The Kelpie, Herbert James Draper

if you’re not ending your emails with “kill me! your slave and enemy,” then what are you doing with your life

The wonderful gothic art deco American Radiator Building, New York

Augusto Sezanne (1856 - 1935) - The Lagoon Lighthouse. 1912. Oil on canvas.

illustrations by skip liepke for wuthering heights

The celebrity fragrance is only acceptable if you acknowledge it cannot and should not be worn alone; it is only acceptable if you pair it with a luxury product. If you do not own a $200 perfume to layer with Curious (Britney Spears, 2004) or Fancy (Jessica Simpson, 2008), that’s when it becomes embarrassing.

I confess to you: I don’t want to smell like a cupcake. But sometimes when I walk past the celebrity scents in the chemist, I kind of wish I did. The woman who wears Fantasy is the woman who gets drunk after two Smirnoff Blacks: she’s happy and she paid a lot less than you to get there.

My article, A Cultural Autopsy of the Celebrity Perfume, is live. If you ever wore any of the Britneys or the Rihannas or the Beyonces, you should read it.

My first substack is live! (not paywalled. never paywalled.) In it I discuss the latest YA book scandal, fake Russias, kdramas, and four leather perfumes.

My review of Le Lion de Chanel, and how it contains a hundred years of perfume history, is now live. I would love if you read it! ❤️ "Though Le Lion contains no synthetics meant to mimic the traditional perfumery ingredients taken from animals like hyrax or civet, it does smell animalic. That strange, earthy, slightly disgusting but also comforting smell of living things — that’s what animalic perfumes smell like, and that is present in Le Lion. Animalic doesn’t always mean a horrible funk, and can in fact be quite wonderful — butter smells animalic, honey smells animalic. But more than that it is the smell of us, of humanity, of other people’s bodies. An animalic perfume is always marketed as sexy, and they are, but more than that they are intimate. It’s that quiet moment in the morning when you wake up before your lover and are surrounded by the smell their slightly dirty hair. Le Lion remains at every stage slightly animalic, slightly medicinal, golden and strange."

A few fragrance reviews from Perfumes: The Guide (2008 and 2018 editions), Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez

Perfume photography in Sali Hughes’ Pretty Iconic: Poison by Dior (1985), Shalimar by Guerlain (1925), Angel by Mugler (1992), Youth Dew by Estee Lauder (1953)

Achilles Come Down, Gang of Youths, 2017 // Achilles Lamenting the Death of Patroclus, Gavin Hamilton, 1763

Galileo Galilei, February 15, 1564 / 2019

(image: Galileo Galilei, Sidereus nuncius, facsimile of the 1610 edition)

Everything about this year sucks, but something you can do for yourself that will bring a little joy is to order some perfume samples! The pleasure of wandering down to your local department store and smelling the new perfumes isn't possible for a lot of us right now, which makes ordering samples even more appealing. It's a very easy process - the hardest thing you will have to do is research what perfumes you want to try! I highly recommend trying perfume samples, even over spraying on a blotter in store. You can't know how a perfume will perform - and more importantly, how it will perform on you - until you try it on skin. Samples are the perfect way to live with a scent for a week or two and really make sure you want to invest in it.

Sampling sites are also a great way to branch out further than designer scents and try some niche, indie, artisan or vintage perfumes.

*denotes sites or methods I myself have used and can vouch for. The rest are quite popular in the wider fragrance community and have strong recommendations.

theperfumedcourt* is the best overall sample site with the widest range. They are also the most expensive. i have purchased from them many times, and they're excellent! they have a wider range of designer, niche, and celebrity brands. I love their themed packs based on a note (I bought the pomegranate packs years ago, loved it). Shipping takes ages to get to me but i AM half a world away. they do a black friday sale every year. SHIPS WORLDWIDE

luckyscent* is the best site for niche perfumery. They have a lot of more obscure, artisan and indie brands - this is the site for when you’re in the deep deep of perfume love. They never do sales but they have a standard 20% off $100. SHIPS WORLDWIDE

surrendertochance* they are expensive but they have many hard to find scents like the dior and armani privee exclusive lines. They do specials all the time. SHIPS WORLDWIDE

perfumeniche* is a little Canadian decant store and i ADORE them! I got a big order from them for Christmas and I can't say enough good things about them. They sent me four complimentary samples as well! The Canadian dollar is also much more forgiving. Shipping took a while but again, I'm on the other side of the world. Their range is really impressive too! SHIPS WORLDWIDE

first in fragrance is a German site, very popular in Europe - probably the closest in scope to luckyscent. they have a lot of popular niche lines like creed and montale too. SHIPS EUROPE

notino. very popular european site with a huge range. SHIPS EUROPE

ebay*. Only go with 99% feedback stores and honestly, I would never buy a sample that didn't have free shipping (it's a tiny vial, come on.) but i have bought samples here and it all went very well. a great way to find vintage or hard to find scents - i ordered two samples from the chanel les exclusifs line (HARD to find) from ebay. you can also get bigger decants on ebay, like 5ml/10ml

the brand's own site*. Many (most) niche brands will do samples or a discovery set, often this is the most affordable way to sample a whole house. Le Labo has a very good in built sampling service, I've bought from them many times. i've also bought from sixteen92, imaginary authors, olympic orchids, etc etc.... if you're interested in a niche house, check out their site. zoologist i bought from a reseller but if i was in the US i would buy from their site. there are some houses on etsy too like alkemia and black phoenix alchemy lab.

many fragheads do decants/swaps on fragrantica/basenotes/facebook/reddit, but I have never done this so can't comment on it.

lknu**, LOVE them, their samples are a little expensive but they have samples for their ENTIRE stock (VERY rare), they stock a lot of great, great niche lines that i love or am interested in, free shipping!!!! and they always give me extra samples. highly rec if you’re in AUS/NZ/Asia; they are based in Melbourne! SHIPS WORLDWIDE

If you’re one of the lucky people who live in a country with Sephora, they may stock some of their perfume sample sets. These seem like great value for money and you should definitely check them out!

Face reveals of The Force Awakens

cry for judas by the mountain goats

Absolutely. I agree

“‘Til There’s Nothing Left To See” 40x50 https://www.instagram.com/p/CB6abYIDWsx/?igshid=1vfxk9l9z6awb