Fragrance
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Scent of Museums
The scent of a museum is generally considered quiet, idealized and hermetic. Institutions try hard to create sterile moments for the visual and non-touchable to speak aesthetically without the intrusion of other senses (no touching! no smells! no voices please!). Regardless of old or new art, museums often smell like their audiences (often stale le…
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On the Nose: What to Learn from Funk and Fragheads
Happy grad season!! This Odorbet word selection is by Alexandra Segal*, Wesleyan University class of 25, who recently wrote her undergraduate anthropology thesis on perfume and queerness. It received both High Honors and the 2025 Gay, Lesbian, and Sexuality Studies (GLASS) Prize for best research and writing in the field. Alexandra grew up in Los…
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Luca Turin: 40 Years of Perfume Obsession
There is something both inclusive and exclusive about scent reviewing. In full disclosure, while I have amassed an impressive collection of scents that could fill a kiddy pool, I never read or listen to reviews. That said I realize the importance reviewers might be to the landscape of perfume and consumers. I like that, unlike…
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AdoleScents: Smells Like Teen Spirit
(image: penguin puberty is not unlike human puberty in some ways) Originally posted on March 21, 2024) On this international fragrance day a post to celebrate the scent of adoleScents. Smelling like teen spirit is a right of passage and has never been more curious and intense than it is today. A short study published…
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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shift in the perfume industry, where an entire genre has been renamed out of respect for the fact that a term was outdated and derogatory.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…
Odorbet 