I love this video Christopher Brosius made, talking about how he started making the scents he does and why. I think in summer is when I most appreciate all the scents he does, they are just right for heat.
Today, Christopher is going to have to entertain you!. It’s a week full of training on top of my weekend full of glass fusing crazy cool advanced training.
So what’s your verdict? Do you like reality scents that are closer to real or prefer the more perfume-classic smells? I think I’m going to have some of the new L’Artisan Seville samples to give away, so it’s not a complete loss of the day! So you guys can compare notes about reality scents or anything at all, and every comment will get entered in the drawing for like four samples of that new L’Artisan!
I can’t quite decide, but I think that if I had to choose I’d pick classic perfume scents over perfumes which smell like real smells as for the latter, I’d prefer the natural version.
Both, but with more of a leaning towards traditional perfume. It depends mainly on my mood.
NP
I love perfume classic. I think I’ve been through the cycle of perfume appreciation and now I just want to smell good.
Interesting question. I like to smell reality scents… Interesting and entertaining and definately conversational. However, I don’t want to smell like them! I prefer traditional perfumes on my skin.
*Reality perfumes are a hit or miss.I guess it all depends on your particular memory association with them.I have 2 CB perfumes Russian Caravan Tea and Smoky Tobacco.Both stir up memories but I enjoy wearing them as stand alone scents
While certain “realistic” scents can be interesting to smell and can be very evocative, I am of the “above all else perfume should smell beautiful” school (or at least be wearable) so I am a fan of the classic approach. Like Musette, I too love the gorgeous scent that wafts out when I open my perfume cabinet. But I also like that world of perfumery and perfume lovers is big enough to accommodate all sorts of approaches.
Thanks for the drawing, Patty!
I’m all for things that may help develop an interest in fragrance exploration, and will happily sniff just about anything. I’m also all for old school chypres, so you keep your offensive ‘weapons’ and I’ll keep mine! 😉
The ‘reality’ perfumes are more in the category of things that I enjoy checking out, rather than wearing all the time. It’s fascinating how spot on they can be!
“Nice is not enough!”
Thanks for the draw.
I love the smell of everything- even things that I hate smell of- because it moves me from one emotional space into another. Some of the “worst” smells are related to human illness, such as advanced cancer or a gastroinntestinal bleed, but there is an incredible urgency and immediacy to those odors that transmit information and powerful emotion. Not what most people think of when contemplating perfume, I know, but essential to the human experience. Thanks for the draw!
Maybe I’ve been sniffing the wrong things… but when it comes to “realistic” soliflores, I can’t find many that satisfy me as being true to the scent of the flower. OTH, when it comes to “realistic” smells (not soliflores), there are many that I like a lot. Still, I prefer “perfumes” to “smells.”
*Flora said it way better (2nd comment) than I was planning to, so What She Said. Interestingly, I was just thinking about this very thing – I’d opened my perfume armoire and was stunned at how much I was enjoying the basic smell of ‘perfume’. Love it, in fact.
xo :Devil:
I cain’t be in no draw, dagnabit. But just wanted to blather on anyway..
*I love this video and how eloquent he is about scent and memory. I love the complexity of the classics, but I still remember the day I discovered demeter’s grass and bonfire. That was a glorious day. It changed how I thought about perfume.
*What an interesting concept from Christopher Brosius. I like how he
takes his concepts from his life and makes a scent from it…The real life
scents would appeal to me very much! Many thanks, Cindi
great video. love christopher, and what he’s up to with i hate perfume. (loooove black march especially, and omg, he mentioned jonny quest – my favorite ’60s cartoon!!!) doesn’t mean i am going to stop wearing ‘offensive weapons,’ but i do appreciate what he’s saying and his perspective on some people’s perfumes, as i have had the same reactions.
lately the reaction has been – wow, what a boring scent, you could do so much better! i want to cheer people into wearing scents that are more interesting and more of a match for their looks. there are so many wonderful choices! explore! because of people like christopher, there are incredible options out there!
I love it all – I can get lost in the voluptuousness of a perfume in the french or middle eastern tradition. I also just love how modern perfumers can so perfectly capture a time and place and bring back a memory of the elementary school “ditto” machine; a whiff of smoke on a forest walk; bread and coffee; dirt. Amazing…
I can’t wait to smell the new L’Artisan. And I should probably check out some of Mr. Brosius’ line, too!
