Hello perfume nerds! When I was in LA this last week I spent a night with one of my favorite humans, Jennifer. Jennifer was the first person I knew who was super into perfume. Knowing I loved good writing and poetry she would share perfume reviews with me — which can be a wild ride — and that began to pique my interest. Add in a trip to Ministry of Scent (then Tiger Lily) in the Mission and I was officially hooked on the fascinating world of fragrance. That was at least 15 years ago and as you know if you’re reading this, I’ve recently jumped back into exploring the perfume world, which is so different than it was over a decade and a half ago.
I wanted to smell JJ’s entire collection when I was at her house and knowing she’d have interesting things to share about it I asked if I could record her. I pulled some excerpts below. I’d love to do a series of these, I just need to convince people with interesting perfume collections to let me into their homes.
You’ll also hear us talk about chypre and the right or wrong way to say it - I say it wrong at one point, the correct pronunciation is she’ pruh. Jennifer shares the definition in the recording but it’s the name of a family (or concept) of perfumes that are characterized by an accord composed of citrus top notes, a middle centered on cistus labdanum, and a mossy-animalic set of basenotes derived from oakmoss.
Jennifer on her perfume collection:
“I've pared down a lot. I used to go overboard and then I just realized there was a lot that I don't actually wear. So I try to keep the stuff that I wear more frequently just limited to this one little tray so that I don't go out of control. But I still have like discovery sets and samples.”
On how she got into perfume:
“What kicked off my obsession was somehow I wound up learning about this perfume, Après L'ondée by Guerlain, and I read so many wild, poetic, amazing, reviews of it and I became so enchanted with the way people talked about this perfume that I had to get my hands on it. And that kicked it off because this is violet and iris and some other things, and then I was like, well, now I want to know more about other perfumes that have those notes. So that's when I got Frederic Malle’s L’eau d’Hiver. It has a little bit of an earthy thing under there too. It really does smell like being outside in the spring after it's rained all day. So all of this is to say, I kind of just went down a Guerlain thing at first.”
Me on Tom Ford hate:
“It's funny because as I've gotten more into perfume and I've been in perfumetok and listening to podcasts and reading, Tom Ford gets a lot of hate now. There's a lot of people that think his new scents are overpriced and not as good quality-wise. That the juice isn't as good as it used to be. But I think Jasmin Rouge is beautiful. It's really interesting to me in the perfume community, anything like Santal 33 and Baccarat Rouge 540, anything that becomes super popular, people start to hate it. Because it's too common. Which I get, but it's also like if you make an accessible perfume that people love, there is nothing wrong with that.”
Jennifer explaining what Serge Lutens Gris Clair means to her:
“This was the first perfume I ever bought when I moved to LA. Even the juice is kind of gray. It's lavender. It just reminds me of where I was at at that moment in time and anytime I wear this I think about starting a new life in LA, leaving my marriage, starting new. I also have this image of a French castle or something and someone's doing the laundry in this stone room and this is the smell. Again, very specific and not something I could wear all the time, but really lovely on a hot summer day.”
Both of us describing Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Mandorlo di Cecilia:
JJ: To me, this smells like a vacation in Italy. This is another one that's a slight gourmand. So I really have to be in the mood for it. It's like wearing a sundress in Italy.
CL: It's syrupy, sweaty, sun drenched. I like the bottle too it's a blue glass bottle with a nice shape. It smells like a root beer float to me.
JJ: It's like you're indulging in a dessert on your Italian vacation. On the yacht. With, like, a little aperitif. You have your spritz or something.
CL: Or, like, an after dinner amaro.
JJ: Yes.
CL: Oh, my God, I love that.
If anyone wants to treat us to this Italian vacation we’ll gladly accept offers.
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Thanks for letting me record you and for sharing your collection with the internets Jennifer. You’re the best.
Let me know if you liked this and I’ll do more!
xo
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