Rapper 50 Cent has a fragrance. So do Halle Berry, Jessica Simpson, Antonio Banderas, Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce. (Some of them have two.) Coming are scents from Kanye West, Danica Patrick and Fergie. And then there are the designers, including Tom Ford and Vera Wang. And classic scents, such as Chanel and Estee Lauder. Heck, even Old Spice has been re-ignited, with its "Smell Like a Man, Man" ad.
How in the world can one navigate so many musks and florals?
Enter "Perfumes: the A-Z Guide" by Luca Turin, a scholar in olfactory science ,and his wife Tania Sanchez, a perfume collector and writer. In the book, the pair answer common questions ("What's the difference between eau de parfum and parfum?"), share their fragrance philosophies and define perfume terms.
But the bulk of the hefty paperback is devoted to rating more than 1,800 perfumes, from 5 stars (masterpiece) to 1 star (avoid), and using dollar signs to indicate the price range. It's a fun read, too. The writing can be fabulously effusive when the review is positive: "Baldessarini is to perfumery what the script for 'Toy Story' is to movies: an amazingly skillful, multilayered thing that can be enjoyed by everyone for entirely different reasons, " Turin writes of the Hugo Boss fragrance.
Or laugh-out-loud pointed when the verdict is negative: "The bathrooms in hell smell like this," Sanchez writes of Paco Rabanne's Ultraviolet.
We called Sanchez at the couple's home in Boston to talk scents.
Q: How did your perfume journey begin?
I always liked perfume. My mother was an Avon lady, so she would put way too much of some bad-smelling stuff on. When I was 17, I moved to New York for college. I'm a California girl, so I was not fancy, but my roommate at NYU was a glamour puss of epic proportions. She came with a dresser with seven perfumes. People would say, "What is that? It smells wonderful." I thought, "I need to step up my game." So I went to Saks and got Samsara by Guerlin. It's a brute of a fragrance that I both liked and hated. It was crude and loud and had a finesse to it. Shalimar followed. Then Bulgar Black, a modern fragrance. That expanded my notion of perfume. It was clever and weird; it smelled like rubber and smoke, like you hit your tires too fast. It was wonderful. I started collecting perfumes and then I found Luca's blog. He asked me to help him write a book.
Q: In the guide, you write about going against the typical idea of having a signature scent, of being contrary with your perfume choices.
Yes, a perfume wardrobe. A signature made sense in early days, when perfume was really expensive. But when Estee Lauder made the first big American fragrance, perfume became an everyday luxury. There's no need to just wear one; we all have days when you feel like this, and days you feel like that.
Q: How do you find a scent? When you go into department stores you're just bombarded.
Everyone finds the fragrance floor a nightmarish passageway. There are poorly trained people giving you garbage: Everything is "new" and "fresh" and "young" and "sexy." The best thing to do is to find a fragrance assistant that knows their stuff, then buy everything from that person so they keep their job. This is only semi tongue-in-cheek, but you should carry our book with you into the store. Sephora used to be a good place to explore, but they upped the pestering. There's also the Internet; lots of people sell samples. But be careful about the condition of the sample; check their reputation. I've also taken empty vials of my own to department stores and asked if I could pour some fragrance in and take it home.
Q: What about the best way to apply it? Some spray it in the air and walk through it. Some people put it on and then get dressed. Should it be on your pulse points?
Well that spraying-and-walking-through technique was invented by someone to sell more. It just evaporates. You can put it on your clothes, of course; if it stains, don't do it. A great way to wear it is to put it on your wrists. If you're typing or you talk with your hands, you get this nice surprise every once in a while. You could just spritz some on your chest. If it's really strong, put it on far away from your face or else you'll get sick of it.
Q: Speaking of getting sick, you wrote a bit about those who say they're allergic to perfumes.
Yes. Those people who put on half a bottle of Red Door have ruined it for all of us, those who use a bottle of Poison a week. People say now it's giving them cancer, it's my space, my air.
Q: So many celebrities launch perfumes. Is the profit margin that big, or is it more the cachet of having a scent?
Oh, there's a huge profit margin. Most, not all, celebrity perfumes are pretty cheap in composition. Some of them have the same notes as shampoo or a household cleaner. I smell them, and I think: Haven't I smelled that in Tide? But the [United Kingdom] celebs are worst; they make J Lo look like Chanel. In England, there are footballers' wives who have scents.
Q: Since you're such a connoisseur , do you judge people by their scents?
I am a forgiving person and a Christian soul; I try to hate the sin, not the sinner. But if they sin repeatedly, it makes it difficult.
