Nick sells perfume. It’s been that way for the last 10 years. He started as a Saturday boy on the tills in the Chemist, and one day asked to work on perfumes. He says he was drawn to them and has since developed a deep interest for fragrance.
I met Nick through Lush’s Perfumista Profiles on their Gorilla Perfume site. I remember someone very knowledgable about fragrance and had to introduce myself. Since then we’ve kept in touch and shared suggestions, opinions, and even the occasional fragrance sample (terribly one-sided as I’ve yet to send him something from my collection!)
I had no idea you were drawn to fragrance this casually. It sounds like such an obvious statement to make as at one point or another everyone is drawn to it at some stage. I think I always imagined you’d have been into it from the word go or something…
If I look back, I was always aware of perfumes. I can remember the perfumes my Nan wore like they are locked into my memory. I don’t need to smell them to remember them either. But if I have to spray Sunflowers at work, I’ll always get a little sad. Saturday nights smelled of Coco, Samsara and Opium (Mum, Aunt & Nan respectively).
Sunflowers have fond memories for a few people I know now. Did someone in your work expose you to perfume? It sounds like you have a natural talent for remembering odours if you can lock them away to memory.
It was only on the bus home one weekend when one of the Fragrance Consultants that I worked for started explaining how perfumes were composed I started listening and thinking about perfume. (She was a biochemist) She mentioned there were websites I could find if I was still interested. So I went and got on google and I stumbled onto Basenotes.
From then and the few weeks of reading reviews and the forums, I sniffed all the essential oils we sold at work, and went back to the perfumes again with a whole new outlook. After that I started really paying attention to what I was smelling and contrasting/comparing scents that I figured out what different notes smelled like. Then I just made sure I had words for smells, so I could explain them better to other people. Descriptions of the smell, like temperature and texture.
I didn’t need the words in my head, but unfortunately I’m not a telepath so I had to develop my scent vocabulary. It still feels like it was an entirely organic process and that I didn’t have to think about it.
It sounds like that lady consultant you worked with really opened your eyes and nose to the world of fragrance. What was the best thing she told you to do? Has developing your scent vocabulary improved your understanding of fragrance? Can you share some of these words and methods? If they’re not kept under lock and key that is!
The best thing she told me to do was look on the internet! She had learned notes lists like a singer learns lyrics, but I couldn’t do that. I can learn lyrics but note lists are another challenge entirely!
Developing my vocabulary definitely improved my understanding. For example, I had heard of Aldehydes, but learning what that meant and what they smelled like meant I had to build an understanding of different KINDS of Aldehydes in perfumery. Like if you smell White Linen and compare it to No. 5, you will see that the Aldehydes there are similar to the EDP (similar release dates there… so similar style!), but have a totally different feel to the EDT. And now the Eau Premiere has these fizzy, citrus aldehydes instead of the bright but fatty/smoky ones you find in the EDP/EDT. But they are “barely there” in the Parfum. They give it the lift which you read about, but you mostly smell the florals.
I was ‘gifted’ a genealogy chart at work, which was a revelation. It lists scents in families, so I could then compare differences within the families and try to find the words that explained the differences. So ‘earthy’ ‘crisp’ ‘fresh’ ‘breezy’ and so on. The method isn’t under lock and key at all. I use the words all day when selling them, and quite often refer to my genealogy charts with customers. It gives me an idea/memory of what a scent is like.
Ah this is making me a bit jealous. I often want to distract the Sales Assistant whenever I’m at a perfume counter and nab that chart off their hands! To go back to the three ladies, your mum, Coco, your Aunt, Samsara, and Nan, Opium, what were Saturday nights like with them exactly?
Saturday nights always meant a night up at the social club, probably up until I was 15. Mum and my Aunt would be dressed up at least more than usual, sometimes working the bar too, and we’d always give my Aunt a lift. The smell in the car was hypnotic! They used to overapply them but they were truly gorgeous scents.
