Perfume Room

A PERFECT new niche perfume store has just opened in Williamsburg. It's called Stéle, and today, I'm joined by its Co-Founders Jake Levy and Matt Belanger. Despite the fact that this store has some of the most obscure and deeply niche fragrances I've come across, neither Matt nor Jake come from fragrance backgrounds! Hear how and why they created Stéle and all the great perfumes they&#...

I've been banking so many things we need to discuss for this episode! SO HERE THEY ARE: my fave fragrant Portugal discoveries, the Givaudan Haute Parfumerie event, Firmenich Mind Nose + Matter, perfume's newest consumer segment: teenage boys(!), June Smell Club, the TFF awards, and 5 recent PR standouts! PS: we're on Substack now! Subscribe for bonus and extended Perfume Room content!...

This week, we’re looking back on a 2021 Perfume Room Gem. Enjoy this special re-air with Musician and fellow fragrance lover Sasha Spielberg (AKA Buzzy Lee)! We chat everything from Fragrantica reviews (spoiler alert: we reveal our aliases), to Sasha’s strict fragrance rule, the layering combo that earned her compliments in the times of triple-masking, and so much more!  FRAGS MENTIONED: 1509 Oil...

Longtime Perfume Room friends Cathleen Cardinali and Anthony Policino, aka the duo behind Thin Wild Mercury, are back in the Perfume Room this week! From episode 1 to 140, so much has changed! This week we're chatting NYC, fantasy accords, scenting history, and of course the new Thin Wild Mercury New York collection! FRAGS MENTIONED: Amphora Parfum: Primal Yell, Sublimate; Hilde Soliani Fraaag...

The New Savant Co-Founders Ingrid Nilsen and Erica Anderson join me in the Perfume Room this week! The New Savant is a queer, women-owned, candle brand with handmade, small-batch candles, inspired by unique personal stories, and scented by top industry perfumers. Erica (a Fortune’s 40 Under 40) was Twitter News employee number one, and Ingrid (a Streamy Awards recipient and former Covergirl) was i...

Today’s episode is a masterclass! Fragrance legend, author, historian, taxonomist and Perfume Room fan-favorite Michael Edwards is back (!!), this time to chat about his newest book, “American Legends: The Evolution of American Fragrances.” What makes a perfume *American* in style and who are the quintessential American perfumes? What makes them legendary? What did they inspire? What does the futu...

Romano Ricci—Juliette Has a Gun Founder, great-grandson of Nina Ricci, and Co-Founder of Nose Paris—joins me in the Perfume Room this week! We discuss everything from rebelling against the fam biz, reimagining it, what gender in fragrance means to him, the idea behind Nose Paris, and why fragrance pyramids are a thing of the past. Plus, I live-smell the newest Juliette Has a Gun launch, Juliette!...

*canon episode alert* Back in March, I sat down with legendary Givaudan VP Perfumer (and incredible storyteller!), Rodrigo-Flores Roux, to record a very special live-audience episode. This week, enjoy a condensed version of that conversation! Rodrigo shares his earliest scent memories and wins (the latter will shock (& delight) you), where he sources inspiration, the *Rodrigo flair* you might...

LuckyScent’s Steven Gontarski and Dana Buchanan are in the Perfume Room today talking hidden gems of LuckyScent, how to intuit what a client actually wants (versus what they say they want), and a retail phenomenon they refer to as 'perfume trigger words.' We of course also discuss their personal wardrobes/collections including their desert island scents, what's new and exciting them mo...

Givaudan Perfumer Christine Hassan is in the Perfume Room today! We discuss her unconventional and holistic path towards becoming a perfumer, perfumery across cultures, her own special scent rituals, and a benzaldehyde spill in her high school chemistry class that changed EVERYTHING. FRAGS MENTIONED: Zoologist Rabbit, Oriza L. Legrand Chypre Mousse, Florence by Mills Wildly Me, Tory Burch Electric...

Esxence is an annual Milan-based niche fragrance convention that boasts the title of world's largest perfumery trade show! Content Creator Valerie March, AKA @thenichesampler — a longtime friend of the pod AND 3rd year attendee of Esxence — is in the Perfume Room this week recapping her recent experience and sharing everything from perfumes [from Esxence] we need to know, to unspoken ecosystem...

IT'S OFFICIALLY FRAGRANCE WEEK! To celebrate, longtime friends of the pod—Jenn Sullivan and Jess Matlin, Fat Mascara Co-Hosts—are in the Perfume Room today sharing the fragrances that are exciting and intriguing them most for Spring 2024! FRAGS MENTIONED: Xinú Ummo, Parfums de Marly: Perseus, Delina; Riddle Oil, The Body Shop White Musk, Phlur Apricot Prive, The Perfumer’s Story Sequoia Wood,...

In 2001, 62 vials of perfume were recovered from the Titanic shipwreck. Neil Owen , Head of Product Safety Sciences at Givaudan, was one of the lucky few specialists (alongside esteemed perfumers Christopher Sheldrake and Mark Evans as well as a botanist) tasked with analyzing exactly what the contents of those vials were. To whom did these vials belong? Were their contents revolutionary or status...

