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Scratch & sniff book with scents from Duchaufour, Laudmiel, Buxton and more

post #1 of 13
5/29/08 at 9:11pm
Thread Starter 
I read about the coolest sounding scratch-n-sniff book, with scents and stories from renowned perfumers. I want it!!



From the blog Glass Petal Smoke:

Perfume lovers rejoice. You now have a good reason to keep your nose buried inside a book. If There Ever Was: a book of extinct and impossible smells, is a collection of olfactive curiosities based on people, places and things that no longer exist. The book and related exhibition is the brainchild of Robert Blackson, curator of the Reg Vardy Gallery in Sunderland, UK. Sound impossible? Think again. Eleven perfumers, the ultimate provocateurs of recollection, designed the scents.'

'If There Ever Was contains 14 scratch and sniff stories to experience. They are as follows:

· Instinct Flowers (Bertrand Duchaufour)—a scent based on four extinct flowering plants; Syzygium gambleanum, Hopea shingkeng, Ilex gardneriana, and Santalum fernandezianum.
· The Sun (Geza Schön)—a scent inspired by the elements that comprise earth’s closest star.
· Hiroshima (Christophe Laudamiel)—a scent which recollects the atomic blast at Hiroshima.
· Surrender (Patricia Millns with Kóan Jeff Baysa)—a scent based on the ritual use of incense to indicate surrender in wartime.
· Susanne Böden (Maki Ueda)—a scent inspired by a woman arrested by East German police for handing out pamphlets on freedom of speech.
· Cleopatra (Steven Pearce)—a scent based on kyphi, the queen’s favorite perfume.
· Le Secrets de Maistre Alexys (Christoph Hornetz)—a scent based on an alchemical recipe for eternal beauty.
· Night Star (Scents of Time)—a scent based on one of the 65 vials of perfume belonging to Adolphe Saalfeld, who perished on the Titanic. The vials were discovered 90 years after the sinking of the ship.
· Mir (Steven Pearce)—a rogue scent that plagued Mir cosmonauts.
· Peruvian Meteorite (Mark Buxton)—a scent inspired by a mysterious meteorite in Peru.
· Plague Shield (Christophe Laudamiel)—a scent based on raw materials used to deflect the Black Plague.
· Jesse Tafero (Steven Pearce)—a scent inspired by the last meal of a death row prisoner.
· Communism (Sissel Tolaas)—the smell of imposed uniformity in communist Germany.
· Scratch and Sniff (Dr. Gayle Matson, 3M)—the scent of the first application of scratch and sniff technology.

Link to full article here
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post #2 of 13
5/29/08 at 10:47pm
That is really, really cool. Are you planning on buying it? In which case, reading your reviews of the scents would be extremely interesting. If not, I'm tempted to do it - but my vocabulary to describe the scents would be strained beyond its ability.

-Red
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post #3 of 13
5/30/08 at 2:48am
Fantastic, I just placed my order.
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post #4 of 13
5/30/08 at 1:06pm
Thread Starter 
I bought it last night also - I can't wait to get it!
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post #5 of 13
6/12/08 at 8:51am
Thread Starter 
I just got my book in the mail - the book (closed) emitted a slight, sweet smell...I was very tempted to open it up right away and start scratching/sniffing, but I put it away for later when I can give it my full concentration.

Fun!
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post #6 of 13
6/12/08 at 10:49am
Mine arrived on Monday, it actually smelled quite strongly as if a book had been gene-spliced with a strawberry. It's a funny kind of hybrid - book culture - static unchanging texts (except in the reader's mind, of course) and culture of smell, always fleeting. Imagine opening a book and all the words falling out...
Anyway, I've tried the first one a little (a bouquet of extinct plants) but I won'tr give anything away until having spent more time with this.
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post #7 of 13
6/12/08 at 11:58am
Placed my order today! Looks like great fun.
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post #8 of 13
6/24/08 at 1:46am
I received mine one week ago and as soon as I opened it, the smell was overwhelming! A mix of hot metal, something mineral and ancient wood/old paper.
I let it stand open to try to get rid of this scent, but it is still going strong. I didn't scratch yet.
Anybody else had the same experience?
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post #9 of 13
6/24/08 at 5:54am
That is really cool. I look forward to reading the impressions of those of you who have/will have the book.
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post #10 of 13
6/25/08 at 1:53am
I've just placed my order! It really sounds fascinating! And those of you who've read it can't seem to give us clear accounts yet. Better. It it were too simple maybe it would be less interesting.
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post #11 of 13
6/25/08 at 5:41pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady_in_Black View Post

I received mine one week ago and as soon as I opened it, the smell was overwhelming! A mix of hot metal, something mineral and ancient wood/old paper.
I let it stand open to try to get rid of this scent, but it is still going strong. I didn't scratch yet.
Anybody else had the same experience?

Yes - it happens every time I even open the book. When it's been closed for more than a day, the smell fades. But open a page, and the smells just kind of tumble out. Which is really neatl.

The one note I get is an oily tomato, kind of chili pepper smell.

Without giving away one of the pages in the book, there is a particular piece about the smell of the last meal that a man has (in prison) before he's put to death for being convicted of murder. When I read this particular story, it was a Saturday afternoon and I was home. It just started to storm outside my home and reading the story brought me to such emotions...I felt tears come to my eyes when I read the short story, it was so touching. That particular scratch-n-sniff page has that tomato/chili smell. Of course, now every time I smell it, I think of the story I had read.
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post #12 of 13
6/25/08 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeperez23 View Post

...Without giving away one of the pages in the book, there is a particular piece about the smell of the last meal that a man has (in prison) before he's put to death for being convicted of murder. When I read this particular story, it was a Saturday afternoon and I was home. It just started to storm outside my home and reading the story brought me to such emotions...I felt tears come to my eyes when I read the short story, it was so touching. That particular scratch-n-sniff page has that tomato/chili smell. Of course, now every time I smell it, I think of the story I had read.

Awesome!
I just placed my order. I can't wait till it gets here.
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post #13 of 13
6/26/08 at 12:29pm
Thanks Mike. And thanks for the link to Glass Petal Smoke. I hadn't read it before and it's excellent! VERY well written imho :-)
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