NAHA Conference – 2014 – Beyond Aromatics + Photo Essay

October 13, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Post by Azar

NAHA Conference – 2014 – Beyond Aromatics

Hello APJ,

Our Summer 2014 was a whirlwind of road trips, building projects and extended visits from family and long, lost friends. One of the highlights that Brad and I enjoyed together was a day at the National Holistic Aromatherapy Association’s (NAHA) Seventh World Conference, “Beyond Aromatics”. This three-day event, Sept. 12 – 14, was held at the campus of Bastyr University, a naturopathic institute located on the grounds of a converted monastery near the shores of Lake Washington east of Seattle. We attended as guests of one of the presenters, the talented and beautiful botanical perfumer Roxana Villa.

Saturday, September 13th, was an exceptional day in the PNW. The air was slightly cool, the sky cloudless, bright blue with a light breeze. We signed in at the conference desk at 8:00 am and immediately tracked down Roxana at the Illuminated Perfume booth in the exhibition hall.

At the booth we tried a couple of new fragrances as well as old favorites. Brad was especially taken with the old/new fragrance Bay Rum (the small dark bottle in the back of the photo). Watch for this Bay Rum cologne as part of Roxana’s Fan/Funding event on her blog http://journal.illuminatedperfume.com/ in the next week or so.

We visited several other vendors and then set out with Roxana for Bastyr University’s Medicinal Garden. The garden is organized by application, for example a “Sleep Garden” for plants used to promote rest and relaxation”. Here we have Licorice Mint in the “Digestive Garden”.

A shadowy hand is reaching for relief in the “Musculo-Skeletal” garden.

A spider left a web in the “Four Elements Garden”.

Cramp Bark (Viburnum opulus) berries in the “Woman’s Garden”.

Artichokes in the late summer sun.

Fennel.

After our tour of the gardens Brad and I attended a fascinating lecture by Dr. Florian Birkmayer, MD entitled “Essential Oils for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”. And then, at 1:45, the highlight of our day, Roxana Villa’s presentation The Tree of Life: A Mystical Approach to the Art of Botanical Perfumery.

Please take time to enjoy this beautiful video put together by Roxana’s husband, artist Greg Spalenka, using his own and Roxana’s original art work and text, very much like the presentation at the NAHA conference.

VIDEO: Roxana Villa: The Tree of Life: A Mystical Approach to the Art of Botanical Perfumery <<<JUMP

Many thanks to Roxana for this beautiful and memorable day!

Azar xx

All photos donated by Azar and video produced and donated by Greg Spalenka.

Femmes Savantes by Gabriel Abraham for La Comédie des Parfums

September 22, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 24 Comments

Post by Azar

Hello APJ,

La Comédie des Parfums is an indie perfume house based in Seattle and Paris. The multi-talented nose and CEO, Gabriel Abraham, currently offers seven perfumes on his website http://www.perfumescomedy.com, all but two inspired by the comic plays of Molière (AKA Jean-Baptiste Poqueline 1622-1673). Today’s review sniffs the EdP Femmes Savantes, Abraham’s fragrant take on Molière’s satire about the “learned” women of 17th century Paris – “Les Femmes Savantes”. These days this play is often described as overtly “sexist” but I read it simply as a commentary on humanity’s incredible capacity for pretension.

Femmes Savantes by Gabriel Abraham for La Comédie des Parfums

Photo Stolen La Comédie des Parfums

The listed notes for Femmes Savantes from the La Comédie des Parfums factory site are:
Top: Bergamot, lemon peel, green leaves
Heart: Osmanthus, sheer jasmine, muguet, cinnamon spice
Base: Cedar wood, balsamic, musk.

I adore the lemon top note of Femmes Savantes. It is not the dishwasher detergent lemon or the lemon meringue lemon but a light, powerful impression of the complete fruit including a whiff of the juice, pulp and the oily rind smelling much like the large, round, thin skinned Persian limoo shirin (C. limetta) that I love so much. This refreshing and pungent opening is reinforced by bergamot and a bouquet of green herbs resulting in a sparkling and sophisticated first impression, not at all pretentious, quite the opposite of the women in Molière’s comedy. As the lemon subsides the herbaceous floral heart blossoms into osmanthus, jasmine and a cool hint of muguet drying to a diaphanous (Ooo) cedar and musk. I have to admit that I don’t detect the cinnamon but perhaps you will?

