Parisian Perfumes 1988

Amarcord*: One summer evening while walking on Amorgos, my nose was unexpectedly bombarded by the smell of honeysuckle and, zap, suddenly I was in San Antonio, Texas where I grew up. My childhood neighborhood was full of honeysuckle vines. During middle school, I even wore a honeysuckle scented perfume. So honeysuckle, for me, represents my distant past.

Smell has the power to instantly transport you from here to there. The first time you smell a new scent, the brain automatically creates a bond between the smell and its place. It’s an indelible interrelationship that provokes memory.

I’ve just finished reading Kathleen Tessaro’s “The Perfume Collector”, a perfect bedtime novel. It’s about a young woman, Grace, who receives an unexpected inheritance that takes her to Paris. Here she learns about the magic of perfume.

In the language of a perfumer, an “accord” is the blending of various ingredients. A perfume, then, is the result of the interrelationship between many to make one. Something like a musical chord…it take more than one note to make a song.

Our senses are invisible threads that connect us to our environment. The more we use our senses, the more we are connected to our environment. And the more our life has harmony.

*Amarcord is Italian for “I remember” and indicates a nostalgic memory. Although not a word commonly used, Fellini made it famous when he used it as a title for one of his films.