The Lipstick Page Forums Beauty Blog: Introduction/Abstract/Beginnings... Introduction/Abstract/Beginnings... Posted by Dain, Monday, April 25, 2005 1:49 PM (Eastern) Welcome, one and all, to my fragrance odyssey.* The goal in mind?: a fragrance wardrobe intelligently and intuitively chosen. Nothing too grand in scope; I do not aspire to a well-rounded nose, just a discriminating one. Fragrance is a very personal endeavour, and I admit to a certain childish finickiness when it comes to scent. Bear with me here, I think it's important to establish my personal manias when it comes to scent, since everyone reacts differently to the same scent. Perfume can range from the simple single-note essence to encompassing nearly 2000 different notes in one cocktail. My preference is very much inclined towards the latter—I simply get bored with one or two notes. I can only suppose this is because single-note scents are far too fixed and unwavering. A complex perfume changes with time, as various notes come to the fore, with body chemistry (which is a fancy but concise way of saying: the heat of our bodies, the oils on our skin, and our natural scent, in combination with the fragrance itself), and with the weather (affects the manner and rate at which a perfume evaporates). As you might imagine, complexity does a better job capturing the complexity of "scent landscapes" that assault us daily, random and shifting from moment to moment. A good perfume is more evocative than smelly. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. Lavender, for example, is best when pure, and indeed smells queer in mixture; but this is because the note is so complex to begin with: sweet, floral, green, herbal, earthy, medicinal. Nor is this to say that a single note should not dominate within a perfume—in fact this is what most fragrances are like—as long as it's modified, qualified... made "interesting." After all, how often, in real life, do you smell a single note in pure intensity? More often it is mixed with the smells of other things. That is what complexity reflects. But let us not confuse ourselves. A good perfume may be evocative, it may gesticulate towards the real, but it is artifice, and to pretend otherwise is purposeless. It's ludicrous to imagine ourselves wandering around with berries, twigs, and flowers pasted to our heads, but that is, in fact, what we do. I think it's simply worthwhile to unstop a brilliantly blended bottle to admire its artistry, even if you don't like the scent itself. So much for waxing rhapsodic. It is true that most are perfectly content to settle on something that "smells good" from the department store. Others simply like to collect all sorts of good scents. The former are scent-blind, the latter... hoarders, packrats. The purpose of this experiment is something different, more exacting. This is, shall we say, a "pursuit of perfection", in the same vein as—if we were to use fashion as an example—haute couture is. I'm also going to try to avoid redundancy, simply because I loathe clutter. So... onwards! El Dorado awaits us... *Forgive any and all mixed metaphors. 0 Comment(s)    Email this post Rants, raves, and musings on all things cosmetic. Profile | Current Blog Site Feed (Atom) Previous Articles ·· Adult Acne ·· Adventures in self-tanning... ·· Odwalla fruit juices... ·· Eye Makeup for Green Eyes #2 ·· Biotherm Glossy Shine #155 ·· High maintenance... ·· Eye Makeup for Green Eyes #1 ·· L'Oreal Tone Refiner ·· YSL Touche Eclat ·· The simplicity of skin... Archives TheBroadroom.Net's Beauty Blog (archive) April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 Links Colleen's Adult Acne Blog Fashiontribes Daily