Photo Stolen Perfumes Comedy

Femmes Savantes is probably the most skillfully composed lemon I’ve experienced in a long time. The opening is my favorite part of this fragrance. The light to moderate sillage and medium longevity (no more than five hours) make it possible for me to madly spray several times a day for the lemony rush I crave.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

This year our PNW summer was particularly hot and dry. Femmes Savantes, Pirouette’s Wild Spruce and Tobacco, Borsari Parma Acqua Classica Cologne and EdT as well as another Abraham fragrance, V. Van Gogh, were all part of my summer strategy to beat the heat.

You can purchase Femmes Savantes at Perfumes Comedy

Be Cool.

Azar xx

Photo Stolen myprettypaints

Femmes Savantes GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 Winner who will get:
For today’s drawing Mr. Abraham has generously provided a sample of Femmes Savantes for one lucky winner residing in the continental US.
P&H to the USA

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone USA ONLY who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please comment on any of the fragrances from La Comédie des Parfums or tell APJ about your favorite citrus perfume (or fruit).

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Femmes Savante: La Comédie des Parfums GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-3cx #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 25th September 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org or a fun other way
The winners will have till Sunday 28th September 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Olympic Orchids by Ellen Covey – Assisting the Sorceress

September 8, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 38 Comments

Post by Azar

Olympic Orchids by Ellen Covey

Labor Day Reflections – Assisting the Sorceress

I have no doubt that Olympic Orchids Perfumes are magical. Ellen Covey’s success as an indie perfumer is grounded in her creative spirit and reinforced by her extensive knowledge of fragrance materials, countless hours at the perfume organ, carefully considered artistic marketing and her commitment to the time consuming and repetitive tasks associated with any successful enterprise. While I have no illusions about my ability to create a fragrance, I do know that I can handle the time consuming and repetitive. In my experience even the most glamorous jobs can dull with repetition. I have also learned that it takes a relatively high level of discipline to successfully perform the same small motor task over and over again without losing focus or precision (both lessons learned from 60 years at the piano). I am certain that my talent for the tedious could be put to good use on a fragrance sample assembly line.

Unfortunately, many of today’s independent perfumers and niche fragrance houses cannot be bothered to offer samples. The labor and expense involved in filling, labeling, packaging and posting the samples is not seen as cost effective. These guys rely on their websites, social media and the blogging community to sell their perfumes. Why go to all the trouble of offering samples when new customers can be so easily manipulated into blind, full bottle buys. I have succumbed to this strategy more often than I care to admit. As a result I have come to appreciate and support the perfumers who offer their customers a sniff.

Photo Donated Ellen Covey

About a month ago I visited my friend Ellen with the express purpose of putting together samples. Before we began she took me on a tour of her bamboo grove, orchard and gardens. She opened and shared some newly arrived absolutes and then we headed upstairs to the atelier where we tested (and Ellen tweeked) several soon to be released fragrances. After all the fun we finally set to work putting together samples of California Chocolate.

I am no stranger to decanting and labeling but have had no previous experience with the solo assembly line. Ellen gave me the simple tasks of labeling tiny plastic bags, labeling and filling vials and packaging the samples in the bags. She monitored my progress and gave me helpful suggestions along the way. A pipette gun with disposable tips and a rack for vials made working the line a lot easier. My first adventure in serious sample production was rather slow and clumsy but I know, that with practice, my speed and precision will improve. As a reward for the work both Brad and I were treated to a fabulous salmon dinner prepared by Ellen and Michael followed by an amazing dessert of ice cream, guava sauce, whipped cream and figs freshly picked from Ellen’s garden. “Nice work if you can get it…Emoji”.

