Somerset House Perfume Exhibition: all about scent

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art, blog, Claire Catterall, exhibition, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, Geza Schoen, In-Imitable, Killian Wells, Lizzie Ostrom, London, Mark Buxton, marketing, Odette Toilette, perfume, scent, Somerset House

Sweat, blood, chlorine and ink. Not a list one would normally associate with fragrance, but a list, nonetheless, that welcomes all those heading to Somerset House’s newest exhibition, Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent, opening last week in London.

Arguably the sense we talk and think about the least: smell, has a peculiar place in our lives, with the average person having done little more than consider perfume as a last minute addition to an outfit for years.

For Curator Claire Catterall, and Co-Curator Lizzie Ostrom, AKA Odette Toilette, this newest venture is all about changing the tide. Pinpointing a shift in attitudes, the exhibition aims to stimulate and awaken the senses in a less than ordinary way.  “In the 21^st century perfume is changing,” said Catterall. “We want to smell different. Different from everyone else and different from before. We want to be taken on a journey, to a space in time or a space emotionally.”

This is an initiation into the world for the uninitiated, but rather than showcasing fragrances we’ve all known and loved over the years, 10 rooms champion the scents that break boundaries, the rebels of the industry that are doing things differently.

From Killian Wells to Mark Buxton and Geza Schoen, a cohort of perfumers that look at the industry in a completely different way take exhibit goers on an olfactory journey through experimental scents.

Great event, I wish I could go! Yours, Fran

 

A direct line to consumer tastes – Givaudan is teaching fashion students

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art, Beauty, blog, conde nast international, design, fabrics, fashion, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, Givaudan, In-Imitable, innovation, marketing, perfume, perfumer, perfumery, scent, Shanghai, smell

The Shanghai-based Center of Fashion and Design is one of Asia’s most vibrant outposts for cutting-edge ideas in couture, clothes and concepts. It is here that passionate fashionistas study every aspect of fashion design, branding and marketing. This includes fragrance, an essential brand extension for every designer.

Givaudan has been invited to train students in fragrance appreciation and understanding as part of the school’s Luxury Marketing curriculum. As a fragrance leader in China, Givaudan is recognised by customers and industry alike as a trusted and expert partner in the art of perfume. Here is a link to the course.

Great vision indeed! I wish you a lovely week! Yours, Fran

A Billionaire scent: Elon Musk’s Musk

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business, Elon Musk, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, In-Imitable, PayPal, perfume, scent, Scent O’Mental, SolarCity, SpaceX, Tesla

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has launched his own men’s fragrance, named Musk, according to a report published by Real Business.

Musk has teamed up with US fragrance firm Scent O’Mental to develop the new scent, which is said to contain notes of clove, cinnamon and an innovative new smell known as ‘space’.

“I feel like now is the right time for the world to see a different side to tech innovators. Musk is a sophisticated new scent that embodies the attitude of pioneers – the ones willing to push boundaries and question conventions,” said Musk in a statement.

He is the (co-)founder of SpaceX, Tesla Inc., SolarCity, OpenAI, Zip2 and PayPal. As of March 2017, he has an estimated net worth of $13.9 billion, making him the 80th wealthiest person in the world.

Interesting character, and with this last-name you almost have to launch a perfume…! Yours, Fran

Laundry Dinner

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blog, design, Dezeen, food, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, Iftach Gazit, In-Imitable, Industrial Design, perfume, scent, Sous La Vie, technology, Tel Aviv, washing

Tel Aviv student Iftach Gazit has designed food bags that can be added to the laundry cycle to cook dinner at the same time. The Sous La Vie bags, which were designed as part of Gazit’s Industrial Design course at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, rely on the sous-vide method of cooking.

This immerses vacuum-sealed food in hot water over a long period of time, and ensures meals are evenly cooked and stay moist. Gazit’s bags are made from waterproof Tyvek paper, which keeps the food soap-free.

Cooking vegetables? Set your machine to ‘cotton’ for a short duration program.

Great innovations happening here! Yours, Fran

Design made in heaven…

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advertising, blog, design, fashion, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, In-Imitable, marketing, perfume, scent, video

Christian Louboutin is a French fashion designer, whose style is famous for very creative design. He also has a small perfume line that convinces due to their fabulous videos. Have a look here:

… or here:

I’m wondering where i can smell those perfumes… apparently not in Amsterdam! Lots of love. Yours, Fran

Bill Gates to find a “poop” covering scent

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Bill Gates, blog, Firmenich, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, Health, hygiene, In-Imitable, innovation, malodor, perfume, poop, sanitation, scent

Bill Gates wasn’t sniffing “poop” for nothing.

As the billionaire philanthropist explains in a recent Gates Notes blog post, he recently spent time smelling an artificial scent of feces as part of a plan to help people in poor areas have an easier time using the bathroom.