Dave 1 is the guitarist and lead vocalist of the Grammy-nominated, Electro-Funk duo Chromeo, and he’s also a fraghead. This week he’s in the Perfume Room talking about everything from the the F-Boy scent of Paris you never saw coming, gems from his personal collection, perfumes you'll never catch him wearing, the evolution of his own taste, smells from different places and points in his life,...

What's the actual best Britney fragrance? Who's the most underrated flanker of them all? Liz Renstrom (@basenote_bitch) is in the Perfume Room today and we're traveling deep into the multiverse that is: BRITNEY SPEARS FRAGRANCES to tackle all the hard questions. We've procured 12 of her 36 creations (including 6 Fantasy flankers, 3 Prerogative flankers, Believe, Cosmic Radiance, an...

Margaux Le Paih Geurin is a perfumer at boutique perfume house, Flair Paris. A team of just four perfumers with infinite niche perfume launches to their name, Flair is easily one of the best houses of our time, and Margaux is one to watch. In just a few years in the industry, Margaux has already seen several of her creations hit shelves, including 3 BORNTOSTANDOUT fragrances. We discuss valuable l...

We're celebrating Valentine's Day with Master Perfumer Honorine Blanc, a perfumer especially renowned for her sensual and addictive fragrances. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, modern perfumery has two eras: B.H. and A.H. (that is, before Honorine and After), because Honorine quite literally invented a texture in perfume that before her, didn't exist. We discuss what makes a scent...

A Third Culture Kid as she refers to herself, Phway Su Aye, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Gabar, has called many countries home. This week, she's in Perfume Room to talk about the one whose unforgettable aromas inspired her fragrance brand. Phway shares stories, rituals, and personal memories from her early childhood in Myanmar; she tells of a perfumery course that changed the trajectory...

Flower Shop Perfume Co’s Isaac Lekach and Lillian Shalom (also real-life husband and wife!) are in the Perfume Room today! We discuss: growing up in the industry (Isaac’s dad is former CEO of Parlux); celebrity perfume secrets; why the best perfumes are always a little bit controversial; the viral sensation that is Melanie Martinez’s Portals collection; a day in the life of a boutique fragrance ho...

Régime Des Fleurs Founder/Perfumer Alia Raza is in the Perfume Room today. We discuss everything from those absolutely perfect rococo bottles, to what it's like collaborating with THE Dominique Ropion, and you *know* I live-smell Nymphaea Caerulea—a perfume that at $990 for 8ML, earns the title of World's Most Expensive. SOTD: Fueguia Yakeñ & Chris Collins LUST | Oud Delice FRAGS MENTI...

NEW YEAR, NEW SOLO. SAME PERFUME ROOM. 2023: favorite launches, most-worn fragrances, and most exciting discoveries 2024: INs and OUTs, trend predictions, and *manifestations* for the year ahead! FRAGS MENTIONED: Versatile Paris Rital Date, Masque Milano Basilica, Dior Hypnotic Poison, Kerosene Unknown Pleasures, Versatile Paris: Dimanche Flemme, Culot Thé; Headspace: Absinthe, Myrrh, Tubereuse, S...

'Tis the season for my holiday gift guide! I share all the fragrance gifts I’m coveting including stocking stuffers, candles, other scented goodies, and answer a few gift-help requests!  Plus, A VERY SPECIAL GUEST make a very VERY SURPRISE appearance ;) ;) ;) SHOP MY HOLIDAY PACK: ⁠https://rb.gy/7arvgd⁠ Tune in to IG Live || Thurs 12/14 at 1P EST/10A PT (@perfumeroompod) MY HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE:...

Toskovat Founder and Perfume-Maker David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi is in the Perfume Room today. With fragrance pyramids comprised of accords like credit card, dirty dollar, priest's clothes, blood, and plastic bag, Toskovat fragrances beg the question: are all perfumes meant to be worn?  FRAGS MENTIONED: Diptyque Benjoin Boheme, Serge Lutens Santal Majascule, Toskovat Age of Innocence, Givenchy Ver...

Longtime friends and tastemakers Marissa Zappas + Ruby McCollister are in the Perfume Room today discussing their latest collaboration: a fragrance called Tragedy. Marissa, the perfumer behind all the Internet’s cult-fav perfumes, & Ruby, an actress and comedian you may know from Search Party, High Maintenance and Curb Your Enthusiasm , have joined forces to create a fragrance inspired by Frac...

Internationally-known DJ, Entrepreneur, and now Fragrance Founder Zernell Gillie is in the Perfume Room! As a lifelong fragrance collector, in 2022, Zernell decided to combine his two greatest passions to launch an eponymous fragrance line. With extraits at a whopping 50% concentration, and fragrances all inspired by different genres of music, it's no wonder this new brand is already buzzing i...