Azar xx

Photo Stolen myprettypaints

Sample Selection GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 Winner who will get:

The draw includes a VM Hedonist sample, an Elektra sample, at least one Amouge carded sample and more good stuff. I’m not trying to unload things I don’t like, not used or rejected samples but new packaged and carded samples and a few fresh decants, I just want to give away duplicates!
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to US RESIDENTS ONLY who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Reveal, if possible, approximately how many samples you have laying around your house, place of business, in your car, purse wherever. Have you developed a workable plan to store your samples? Let us hear about it!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie APJ Sample Selection GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-38D #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 11th September 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will probably be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Sunday 14th September 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Hypnotic Poison EdT by Annick Menardo for DIOR: 1998 version

July 28, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 66 Comments

Post by Azar

Today’s review and give-away were supposed to have been about the contents of a very large bottle of an historic Italian EdT. I have decided to reserve judgment on this fragrance until I get to know it better. There is plenty of juice to play with. I have been spraying it liberally on myself, on B-Azar, Fender, on the towels and linens and have even considered using it as a room freshener. Needing a substitute victim for this post I began digging around in the chaos of my perfume storage and came upon something red, black and squat, about 50% remained in the 100 ml bottle. Just one spray filled the room with romantic memories. – the original version of Dior Hypnotic Poison, EdT.

Hypnotic Poison EdT by DIOR

Hypnotic Poison by Annick Menardo: 1998 version

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Apricot, plum, coconut
Heart: Tuberose, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, rose, brazilian rosewood, caraway
Base: Sandalwood, almond, vanilla, musk

The first version of Hypnotic Poison was created for Dior in 1998 by Annick Menardo (responsible for Lolita Lempicka and Bulgari Black among others).

My immediate experience of HP was rich vanilla and a lot of fruit, a not quite edible compote of plum, coconut and vanilla drying down to jasmine and a bouquet of flowers that were too mixed up to sort out. At the heart bitter almond (the scent of cyanide), caraway, various woods and an impression of spices were reminiscent of the original version of Dior Poison. The startling opening and scary sweet vibe of the first Poison were barely noticeable but still obvious enough to make this semi-gourmand sister scent a truly hypnotic contradiction between the delicious and the dangerous. Hypnotic Poison may have been one of the earlier fruity florals but has very little in common with the syrupy concoctions available today.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

If you happen to have a bottle of this early version gathering dust, resurrect it immediately! I’m sure you will remember, as I did, why you enjoyed it so much. I have no experience with the newer 2008 version – L’Elixir Hypnotic Poison by Francois Demachy. Do you know this one? Does it work for you?

YUM! I am now going to have another spray-bite of this almost poisonous and not really forbidden fruit!

Azar xx

Photo Stolen lavanyasrecipes

Hypnotic Poison EdT GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will each get:
1 x 2 ml spray decant of the 1998 version of Hypnotic Poison EdT
1 x 2ml spray decant of the historic Italian referred to at the beginning of this post
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please leave a comment about your favorite re-discovered oldie and/or your take on any version of Poison or Hypnotic Poison.

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Hypnotic Poison EdT: DIOR 1998 #GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-313 @Dior #Perfume

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 31st July 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Sunday 1st August 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Indie Fragrance Criterion GIVEAWAY WINNER

July 11, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 3 Comments

Hi APJ,

What great comments! I learned a lot and was happy to realize that I am not the only one in perfume-land who smells what isn’t there!

Don’t forget July 17th at Tigerlily Perfumery,
973 Valencia Street in San Francisco, CA USA.
If you are in the area consider dropping by between 5:00 and 8:00 pm PDT to meet the Antonia and the PNW perfumers whose work I reviewed in the post.
For more information check TigerLily
Azar xx

Photo Donated Azar

Indie Fragrance Criterion GIVEAWAY WINNER

Photo Donated Azar

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

Meredith Smith of Sweet Anthem Perfumes in Seattle has generously provided the prize for today’s drawing, one complete sample set of the Indie Fragrance Criterion – DiscoverPacific Northwest Perfumes.
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible.
I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please comment about “the obvious but not present”> In your perfume experience have you ever smelled a note that wasn’t really there?

