The Candy Perfume Boy’s Great Layering Experiment

The Mad Perfume Scientist

‘Layering’ – the practice of layering two fragrance compositions to create weird and wonderful combinations, has always seemed completely alien to me. I have always enjoyed the fragrances in my collection exactly the way they were created (I wouldn’t have bought them otherwise) and have never felt the need to try and improve or change them by adding something new.

Despite my skepticism, layering seems to be something that a lot of perfume-lovers do and enjoy. Some brands, such as Jo Malone, even actively encourage the practice of layering with their fragrances. These ‘layering’ combinations are designed to enhance the perfume experience, but I can’t help but feel that they are just a cheap ploy with the sole intent of convincing consumers to buy extra bottles.

Despite my skepticism, this layering malarky got me thinking (a dangerous habit, I know); is there any real merit to mixing perfumes? and; Can you actually enhance a perfume by layering it with another? So, in the interest of science I thought that I would conduct a few layering experiments to see whether there is any merit to it, or whether it’s just a bunch of phooey.

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10 Things I Have Learned on My Scented Journey

10 Things I have Learned on my Journey to Becoming a ‘Perfume Genius’*

‘Learning’ is a phrase that I never seem to be too far away from. I work in Human Resources but I have a lot of input, experience and training in ‘Learning and Development’. As part of my studies I am required to record my development within a ‘Learning Log’ and I do very much believe in the old idiom ‘you learn something new every day. So yes, it seems that I cannot escape the word learning, but I’m not complaining, I love to learn.

Obviously my favourite thing to learn about is perfume. and my scented journey through the world of perfume has so far been an excellent experience. I have learned so much about scent, but still feel that I’ve barely touched the surface, there really is so much to learn after all.

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The Pattern of My Life – Scented Memories and Favourite Smells

My Boys – Rupert and Paddington.

Smell is the least understood of the five senses, but it is probably one of the most important. We respond to smell not only a physical level but also on an emotional one. It is an integral part of our beings and whilst it may not be as immediately vital as our sight or our hearing, it has a huge affect on how we view the world.

I believe that throughout our lives we become attached to certain smells, perhaps because they are familiar to us or because we have a strong and positive emotional reaction to them. Our brains keep these smells and their corresponding in a hidden part of our brain to only be released when we come across them in the real world. This bank of scented memories forms a massive part of who we are.

Have you ever come across a smell and been instantly taken back to a specific time, person or place?

It always surprises me just how vivid smells are in our memory, sometimes I struggle to remember the exact details of a particular time, I can’t remember the entirety of events or the small details but I can always remember the smells. In this post I would like to share those smells that have a particular resonance with me and hold a particular sentiment within my heart.

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Don’t You Just Hate It When… – My Perfumed Pet Hates

Death by bling! ARGH.

I like to think that The Candy Perfume Boy is a blog that celebrates the more positive side of perfume and I also like to think that I’m quite a happy-go-lucky guy by nature. But I would be lying if I said that there weren’t aspects of perfume and the perfume industry that I find irksome. In fact there are quite a few things that seem to irk this usually sweet perfume boy.

Maybe I’m not the only one too, maybe there are things that get on your nerves that you would like to share. I firmly believe that it’s good to share and perhaps the ensuing discussion may act as some form of ‘group therapy’ that would be mutually beneficial for all.

The following 5 bug bears/pet hates/irksome details/nark inducers are of course not intended as a major criticism of the perfume industry, they are instead a light hearted attempt at poking fun at a few annoying little habits.

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The Candy Perfume Boy’s Party Season Scent Guide

Lady Gaga’s got the drinks, but does she have the right scent to match that party outfit?

Tis the season to be jolly, or completely merry, or if you’re British – absolutely trashed. The best thing about the holiday season is the many soirées, parties (office or otherwise), dinners and gatherings that we all inevitably get invited to, and for me this is the fun part, because after all the holidays are about seeing friends & family and having fun.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m going out I sometimes spend more time thinking about the fragrance I’m going to wear rather than the clothes. I very often find myself trying to match my fragrance to the outfit that I am wearing as well as the occasion. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing worse than not being able to find something that matches , but fear ye not – The Candy Perfume Boys is here to help you pick the perfect scent for the party season.

