Perfume Room

WATCH THE VIDEO EPISODE ON SUBSTACK! A film about one man's obsessive quest to track down an orris perfume—starring Tim Heidecker, Marta Pozzan, Julia Fox, Kevin Kline, Fisher Stevens, and Gina Gershon (!!)—premieres next week at Tribeca. This week, I sit down with the visionary behind it all: filmmaker Charlotte "Charlie" Ercoli. Charlie is no newcomer to the world of perfume. She c...

Two perfumeheads walk into a bar and... Liz Renstrom—Perfume Room regular, photographer of our generation, and the genius behind @basenote_bitch (the ultimate fragrance nostalgia account)—dropped by my apartment last week with some shiny new gems in her collection and then naturally, raided my (newly organized!) perfume wardrobe. Be a fly on the wall for our chaotic good nez-à-nez. FOLLOW: @baseno...

In December 2022, Christina Basias-Androulakis (a PhD in digital education) filmed and posted a Tiktok of her wife Alexis Androulakis (a beauty product developer) in Sephora, evaluating the new Make Up By Mario Skin Foundation. That video went viral, and @thelipsticklesbians were off. 1.7M followers later, today the duo continues to challenge and shape the way consumers, influencers, marketers, an...

A 150-year-old beauty brand with over 1,000 SKUs, Granado might be new to US market, but in Brazil, it's a household name. This week, I chat with CMO Sissi Freeman about the brand’s uniquely Brazilian identity, its recent global fragrance boom, what it’s like running this legacy brand in lock step with her father (CEO Christopher Freeman), and the smells most special to Brazilians. SOTD: The Body...

Did you know that almost all Mysore sandalwood used in perfumery today is actually grown in Australia? Or that Australia has its own native sandalwood species—one that smells completely different from its creamy Indian counterpart? Goldfield & Banks Founder Dimitri Weber did. This is why he built a luxury fragrance brand entirely dedicated to showcasing Australia's rich native botanicals....

Meet the duo behind the narrative-driven candle and fragrance brand, Nomad Noé! As life and business partners, Corentin Hamon and Arash Yomtobian open up about how their cross-continental paths (and a Tinder Super Like ;)) brought them together, how they craft smells inspired by people and places across time, finding their niche within ' niche' , and how they preserve scent memories and tr...

*RE-AIR (recorded almost 3 years ago to the date!)* World-renowned, award-winning Master Perfumer Alberto Morillas is in the Perfume Room! Alberto is the visionary (and nose) behind blockbuster fragrances you know and love like Estee Lauder Pleasures, Gucci Bloom, CK One, Versace Bright Crystal, Kenzo Flower, Lancome Miracle, Thierry Mugler Cologne, Marc Jacobs Daisy and Armani Acqua Di Gio… and t...

A *FASHIONABLY* late best-of 2024 ep. A SMELL-ALONG OF 25 PERFUMES I LOVED MOST IN 2024 INCLUDING: my fav affordable discoveries my fav (not new) discoveries my fav 2024 launches Plus, enjoy... my motha!! Part 2 of our quest will air on Substack , this Friday :) SHOP THESE PERFUMES ⁠ (shopmy.us/collections/1086522) and check out my even more of favorites from 2024! FRAGS MENTIONED: Mango Le Silenc...

Perfume & Pain author Anna Dorn is in the Perfume Room this week (and 2nd*** author - oops)! How did Anna weave perfume into both plot and character development of the story? What perfumes is she wearing IRL? Why does each character smell like they do? All this and more ahead in today's ep :) FOLLOW ANNA: @___adorn ENJOY more from Anna this Fri on Substack SOTD: Penhaligon's Fortuitous...

HAPPY FRAGRANCE WEEK! Enjoy a catch-up with past guest, Vicken Arslanian. As CEO of three flourishing fragrance companies—Europerfumes (the leading US niche perfume distributor), Twisted Lily, and Commodity—Vicken is, bar none, one of the most interesting, successful, and busiest(!) leaders in the industry. Today, he's back with brand-new pipin' hot takes, personal family stories, and of course, t...

Robin Mason, dsm-firmenich's President of Fine Fragrance NAM, is in the Perfume Room this week! A lifelong beauty executive whose corporate background spans across retail, marketing, and sales on both the brand and supplier of the biz, Robin is not only an esteemed leader of the industry, she's a wealth of knowledge. Today, we are lucky to reap the benefits. Robin explains what it means to be the...

Perfume content creator Emma (Perfumerism) has traded in her Toronto address for a Paris one to attend perfumery school! Today we chat about her new Parisian life, learning the lingo of perfume, how to actually memorize smells, and navigating the duality of being BOTH a highly successful content creator AND student of the industry simultaneously. FOLLOW EMMA: @perfumerism NOW-APR 8, buy Commodity...

Are you practicing correct mouilettiquette?? Find out today with Hoax Parfum Co-Founder and Perfumer Joey Rosin! Hoax is a bespoke fragrance design and consultancy boutique, and Joey is its resident nose. In his short time as an independent perfumer, Joey has made waves in the industry landing notable projects like Sable Yong's Die Hot with A Vengeance, Tsu Lange Yor’s Sala, and many fun fragr...

