I took a stumble through our local mega-mall recently, looking for something that didn´t bore me to tears, and buried in the dross were some gems. Join me. First stop — Bloomingdale´s, where I was assisted by an SA who was informed but laughably unfriendly. Fortunately I keep in fighting shape by browsing at Neiman [...]

I confess that I detest Fall. I mean come on…the trees are turning beautiful hues of red (my favorite color) only because they are starving themselves in preparation for frigid Winter. Lovely. The chill in the air that so many of my neighbors praise is only a taste of what is really to come…bone-chilling temperatures [...]

I´ve been toying with Andy Tauer´s incense mods, Incense Extreme and Incense Rosé. I wrote him months ago, after Orris stole my heart, that I wished he´d do an incense fragrance. He said to me via email recently: “I remembered your earlier mail, about the frankincense, and basically you, together with the CO2 extract quality [...]

Autumn approaches, and in celebration we’re inhaling two of the scents from the Serge Lutens oeuvre — Bois et Musc and Bois et Fruits, both scents from his Bois series, which also includes Orientale, Violette, Santal de Mysore, Chene and Sepia, all part of the Palais Royal non-export line. (March started to include Miel de [...]

< Perfume 201 Welcome to Perfume 201 – the intermediate/advanced list of suggestions for fragrances to smell, with input from our panel of experts (aka our blog commenters). You can tackle the fragrances on this list if you’ve done your basic course of Perfume 101, where we covered some perfume basics and suggestions for where [...]