PERFUME PROFESSOR (

Slow like honey . . . . . . and heavy with mood. — Fiona Apple Ace beauty journalist/editor Lauren Valenti got in touch with me a few weeks ago, asking for my thoughts on honey as a perfume note. As always, I was more than happy to chat with her. You can read her piece here! Looking further back, I’m trying to reme

It seems like I’ve been here before. . . In honor of Labor Day weekend and the unofficial end of summer, I thought I’d round up a few fragrances that helped me get through recent high temperatures and low moods. I don’t usually consider myself a “green” fragrance aficionado, but maybe it’s a seasonal taste for me—there’s definitely a pattern. Every year, when the mercury rises, I start to crave perfumes that evoke weeping willows and rippling streams and vegetable gardens and mint juleps. You…

Paul Lacroix, detail of Asparagus, Tomatoes, and a Squash, 1865. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. …in which I make my public radio debut. Earlier this week, journalist Edgar B. Herwick III interviewed me for the daily show The Curiosity Desk at WGBH. The episode’s theme was “Tomato Takeover,” and I’d been invited to talk (via Zoom) about the tomato perfume trend. This was my first time speaking on a podcast that’s also a live radio show, and I’ve been watching WGBH tv productions for…

Phew. Wipe away that sweat and tell us what you’ve been up to! Here are some of my recent diversions… Reading: Ann Patchett’s Whistler (her newest novel) and The Dutch House, back to back. Art: Shape of Dreams: Leonora Carrington at L’Space Gallery. Video: My friend A and I went to see some Laurel & Hardy shorts at Film Forum (where we were probably the youngest people in the theater, as well as the only women). So much fun. Drinks: Heat waves make me want white wine, or just my usual Negroni.…

I’m writing this post just a few days before the summer solstice, which seems like a good time to revisit an interview I gave a few weeks ago. Beauty editor Kara Jillian Brown got in touch to ask me whether I had any thoughts to share on beachy perfumes that lean towards seaweed and brine effects rather than tropical fruit notes. Oh, do I ever! Longtime readers of Now Smell This may already know that I’m an aficionado of salt-air scents. Looking back, I’ve reviewed quite a few over the years.

The late (but very pleasant) spring season put me in the mood for a few neroli-centered fragrances, so I’ve reviewed a few for Now Smell This; you can read my full post here. My picks (all launched in 2024) for this review were Régime des Fleurs Nitesurf Neroli, Essential Parfums Néroli Botanica, and Donna Karan Cashmere & Tunisian Neroli. Each of them incorporates a neroli note in its own interesting way. As the steam-distilled essence of orange blossoms (specifically, the flowers of bitter…

I truly have no idea where this month went. I was rushing towards deadlines for a big writing project and a big public lecture and then got it all done and then…things ground to a halt and I sort of toppled over. I guess I’ve been recharging for the past couple of weeks. Reading: I’ve been rereading The Talented Mr. Ripley (it’s been ages since the last time) and now I want to dip into the sequels. And, a few Duchamp-related publications, see below. Art: The major Marcel Duchamp exhibition at…

Cher, promoting Uninhibited in 1988 Maybe it’s just the 20-year trend cycle, or maybe it’s the triumphant new wave of successful pop stars hawking their own branded perfumes, but in any case, we’re seeing a revival of enthusiasm for celebrity scents. Back in 2005-2010 or thereabouts, I (like many of my scent-sisters on the online message boards) expressed a certain amount of disdain for celebrity perfumes. During those years I was immersing myself in the canonical works of Guerlain and Caron,…

April was a frenzy of deadlines (editing and writing and lecture preparation) for me, but I did manage to appreciate some of the sunny, picture-perfect spring days that unexpectedly dropped down on NYC. I even spend “met” the woodcocks who hung out in Bryant Park for a week or two and bopped around under flowering trees right there in the heart of Manhattan. Let’s see, what else… Reading: A few months ago, a neighbor moved away and put a stack of novels on his stoop. I’m still working my way…

Postcard of the Carnegie Mansion, ca. 1910. Museum of the City of New York Upcoming event alert: on Friday, May 1 (3-5 PM), I’ll be giving an “art & aroma” talk at Cooper Hewitt (Smithsonian Design Museum) on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Cooper Hewitt’s home is the historic Carnegie Mansion, so its galleries are housed in a remarkable Gilded Age interior. The event will take place in one of the museum’s impeccably restored period rooms — come for the lecture and the period-appropriate perfumes,…

Finally! We have “sprung forward,” and the sun isn’t setting at 4 PM. (I realize this is all a human-made construct, but that fact doesn’t negate the effect the “short days” have on my mood and productivity.) The temperatures in NYC are still riding a roller-coaster of highs and lows, giving wardrobe instructions that veer […]

If it isn’t the onslaught of grim national and international news, it’s a blizzard turning the sky dark and bringing all travel and activity to a halt…but I hope you’re all finding some balance and a sense of fulfillment in your own days. Here’s are some notes on some of my own recent doings. Reading: Another […]