Latest Features

The West Coast is most stereotypically known for a preconceived lifestyle of daily hikes, green juice galore and alternative spiritual practices. But how would one define the olfactory aesthetic of said region? One fragrance brand embraced this challenge, creating completely cliche-free scents in the process. Helio is the brainchild of…

Designed by Rad Hourani and created by nose Christophe Raynaud, Ascent represents the life and death cycle via semen, baby powder, leather, and frankincense accords (olfactory equivalents to conception, infancy, middle-age, and death). It’s a slightly sweet musk that maintains a hint of darkness. “Ascent is the black sheep, so…

Fragrance has long been heralded as an art form, but for Sarah Baker this conviction is an especially paramount matter. Her background in fine art, courtesy of the San Francisco Art Institute and Goldsmiths College, paired with a perpetually curious mind, has resulted in the wonderfully eclectic body of work that is Sarah Baker Perfumes. Part curator, part creative, Baker’s lens on fragrance has birthed a diverse universe of scent.

Sarah McCartney is equal parts fragrance whimsy mixed with perfumery wisdom. As the founder of 4160Tuesdays, her creativity knows no bounds. Seaside mint chocolate chip ice cream cone? Give the delightful gourmand What I Did On My Holidays a try. A soul cleansing after a wild night out? Wash Me In The Water, bursting with mint, franki…

After more than two centuries of continued use, authorities in the UAE have announced that ouds and traditional concentrated oils will no longer be sold using the historic ‘tula’ system of measurement and instead move to ‘gram/millilitre’ measurement. This move, which came into force at the end of last month, marks…

​Who says perfume can’t be political? In some cases it may just be a pretty glass bottle with a generically pleasant-smelling liquid inside, but amongst the ever-expanding sea of new releases, something that is more than just a pretty proverbial face feels downright refreshing. One longtime crusader for this cause is Geza Schoen.

Over the last two decades - thanks at least in part to the efforts of websites like the one on which you’re reading these words - the role of the perfumer has enjoyed a higher profile amongst the general public. Not only do more people know that - surprise surprise - perfumes are composed by human beings. They’re increasingly …

  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 direc…

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 message …

Of all the perfume brands to have hit the market in recent years, perhaps the most innovative - or the most foolhardy, depending on how you look at it - is the London-based Experimental Perfume Club. Founded a mere four years ago by French, ISIPCA-trained, chemistry graduate Emmanuelle Moeglin, its retail product is essentially a make-your-own-blend kit. Called Layers, it consists of an empty bottle, a plastic dropper, an instruction booklet and three scents- a Top, a Mid and a Base - which can be worn as standalone fragrances, but which have also been orchestrated in such a way so that they can be combined with each other in any permutation the customer wishes.

New York City: an endless flow of bright lights, frenetic energy and fast moving crowds clutching onto their grande lattes in a fabulous flurry of big-city madness. The city that never sleeps, where ambitious ingenues come to fulfil their dreams and a whirlwind life plays out amongst the skyscraper landscape. It is this megatropolis that inspired the birth of all-gender fragrance brand KIERIN NYC.

This is the second part of Derek Mohr’s history of Avon’s men’s fragrances. This time, the Swinging Sixties!