ACQUA ALLEGORIA'S SONATINA

Last Friday at the Institute of Philosophy researchers from Oxford University and the audience (including me) were discussing about the connections between scent and sound stimuli.

There may or may not be a scientific explanation, however our human senses and instinct play a special role in saying that there are some correspondences, like our old dear friend Baudelaire used to say.

Today I then decided to make an experiment. I sprayed on my musician friend Guerlain's Acqua Allegoria Pamplelune, asking what it sounded like to her.

Without her knowing anything about the perfume, she played a sonatina, referring to a simplistic, child-like accord. She said that "some violins are in there too". From wikipedia: a sonatina is a shorter, light in character composition.

Just referring to Maison Guerlain's own words, the perfume is described as a "short but concentrated formula, result of an alchemy of simplicity and sophistication". 

If you like the subject see my sound/scent interview for the perfume magazine and my synesthetic workshops on scents.

Feel free to leave a comment!

Nicola

COME TO OUR DESIGN WITH SCENTS COURSE!

As part of my quest to push perfume education and give people the chance to explore the beauty and power of creating a story through smell, I have created, with perfume ambassadors Johanna Norman and John Ayres the first-ever DESIGN WITH SCENTS course. It's gonna happen next July at Kingston University London, UK. Book your place here (accommodation is provided). Looking forward to seeing you there! Nicola

CARING FOR THE SENSORY IMPAIRED

London, 27 February 2012

Today feels incredibly rewarding and marks history in my professional experience: my perfume training has been used by a charitable organisation which cares for sensory impaired people. 

S Sense has designed and delivered a customized synesthetic workshop around scents for the staff of a centre which cares for deaf and blind people. The objective of the training was for the staff to learn how to deliver effective treatments, using scents.

It was an honor and a pleasure for me and the staff were incredibly enthusiastic. I am so pleased that the approach S Sense has designed, combining the sense of smell and sensory stimuli, can positively affect their daily work!

If you are a charity or organisations that care for different disabilities and ill patients, get in touch. Together we can discuss how the synesthetic experience of perfume can enhance your service users lives.

THE (SMELLY) CANTERBURY TALES

Who knew you could smell the tales?!

Last Saturday I went to visit a dear friend of mine who has just moved to Canterbury. I had never been and it was such a nice city-break, just an hour away from London St. Pancras Station, with its little pubs, tea houses, shops, and of course The Cathedral! If you have never been, I strongly recommend going, it is really stunning.

But it wasn't there that I found the scents I am writing about. What we all now Canterbury for is not only the Cathedral but "The Canterbury Tales" of course. They have also made a tourist attraction of them, a sort of "museum", so my friend and I decided to act like proper tourists and give it a go. The tales are staged within an entertaining and interactive installation: you walk through different rooms, each representing a different tale - it's this building below, on the left, shame we could not take any pics inside.

What caught my attention was that it is in a way a "multisensory" installation. The tales are told through sound (a device is telling you the story), sight (there are mannequins around you), and they used scents as well! Smell of fire and... well, medieval streets (not that pleasant, let you guess the ingredient!) the ones I can remember. A nice, amusing way of revisiting an old opera, I think. Worth paying a visit when you're there. The use of smells really changes our perception as spectators.