I am fascinated by the powerful memories that can be triggered by a specific scent, but my love of perfume was triggered by the realization that the formulation for a favorite perfume of mine had changed without warning. Back in the early '90s, the perfumes I recall being all the rage were Obsession, Liz Claiborne and Colors de Benetton. My favorite was Colors de Benetton in the clear bottle. Several years after I graduated high school, the big bottle I had to save up to buy had sprayed its last spritz. I made the quick trip to the local Benetton store at the Florida Mall and bought a replacement. It didn't occur to me to try it out in the store, it was a simple refill purchase. The replacement bottle wasn't clear like the empty one I had at home, now it was a dark green. No matter, I thought - still the same name, price etc. WRONG. The green bottle smelled to me like it was a close cousin of Pine Sol. I thought there had to be something wrong with the bottle from the Benetton store, so I purchased one from Perfume.com, thinking I might get a bottle from a different batch (?). Nope. I sent the Pine Sol concoction back to Perfume.com and took the foul smelling stuff back to Benetton. I scoured the web for some information about why the perfume I loved no longer smelled like it did originally. I came up empty handed. Luckily, you can still find people selling unused (or partial used) bottles of perfume on eBay. While I was on the quest for confirmation that Benetton had changed the formulation, I stumbled across Basenotes.net I was completely unaware that there was a community of people sharing opinions/information on perfumes that had gone out of production, were new to the market or had quietly changed their formulation. Around that time, I was also reading Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. The undercurrent of the plot is scent and one of the main character's desire to recreate a 300 year old perfume from a bottle in her possession. I began to dig deeper into the world of perfume after seeing the movie Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (I read the book afterwards, and naturally it was better.). I then found Luca Turin through continued research, and read his book with Tania Sanchez - Perfumes the A-Z Guide, The Secret of Scent (Luca Turin), Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession (Chandler Burr). As I was reading all these books, I researched how I could get my hands on the perfumes Luca Turin writes about. That's how I came across The Perfumed Court and the ladies at Sniffapalooza. Surrender to Chance is another group of women who sell perfume decants, so if TPC doesn't have what you're looking for, check over at SC. Eventually I got interested enough to take part in two Sniffapalooza scent themed travel tours! The first one was to Barcelona, Spain and the second was to Lisbon, Portugal. Each trip was a unique excursion into Europe via one's nose! I found my favorite perfume (hands down!) via Katie Puckrick's vlogged perfume reviews. Frederic Malle's Portrait of a Lady (Perfumer: Dominique Ropion) is the most fantastic perfume I've ever smelled. Katie's review of PoaL was so compelling, I purchased a sample from TPC, wore every last drop of it and just had to purchase a full bottle! At the time, it was quite difficult to buy from FM's online shop. I had to call my credit union, explain that I was attempting to purchase a perfume from an online shop in France - and could they please allow the transaction to complete? Once they'd opened some ports in the credit union firewall, my purchase was complete and I was ecstatic to have a full bottle of PoaL winging its way to me! Fun fact: Marie Antoinette was caught trying to escape from the French Revolutionaries disguised as a peasant, but was recognized as royalty because she smelled fantastically of Houbigant, which no peasant could ever afford to wear.
This is but a small portion of my collection. I have hunted down dozens of different perfume decants after coming across a reference to a perfume critical to a character's reaction in a film (Arpege via "A Single Man", or many of those mentioned in a book (The Perfume Collector). My nose is always curious and learning.
I can proudly say that I'm a two time Sniffapalooza veteran! I spent a week in Lisbon with the lovely group that joined Karen Adams and Karen Dubin on their Sniffa-dventure in Lisbon.
The trip getting there was an epic misadventure in late planes, missed connections and spending the day in the Madrid airport waiting for the next flight to Lisbon. Don't get me wrong, the Madrid airport is gorgeous, but when you've been awake for ages and ages - you need to keep moving so you don't pass out, not wait around six hours til the next flight to Lisbon departs.
Our plane finally landed about two hours before we were scheduled to have dinner and a Fado show at Cafe Luso. Thank goodness for tour buses. I know I didn't have the energy to walk the mere 1.4 miles from the hotel to the Bairro Alto that night. Cafe Luso was a bit touristy at times, but the Fado performers were talented singers and I enjoyed myself even though I was quite tired from a full day's travel.