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Indie Fragrance Criterion GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2Xc #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Thursday 10th July 2014 10pm Australian EST
Once again B-Azar drew the winning name from the old sunhat. And the

Photo Stolen nodepositforum

Laurels

CONGRATULATIONS!! You have till Monday 14th July 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Sweet Anthem Perfumes and perfumer Meredith Smith

June 23, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Post by Azar

Sweet Anthem Perfumes and perfumer Meredith Smith

Indie Fragrance Criterion – Discover Pacific Northwest Perfumes

An Interview, Review and Giveaway

On February 24th of this year APJ posted an introduction to Sweet Anthem Perfumes and perfumer Meredith Smith. Today I have a few questions for Meredith about the business of perfume in the PNW. My next post will be a review (and a give-away) of the six fragrances in the Indie Fragrance Criterion – Discover Pacific Northwest Perfume sample set.

Something extraordinary is going on in the Pacific Northwest perfume scene. In the February 24th post I referred to the PNW as a “hot spot” for Indie perfumers and attributed this phenomenon to our dreary winters and to the local creative climate but didn’t even consider that perhaps the business environment might be what is really driving the astounding growth of great noses in the PNW and all along the west coast; see Ca Fleure Bon

Instead of operating via the old industrial economic model of “survival of the fittest” through negative competition for limited resources (creating perceived value through perceived scarcity), what seems to be happening here is more of a collaboration. This collaborative model succeeds by taking steps to grow the customer base for everyone while encouraging new talent and supporting existing businesses. The perfumers are independent but recognize and foster their interdependence, creating mutually beneficial events and opportunities as well as sharing information and resources. This kind of information based, collaborative economic model works on the principle that sharing creates interest and value, supporting not only the perfumers themselves but the suppliers and related businesses as well.

Photo Stolen Sweet Anthem Perfumes

Meredith, you have been one of several PNW perfumers encouraging, as you say, the “Seattle Sisterhood” of perfumers for several years now. Would you describe what you perceive to be the reasons for this local explosion of interest in perfume?

Honestly, I have no idea how it happened! For me, though, I can say that I probably would not be a perfumer if I didn’t live in the PNW. That’s not to say that I wasn’t into perfume before moving here, but the pioneer spirit and the way we interact with nature – from the mountains to the sea – helps fuel the olfactory palette. We have such intense connections to the earthly plane that it’s difficult not to be inspired on a daily basis when living here, and that helps fuel many industries of pioneers. Plus, having spirited colleagues in many kinds of industries helps keep me going – from my fellow perfumers to other Etsy-style brand owners, the PNW is really a community of talented makers in many stripes. I know my perfume sisters agree!

Can you give us some examples of how and why whatever it is that you do works so well in the PNW?

This is the crux of the reason I moved to the PNW. Everything here seems to be done in the DIY spirit. We love to branch out and get our hands dirty. We love to learn (it’s one of the smartest places in the country to live). We love to do things no one has ever done before (the $4 coffee being a prime example). PNWers are not afraid – pioneers that we are – of going upstream, avoiding the mainstream, and eschewing the man at pretty much any and all costs. I think that’s a part of why collaboration is so vital to the NW. If going upstream is the norm, there’s no point in going it alone.

Photo Stolen Sweet Anthem Perfumes

I understand that the curated collection I will be reviewing is part of a collaborative exchange between San Francisco and Seattle area perfumers. Could you give us a little of the back-story?

This is actually a curated collaboration between myself and Antonia from Tigerlily Perfumery, a little perfume shop in the Valencia neighborhood of San Francisco that features mostly indie and niche lines. Initially, Karyn, Nikki, and I were trying to do this sort of thing with a shop in New York (who shall remain nameless) but that fell through, much to our dismay. I had a chance to meet Antonia before the perfumer’s salon last March and we really clicked, both owning perfume shops that carry a lot of the same inventory and really loving indie perfume lines. I pitched this idea to her about the PNW gift set, and she loved it! It was actually her idea to do a Bay Area box in tandem, with launch events in both cities. (It worked out nicely that several of us Seattleites were already going back to San Francisco for the summer Renegade Craft Fair, so the launch event got neatly wrapped into our existing event schedule.) But really, Antonia’s the big idea gal here, so I’m excited she’s on board!

