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The Story of Oud
The Story of Oud
Most people encounter oud as a fragrance family, a heavy, resinous note added to make a composition feel more expensive. This is oud at its most recent and least interesting.... Read more...
Reading the Fragrance Wheel
Reading the Fragrance Wheel
Most people encounter the fragrance wheel as if it were a map, something that will tell them where they belong. Floral here, woody there, oriental in the corner reserved for... Read more...
How to Wear Perfume
How to Wear Perfume
Most people apply perfume as if it were a finishing touch, a last thing sprayed on the way out the door. This is backwards. Where and how a fragrance is... Read more...
Kannauj
Kannauj
Most people who have heard of Kannauj have heard of it as a footnote, a mention in a documentary about Indian heritage, a line in an article about attars that... Read more...
Rose, Reinvented
Rose, Reinvented
The rose is the most used ingredient in all of perfumery, and also the most misunderstood. What most people think of as rose — the fresh, vaguely sweet floral of... Read more...
How to Choose Your Signature Scent
How to Choose Your Signature Scent
Most people choose a perfume the wrong way. They spray it on a card, smell it immediately, and decide in thirty seconds whether they like it. This tells you almost... Read more...
The Alchemy of Saffron
The Alchemy of Saffron
It takes approximately 150 flowers to yield a single gram of saffron. Each stigma is hand-plucked in the early morning hours before the bloom fully opens. In Kashmir, where the... Read more...
Grasse
Grasse
Most people know Grasse as a postcard, lavender fields outside Cannes, the self declared perfume capital of France, a stop on a tour rather than a place anyone actually trains.... Read more...