You smell good, btw

Has society progressed past the need for Chanel No. 5?

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Team HALOSCOPE & Ella Gray
June 07, 2024

Big news, everyone! After too many months of lingering head cold congestion and stuffy spring allergies, I am finally able to smell again. My senses are alight with the heady scent of summer! My nose feels like a baby fawn, struggling to take in the sensory experiences thrust upon it. Naturally, I consulted some fragrance writing by HALOSCOPE’s own Fragrance Editor, Audrey Robinovitz, for some guidance.

In fashion news, Virginie Viard has left her role as artistic director of Chanel after 30 years with the Parisian house. Of the many unhinged rumors swirling around the fashion world in this power vacuum (Could it be Jeremy Scott?? Did Bethenny Frankel cyberbully Virginie into quitting???) I’m most interested in this fragrance-related morsel of gossip: Hedi Slimane, Karl Lagerfeld’s handpicked replacement, didn’t get the role back in 2019 because he planned to ditch the brand’s best-selling scents.

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Agar Olfactory's eschatological fragrances, reviewed.

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In the digital age, a sense of smell affirms our sense of self.

There's a New Way to Smell Like Flower | HALOSCOPE

New perfume lines love a cannabis note. But can the rest of us embrace it, too?

In an exploration of perfume, I asked playwright Andrea Kroenig, who has worked in Fine Fragrance design for almost 20 years, to ruminate on scent, nostalgia, and fantasy in a one-act play. Enjoy:

Deconstructing Chanel by Andrea Kroenig

A one-act play that should really have a coffret of fragrance samples included.

CHARACTERS: Jas and Geo — two 30-something friends, dressed in black leggings and berets (gender unspecified and irrelevant, they’re equally opinionated and overly caffeinated).

Stage black and silent.

Quiet mumbling and shuffling sounds are heard.

Faint light appears on stage right showing a backdrop of Paris left bank in Jardin du Luxembourg. Eiffel Tower in the far distance with its evening’s revolving light spectacle. Distant traffic sounds can be heard.

Dogs, police sirens, Serge Gainsbourg songs.

A flashlight shines on the foreground, showing sparse trees, statues, and a tent.

Voices are heard inside the dark tent and the outline of the two figures can be seen inside.

Jas

(whispering) Five!

Geo

(whispering) Nineteen!

Jas

Five!

Geo

Nineteen! Shh!

Jas

(loudly whispering) C’mon.. There’s no question, it’s definitely five!

Geo

(whispering louder) Really? You’re so predictable! Five, c’mon, be serious … It’s definitely nineteen that’s better. It’s soft and green, powdery.

Jas

Old-fashioned and antiseptic! I can’t believe we’re even arguing about this!

Geo

Yeah, you and nearly the rest of the world! Why can’t you just admit you’re wrong?

Jas

Me, wrong? The rest of the world, wrong? What about Marilyn Monroe... was she wrong too?

Geo

Blah… an overdose of aldehydes, rose, lily…. And Marilyn… was she a perfumer? No!

Jas

OMG, you don’t have to pull rank, friend! I know you’ve started that fancy job at whatever you call it fragrance house, but the rest of us non-chemist consumers can still smell… and have an opinion.

Geo

Ok, self-proclaimed perfume aficionado, I know you have a nose… but you’re not A nose!

Silence.

Rummaging inside the tent.

Geo

Ok, wait a minute… I’m trying to find my stash. Close your eyes, I’m turning on a flashlight.

Light appears inside the tent. On a large screen on stage left, a camera shows them inside the tent, and jerks around from face to face close-ups to capture their action-packed conversation.

Jas

What, do you have a chemistry set in there? Shouldn’t you be wearing a lab coat? (sighs) You know, I’ve always wanted to glamp by the Eiffel Tower in the summer, barefoot inside a tent – a large tent with plush carpeting… and a glass of champagne. This is really the budget version we’ve got going here. Not sure how I let you talk me into this. “Let’s be rebellious with a hint of Audrey Hepburn and Coco Chanel,” you said… and here we are whispering in the dark over cold café and croissants. C’est la vie.

Geo

Ha ha… hmm.. mmmmm… somewhere here I should have a handful of samples I swiped from work. Some perfumes and a few fragrance ingredients. Not sure how well my labels stuck on these vials…. Hold on. I can’t see…. Where are they?