Can you explain why/how these specific perfumes were chosen for this first Indie Fragrance Criterion?

By and large, the perfumers were asked to submit their best works! In the Seattle set, we all submitted things with a bit of a Northwest-y vibe, and I consulted with many of the perfumers what I thought would be the best fit (I’m thankful that they trust my judgment and happy that they’re all brands I’ve come to know and love). In the San Francisco set, you’ve got some IAO award nominees and winners, and some noses new to me but not to Antonia. Antonia and I talked a lot about themes, but in the end we decided that for a showcase of raw talent, generally the talent knows their works best, and so we left it up to each of them.

Photo Donated Azar

Meredith, thank you so much for taking the time to share your perspective on indie perfumery in the PNW. Stay tuned, everyone, for the upcoming review and give-away!

Azar xx

Annual Seattle Artisan Fragrance Salon 2014

June 9, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Hello APJ,

It’s May 4th, 2014! Welcome to the Second Annual Seattle Artisan Fragrance Salon (and chocolate show) at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center on the Seattle waterfront.

As we enter we see the Olympic Orchids booth tended by perfumer Ellen Covey and friend Stacey Gilbert. Ellen Covey’s 2013 Blackbird was a finalist in the recent Art and Olfaction Awards and her newest offerings, Sakura and African Orchid, are at least as beautiful as Blackbird. Sakura, a light and realistic cherry blossom fragrance, seems to remind my grand daughter Allie that Spring is actually in Seattle, despite the foul weather. Ellen’s soaps and oils are a also treat and I hear she may be venturing into yet another format in the near future.

We take our time enjoying Olympic Orchids fragrances before moving on to NomadTwoWorlds. Nomad is by no stretch of the imagination an artisan perfumery. The house perfumer is the extremely talented master perfumer Harry Fremont who, while working with Firmenich, has been the nose behind over 70 top designer and celebrity fragrances. That being said, Nomad’s perfumes are lovely. I especially enjoyed their signature oil FireTree. The company’s commitment to supporting indigenous peoples, while bringing their raw materials to market (via Firmenich?), is very interesting indeed. Harry Fremont is not manning the booth (no surprise) but here is a photo of a couple of the Nomad crew at work.

For a real artisan, all natural and local experience we head over to Meshaz Natural Perfumes and perfumer Mesha Munyan assisted by her son Evan Winter. Mesha operates a small farm on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula near Sequim where she grows and distills lavender and creates her own perfumes from botanical tinctures and oils. Mesha is a nationally known expert on lavender and lavender oils. My current favorite in her line is Zauvage, but all of her perfumes are exquisite, powerful and carefully crafted, a must try for botanical (and all) fragrance lovers .

We would like to stay at Mishas’s booth for hours but, moving along, we find two new faces at this year’s salon! Perfumer Kenneth Cory and friend Michael DeLong are here for the first time, in fact this is one of Kenneth’s initial fragrance shows and what a fabulous collection of perfume he is offering! Son A-1 and I love his entire line, especially Fougere Osmanthus. I know husband B-Azar will also take a shine to this one. I am bringing home samples of everything and looking forward to learning more as well as writing more about Kenneth Cory and his beautiful fragrances.

Next door to Kenneth, award winning veteran Pacific Northwest perfumer, Karyn Gold-Reineke, has set up her Pirouette booth. Karyn’s gorgeous soaps, perfumes and lotions have been enjoyed by so many of us for several years now. My favorite of her fragrances is the botanical perfume Moss Garden. Her sets of tiny sample soaps are works of art, beautifully scented and exquisitely wrapped. I am buying some for gifts but know I will have a hard time parting with them.

