Perfume Room

Manuel Mathieu is a Haitian multidisciplinary artist known worldwide for his emotionally-charged, indefinite-form paintings, drawings, ceramics, and installations. His work is held in major collections, and just last year, he was named a Companion of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres du Québec. Three years ago, during a residency in Paris, Mathieu turned to a new medium: scent. What began as curio...

Wait wait, Gap Dream was inspired by what ? The initial concept for the collection began as... soaps? All this, and so many more amazing insider stories on the making of THE ICONIC 90s GAP SCENTS (Dream, Heaven, Om & Grass) , with the visionary behind it all: Creative Exec and Entrepreneur, Gary McNatton! FRAGS MENTIONED: Diptyque Lazulio (SOTD), Jorum Studio Pony Boy, Diptyque Corail Oscuro,...

Born with a rare hereditary condition called hyperosmia, Joy Milne possesses a superhuman sense of smell—one so acute it led her to make a groundbreaking medical discovery: Parkinson's Disease has a smell. How did she do it? What might it mean for the future of diagnostic testing? And what other diseases and human conditions have scents? (SPOILER ALERT: romantic compatibility is one of them!)...

Olivier Cresp, DSM-Firmenich Master Perfumer, Founder of Akro by Oliver Cresp, and literal inventor of the gourmand (!) is BACK in the Perfume Room! (AN HONOR!) Today, he reflects on his oeuvre including his signature, palette, and unique approach to perfumery. We discuss how new advances in technology will impact past and future creations, AI and its role in perfumery, how his creative approach d...

AI content creators, my perfume collection (!), and the bottles I am eyeing right now all ahead in today's quick solo catch-up! SOTD: Commodity Milk Orchid :) FRAGS MENTIONED: Commodity Milk Orchid, Le Labo Santal 33, Diptyque Orpheon, Le Labo Gaiac 10, Byredo  Mojave Ghost, Diptyque: Orphéon, Vetyverio (EDT); Fzotic Vetiverissimo, Escentric Molecules Molecule 01 + Iris, Naomi Goodsir Iris Cen...

PSA: You Don’t Have to Go to France to Study Fragrance!! In fact, there’s an educational, state-of-the-art fragrance lab right in NYC—at FIT, home to the country’s only collegiate Cosmetics & Fragrance Marketing program. Today’s guest, Virginia Bonofiglio , is the Associate Chairperson (and professor) leading it all. Having held roles in just about every position in this industry over the span...

Award-winning independent perfumer, multidisciplinary artist, teacher, and Perfume Papa Michael Nordstrand is in the Perfume Room this week. Today, we discuss the 3 perfumes he thinks everyone should smell, his favorite perfumer, finding peace and harmony with malodorous materials, fragrance concentration and other lies we tell ourselves, learning and then teaching the craft of perfumery, his burg...

agustine zegers , Chilean olfactive artist and creator of agar olfactory and speculative scent lab , directs experimental scent spaces focused on expanding our sensorial tools to navigate a planet in transition. With perfumes that boast notes like hot fax machine, Mac carcass, mushroom gills, and yeasting dough, their work begs the bigger question: what is perfume and what are its functions? FOLLO...

Givaudan VP Perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux generously returns to the Perfume Room to offer a definitive roadmap to the past, present, and future of perfume. Bookmark this ep. You'll come back to it. Rodrigo is a fragrance genealogist of sorts, tracing your favorite perfumes’ parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. He offers a rare perfumer's POV on the current landscape: What’s trending? Why?...

Cécile Zarokian is one of the greatest independent perfumers of all time, but she wasn’t always independent, and she hadn’t always planned on becoming a perfumer, either. Today, she’s in the Perfume Room sharing how she’s redefined the rules of the game, turned her greatest challenges into strengths, and found the CZP edge—her proverbial captive if you will—that helps her compete with (and win aga...

IMAGINE THIS: You're a partner at one of the world's top law firms. It's what you've worked towards your entire career. Would you walk away from it all for the chance to chase your true creative calling?  Craig Andrade , founder of Aussie niche fragrance brand, The Raconteur , did. This is his story. 10% LISTENER DISCOUNT! ⁠ stele.nyc ⁠ | code: emma10 (valid (on The Raconteur full...

The Alloy Studio is an experimental, Black, queer-owned fragrance brand blending glamour with grit. Created by romantic and business partners Bryson Ammons (the perfumer) and Eddie Hodges (the creative director), their fragrances dare and delight with notes like pineapple popsicle, sativa, and 'trashy perfume.' This week, we get the inside scoop on the brand's silver/gold aesthetic, Br...

A lot can happen in a year. Since opening its Williamsburg doors last summer, Stéle has added a second location, dropped 100(!) fragrances in a single day, and moonlights as Nolita's hottest millennial nightclub (stay tuned for pt. 2: the Pacha-to-Stéle Fri night pipeline). Despite the (well-deserved) buzz, founders Jake Levy and Matt Belanger remain steadfast in their commitment to artisanal,...

My perfume hot takes, a catch-up with Principal Perfumer Sabine de Tscharner about her newest creation for Laundry Sauce, Mojave Peach, and your hotline Qs answered, ALL IN ONE EP! Thank you to our sponsor Laundry Sauce ! Use code perfumeroom15 to get 15% off any Laundry Sauce order! (valid through Aug 9, 2025) FRAGS MENTIONED: Amouage Existence*, L’Artisan Passage D’Enfer, CdG Incense Zagorsk, Ky...

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...