Jas

My klepto friend loses a dream job due to stealing the inventory… nice going – isn’t it risky?

Geo

Shine the flashlight here by my shoes, please. (searches through backpack and dumps contents of paper bags on the ground) Shine it over here so I can see... there should be samples of iris, galbanum, rose absolute, patchouli heart, vetiver… (they step around the tent, followed by the sound of crunching glass)

Jas

Patchouli? It’s gonna smell like my grandparents’ house. Maybe this tent idea wasn’t the best… we could have just stayed in a hotel like normal people. Normal people wearing black berets and leggings…

Geo

Wait! Oh no… no, no, no! (combined smoky, woody, green, muguet scents fill the tent)

Jas

Did you?

Geo

Did I what? Step on some of the vials? Yes. Yes, I did! No worries, I’m fine. But —

Jas

Oh lord…. You did.

Geo

Yep. But what a smell! It’s fantastic! The chances of it happening were less than winning an East Coast Powerball lottery… Probability et cetera. But chance turns into reality.

Jas

What’s that? Another Chanel reference? Dear lord. The damn tent smells like Number 19 now! Are you happy? (both recline in the tent and sigh)

Geo

Even the city smells more romantic…Oui …. La vie en rose, you know, perhaps Coco Chanel’s ghost… Ah, so here we are… late summer in Paris…. The re-circling lights of the Eiffel Tower…. the muddied blues fade into purples over the Seine… and the flower shops… the evening heat… in the warm rain from this afternoon…. The faint sound of “Sous le ciel de Paris” … On accordion…. And a subtle but persistent smell of those delicate jasmine flowers in the jardin…. Enveloped by the smoky earthiness of patchouli. Bonsoir, my friend…. (voice turns to a whisper) Just inhale. Hold. Exhale. What do you smell? …alluring, heady, pervasive, diffusive. It’s now our memories, my friend. Fantasies. Maybe we call it Chanel Deconstructed. One part Five, two parts Nineteen, and accidental overdose of aldehydes, and a romantic dream.

Light turns off in the tent. Background lights and city sounds quietly fade. Only a hint of base notes linger.

This box set of perfume samples inspired by what happen to be 10 of my favorite albums:

Nose Music, presented by Bighouse, Dublab, and the Institute for Art and Olfaction

This fantastic perfume review by Maddie Phinney:

We Live in a Society: Écrin de fumée by Serge Lutens

Growing up I was obsessed with magazines: their unmarred spines held the promise of a better life, and leafing through their glossy pages meant breathing in the aroma of a fresh start. Meanwhile, the contents inside mirrored the chaotic bedlam of a deeply mentally ill human brain: personality tests, sex tips, avocado hair masks, 10 ways to style a wraparound dress, DIY juice fasts, and endless things to buy. How adult!

This profile of an Italian perfumer by Molly Young, as well as a few perfume themed recommendations of her own:

The mad perfumer of Parma

Plus: where to find information about the presence of odor in the novels of Émile Zola

The fact that Kermit the Frog had his own celebrity fragrance, Amphibia, sold exclusively at Bloomingdales in 1995:

This recent episode of the podcast Nymphet Alumni was a great listen:

Ep. 83: Eau de Nymphette


In this week's episode, we dive into the magical world of fragrance and its various online factions, from Fragrantica-posting girlbloggers to the designer cologne peddlers of the Manosphere.

This piece by Terry Nguyen for Dirt’s Scent Access Memory collab with Are.na:

Mall Memories

When the retail apocalypse finally comes for my humble hometown mall, my one wish is for Auntie Anne’s to be spared. My hope is, in the mixed-use residential complex that will inevitably replace Main Place Mall, Auntie Anne’s will survive. The aroma of brown butter, sugar, and cinnamon is as irresistible as it is timeless.

These divas:

This coverage of Jay 305’s passion for fragrance:

For L.A. rapper Jay 305, smelling good is sanctity and Scent Bar is the church

Jay’s latest EP, called “Don’t Wait Until I Die,” takes a page from the deep, oily, enveloping scents that have become his signature.

And, lastly, I’ll leave you with some perfume ideas of my own 👃✨