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She continues, “We didn’t want to make a complicated quiz, ‘tell us what kind of notes you love’ etc. We don’t ask about fragrance families and weird formal categorisations that people don’t relate to – we speak more in everyday language (‘I like clean and fresh scents etc.’). You can …

When it comes to childhood memories, most kids hunker down on Saturday morning watching their favourite cartoons or goofy sitcoms but for me, it has been the ultimate UK soap, Coronation Street to turn to. From childhood to yesterday's cliffhanger, I have tuned in religiously to watch a multitude of characters land, live out, die and even outlast other characters. There is nothing better than watching those characters treading the cobbles to that famous trumpeted-theme song which now also happens to be my signature ring tone, I’m that addicted.

​I think it’s fair to describe me as a crafter. I’ve tried pretty much everything, from knitting and whittling to needle felting with cat hair. I’ll gleefully give anything a try, and enjoy the process even if the end result leaves something to be desired. So when I was asked to review Homemade Perfume by Anya McCoy, my crafter’s heart did a somersault – perfumery! One of the two crafts I’ve always wanted to try but haven’t quite found the opportunity! (The other is taxidermy, which would be an altogether very different review).

Basenotes will be reporting on what we find, and you will be able to see our coverage from this link here. …

Suzy Nightingale spends a week with tuberose despite her finding the note akin to being shot through the head with a silver bullet. Will she be turned by tuberose?

Right now, I am an MBA student at Indiana Institute of Technology, or Indiana Tech as we like calling ourselves. In fact, I am the first autistic graduate student in the school’s history. To be honest, it’s been challenging to get to the point where I am right now. Yet I am incredibly proud up to this point: a 3.7 GPA for …

Welcome to the third interview in the Basenotes series called Conversations with the Artisan, the aim of which is to introduce readers to the artisans who make perfume from the ground up, often distilling, tincturing, and macerating their own raw materials at great personal effort and expense. Who or what exactly are these artisans any…

Scent Verse is a poetry project curated by Basenotes writer Eddie Bulliqi that seeks to explore scent language and metaphors by publishing poems from contributors across different industries that either take scent as their inspiration or are very evocative of smell.  If you are interested in being involved, please send a direct me…

  International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF), Laboratoire Monique Rémy (LMR) and Christopher Yu & Laurent Delafon of United Perfumes gave a special sneak peek at the Post-Modern Fine Fragrance collection during a Speed Smelling event at Claridge’s in West London. While the complete series is comprised of 14…

It isn’t every day you get to see some of the world’s most revered artistic perfumers gathered together in one room – perhaps even less frequent to witness them, later, huddled beneath the awning of a Tex-Mex bar eating chips from a bucket – but such was the scene of this year’s Art and Olfaction Awards as they celebrated their 5th year.

Incense forms the fragrant backbone of many cultures. India is where the art was first discovered, writes Krishnaraj Iyengar.

Trygve Harris is unusual, even among artisans. She is a woman, but even men in the most culturally closed, patriarchal societies of the world respect her. She’s a Westerner, but has freely foregone any expectation of comfort or convenience. She’s a natural businesswoman, but doesn’t delegate. She’s successful, but has no hubris. And, unusually, for someone who is such a doer - personally trekking through jungles and inspecting crops in the most remote regions of the world – she is also a brilliant communicator, with the rare ability to entertain and elucidate under the same breath.