I am a human being, nothing that is human can be alien to me.
I first met Emmet whilst living in Dublin this year and popping into Lush on a few occasions I got to know him amongst all the soap. It wasn’t until a Gorilla Perfume Party in Henry Street that I unravelled a side to perfume I didn’t think was possible, that of personal perfume—thanks to Emmet. He has a deep understanding about fragrance even though he tells me he’s really only been actively interested in smell this year.
Aside from perfume his other interests and perhaps calling, is in civil rights and equality issues. He tells me he wants to get great things done in the community, help others, leave a mark and be of service to those who need it.
He did a masters in Sexuality Studies this year and I’m interested to know what role this might play in perfume appreciation. Smell and his studies link into one and other and perhaps this has led him to becoming a Top Banana for the Gorilla Perfumers.
Let’s talk about the big pink elephant here, sex and smell.
Yes, having worked in Lush for nearly five years now, it wasn’t until I did my Masters in Sexuality Studies that I noticed the two are linked more differently than I thought. Not only because of the obvious sexuality used in some fragrances, but in the construction of beauty. And what is considered a wonderful and artistic creation or indeed, not. I think I started to view smells as stories, messages, or art pieces? But much more sensory, like a painting that I could speak with. I think my study of artistic representation of sexuality really sparked that.
How exactly is smell linked to sexuality?
I think it may be one of the most common selling points of perfumes today: ad campaigns, names and concepts, it’s attraction based. In wanting to wear something to appear or feel more sexually desirable and so in that way, perfume has become linked intrinsically to sex and attraction. This may go some way into explaining what I mean about the construction of beauty. Consider beauty as a personal thing (which of course it is!) but our ideas of beauty are learned, and in the modern age if that means fit, athletic, white, middle-upper class and smelling like your own choice perfume/celebrity or idea, then to wear and buy that perfume, we begin to own a piece of that beauty and it is our own then.
So it really is learned and individual then?
Exactly. Consider a rose smell, a simple rose oil. Is it beautiful because it is rose? The flower or the colour? Or the price of the oil, what deems it desirable? When once a rose oil may have been considered beautiful, and even sexy, now we can think of something much sweeter and much cheaper. Any given aroma that can be sold and conceptualised as desirable becomes worn and lived in that way. It infuses our psyche with its message that “I am desirable!”
Essentially, our ideals of beauty are socially constructed. It is an undeniable social reality. Therefore, our idea of what smells beautiful and sexual is also, so constructed.
I feel a little cheated now, that my own attractions to smell and even people are based on a construction of others’ ideas and beliefs.
Strictly, that is essentially true. I have to say as well, the idea of heterosexual attraction being a natural “gender-opposite odour” attraction issue doesn’t sit well with me. From culture to culture what is considered masculine, or feminine changes and differs so greatly that it really shouts about the construction of these ideas in our psyche. In a way it is only attractive because we have said so at a social level. I find a differentiation between hetero and homosexual attraction through smell to be concerned not with the aroma, but with one’s idea of what that aroma means.
Does this go back to learned ideas?
Very much so. I found the smell of Brylcreem actually arousing when I was 16. I was crazy about a guy at that time and he always smelled that way. I would get that kick behind my bellybutton when I’d smell it, I’d blush and everything. Heaven knows that is not to do with the odour, it’s to do with the connection it held in my mind.
What other smells do you like?
I’m in love with rose. I respect patchulli and oudh. I lust for oudh, they turn me on these days and all for different reasons.
I think of rose as emotion, a true connection and a really deep love. I could almost cry for rose.
Patchulli I feel is grounded and true to myself. It is safe and confident.
And oudh I think is VERY sexual. I think of sex from it. The during, after and beginning part. That lingering smell of your sheets and bedroom, skin, sweat, bodies, the lot.
These relationships are about my conceptions of the smell essentially and pretty far from Brylcreem, but it’s still hot in a different way.
I can appreciate very much what you mean about different smells meaning different things to you in that context. Smells can be carnal and aching almost.
I want to go back to what you mentioned earlier on about smells as stories and messages. What exactly did you mean?
I’m a very story-kinda guy. I look for stories all the time. I live in my own story, which you can clearly see from the chats of me!
I remember visiting the Louvre for the first time, I think I cried three times that day. The arms of a huge sculpture hit me with such a might, oh wow… I recall a painting of Christ, and his mother. As he was being pulled from her, for crucifixion and the tears in her eyes told me of her woe, I cried for her.
Not so long ago I encountered rose oil in a similar way. I was feeling a little lonely, maybe a little insecure, a little down, broody perhaps. And I remember feeling a desire to be with someone, anyone really. Not in a turned on frisky-like way, but wanting to touch someone and feel connected.
I was burning some rose oil in an oil burner and it just touched me so deeply. I wrote to myself that night about how I could understand what rose was saying to me, it was communicating to me a safety, and a beauty profound. I felt an old beauty. I felt utterly and perfectly alone. It was bizarre and sad, and wonderful…
I see that can be a mish-mash of all sorts of emotions for you. You said you find rose emotional, of connections and real deep love, perhaps that explains why you felt a little broody that night? At the same time, it’s nice to you let your emotions run with it too, to feel the rose oil and experience it. Let it run its course even.
Where do you see perfume, or even olfactory experiences and you in the future? Could you combine it and your desire to help others in some way?
I see smell becoming a part of how I think of things. I have strengthened my appreciation for everything olfactory with my own exploration of scents and perfumes and this can really only evolve. It has in many ways helped me to bring even more color into my already luminous world!
That’s so lovely, to allow another sense to add even more colour to your bright world :)
Very much so. In that way I will always be personally moved by smell. I will always notice the everyday aromas of the world, places, people and memories.
As for my own future, it’s so unclear at the moment, however I will say this: a lesson I have learned this year is that of the wonder of my own being, and essentially my humanity. I consider Maya Angelou a great teacher of mine, and she taught me a phrase by Terence:
“Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.”
Meaning – I am a human being, nothing that is human can be alien to me.
Considering this, I feel the human experience, is as diverse as possibly imaginable. However in this wonderful thought, it is clear to me that as fantastic and far-fetched as human experience can be, there is always an aspect of myself that can relate to it because I too am a human being. What a fabulous affirmation! And in my own life, and what I hope it to be, I will need this understanding of the similarities of peoples.
With smells and fragrance as an expression of this human experience and as I said above, almost telling stories, I’m sure I could be taught many many other things about life and people. If smells carry a message to me from nature, or from the creative mind of another person and it expands my understanding of the human experience, then that will undoubtedly be invaluable to my personal development and therefore used in every facet of my life.
That’s such a positive way to look at things, I think some people forget (admittedly myself included) that being positive requires effort and an active outlook, exactly like what you’re saying.
I think with that note there is no better way to wrap up this interview. Thank you so much Emmet for taking part. You’ve opened my mind up to the idea that smell and beauty are more linked than I thought, I’m wondering if my attractions are my own? What about my attractions to certain odours? Are they distilled within me… I suppose it could be an interesting journey to figure them out. I hope you continue to add more colour to your luminous world and even some day I could add to that too!
Remember, if you’re interested in joining in this series of discussions you can get in touch with me on the Impersonal Odour page.
Do you have any questions for Emmet?
Do you believe that our attractions are learned, are smells linked in this too? What do you think about Brylcreem? Do you associate certain essential oils to particular emotions?
