Perfumes: The Guide
Perfume, like many things from which pleasure can be derived, is both an art and a science. Sure, there are qualifications, distillations, minute measurements of this and that, but what it really comes down to is…does it smell good? The answer, of course, is: it depends on who’s doing the smelling. For me, perfection can be found in bottles of Bond no. 9 Chinatown, Narciso Rodriguez for Her, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle and—my current obsession—Tom Ford Black Orchid. (It’s what I imagine a turn-of-the-century Parisian bordello to smell like. And yeah, that’s a good thing.) Thierry Mugler Angel, on the other hand? I respect it, I understand it, I bow down before its complexity…but it reminds me of cat pee, and I’d no sooner have it on my skin than work in said aforementioned bordello. One woman’s olfactory trash is another’s treasure, so fragrance guides must always come with a “just because I like it, doesn’t mean you will, too” caveat. Regardless, I’m excited to read Perfumes: The Guide, by Luca Turin, PhD and Tania Sanchez, containing reviews of 1200 scents. I ran across a review in my beloved Elle, which mentions that Turin counts Chanel 31 Rue Cambon as 2007’s best scent: “I cannot remember the last time, if ever, a perfume gave me such an instantaneous impression of ravishing beauty at first sniff.” I remain skeptical until I smell for myself…but with review like that, I must smell it immediately.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Regarding Angel–you must have sniffed the American version, which is rather revolting IMHO. BUT sniff the European version and it’s a different world–absolutely DIVINE. I’m told, and perhaps you can confirm, that the EU version used potato alcohol where as the USA version uses a different alcohol giving it the revolting quality.