Last night I hosted another Summer Special with the lovely Lila Das Gupta of Perfume Lovers London. The theme of the evening was an ‘olfactory summer holiday’ and all who attended strapped themselves into the seats and set off on a fragrant journey around the world, smelling fragrances that were evocative of specific times and places.
The evening was great fun and it was wonderful to yet again meet with like-minded perfume nerds and discuss all things olfactory. As I was the evening’s host I won’t post a blow-by-blow account of the event, but I would like to briefly share with you the perfumes I had selected and the places they represent. You can look out for Tara’s full write-up of the evening on Olfactoria’s Travels soon.
Update: You can read Tara’s wonderful write up here.
Gentleman, spritz your perfumes and may the best woman, smell…
I’m back, finally! After a month of painful wrestling with my dissertation and other nasty bits of uni work I can finally turn my attention back to my first love – perfume. The last month has been both stressful and refreshing – stressful for obvious reasons and refreshing because it felt like a good time to take a blogging break so that now, when all the work has been handed in, I can come back with a fresh mind and renewed enthusiasm.
Despite the absence of blogging during my uni-fest I have managed to stay (relatively) sane. This can be attributed to three things; the constant support of Nigel (my partner), a metric ton of Maltesers and a constant supply of episodes of my new all-time favourite TV programme – RuPaul’s Drag Race. That’s right squirrel friends, all one needs to get oneself through a tough time is a parade of drag queens…
If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching RuPaul’s Drag Race then; a) watch it now (go on) and; b) simply picture the model-filled runway of America’s Next Top Model crossed with the home-made fashions of Project Runway with a generous dollop of drag queen fabulous-ness on top. Now can you see why it is perhaps the absolute greatest thing on earth?
I love RuPaul’s Drag Race so much that I thought I would pay my own scented tribute to the queens that make it so darn sickening (that’s sickening in the good sense of the word FYI) to watch. So without further ado I present to you the latest instalment in the Scent a Celebrity Series, an episode containing perfumes and queens who display the ultimate levels of Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent – gentleman, start your engines, and may the best woman, smell!
I have decided that due to the overwhelming number of abysmal celebuscent (celebrity perfume) launches the celebrities of this world simply cannot be trusted with their scent choices. So, as a remedy to their poor choices, and to avoid having to reach for the smelling salts to revive myself from bad-celebuscent-induced hysteria, I have chosen to start the Scent a Celebrity Series.
So far I have picked scents for everyone’s favourite Puppet/Marionette hybrids – The Muppets – and the love-her-or-hate-her Icelandic songstress Björk. Today I’m going to be picking scents for a relatively new kid on the block and another love-her-or-hate-her celebrity, but this one is likely to ruffle a few more feathers than Björk, even when she is donning her infamous swan dress. Ladies and gentleman I introduce you to Miss Nicki Minaj.
Nicki Minaj is not your typical bubblegum-pop-princess, she is a foul-mouthed, schizophonic rap-Barbie with a penchant for unusual vocal tricks and hyper-fast rhymes. She has successfully crossed the divide between pop & rap, and although her many alter egos and sonic styles can, at times, sound cluttered (and like they are in need of some serious editing) she is redefining the way two of the biggest music genres combine whilst being utterly fabulous at the same time.
The Candy Perfume Boy 