My Nan and Grandad would go up there early “to get the table”, Nan would play on the fruit machines all night with a cigarette in hand, and Grandad would play snooker with the other men up there. Mostly the place smelled of stale cigarette smoke and spilled ale, but I like that smell when you go into a pub or bar and it smells like that. Some pubs still have the smell. I like it and dislike it in equal measure. But it’s comforting, if you see what I mean?
Since the smoking ban, as good as it really is for us non-smokers, pubs have started to lose their characteristic smell and instead smell of rancid sweat. I worked at the social club for my first jobs, sticking up for skittles (backbreaking work!) and collecting / cleaning glasses and stocking up the fridges. I could drink as much fizzy as I liked. Always Tango. I like how the smell of Tango orange tickles your nose.
That sounds like such a lovely memory. Every bit of it, from the perfume to the smoke, to the smell of a social club/pub. And especially Tango. It’s a bit of a rarity these days now isn’t it!
You said that the smell of the social club was a comforting one. What other smells would be comforting to you?
I suppose vanilla is comforting to me – it reminds me of the sense of calm I have when I bake. If I’m really stressed out, baking always makes me feel better. I always include the best vanilla extract I can in my baking. Madagascan vanilla extract smells and tastes so much more complex than normal vanilla essences. It has light and dark sides. You don’t get that in Vanillin.
The smell of the seaside is comforting too. We used to spend many weekends on the beach at Woolacombe when we were little. So suntan lotion, zinc block, sea air, wet sand, and chip shops. There was (and still is, in fact) an ice cream shop that put these foam strawberry sweets on top of the ice cream. Those sweets have a special smell that nothing else in the world has to me.
Stinging nettles have a comforting smell to them. It’s sharp, astringent, green, but reminds me of building dens in the woods and therefore my first boy kiss (read: peck).
There is something about Bristol too that I find comforting. Whenever I come back from even being in a different city for a bit, or holiday, Bristol has this energy to it that just makes me feel safe and happy. I don’t know if there is a smell aspect to it, because Bristol doesn’t smell to me. Things smell, but the city doesn’t. Maybe it’s the same as when your house smells of your family, so other people can smell it but you can’t.
The seaside is very comforting isn’t it. It reminds me of my granny as she lived in a seaside town.
I never knew baking could be relaxing. And it sounds like you know your cooking materials from your perfume ones. What smells in cooking would you like over others? If you could make an ultimate meal (as out-there as possible) what ingredients and smells would there be?
Smells I prefer in cooking (and wish would stay there and not come into perfume)? Lemongrass & Ginger. Sharp pointy scents, one fresh, one fiery. They taste wonderful but the smell is overpowering in fragrance.
Having watched Masterchef last night and been a bit annoyed at how out there the dishes were, I think I’ll be sticking to simple cooking things! Hah. I love the smell of spices in curry dishes (nutmeg, coriander, cumin, turmeric and so on) but not so much the tastes and textures of them.
The subtle tastes and smells you get in sushi. Shoyuu, wasabi & sushi vinegar in the rice. My favourite sushi is simple mackerel nigiri. Flavoursome and smells exactly like it tastes.
Caramelised red onion, roasted red bell peppers, garlic & chilli on a thin pizza dough is perfection.
For a dessert there was something really cool that I heard about at a restaurant here in Bristol. They serve a lemon “aroma” and pour liquid nitrogen on it! The smell is apparently amazing, vivid and mouthwatering. Then they give you sorbet. In the words of Liz Lemon “I want to go to there”. Lemon is a fantastic flavour too but I don’t tend to like it in perfumes.
None of this matches but I find them all engaging as separate dishes.
I like the idea of a pointy smell. You have a great taste and awareness in food too it seems, “smells exactly like it tastes.” Sometimes not always the case with foods, but I’ll have to try this nigiri now :)
Thank you for taking the time Nick to share your Impersonal Odour.
Remember if you’re interested in joining in this series of discussions you can get in touch with me on the Impersonal Odour page.