Our first full day of Sniffapalooza in Lisbon took us to see the Castelo de Sesimbra before we made the trek to the Jose Maria da Fonseca Winery for a wine tasting of their Periquita 2010 Moscatel. After the drive back to the hotel, we met up with Roja Dove and Andrew Wright for Roja's special presentation of his perfume line for our group.
Roja's presentation was thoroughly entertaining! I recorded the audio of his presentation and uploaded it to Soundcloud. It was interesting to hear the ideas behind all of the perfume creations in his collection. After he described each scent, we were presented with the perfume blotter strip for that scent. My favorite was Unspoken but I resisted the temptation to order a bottle on the spot. I'm sure I'll end up tracking some of it down. It smelled fantastic!
Wednesday we took a long bus ride up through Cascais, Sintras and stopped at the Castelo dos Mouros. The views were phenomenal, and so was the weather!
Thursday morning Luis Pereira brought us to Lavadouro das Francesinhas (a neighborhood laundry) which has been in operation for over a hundred years. Here he explained to us his ideas behind the laundry cleaning/fragrance product line he's launched called Aldeia da Roupa Branca (Village of White Linen). The history of the Portuguese neighborhood laundry was immortalized in the 1938 film of the same name. It was quite an experience to be immersed in the sights and sounds of a laundry in Lisbon. I shot some video of the light reflecting onto the roof of the structure while the washer people talked in the background.
We also made a trip to Barbearia Campos - reportedly the oldest operating barber shop in Europe. They recently celebrated their 125th anniversary! Several of the men in the group took part in getting an old fashioned straight-razor shave. From there we walked over to Sushifashion where we were treated to a wonderful luncheon! After lunch we trekked down into the basement of Sushifashion to the MOOD boutique for some after lunch shopping. Just a few short blocks away, we stopped in at Skinlife to hear from owners Dennis and Patrick about their new venture as owners of a niche beauty boutique in Chiado. Our final shopping destination was A Vida Portuguesa. This shop was stocked with goods and gifts created entirely in Portugal. It was really exciting to know that everything in the store was made in Portugal (and they ship internationally!)
I had a fantastic time in Lisbon! Thanks to the Karens for putting together such a great trip! A little birdie tells me the next Sniffapalooza will be in Zurich. 'm totally looking forward to THAT!
Soon I will be on another Sniffapalooza adventure! You probably have no idea what I'm talking about, and that's ok. I'll be tweeting with the hashtag #SniffaLisbon, so you can follow the madness (or not).
Sniffapalooza is an event-based group of fragrance aficionados that originated in New York City and now unites perfume passionatas from around the world. What started as a small group of women getting together to shop and share their enthusiasm for fragrance, has grown into a phenomenon that has attained international recognition through TIME Magazine, Allure, Forbes.com, CBS MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Women's Wear Daily, Glamour, Brigitte (Germany), WWD BeautyBiz, and many others.
(It's kind of like Tech Field Day, but think perfume not technology)
The two ladies behind Sniffapalooza Karen Adams and Karen Dubin (with travel arrangements made by Kathy Wachter from Travel Exchange) have organized an excursion to Lisbon, Portugal!
We'll be staying at the Hotel Mundial for eight days and our itinerary looks something like this:
We'll be visiting niche perfume boutiques, as well as hearing presentations from Portugal-based fragrance companies. The first Sniffapalooza trip I took was to Barcelona last year, and it was fantastic! I'll be taking tons of photos (analog and digital) and smelling so many wonderful things (those are harder to capture).
Recently I spent a week in Barcelona at a Sniffapalooza event. What’s a Sniffapalooza event you ask? Sniffapalooza is a scent focused event for the fragrance enthusiast. This means the two main ladies behind Sniffapalooza are Karen Adams and Karen Dubin arranged for the group to visit with several perfumiers in Barcelona, talk about their creations and experience a slew of other fabulous fragrances while we were there. We also visited TablaoCordobés and saw a Flamenco show, Park Güell, La Sagrada Familia, theDali Museum and San Pedro Church in Figueres, Girona Cathedral in Girona, Montserrat, and some of us took a tour of Gaudi’s La Pedrera. This Sniffapalooza trip to Barcelona had 18 attendees, which according to Karen D. was one of the smaller Sniffapalooza events.
The first day on the ground in Barcelona was cold and rainy. The wet streets just added to the atmosphere of the city. I wandered around and shot a pack of NOS Polaroid film instead of going to sleep.