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“I Invite You to Trust Your Nose” – A Master Class on Roses With Andy Tauer at Les Senteurs

“I invite you to trust your nose” was just one of the many perfumed pearls of wisdom offered by Andy Tauer at Thursday’s rose master class held at Les Senteurs brand new store in London. Of course, an invitation to an evening with Andy Tauer at London’s premiere perfume stop was definitely not to be missed and the event offered a fascinating insight into the world of Tauer and roses.

Andy Tauer, as I’m sure you all know, is an independent perfumer from Switzerland with a natural flair for creating beautiful and thought-provoking pieces of scented art. If there is one particular ingredient/note that makes me think of Tauer perfumes it is rose, and Andy has created three exceptional rose-centric fragrances (the polar-opposites Une Rose Chyprée & Une Rose Vermeille and the wonderful Incense Rosé ) and rose is a staple note in most of the line. So, who better to hold a rose master class than Andy Tauer?

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The Candy Perfume Boy Wants Your Opinion

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that this week I have been wrestling with two rather large, and rather annoying University assignments. Those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter, well, shame on you!

Unfortunately, a large amount of University work isn’t conducive to much blogging, therefore I thought I would take this opportunity to ask you all a question that has been at the back of my mind for quite a while now:

How can I make this blog better?

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The Candy Perfume Boy’s Guide to Tuberose

I have always wanted to ensure that The Candy Perfume Boy is a diverse blog that not only features perfume reviews but also showcases interesting articles and pieces on different aspects of perfume/fragrance. One of the things I’ve wanted to do for a while is a series of guides to particular perfume notes and genres, including information on the fragrant facets of the note/genre as well as a list of ‘reference perfumes’ that showcase the note/genre in different and interesting ways.

I’m a tuberose freak, so it makes sense that I start with one of my favourite notes. Why do I love tuberose? Well, as you probably know, I’m a bit of a ‘Fragrant Magpie’, in the sense that I am attracted to those perfumes that are shiny, loud and showy and tuberose is most definitely shiny, loud and showy!

Tuberose

Tuberose is a night-blooming white flower, which despite the name, has absolutely no relation to rose whatsoever. The name actually comes from its swollen, tuberous roots. Tuberose has been used in for perfume for many years but it is also used as wedding and funeral flowers in some cultures.

On a side note, Tuberose is a flower that I’ve always wanted to grow, but it is really difficult to find in garden centres over here and a lot of places haven’t even heard of it, which is a shame because I need me some of those pretty white flowers on my balcony!

The Smell

Tuberose is a complex smell that can be described as; lush, green, cool, almost camphorous and also buttery, rubbery, exotic, sweet, tropical and like white hot flesh.

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My Very Own Narnia – The Capsule Wardrobe

Last weekend, after much nagging from my long-suffering partner, I decided to have a tidy of my perfume collection and samples box. Now, anyone who knows me well will be fully aware that tidying is not really something I do very often, in fact, it is something that I avoid at all costs.

Anyway, during my tidy up, I totalled up the number of perfume bottles in my collection and I was genuinely shocked when I came to the nice round number of 120. “How can I have so much perfume, I never feel like I have enough choice” I thought, “Do I really need so much?” and “Do I feel like I don’t know what to wear because I have too much choice?”

This led me to think in depth about my collection of fragrances, what would I choose if I were to reduce its size considerably?

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All Flankered Out? – The Candy Perfume Boy Offers a Tonic

If like me, you’re fed up with the constant wave of flankers (please see my review of the two new CK One flankers) then I hope you will take this post as some kind of remedy, a tonic if you will. I could spend hours and hours moaning about how I hate flankers and name and shame some of the worst, that would be very easy, and not entirely true. What I would like to do instead is just make a few personal recommendations of what I think are some of the best.

What is a Flanker?

Most of you reading this blog will be familiar with flankers but for those who aren’t; a flanker is essentially a fragrance released using the same (or similar) name as another fragrance by the same house, think of it as a sort of sequel, so for example; Live Jazz is a flanker to the original Jazz by Yves Saint Laurent. The actual juice can be very similar, slightly similar or completely unrelated to the original fragrance.

Flankers are a cheap way of marketing a new fragrance without having to spend a huge amount of money on new concepts, bottle moulds and advertising. They are also a great way of marketing a ‘new’ product to consumers who are already fans of the original fragrance.

Not all flankers are bad, some brands use the opportunity to create a new interpretation of an established fragrance and these tend to be the flankers that work best, they bring something new and interesting to the table.

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