Also, I noticed that Karyn is displaying a small box labeled “Indie Fragrance Criterion”. This is a sample set of PNW perfumers co-curated by Meredith Smith of Sweet Anthem and Tigerlily Perfumes in San Francisco. The set includes samples by 6 PNW perfumers including Sweet Anthem, Rebel and Mercury, Sweet Tea Apothecary, Olympic Orchids , Pirouette Perfumes and Blooming Dreams. Look for more about this set and a possible give-away soon.

As we turn the corner Rosarium Blends grabs our attention. Catamara Rosarium is the talented perfumer, master herbalist, ritual artist and real live alchemist behind the line. Her partner Marcus McCoy is an accomplished distiller. The calibre of their fragrances reflects their depth of knowledge and experience. One of my favorite Rosarium Blends is Satyr. Catamara and Marcus are both fascinating personalities and it would be great fun to bring their perspective on perfumery to APJ sometime in the future.

Our final visit of the day is to JT Siems’ Sweet Tea Apothecary. JT’s love of history and literature inspire her 16 currently available fragrances. Sweet Tea Apothecary perfumes are rich, mixed media scents with interesting, evolving profiles, classically evocative with timeless appeal. A couple of my favorites are Archibald (for Archibald Menzies, one of the first scientists to explore the PNW) and Dharma Bums (what else but a patchouli fragrance referencing who else but Jack Kerouac)!

I hope you have enjoyed this visit to the Second Annual Seattle Artisan Fragrance Salon. Now off we go to the Chocolate Show!

Azar xx

Institute for Art and Olfaction Awards 2014: Saskia Wilson-Brown Interview #2

May 12, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Post by Azar

Today the Australian perfume Junkies are thrilled to have the opportunity to talk with Saskia Wilson-Brown, the founder of the LA based Institute for Art and Olfaction. Winners are listed HERE<<<JUMP

This is the second in the Saskia Wilson-Brown Interview Series: Please have a look through the first: The Institute for Art and Olfaction: Saskia Wilson-Brown Interview #1

Institute for Art and Olfaction Awards 2014

Saskia Wilson-Brown Interview #2

Regarding the 2014 Art and Olfaction Awards: What made you decide that the world needed another awards night and why about fragrance?

Ha! A fair question. The world does most definitely not need another awards night. However: Independent and artisan perfumers need some support, and so we decided it would be a good idea to help provide it, in the way we were most capable of doing so. We are going to try to be more about curation than competition.

Both panels of judges are made up of some of the best-known noses in the world! How were you able to put these panels together and how long did it take?

To be honest, it was merely a question of asking! All of the judges were happy to participate, and extremely supportive. It took a few months to put the panel together, and I am extremely grateful to them for the time and energy they put into the process. Very very caring and honest people, all of them, and not an inflated ego in sight. The big question is: Would they consider doing it again. Ha.

The IAO website goes into detail about the Awards selection process and judging criteria. Did the finalists receive written evaluations/adjudications of their work?

No, unfortunately, there is only so much time in the day, we simply couldn’t offer that sort of feedback. We already asked a lot of the judges: The preliminary judges all smelled every submission. That’s just under a hundred perfumes, and I wasn’t prepared to ask them to write evaluations for every perfume, as well.

We built the awards on the film festival model, and we basically stuck to that formula, but adding the anonymity factor to ensure fairness as ours is such a small little world, at the end of the day. Generally speaking, it’s not my first time running a big initiative like this, and my rule of thumb is this: Know your limits, stick to the plan, don’t ask for more than people have time to deliver.

However, as the awards expand, we will try to build in more feedback mechanisms. One of the things I feel most guilty about in our first year is that we just didn’t have the time to email all the submitters who didn’t make it to the the finalist round. I have submitted to things before, and I know what it feels like to get a nice email, versus just… silence. In fact, I just recently got a very kind rejection letter from a big institution, and it made the experience much less disappointing. So that’s something we need to fix for next year.

Was there one moment at the Awards Ceremony (or the after party) that you found especially funny, surprising or touching?

