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

Neela Vermiere’s Ashoka : Another Iris epiphany

August 7, 2015 by Lavanya

Iris is one of those strange notes that announces its presence by smelling like absence. I am not sure if that makes sense, but most of the time (like I detailed in this post), when I smell Iris- I smell ‘nothing’ and the smelling of that nothing, makes me aware of iris as a note. After some time, the smell of that nothing can get quite addicting. Like a magic trick you really want to figure out. Like most people, […]

Categories: History, Perfume Notes, Perfume Review, Scent • Tags: art, Ashoka Perfume, beauty, Bertrand Duchafour, fig leaf, Iris, Mimosa, Neela Vermiere

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

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

Sniff and Science : Exercise is good for smell

October 18, 2013 by Lavanya

I have a cupboard full of excuses that I dip into, whenever my husband suggests I take a break, and go to the gym. I admit it, the idea of going to the gym just does not appeal to me. I do like physical activity, but it is just too much trouble to initiate said activity in the closed environs of a gym. And of course, as one of the excuses in my cupboard will tell you, other forms of […]

Categories: Scent, Science, Sniff and Science • Tags: science, smell