Interesting Smells

slowtrain

slowtrain

Well-known member
Ness Rowlah said:
Warm asphalt and as the alternative perfumer says "bacon is divine".

If you didn't see the excellent recent three part BBC4 series "Perfume"
it seems like all three episodes are available on YouTube. There's the alternative NY-perfumer, the old English couple trying to bring Victorian perfume (the rich Middle East seems to like it), a master perfumer who lives in the woods in zen-serenity with his assistant, the brash upstarts (Calvin Klein) and a look at how different parts of the world experience smell.

And there's a no-nonsense American old pro perfume consultant travelling around the world checking out smells/cultures. I quite like documentaries like these, giving us a peek into a world unknown to most of us.

Try the first two (or six) minutes of this for starters and then watch the whole thing from the first episode if you like it.

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Excellent find! God, imagine living like that french dude in his pine forest, that'd just be the best life ever.
I would love to be a perfumer, but I don't know half a shit of chemistry.

Urgh, I want to get some more perfume actually. Very badly now.

@blacktulip: I got given a very tiny vial of amergris (0.5ml, maybe less) a while back - it is a great smell isn't it? Very fleshy, but not at all rancid or anything. Its a very pretty sort of 'sweat' I think.


Spring bulbs in the botanic gardens are smelling great here at the moment
 
blacktulip

blacktulip

Pregnant with mandrakes
img0071rw.jpg


These are a staple for making the flat smell nice.
 
blacktulip

blacktulip

Pregnant with mandrakes
Oh yeah, and:

The bit about ambergris in Moby Dick is amazing. And surely the crown jewel of perfume lit is À rebours?
 
N

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
slowtrain said:
Excellent find! God, imagine living like that french dude in his pine forest, that'd just be the best life ever.
I would love to be a perfumer, but I don't know half a shit of chemistry.
Click to expand...

Thanks, it's one of the reasons we still get the Radio Times, it's great for flagging up documentaries like these. That company (Givaudan) that educates perfumers made me think of the business park Eden-Olympia in Ballard's "Super-Cannes".

Good luck in becoming a perfumer, but according to the BBC blurb: "There are more astronauts than there are perfumers".

You can actually apply online, if you have a good nose and love smells why not just go for it (what's the worst that can happen?): http://www.givaudan.com/Fragrances/Perfumery+School

Agree on the guy living in the woods, he's probably unique (just started reading William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" and
like Cayce Pollard (sensitive to branding) the perfume monk is probably somehow hyper sensitive).

There's a glimpse of Shalimar in one of the episodes which made me think of Raymond Chandler (Google is great, I knew he mentioned it somewhere) -
http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/chandler__nevada_gas__en.htm
"The apartment was empty. The smell of Shalimar and cigarette smoke lingered on the warm air, as if someone had been there not long before. "

...

the smell of a vinyl record freshly unwrapped
 
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slowtrain

slowtrain

Well-known member
Ness Rowlah said:
Thanks, it's one of the reasons we still get the Radio Times, it's great for flagging up documentaries like these. That company (Givaudan) that educates perfumers made me think of the business park Eden-Olympia in Ballard's "Super-Cannes".

Good luck in becoming a perfumer, but according to the BBC blurb: "There are more astronauts than there are perfumers".

You can actually apply online, if you have a good nose and love smells why not just go for it (what's the worst that can happen?): http://www.givaudan.com/Fragrances/Perfumery+School

Agree on the guy living in the woods, he's probably unique (just started reading William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" and
like Cayce Pollard (sensitive to branding) the perfume monk is probably somehow hyper sensitive).

There's a glimpse of Shalimar in one of the episodes which made me think of Raymond Chandler (Google is great, I knew he mentioned it somewhere) -
http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/chandler__nevada_gas__en.htm
"The apartment was empty. The smell of Shalimar and cigarette smoke lingered on the warm air, as if someone had been there not long before. "

...

the smell of a vinyl record freshly unwrapped
Click to expand...

The Givaudan site seems to be down....

I'll no doubt look into it, but for me its basically just a fantasy. I absolutely love smells and scents but I don't think that I'm good enough at it for it to ever be more than a hobby (or, due to very limited funds, a keen interest.)


