two fragrance related videos Nose knows (montage of people musing the nature of scents) and perfumer Mathilde Laurent talking about her Lily-based scent [both promotional videos but evocative and fun]. Some thoughts on fragrances below→[More:]

I've been getting into this stuff lately (I've used colognes off and on previous of course but never in a sustained / researched way) but I've been looking for deos that are less potent or roll-on so I can use these types of fragrances instead.

(Previously on metachat:
have discovered that Axe scents break down in a sickly way when combined with formal textiles & high heat/sweat)

I've also been reading up on the nature of this industry a bit thanks to this great book Deluxe, which has long passages on things like Chanel No 9 and so forth.

(Alas these brands already know that aspirational consumers will buy scents first and that's exactly what I'm doing) The first serious purchase I did was a couple weeks ago, Terre D'Hermes and it's great. I looked online and some people find it overwhelming but there seems to be a significant split between the eau de toilette and the eau de parfum (I got the parfum). It's incredibly tenacious in terms of being long-lasting too.

Anyway the important part. I've only had it a few weeks but it's started to become part of 'me' in a way that I didn't expect. I don't notice it after it's on of course (neither do others unless it's fresh or they're close) but I can 'sense' it somehow and I kinda want to put it on just for myself even if I'm just at home. Kinda odd. I had heard this BBC story on vintage clothes buying a few weeks ago and they were talking about this kinda thing in a segment with specialist Kerry Taylor:

When I go through a person's wardrobe it often gives me a very good idea of them as a person, of their sense of style, their tastes. Sometimes the clothes even still have a lingering perfume of the person there. And recently, when I had the Daphne Guinness auction, my entire [sell room?] smelt of this sort of lovely rich perfume that Daphne uses on all her clothes.

Another interesting one was a lady brought in some clothes--in fact, it's 1930s lingerie--and it was *so* exquisite. [?], inset with lace, really really beautiful. And I said you know, "who was this woman? I mean she was really quite a sexy lady, wasn't she? And the person who brought the clothes in said, "Well no, actually. She died a spinster." And that was a puzzle. We never worked that one out. We thought perhaps she lost a sweetheart in the war."