Each of us received a wonderful gift bag of goodies from Jordi Cabezas from JC Apotecari. My bag had samples of Carner Barcelona’s Tardes, Cuirs and D600, samples from Sepai and a agua de colonia fresca from Hierbas de Ibizia!
Our hotel for the week was the Hotel Colon. The Hotel Colon was constructed in 1951, and is well placed in front of the Cathedral of the city, just a few steps away from Las Ramblas and the Port of Barcelona. All this being said; the wireless connectivity in the hotel was useless so I picked up a Vodafone k3806 USB stick so I could upload photos from the trip each day. I was glad for the good weather in Barcelona that week, I didn’t need the heat/air to work in the hotel room (it didn’t anyway).
For our first evening in town, the group was bussed over to TablaoCordobés in Las Ramblas for a surprisingly good buffet dinner and Flamenco show. We probably could have walked, since it wasn’t that far – but it was nice to kick back and be driven around. The Flamenco showsmacked heavily of ‘tourist attraction’, but the singers and dancers seemed to be enjoying themselves, and this helped neutralize the ‘tourist attraction’ feel I had at first.
For day two, we all piled into the bus for the twenty minute drive out to Park Guell, followed by a tour of La Sagrada Familia. Everything our tour guide Ines told the group about Gaudi, Park Guell and La Sagrada Familia was news to me, and I enjoyed her explanations and historical anecdotes. I resisted my natural urge to research every angle of the trip and what we’d be seeing while we were there, and instead let the events and experiences unfurl at a natural pace.
Our guide Ines had a great personality, and I loved listening to her accent while she explained the history of Park Guell and La Sagrada Familia. I shot a couple of videos of her and put them up on YouTube:
Later that afternoon we took taxis over to JC Apotecario in the Sarria neighborhood of Barcelona. The proprietor of JC Apotecario, Jordi Cabezas took us on a walking tour of his neighborhood (Sarria) before we began the presentations by Sara Carner, Paola Gugliotti for Sepai and Deborah presenting Hierbas de Ibiza at JC Apotecario.
Sara Carner told us about her perfume line ‘CARNER BARCELONA’ and the imagery and emotions behind each perfume in her line (TARDES, CUIRS, D600).
Jordi treated us all to a wonderful tapas dinner at El Villano (upstairs) at El Canala. The food kept coming, the wine kept flowing, and everyone had a great time.
The bus ride on day three to Figueres to see the Dali museum was just over an hour and a half. It was interesting to take a highway tour of the areas between Barcelona and Figureres. The cemetery just off the highway in Barcelona looked really interesting, and I wished that had been part of our tour. Unfortunately, it wasn’t within walking distance of our hotel either.
While Ines readied our admission tickets to the Dali museum, some of us ducked into the San Pedro Church just outside the museum entrance. Inside were some of the most pained religious statues I’ve ever seen. It was both very creepy and very cool at the same time. I wish that the lighting on a few of the statues hadn’t been quite so harsh, it detracted from the emotions shown on the statues faces.
The Dali museum was great (naturally) and I was surprised to discover a theme in Dali’s later works that I did not know about. Dali had incorporated elements of computer technology into his later paintings and sculptures, and I liked seeing his use of circuit boards in creating a Japanese warrior statue, and art nouveau designs inspired by circuit board traces in his later paintings.
The craziest, coolest thing at the Dali museum had to be the beating heart brooch Dali designed. It was on display with all of Dali's other jewelry creations.
On the ride back from Figureres, we toured the city of Girona and the Girona Cathedral. Sadly to report, no photography was allowed inside the Girona Cathedral, but there are a few pictures of the cathedral online. We took a foot tour of the winding city streets of Girona led by Ines. She told us the history of Girona architecture and reminded us that the same streets were also used as settings for the filming of ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’.
Later a group of us went out walking in the city, and we happened to be at El Corte Ingles at closing time. They get the message across that the store is closed by counting out the cash drawers very loudly.
Day four was a quick forty-five minute trip to Montserrat to see The Black Virgin of Montserrat. There were no restrictions on photography inside the basilica and it was replete with colors, texture, sounds – too many experiences to record even though I tried.
After the tour of Montserrat, some of us regrouped and walked over to La Pedrera and took a tour of Gaudi’s building and one of the apartments inside the building. I think the rooftop would have been better without all the metal ‘don’t fall over the edge’ railings, but the apartment was very interesting because of all of the period furniture and belongings that the original apartment owners would have had. The best rooms were the bathroom and the children’s room.