Like most of us, I love to smell dead-on representations of natural scents but don’t care to wear them, with the exception of Black March. I adore scents in all aspects of my life but want to wear perfume!
I love to smell all kinds of scents/perfumes, but I prefer to wear complex fragrances that evolve over time and tell me a story.
I love all styles of perfume. My criteria is if it makes me happy. Many times that is because it brings back memories. I LOVED the I Hate Perfume Winter 1972 because it immediately sent me back to being in a icy mall parking lot in Denver when I was twelve. The air had that solitary, almost evening, cold and slightly dirty/snow smell – he completely nailed it. On the other hand, I love Chanel No. 5, not for memories or reality, but simply because it is beautiful.
I think I appreciate aspects of both in a scent – unusual notes of “reality,” infused into the complexity usually associated with a classic perfume. Might be why I love gourmands.
I prefer perfumy perfumes, the beauty of their complexity
I aknowledge craft and art in more realistic weird perfumes but I find them difficult to wear ( they are more of an intelectual excercise)
I prefer smelling and wearing the classics
*I definitely prefer perfume perfume because I need the complexity. However, I do love smelling things in nature.
*I love smelling flowers, herbs, and cooking with spices. However, I just become too bored with smelling single note fragrances on myself. It seems like most of us agree we need some complexity and evolving of the scent that we choose to wear. Thanks for the draw.
Although I like smelling a lovely, well-done soliflore, I much prefer wearing an example of classic perfumery for its complexity – it keeps me interested!
The most blockbuster perfume is different on different people. Each person has his/her own scent and the perfume interacts with that skin. Pretty has its place, although it does not “interest” me. Sometimes, interesting is not so restful.
*I like reality scents, but to experience, not to wear. I am was a Chanel girl until I found these blogs and started experimenting….I have not reallly tried niche fragrances yet, but would love to try the new L’Artisan. Thanks for the draw.
*I like reality perfumes but more like experiments. I like to smell them and wonder how they were done, but not to wear them.Even soliflores I like them to have an extra something,an added twist.Thanks for the draw,Patty. Everyone is going gaga on the new L’Artisan so I’m curious!
In general, I like to smell reality perfumes but not wear them; with exceptions, of course. I don’t like to wear Black March, for instance, but I adore it’s spot on smell of late winter/early spring, it’s genius, so I inhale my sample deeply as needed in the dead of winter.
I like the real scents to have around but as far as wearing I like perfume perfume. I don’t mind wearing soliflores as Flora mentioned. I love the real scents in things like candles and could smell them all day that way. As far as wearing them, it really depends on what the scent is. There are also scents that I love but would not want to buy in a bottle or candle like the smell of bacon frying. I love it but don’t want to smell like it and don’t want my house to smell that way for any length of time.
That L’Artisan sounds wonderful. Thanks for the draw.
*Yip, I second that, TaffyJ – I can easily fall in love with a ‘reality’ scent and want to keep it around to smell, but to wear for an entire day (assuming they’d last that long) – not so often. If Demeter Dirt had any kind of longevity, though, this would no longer be true: If I could smell of Dirt all day, almost every day, I would be in heaven! But certainly I’d still, even in a fantastical Dirt-smelling universe, want to smell of good old aldehydes and amber some days.
I enjoy sniffing the reality perfumes, but do not necessarily enjoy wearing them.
Thanks for the draw, and the video!
I appreciate both, really – being a gardener I love the natural aromas of flowers, and it’s delightful when a well-done soliflore captures the essence of hyacinths or lilacs or daffodils, but I also really love the old-school French classic florals and chypres that are abstractions of scent. Nothing in nature smells anything like Jean Patou 1000, Rochas Femme or Le Galion Sortilege, but they have their own special beauty. When it comes down to it, I always enjoy smelling natural scents, but I want to wear serious perfume most of the time.
Thanks for the draw, I really want to try that L’Artisan! 🙂
*I prefer perfumes to be perfumes. Bird song is “real” and “natural”, but I prefer music.