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Words for the Scent Scene
We are grateful this week for an installation curated for the Odorbet by the talented fragrance and beauty writer Carla Seipp. The flavor of the words feel of the moment, and a mix of colloquialisms and industry adjacent street terms. Nothing less from an intrepid freelance fashion, beauty and fragrance journalist, thank you Carla! FREBEL…
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Play is the Highest Form of Research
In this installation we share the importance of play when creating, exploring, researching and making. When the landscape of smell is quickly crowded by expertise, institution or the market it’s an important reminder to invite fresh voices to the table and that true research and innovations begin firmly in play. The Odorbet is an open…
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Fresh Plump Purses
A first galley proof of À la recherche du temps perdu: Du côté de chez Swann with Proust’s handwritten corrections Marcel Proust (MP) has inspired much scholarly dialogue and armchair scholarly references around memory and scent and the nature of art. It’s worth reviewing other direct mentions of scent in his enormous volume “À la…
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Rhinoferocious
Originally published on Aromatica Poetica. Rhinoferocious – a word to describe those who defend perfumery as an art.“He was courageous and bold in his attempts to dismantle the narrow boundaries of perfume as product to elevate people’s understanding of perfume as an art: in a word he was rhinoferocious.” Rhinographies (rhinography) – the study of…
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Amber for the Win!
This installation marks an important shift in the perfume industry, where an entire genre has been renamed out of respect for the fact that a term was outdated and derogatory. I commend colleagues, perfumers and writers for demanding a change, and doing so on no uncertain terms. This gesture by the industry insiders is hopefully…
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Digiscents & Noble Prize in Olfaction
“You don’t want to just do a problem because it’s easy to solve, you want to do something that you’re obsessed with, that you just have to understand, because that’s where the joy comes from, and that also, I think, is where the great discoveries come from, for people are really trying to try to…
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Scent as Protagonist
Installation 25: Scent as Protagonist Some words recently culled from the book “Smell of Risk” by Huan Hsu. Chosen to remind us how scent really can be a powerful player in society, race and politics on a global scale. Atmo-orientalism – “A discourse that organizes political and cultural power by tethering olfactory perception to racial…
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Athletes Don’t Leave Your Aryballos at Home!
Aryballos in the form of three cockle shells, 6th century BC (Metropolitan Museum of Art) This week is an installation of Greek words contributed by the Greek perfumer Christina Koutsoudaki. Christina has been a professional perfumer for over 20 years, and originally trained as a chemist at the National University of Athens, Greece and in…
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Scent of a Woman
Detail ‘5318008’, photo courtesy Kofi Paintsil and the artist Tasha Marks. This month is women’s history month, so we are paying aromatic tribute to the power of the female body. Specifically our boobies!! We’ve uncovered a unique artist and her work recently and are excited to share it with you. It is becoming clear the…
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Scents of Plates
Image courtesy Tessa Liebman: Methods and Madness Decay Dinner with Guerilla Science “Cured and Charred” quick cured mackerel; charred scallion, leek ash, kimchee vinaigrette, stonecrop as part of the menu for the 2 night pop-up Decay dinner with Guerilla Science You are sitting in your room, study, office or bedroom, and someone starts cooking. Ten…
Odorbet 