@blacktulip: I haven't read Moby Dick, will keep an eye out for that bit when I do. Agreed about A rebours being the holy grail of perfume lit though, I'm reading that right now (again) - his mouth organ is just the coolest thing ever. I'd also put forward Burroughs as being a pioneer of perfumes (in the CB I Hate Perfumes 'real' smells sense) - no one has elucidated on the reek of jock straps and anal mucus better imo.
-Diptyque are ace... Def one of my faves. Tocca ones are pretty good too.
 
Ulala

Ulala

Awkward Woodward
Sandalwood. Mmmmm. And Vicks' Vaporub (though not at the same time, obv). I really like any sort of menthol/decongestant (Olbas Oil is nice too), but maybe's that's because I associate pleasant soothing effects with the smell, rather than solely enjoying the scent on its own. Ooh, and coffee being brewed.

Even traditionally 'bad' smells (i.e. festival toilets, the smell of the rubbish lorry, rotten fish) don't bother me too much, because at least I can identify them. For example, let's say someone smells strongly of garlic. I don't mind that, because at least you know what it is: "Oh, he smells of garlic - he probably had something garlicky for lunch,". What I find olfactorily upsetting is when the smell is indistinct or I can't place it. There was a hugely repugnant smell in the garden of a house I used to rent - I thought it was the drains for ages, but no, it was the rotting corpse of a cat under a bush. Ugh.
 
slowtrain

slowtrain

Well-known member
I like particularly pungent smells a lot, sweat, fish, off-meat, those sort of things. I like the smell of dirt and dead plants a lot. Stagnant water isn't too bad either.

I do not like the smell of coffee roasting (smells like a bad curry or something)

I don't like the smell of spray-on deodourant AT ALL, that stuff is the most hideous thing ever, and I will not hesitate to visibly screw up my nose if I smell you wearing it.

I hate the smell of cheap perfumes that are usually marketed to improve sex appeal.

I do like chemical smells though, but only in very tiny amounts. I like the smell of paint, of petrol, etc etc, but I don't actually like the chemicals they are made of and they will give me a bad headache.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Vanilla smells OK when it's used to flavour sweet foods but I cannot abide vanilla-scented perfumes. It's a cloying, sickly smell in and of itself but it also reminds me of the slutty (and not in a good way) girls at my high school. Yech.

Buddleia, on the other hand, is like sex for your nose. I love how it grows into huge bushes from dirt-filled cracks in brickwork or concrete in otherwise desolate urban environments and produces these gorgeous rockets of tiny purple flowers. When a big one is in flower it creates an aura of scent around itself that can extend down the road for some distance. And it smells like the breath of angels. Wonderful stuff.
 
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grizzleb

grizzleb

Well-known member
Had a shitload of chilli and cooked chicken today, busting out some serious rear-guard action at the moment. Definitely interesting...
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
maybe it's having the combination of a sweet nostril and a sense of smell that rarely picks up subleties, but I can't really get past the smell of good weed, no matter if just in passing on the street. i think if it smelled like shit, I wouldn't even want to smoke it.
 
sufi

sufi

lala
pattycakes said:
after it rains, paving stones being dried by the sun
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slowtrain said:
Yes, to the above i would also like to add - water on hot concrete (its kinda similar)
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petrichor & geosmin

baboon2004 said:
maybe it's having the combination of a sweet nostril and a sense of smell that rarely picks up subleties, but I can't really get past the smell of good weed, no matter if just in passing on the street. i think if it smelled like shit, I wouldn't even want to smoke it.
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mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm & hot countries which smell like weed

and also asafoetida, powerfully evil-smelling, except in curry
 
slowtrain

slowtrain

Well-known member
sufi said:
petrichor & geosmin

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm & hot countries which smell like weed

and also asafoetida, powerfully evil-smelling, except in curry
Click to expand...

Always knew about petrichor, didn't know about geosmin. It would seem that geosmin is the actual chemical in petrichor though...? (petrichor being the name for the smell itself, geosmin being the chemical?)

Its odd that we don't have more words for actual smells themselves. Are other languages more fluent in this?


And yeah good bud smells great. Goes well with hot and dry summer weather.
 
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