Well, the whole thing was a blur, for me, to be honest. It was a lot of work and there were a lot of moving parts. I did really enjoy having my friend Tom Green on the drums – it added a little bit of irreverence, and the audience all called out ‘drum roll Tom’ when the presenter was about to announce a winner, which was pretty fun and goofy. All our presenters were incredibly amazing, as well. Ashley Eden Kessler, Ilene Hoffman, Hank Jenkins, Sarah Horowitz-Thran, Steven Gontarski, James McHugh, Koan Jeff Baysa and of course Adam Eastwood and Franco Wright from Lucky Scent. Another thing I loved was the smell-and-repeat. It was a silly idea I had, playing off the Hollywood premiere trope of having a step-and-repeat logo wall where famous people step, pose and repeat for photographers. It ended up being quite fun. We sprayed it with the finalist perfumes, so as people entered the Goethe Institut they could catch a whiff of what this was all about.

The first Art and Olfaction Awards will be a hard act to follow. What have you learned from the First Annual that you can use in 2015?

Here is what I am taking from the first year: Avoid the big egos, support the people who support you, allow more time for submissions to arrive, allow more time for the judges to judge, and thank the people who make this happen over and over again.

Finally – I really enjoyed the seven questions you posed to the finalists and their revealing answers! To paraphrase one of your own questions: What excites you about your life right now?

I find the major mistakes I seem to be making on a daily basis to be particularly exciting. When I was younger and more malleable, I used to be quite serious about snowboarding. The big lesson in snowboarding is that if you’re not constantly falling down, you’re not learning. It’s trite, but it’s true.

Photo of Saskia donated by Institute for Art & Olfaction

Thank you so much, Saskia, for taking the time from your very busy schedule to share your thoughts with the APJ. We are looking forward to another great year with the IAO, filled with exciting projects and educational opportunities.

Azar xx

Main website: www.artandolfaction.com

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Twitter: twitter.com/artandolfaction

For in-person visits and snail mail:

The Institute for Art and Olfaction
3023 W. 6th St.
Los Angeles, CA. 90020
Phone: (213) 616-1744

Saskia invites interested persons to drop by and also attend an open blending session, class or event.

Info here: http://artandolfaction.com/calendar/

Book sessions on Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-sessions-may-tickets-11361465449

Institute for Art and Olfaction: Saskia Wilson-Brown Interview #1

May 12, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Post by Azar

Institute for Art and Olfaction

Saskia Wilson-Brown Interview

Saskia, what led you to the idea of an Institute for Art and Olfaction?

I was interested in perfumery, and I was hoping to learn about perfume, but was unable to travel to France or the UK for an extended period of time. So I thought, well, why not set up a space to learn here in LA? That, and I also wanted to see how to incorporate scent into a fine arts context- which ultimately I felt there was little support for. In other words, I set it up for fairly selfish reasons, but also because I felt that it was a travesty that creative people didn’t have access to this very creative medium. I felt like if my artist friends knew what could be accomplished with scent, they’d use scent in their practices. And then there was a bit of the egalitarian in me that railed at the inaccessibility of it all.

How has your background as an artist, filmmaker and independent producer shaped the development of the IAO?

I think it has helped inasmuch as being an outsider to the perfume industry has allowed me to approach it in a way that makes sense for other outsiders. Having said that, it’s been an extremely steep learning curve, and knowing now how little I knew then, it was a bit naive and/or gutsy of me. Sometimes, though, that’s an advantage, no?

Do you consider your primary function at the Institute to be that of an educator, an impresario/promoter, an artist or something else?

Probably more of impresario/promoter aka cat-herder. I try to bring in people more qualified than I am to oversee the education and do the art projects. On an oblique but related note: The difference between being a producer and being a production assistant is merely a question of perception.

Scent as performance art has become a popular means of artistic expression. Scent infused video/art installations, stories told with fragrance, dance and music as well as exhibits of colors and odors are among the many interdisciplinary projects that include olfaction. What kind of innovations do you see the IAO bringing to this already crowded stage? Are there any collaborative projects on the IAO horizon?