On the afternoon of the fourth day of Sniffapalooza, Lisa from The Perfumed Court and I walked over to check out the Santa Maria del Mar Cathedralin the Ribera district. Cathedrals start to look the same inside when you've toured one after another for a couple of days straight. When I looked down at my feet, it was a completely different story. The entire floor of the cathedral was a burial ground, and each of the tomb tops were engraved with dates or figures. 1699 was the earliest date I could find.
The only event I did not attend was at Amorino Gelato where the group's host Claudia Guinot gave everyone a private tour of the Gelato shop, and everyone was treated to samples of the gelato.
The morning of our fifth day of Sniffapalooza found us gathered in a meeting room of the Hotel Colon for a special presentation of the creation of ‘Lemon Cloud’ by Agusti Vidal and Pastry Chef Jordi Roca (of El Celler de Can Roca). Their original idea was not to create a perfume for sale, but as a side element to their pastry creations. Lemon Cloud was their first original scent.
This is their presentation to the Sniffapalooza group, and I also found a YouTube video of Chef Jordi describing their creation 'Lemon Cloud'.
After Agusti and Jordi’s presentation, we all walked over to Regia to visit the Museu Del Perfum. The owner, Francesc Planas gave us a full tour of everything he's collected over the years. It is a wonderfully massive collection of vintage and ancient perfume bottles and accoutrements.
The key piece in my opinion was the flask that Marie Antoinette carried her perfume in when she traveled. I say this after reading 'The Emperor of Scent' and recalling the passage citing her perfume as the reason Marie Antoinette was captured while attempting to escape and ultimately, beheaded.
For our sixth day of Sniffapalooza we visited Puig, Firmenich, Cosmeticoh! and Santa Eulalia. Our guide for the day was the lovely and charming Nouriel. I'm fairly certain she'd never been a tour guide for a tour group such as ours. She seemed to enjoy herself during this day's sniffing events (with a little encouragement to go ahead and take part!)
Puig is the number 5 perfume house internationally. They have different operational segments within the company, and the one we were learning about that day works with celebrities to craft fragrances for the mass market.
Photo by Karen Adams
Puig gave everyone a 2GB storage bracelet containing all the presentation information for all the fragrances shown that day.
The best thing I smelled that at Puig was the perfume Diavolo. It waslaunched in 1997 by Puig and Antonio Banderas. It isn't available commercially to the US Market, but you can still buy it on Amazon.
Unfortunately, I don't have the names of the ladies that spoke to us that morning, but hopefully I will be able to include this information later.
Firmenich is a private Swiss company in the perfume and flavor business, it is the largest privately-owned company in the perfume and flavor business, and ranks number two worldwide. They producing perfumes for Carolina Herrera, Comme Des Garcon, Paco Rabanne, Gaultier and Prada to name a few.
The ladies at Firmenich provided us with a light tapas lunch. It was very nice of them to provide refreshments and snacks for all of us. There were all kinds of tapas laid out in their kitchen, sodas and coffee were also provided.
Paola Zanni and Ina Mexia presented us with the Firmenich scentorial experience. It is a showcase of their perfumers’ creations when they are given carte blanche to make whatever scents they are inspired to create, based on four different concepts presented to them by Firmenich.
I fell in love with M.O.U.S.S.E and Dunard, and bought a bottle of each! Oliver uses the tried but true tactic to get you to buy a bottle of what you like *now*, because each perfume is created in limited, numbered runs and once the supply is exhausted, that’s *it*.
Mar Jordan of the perfume department at Santa Eulalia gave us a specialized tour of the perfumes they carry.
The scents that appealed to me most were APOM Pour Femme by Maison Francis Kurkdjian and Gypsy Water by Byredo Parfums.
The hidden secret of the Santa Eulalia department store is where you’d expect to find a hidden secret - in the basement! Our tour of the store concluded in the men's department downstairs. We were shown the area of the shop where the tailoring magic happens.
They had displays for the bespoke styles of shirt collars, cuffs, suiting fabrics and the pattern pieces they've used for generations were all neatly labeled and hanging in the tailoring room.
Barcelona was great, I met a lot of great people, saw a lot of interesting things, but the most marked difference between the states and Barcelona was the shoes!
