White lilies arriveOpinions bloom before tea—Good heavens . . . she’s here. The interview with Fleur de Lalita produced perhaps the strongest opening line the Living Library has yet recorded: GAH!!!! WHEW! OLD LADY FLORAL OUT OF CONTROL! White flowers. Everywhere. Huge white lilies. Jasmine. Paperwhites. (You know, the cute little white flowers on the […]
perfume
Meeting Before Judging
By the second week of this project, Chad and I had acknowledged that we were spectacularly bad at predicting fragrances. It was becoming a bit laughable. But then perhaps that’s exactly what happens when you put a Virgo, Year of the Ox, contracts lawyer, and an AI together to predict perfume. (That sounds like the […]
A Perfume Made of Questions
This afternoon at ScentFestSF, I thought I was standing in line to have an AI design me a fragrance. Instead, I found myself in one of the most thoughtful conversations I’ve had in years. That sentence still feels strange to write. Not because the conversation was with an AI. Because of the conversation itself. The […]
An Ordinary Perfect Day
By the third fragrance of Week Two, I thought I understood the assignment. Marco Polo had taken me travelling. Nigel Pembroke had quietly stretched an evening until no one had any reason to look at the clock. Cherry Punk had taught me that some destinations ask too much of the traveller. I expected this one […]
The Map Room
“Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of map: the grid and the story. Grid maps tell us where things are. Story maps tell us how they were found.” — Robert Macfarlane (paraphrased from his discussion of grid maps and story maps in The Wild Places.) When I first walked into Sebastian’s fragrance atelier in San […]
What Does a Bond Girl Smell Like? New Avon Bond Girl Fragrance
So what do YOU think a Bond Girl smells like? Avon is having a go at figuring this out for us, apparently. According to Now Smell This, quoting an Avon spokesperson, “Bond Girl 007 is a sexy cocktail of velvety florals, cool freshness and warm woods; the notes include white peach, orange blossom, jasmine, calypso […]