Kitten fur, Chantilly cream, and Île Flottante are just some of the magical fantasy accords you'll experience in Odette Parfum Co. fragrances. This week, Founder/Perfumer Odette Fontaine jetés into the Perfume Room to tell us all about it. A baker by day, Odette knows gourmands--which makes nailing them in her compositions even more important. She shares how she's learned this olfactive ar...

What did I get right in my 2024 predictions & what's coming in 2025??? What is the lifecycle of a trend? Plus: my ins-and-outs for the new year. GE T TIX ~ SMELLS LIKE LOVE DATER APPLICATION (!!!) FRAGS MENTIONED: SOTD: Chris Collins Danse Sauvage*, Arquiste Little Paws, Jorum Studio Pentimento, MFK Absolue Pour Le Soir, Thameen Bravi*, Maison D’Etto Verdades*, Regime des Fleurs Nitesurf N...

Perfumer Mabelle O'Rama is in the Perfume Room this week! Mabelle is a Lebanese-British perfumer based in London, and founder of the eponymous perfume line, Mabelle O’Rama. In a just a few years Mabelle has already made a name for herself, with accolades from both the UK Fragrance Foundation Awards and IAO Awards. Today, we chat about how she learned perfumery, the process of starting a brand,...

Perfume Room darling (oh, and Grammy-nominated artist) Dave 1, of electro-funk duo Chromeo, graces us with his presence yet again! In 2025's most tender game of show-and-tell to date, Dave brings me five scents he thinks I’ll enjoy, and I do the same for him. Then, WE SMELL THEM. This one's fun. Smells Like Love tix: https://www.caveat.nyc/events/perfume-room-presents-smells-like-love-2-15-2025 ap...

Amouage Chief Creative Officer Renaud Salmon joins me in the Perfume Room this week. When he took the post in 2019, his mission was clear: make Amouage the best, most iconic fragrance brand in the world. (You know, easy.) We discuss how he’s endeavored to do just that; the rich fragrance culture in Oman; what daily life there looks like for him and his family; and the memories, people, and inspira...

Month 12 of 12 is finally upon us which means it's time to flex ye olde gift-giving muscle. Let Perfume Room help you do it with ease and aplomb! Enjoy my official 2024 gifting recs for candles, discovery sets, fragrance-adjacent gifts, non-fragrance gifts, and of course, the highly-anticipated LuckyScent x Perfume Room holiday 10-piece pack (a pack full of my fav LuckyScent discoveries (that you...

PERFUME ROOM CANON ALERT. This week, join me on a one-of-a-kind auditory journey with Icelandic Art Collective, Fischersund. This episode was recorded in Seattle at the opening of Fischersund’s brand new multi-sensory exhibit: Faux Flora (which is happening now through Jan. 26 at the National Nordic Museum). You’ll hear all about this special family, the magical olfactive experiences they create,...

*TBT* Bringing back this Perfume Room gem: Perfume Royality Hilde Soliani, La Regina dei Gourmand//the Queen of Gourmands, is in the Perfume Room today! At first glance, you might say dessert scents are her bread and butter, but Hilde would be quick to tell you that *bread and butter scents* are also her bread and butter. And for that matter, so are her fish, oyster, and cheese fragrances. Her tit...

This week, enjoy the second half of my conversation with Free-Spirit Perfumer Antoine Lie. What is the Antoine Lie Olfactive experience? What excites Antoine? What frustrates him? How does he feel about the corporate industry he left behind? And yes, yes, of course, we discuss Secretions Magnifiques. FRAGS MENTIONED: ELdO: Clean Suede, Rien; Paco Rabanne 1 Million, Armani: Code, Mania; ERIS, Les I...

Legendary perfumer Antoine Lie is in the Perfume Room this week! Having created blockbusters that range in style from Armani Code to Secretions Magnifiques, Antoine has done it all. Though he spent the first few decades of his career working in the corporate fragrance world, today, Antoine is independent (though he prefers the term 'free-spirited') and runs his own company, Antoine Lie Olfactive E...

New Yorker Staff Writer (and lifelong fraghead!) Rachel Syme is in the Perfume Room this week! Creator of the now-defunct, infamous Perfume Genie Twitter threads, and newsletter-turned-Substack, The Dry Down, Rachel's on the *perfume beat* on and off the clock. Today we chat all about her recent work trip to Paris, where she spent several days with Master Perfumer Francis Kurkdjian and then wrote...

Finally, a flavorist has entered the Perfume Room! Joan Harvey, Bell Flavors & Fragrances General Manager and R+D Senior Vice President, is this week's guest! Why do certain flavor profiles become gold standards and who are these alleged flavor canons (think: the Chanel No. 5s or Santal 33s of the flavor world)? How is flavor made? How do flavorists train? Did flavorists have anything to do wi...