Olfactive Studio: Photography Meets Perfume
Perfumes begin as ideas. A perfumer is presented with a brief from a client in the form of a written description, a …
Feet of the Gods by Jay Batlle
I’ve written on the work of Jay Batlle previously, and here is a new work from the studio. It’s inspired by the …
My Perfume Book Collection
It’s only fair that given the amount of time I’ve spent writing about the smell of books that I should be focusing …
Olfactory Resistance: Celebrating Mad Perfumista’s First Anniversary
It’s amazing to think that a year has gone by since I started this blog, and it has been an incredible journey. …
Vive le livre! Long live books!
I adore the tactile experience of holding a book. I like gazing at the cover design, feeling the weight of it in …
The Art of Scent : 1889-2012 — Exhibition Review
In 1917, a French American artist named Marcel Duchamp submitted a work of art he called “Fountain” to be exhibited at the first New …
Perfume on the Beach: Nyehaus Presents Rebels in Paradise during ABMB
It’s not a gurney… but you very well may need one. When I began this blog a short while ago, there was …
JK Huysmans on Perfume as Art
From Against Nature (À Rebours) (1884): For years now [Des Esseintes] had been an expert in the science of perfumes; he maintained that …
The Dark Wonder of Kiki Smith
Every successful work of art produces a sense of wonderment. It allows you to see the things from a different perspective, opens …
Smell Me: Martynka Wawrzyniak’s Scented Exhibition at Envoy Enterprises
‘In today’s society we do everything we can to mask the natural scent of our bodies, thus forgoing an ancient form of …
Making Up and Selling Out: Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Othoniel Collaborate with Kiehl’s and Dior
In the NY Times today, Bee-Shyuan Chang reports on the collaboration between the artist Kenny Scharf and the cosmetics company, Kiehl’s. Following Andy …
Anti-Aesthetic: The Scents of Comme des Garçons
“Anti-aesthetic”…signals that the very notion of the aesthetic, its network of ideas, is in question here: the ideas that aesthetic experience exists …
A Philosophy of Love: the Self and the Scented
“Does my heart move because I love someone who is an absolute singularity, or because I love the way someone is?”–Jacques Derrida …
Spirited Away: Scent News from New York
August has been quite the month in the New York fragrance world. Elements Showcase brought dozens of perfumers and cosmetics brands to …
A Whiff of Revolution: New York artist Lisa Kirk bottles the smell of war
The combination of art with politics is a subject that has always interested me. A few weeks ago, I traveled to Kassel, …
From Faking It to Making It: Icelandic Visual Artist Andrea Maack’s Perfume Line
A visual artist turned niche perfumer? The Icelandic Review magazine features a story on Andrea Maack, a visual artist who began in …
Keiko Mecheri’s Bespoke Collection
I had the good fortune of meeting last night the legendary Keiko Mecheri, at MiN New York. Although she now calls California …
Nose in a Book: “In the Library” by CB I Hate Perfume and “Paper Passion” by Geza Schoen
My collecting habits are becoming a big problem. Like most New Yorkers, I live in a tiny apartment. I don’t have enough …
Belle Haleine: Marcel Duchamp’s Readymade Perfume Bottle
The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by …
Smell Me, Love Me: L’Air du Temps, Jontue, and Windsong
I’m going on a bit of a hiatus for about two weeks as I am going to Paris! Mostly for work, but …