We just finished a big project where we recreated a failed scent concert from 1902 by a man called Sadakichi Hartmann, so we’re well aware of the history for this trend – it goes back a long way. Just check out the research being done around scent obsession in the Victorian era! The most maddening thing to me is when people call themselves innovators when the very idea they are proposing has been tried a hundred times, for a hundred years. It just shows them to be bad at research, and maybe a little too good at self-promotion.

So – knowing that, being VERY aware of how little what we do can truly be called innovative – we’re very careful not to bandy those big words around, and not to overstate what we do. However, we are keen to support people who we feel use scent in their practices in a meaningful and conceptual way – and are on the lookout for truly innovative ideas.

A big challenge for us is finding projects that get beyond the gimmick of scent, and truly reach something that rises to the realm of high concept, fine art, the human condition, or the outer fringes of technology or philosophy. Luckily, there are some incredibly talented people out there, some of whom we are working with already and some of whom we are keen to work with. Nothing we can announce just yet, unfortunately.

(Azar: I have to interject here that I absolutely agree! As a part of the 1980s performance art scene I was aware that a lot of what we did was simply offer a 20th century perspective on the work of earlier artists and poets, in particular the French Symbolists. In those day, though, the grant money seemed to flow in direct proportion to the number of disciplines we could involve and the amount of moral or cultural outrage we could elicit. It is so refreshing to see that your approach is so much more honest and truly artistic.)

There has been flurry of interest this spring surrounding Le Laboratoire’s development of the “oPhone” by Dr. David Edwards. The “oPhone” and a projected “olfactory social network” will launch on July 10. What kind of applications could you imagine for this device or for an “olfactory social network”? What role, if any, would this kind of technology play in future IAO projects?

It’s all very exciting! Technology will of course play a vital role in future projects, but – again – functional technology is one thing, but the concept underpinning it is the crux of the issue, for us. We hope to get to the place where the projects we work on/with access something beyond the tools they make use of. Put another way, if all you ever did was make paintings about the fact that you were able to paint, or cooked food that merely demonstrated the fact that you were able to cook food… Well… It would get boring.

There is MORE>>>>> Later today Azar talks to Saskia Wilson-Brown about the Institute for Art and Olfaction Awards 2014.

Main website: www.artandolfaction.com

Join the mailing list: http://eepurl.com/q_CZT

Facebook: facebook.com/artandolfaction

Twitter: twitter.com/artandolfaction

For in-person visits and snail mail:

The Institute for Art and Olfaction
3023 W. 6th St.
Los Angeles, CA. 90020
Phone: (213) 616-1744

Saskia invites interested persons to drop by and also attend an open blending session, class or event.

Info here: http://artandolfaction.com/calendar/

Book sessions on Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-sessions-may-tickets-11361465449

Impromptu GIVEAWAY WINNERS

May 5, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

Hello APJ Crew,

Another great giveaway draws to a close. Thank you to Roxana Villa of Roxana Illuminated Perfume for her generosity and to Azar for her dedication in bringing you a wonder 3 days of interviews and giveaways. We are so lucky to have both of you on board. Here are links to Azar’s wonderful interview Roxana Villa #1 and Roxana Villa #2

Portia x

Impromptu GIVEAWAY

Photo Stolen Roxana Illuminated Perfume

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week’s draw is for one prize that includes
1 x sample set of the re-issue of Impromptu including the perfume, EDP and the solid perfume
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please leave a comment about one of Roxana’s fragrances or on your experience with botanical perfumes in general.

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Impromptu: Roxana Illuminated Perfumes GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2Kg #Perfume #Giveaway @RoxanaVilla

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 4th May 2014 10pm Australian EST
Fender once again did a stellar job selecting the winner. I scattered the names on the floor and he went straight for the one he wanted and sat waiting for me to verify!

This time he liked

Photo Stolen EverythingHealth

Courant

Congratulations and thanks to everyone for the great comments!

The winners will have till Thursday 8th May 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.

No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Azar xx