aromatic substances treasured.  Scent  makes a direct and immediate appeal to the imagination.  It can conjure up “Remembrance of Things Past,” as in the opening of Marcel Proust’s book, when the whiff of a  lemon-scented madeleine sets him on a path down Memory  Lane.  Or it can light the fire of romantic attraction with just one inhalation.

          As to the aphrodisiac properties of scent, why they are almost equal to those of music in their power to elicit feeling.  The olfactory centers of the brain, those deep and dark pleasure centers, are primitive in origin, and form a crossroads where instinct and memory mesh into a kaleidoscope of sensation and emotion.      Many of the most highly prized scents  are derived from substances which  in Nature impel plants and animals to mate, e. g. musk and the nectar of flowers. 

             Certain fragrances have a cultural connotation as well.  The scents of musk, patchouli, and sandalwood never fail to carry us faded flower children back to  the Sixties era on a pleasant psychedelic cloud of nostalgia.  The scent of many spring flowers reminds many of us of our childhoods—lily of the valley, iris, roses, honeysuckle, to name a few.

            Scent comes in many forms:  perfume, lotion, powder, soap, candles, incense, and others.  The fragrances  with which you choose to envelop your person or scent your environment must be, like the clothes you wear, and the meals you prepare, an expression of your unique personality.  Select first and foremost what pleases you. 

            With that understood, dear artists, you can then consider the needs and desires of your loved ones—the people you share yourself with.  I had a next-door-neighbor who could not abide scent of any kind.  Come to think of it, my present next-door-neighbor has the same problem.  Is the Universe trying to tell me something?  It’s true, I’m a scentaholic. The word is Compromise.