On Scent as Design

On Scent as Design

I think if I'm ever looking at a possible career change, it would have to be perfumery. The whole world of scent fascinates me to no end. I'm partly putting this down to having a gardener mother, and the fact that none of my boyfriends ever bought me flowers. I was also pretty good at chemistry and biology in high school, so that might come in handy.

Sarah Horowitz Perfumery in LA, by Athena.

Headspace: On Scent as Design was a symposium conducted by Parsons school and the MOMA in March. It was a fascinating concept that looked into the "conception, impact and potential applications of scent". It brought a range of designers together with scientists and perfumers to experiment with scent as a basis for new developments in design. Wouldn't this be an amazing programme to be involved in? Perhaps we'll see a wave of fragrance-related design coming to the fore soon. This could be very, very exciting.

Screen shots from the video-documented process.

You can watch the symposium in parts, starting here. If your YAS (youtube attention span) is pretty short be prepared, this is an ENTIRE symposium and each part is around an hour and a half long. I'm yet to get past part 2 myself.


Here Lush perfumer Simon Constantine discusses the use and expense of sandalwood oil.

Famed French perfumer Isabelle Gelle conducted a smells and senses workshop as part of the Friday Lates Programme at the London Transport Museum in February. Guests left with a little bottle of perfume crafted by Isabelle herself. Nice gift!

Antique bottles from the Atelier perfumery.

The classic perfumer's organ, by Pomegranate, Lotus and Plum.

The world's most expensive perfume is Clive Christian No. 1. Who is Clive Christian? Who the hell cares, but why will it set you back nearly $2500? Apparently this one ounce of liquid is made from the finest and rarest of ingredients. The latest edition has top notes of pineapple, plum and peach, mid notes of carnation, jasmine and ylang ylang and base notes of vanilla and cedarwood. Sounds beautiful, but I think it's safe to say I will never, ever smell this fragrance.

A Cairo perfumer, by Ray Grasso.

If you're in the UK, Isabelle Gelle runs perfuming workshops throughout the year. She's soon to be starting up some online courses as well. Not sure how that will work, but I'm definitely interested. For more perfumey info I recommend checking out a dedicated perfume blog, Now Smell This.

So what's your favourite fragrance?

E.