In India and other poor countries, sanitation continues to be a problem – some 800,000 children under 5 die annually from diarrhea or other sanitation-related diseases.

Although pit latrines give people a place to defecate, many smell so bad that people choose to go out in the open, which creates public-health threats by allowing bacteria and disease to spread.

Gates’ solution to this problem: Partner with Firmenich, a 120-year-old perfume company, to develop an “anti-poop” scent that masks bad odors in the same way noise-cancelling headphones use wave patterns to block noise.

Essentially, the perfume acts as a high-tech Febreze, blocking the receptors in your nose that cause you perceive bad odors.

“I continue to be amazed by the innovation that’s underway in the field of sanitation,” Gates writes.

Toilets used to be a taboo subject, he explains. Now they’re subjects of mainstream research that stands to improve the lives of billions around the world.

Let us create a better future! Yours, Fran

SmellSCAPES performance by Klara Ravat

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Amsterdam, art, blog, distillation, experience, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, In-Imitable, Klara Ravat, Mediamatic, multi-sensory, Odorama, perfume, perfumery, scent, smell

In line with last weeks post, I went to the Odorama session called Art + Distillation, and one of the speakers was Klara Ravat with an impressive olfactory performance.

2 women were laying on a podium, when an electronic voice told the audience to gather 11 people around each of the laying woman. “Go on your knees. Take the perfume that is standing in front of you and spray/ drop it on the closest skin-point. Smell. Come closer and smell again. What do you feel? What do you smell?”

I observed the audience and found some puzzled faces… quite funny… e.g. on the foot, on the hair etc. Btw: the perfums were distallation works from Klara, whereas one was the Scent of Amsterdam that we distilled last Saturday in the workshop (see previous post).

The intention of Klara was to break that barrier of personal contact and to actually come closer to each other.

Nice message for a sunny start of the week! Yours, Fran

PS: Photos by Stichting Mediamatics

The Scent of Amsterdam – Distillation Workshop

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Amsterdam, art, artworks, blog, distillation, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, In-Imitable, Klara Ravat, Mediamatic, perfume, scent

Past Saturday, olfactory artist and performer Klara Ravat gave a workshop called The Scent of Amsterdam: Distilling Odors of an Urban Landscape. Over the course of 6 hours 12 participants (incl. me) collectively explored the neighbourhood of Mediamatic Biotoop, visited aromatic urban spaces and learned how to distill a scented memory of Amsterdam.

Those were our findings from the Scentwalk…

…cut into little pieces in order to give most scent once distilled. And then we set up the distiller:

Personally i thought the workshop was interesting for the connections plus for the experience. The participants came from multiple disciplines, and Klara Ravat creates media and odour artworks, installations and experimental films, which is also great to listen to!

Yours, Fran

Guerlain make bathtime fun again with Les Délices de Bain

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blog, brand, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, Guerlain, In-Imitable, Jean-Paul Guerlain, Les Délices de Bain, luxurious, luxury, marketing, perfume, perfumesociety, scent

We all know how well fragrance layering works: the idea of using a matching shower gel, body lotion, etc.

Well, now Guerlain have created a scented Shower Gel and Body Lotion that can be layered with not one, not five, but all of their scents.

Indeed, if you’re a lover of all things Guerlain, that may well not be a coincidence, since all their fragrances have a hint of the same base in them. Call it the Guerlain ‘DNA’, if you will: a signature base (sometimes referred to as the ‘Guerlinade’). Jean-Paul Guerlain was once quoted saying, ‘In the same way that you recognize the origin of a great wine, or the composer of a symphony, you perceive the Guerlain stamp which persists even today’.

So now, with the Les Délices de Bain range, you can layer on that ultra-luxurious, lustrous, signature base perfectly, prepping flawlessly for one of their many classic scents.

Best wishes from sunny Crete! Yours, Fran

Smell Dating – sniff out your partner

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blog, dating, fragrance, Franziska Josteit, In-Imitable, perfume, Pheromone, scent, single, smell dating, sniff, sweat, t-shirt

Love is a reaction, and smells are really just floating chemicals. Knowing this, it makes sense to build a dating agency around the idea that scent is a larger factor in attraction that physicality. Enter Smell Dating, the world’s first service of it’s kind.

How it works (from their website)

1. We send you a t-shirt
2. You wear the shirt for three days and three nights without deodorant.
3. You return the shirt to us in a prepaid envelope.
4. We send you swatches of t-shirts worn by a selection of other individuals.
5. You smell the samples and tell us who you like.
6. If someone whose smell you like likes the smell of you too, we’ll facilitate an exchange of contact information.
7. The rest is up to you.

3 days without deodorant… hmmm, not sure when to do this experiment…

Yours, Fran