Six Sick Scents

I am a compulsive perfume consumer, and often have a hard time separating the image of the brand, the designer name, and the packaging from the actual scent as it stands alone. Hence I've been debating over the past month whether I actually love the Chloe perfume, or am simply enamored with the classy bottle it comes in, and the brand's chic minimalism, which I imagine washes over your body every time you apply the scent. So, you can imagine what a tizzy my brain was in when I attended the Six Scents launch on Friday, where I was presented with six more incredibly stylish and perfectly branded new perfumes to ruminate over.

Every year, Joseph Quartana of Seven New York and Kaya Sorhaindo presents Six Scents, which pairs six visionary fashion designers with leading perfumers to create unique scents inspired by a particular theme (this year it was childhood). This third series features designers Alexis Mabille, Mary Katrantzou, Ohne Titel, Rad Hourani, Juun.J, and N. Hoolywood. If the illustrious list of designers names isn't compelling enough, each perfume is packaged in a box bearing a portrait of the designer by artist Robert Knoke, and comes with a DVD featuring the Six Scents documentary and short films commissioned by various artists and influencers. Additionally, a portion of the proceeds with go to War Child International.

I got to sniff all the scents at the launch, and naturally had a difficult time separating my feelings for the brand from my reactions towards the scents. As I've mentioned, I'm a huge fan of Mary Katrantzou, which meant that her scent was the first one I grabbed, and which might have influenced how much I liked her "Trompe-L'oeil" perfume. I also liked the clean, soapyness of Rad Hourani's perfume, which was supposed to smell like semen (causing a lot of tittering amongst the people next to me, who incorrectly believed it was actually made of semen), but smelled like plastic to my husband. In the end, based on smell alone, my favorite was Alexis Mabille's romantic "Beau Bow" scent, inspired by France in the 1970's. So chic, so classy, and so French, like the Chloe perfume, but based on smell alone, so much better! This time, I think I'm convinced I need it through and through. Make sure to stop by Seven and see what you think.


Ohne Titel's "M" perfume

Six Scents Series Three - Making Scents of Memories: From Innocence to Experience from Six Scents Parfums on Vimeo.

-Tiffany

Seven's Deadly Scents

The entire Six Scents Set.

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by Seven, to take a peek at the wares, and sniff the new scents that they recently released in collaboration with six of their designers: Jeremy Scott, Preen, Gareth Pugh, Alexandre Herchcovitch, Bernard Willhelm, and Cosmic Wonder Light Source. After my recent experience trying out Boudicca's foray into perfume, Wode, I was looking forward to see what other cult designers had to offer. After a round of sniffing, I found myself particularly enamoured with Preen's clean, crisp "Teen Spirit." The idea was to capture the scent of an English Garden after the rain, without being too sweet, and I think they managed to nail it, without smelling like a fusty air freshener or your granny's underwear closet. Whether or not they managed to capture the teenage rebellion associated with the grunge anthem of the same name is debatable, but it definitely has earned a space on my ever-growing holiday wishlist.

Other highlights of the collection are Jeremy Scott's "Illicit Sex", which is as sultry and sexually charged as the name implies, and Alexandre Herchcovitch's "Urban Tropicalia" which is as bold and colorful feeling (if you think of it in a very synesthetic way) as his designs. The perfumes, which cost $85 each, or $450 for the entire series of six, has the added bonus of benefiting DIFFA- Design Industries Foundations Fight A.I.D.S., and is available online via the Seven Website.

The trippy box for Gareth Pugh's "Diagonal" Perfume.
The box for Cosmic Wonder Light Source's "The Spirit of the Wood" Perfume

-Tiffany

An Ode to Wode

So, today I finally got to try on the seemingly mythical new Boudicca scent, Wode, which is looks like a can of spraypaint, and is colored an indigo blue that stains your clothing and skin momentarily, before disappearing without a trace.  I've been reading about the perfume in the press for months now, and was convinced that it was unavailable stateside, until I stumbled upon it at one of my favorite Lower East Side boutiques, Project No. 8, which also carries the Boudicca ready to wear line.  Before I even smelled the scent, I loved the idea of spraying the perfume on like warpaint, in the style of the line's namesake warrior queen, as well as the sleek silver spraycan packaging, complete with an engraved name tag.  Even though I don't own a single item of Boudicca clothing, I've always admired their designs, as well as their seductively idea-rich mission statement.

Now that I've tried the scent, which is meant to be unisex, and smells somewhat woodsy, musky, and soapy at the same time, I feel like it is on the borderline of being too masculine for my taste, since I'm a big fan of super feminine scents (I wear Viktor & Rolf's Flowerbomb, Burberry Brit, and Theirry Mugler's Angel in heavy rotation).  Nonetheless, it would be a tempting purchase for Jimmy, if he would ever wear it (he wouldn't), or even just to sneak attack him in the middle of the night, which would probably be much more amusing...

-Tiffany