Music and Perfume

August 21, 2015 by Lavanya

Sometimes when I smell a perfume and there is music playing in the background, something happens. A magical synergy, that ties both the perfume and the song into a tight knot, so I can’t think of one without the other. And listening to the song while re-smelling the  perfume often brings back the intensity of the first experience of smelling it. This happened to me when I first smelled Mona di Orio’s Oud *. The song that was playing on my […]

Categories: Art, Memories, Music, Scent, writing • Tags: By Killian, Mona di Orio, multisensory, music, perfume, Scent

New Toes and Other Loves

November 24, 2014 by Lavanya

We have some new toes in our home!! Our daughter Sitara arrived a few weeks ago. It has been a crazy month and, with two babies under two, I anticipate crazier days ahead but I am trying to slow down and savor all the delicious babyness around me (which is easier said than done). I thought I’d crawl my way back into blogging with a list of a few things that I have been enjoying lately (other than tiny fingers and […]

Categories: Food/Drink, Memories, Picture Memories, Scent, writing • Tags: Aftelier, argan oil, baby, body oil, Farmer's Market, mandy aftel, natural perfume, persimmon

perfume as texture : a tale of mostly chypres

May 16, 2014 by Lavanya

It has been a really long while since I posted. I had sort of promised myself that I wouldn’t post or comment about perfume until I finished a certain piece of work that needed to be finished more than a year ago. I’m still not close to being done with that, but I found this post of mine in the drafts. It was written a while ago (so it doesn’t count as breaking my promise, does it?). But first I […]

Categories: Art, Memories, Perfume Notes, Scent, Science, writing • Tags: crossmodal, perfume, sensory

Snapshots of Bombay : Marine Drive

December 25, 2013 by Lavanya

As we were driving around Bombay, my father quoted economist Joan Robinson who said, ” whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true”. Having grown up in India, I am still struck and alarmed by how true this is: where contrasts lie in close proximity with each other, heartbreaking poverty shares roads with opulence. And I am not yet immune to this juxtaposition of contrasts as they bounce off one another every single day. And the thing […]

Categories: Memories, Picture Memories, Travel • Tags: bombay, marine drive, mumbai, picture postcard

Viktoria Minya Hedonist

November 30, 2013 by Lavanya

I had been drooling at the various accounts of Viktoria Minya’s Hedonist but Victoria’s review at Eaumg made me long to try it, to see if it really was all that. How could a perfume that was supposed to smell of peaches and honey smell that good? Thankfully my longing did not reach epic proportions because the generous and darling Suzanne offered to send me a sample. And like Victoria said, I inhaled it, smiled and wanted the rest of […]

Categories: Art, Memories, Perfume Review, Scent, writing • Tags: Hedonist, Perfume Review, Victoria Minya

Questions on Beauty : Undina from Undina’s Looking Glass

October 25, 2013 by Lavanya

I came to know Undina from Undina’s Looking Glass because of her desire to share what she finds beautiful, specifically, Annick Goutal’s Heure Exquise. I’ve heard her say before that when she loves a perfume, she doesn’t like to analyze why she loves it, and so I approached her for this project just a bit apprehensively. Yet since Undina is one who loves to tell it like it is, without mincing words, I was also very curious to hear what her thoughts on […]

Categories: Art, Books, Memories, Music, Scent, writing • Tags: art, beautifulness, beauty, Book, music, perfume, questions on beauty, Scent

Seven Questions on Beauty : Mridula Koshy, Writer

October 23, 2013 by Lavanya

While I was on an unofficial blogging break, I came upon a comment by Mridula Koshy on a post, urging me to try the mitti attar in a shop called Gulabchand in Old Delhi.  I was grateful for this information as I am always on the look out for such places in India. Subsequently, I stumbled upon her blog via Persolaise’s blog and discovered that in addition to being a perfume lover, Mridula is also a published author. I am […]

Categories: Art, Memories, Music, Scent, writing • Tags: art, beauty, music, painting, perfume, questions on beauty, scuplture, smell

Seven Questions on Beauty : Natalie from Another Perfume Blog

October 19, 2013 by Lavanya

If you read Natalie’s writing about perfume, you will quickly recognize that her blog is not just ‘another’ perfume blog. Her writing is incisive and honest and provides interesting ‘angles’ on  perfume :  an approach that I identify with and which keeps me coming back for more. 1) What do you mean when you call something beautiful? Do you have different definitions when you talk of different things like faces, art, landscape? Or is everything you find beautiful characterized by […]

Categories: Art, Memories, Music, Scent, writing • Tags: art, beauty, music, painting, perfume, questions on beauty, scuplture, smell

Seven Questions on Beauty : Tara from Olfactoria’s Travels

October 15, 2013 by Lavanya

Tara is a regular contributor to Birgit’s Olfactoria’s Travels and comes across as a lovely person, quietly passionate.  I enjoy her thoughtful comments on perfume and the precision of her writing, which is especially evident in her answers to these questions on beauty. 1) What do you mean when you call something beautiful? Do you have different definitions when you talk of different things like faces, art, landscape? Or is everything you find beautiful characterized by something similar? When I call something […]

Categories: Art, Memories, Music, Scent, writing • Tags: art, beauty, music, painting, perfume, questions on beauty, scuplture, smell