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Sniffapalooza Magazine is independently owned and operated by Raphaella Barkley.
Our spectacular back issues have won rave reviews and each issue is full of fascinating interviews, fragrance reviews articles and much more.
December 30, 2009
In this special issue before the year ends, we feature a special in-depth Interview By Cristiane Gonçalves with legendary perfumer Olivier Gillotin; Givaudan Senior Perfumer as he discusses perfumery. We feature Beth Schreibman Gehring with her fascinating article "Why I Write About Perfume…" a sure read for all perfumistas.
One of the most anticipated releases for tuberose lovers is finally here! Tuberose lovers can rejoice now as one of the finest houses, HISTOIRES DE PARFUMS has released the new TUBEROSE TRILOGY'S. We then offer a Yves St. Laurent Paris Fragrance Review by Beth Schreibman Gehring.
I personally would like to wish all of our readers a wonderful upcoming New Year and may everyone be blessed in 2010. I would also like to thank all of the wonderful perfumers, fragrance companies, PR companies and all the professional individuals and friends who have been so kind to me this past year. This issue is also dedicated all the talanted and professional contributors who have made this magazine possible. Please enjoy these great features by our outstanding contributors in this issue!
Interview With Olivier Gillotin
Givaudan Senior Perfumer
and Vice President Fragrances USA
By Cristiane Gonçalves
Fragrance Writer
Experienced in composing fragrances for various renowned brands such as Dior, Donna Karan, Elizabeth Arden, Ralph Lauren, among others, the Givaudan Senior Perfumer and Vice President Fragrances USA Olivier Gillotin is passionate for scents and emotions and takes the best from this intimate combination. “My style of perfumery has more to do with sensations, feeling and emotions… I do use naturals odors but more as emotions than trying to imitate nature”. With a solid professional background of more than 25 years working in the perfumery through a multi-cultural path in diverse countries such as France, United States, Mexico, Brazil, etc and perfume studies in the International Givaudan Perfumery School, Olivier is a very self-confessed perfumery lover … perfumery, his love at first sight, THE PERFUME MAGAZINE only for you.
CG: When did your love for perfumery begin?
OG: In 1972, I was student in Paris. I was studying biology and preparing nice arts, interested to work in advertising. One day, I met a cousin who was perfumer in Chanel and he invited me to a party he was doing one week after. In this party, I met other perfumer, also in Chanel who was a true artist. During all night he told me about creativity and odors. This issue was like love at first sight. From that moment that I realized that all my life I was always interested by the odors of the nature.
CG: Where are your main sources of inspiration and/or general influences to make fragrances?
OG: Nature is the “über” artist. I have always been highly influenced by the odors found outside. Being from Bretany (the West coast of France, in front of Ireland) my influence is more from sea, apples, pears (the most fancy of the fruit I had as a kid), roses, genet, honeysuckle, pines. I discovered more exotic florals like jasmine and ylang when I was already 25 years old. Also in 1983, I went to work in Argentina, then Brazil and Mexico. It has been like an electroshock with tropical fruits and intensely testing food. It definitively changed my way of creating fragrances. I still use a lot tropical odors combined with a more European structure. I am also quite inspired by painting of Picasso, Miro and Dali
CG: How is your style in perfumery, I mean, how you associate your creative and technical works in practical way?
OG: My style of perfumery has more to do with sensations, feeling and emotions. I am much more an abstract artist than an impressionist. I do use naturals odors but more as emotions than trying to imitate nature.
CG: Do you think you have an “olfactive signature” on your perfume creations? Something that is like a fingerprint of Olivier Gillotin
OG: It is funny to hear it because I personally don’t think so, but people who work with me say that yes; I do have a strong signature in my work. Probably it is more by the fact that my perfumery is clearly not classical.
CG: When you are creating a fragrance, what is the most challenging issue you deal with in?
OG: The most challenging is to put the combination of a high creative idea with a reassuring and comfortable effect. Perfumery like all arts is 90% perspiration, 10% inspiration. Then the other difficulty is to explain my ideas, using more feelings than others it is harder to explain.
CG: As a master perfumer and also a Vice President with an outstanding background in one of the leading companies in Flavors and Fragrances, what were the main initial achievements you had in your career you think were important to establish you as a legendary perfumer and a renowned fragrance executive?
The question is quite tricky: Yes I have added some very good success and thanks to a management who has faith on my hard work, I obtain a nice position but the question look a bit pretentious, even if it is very kind from you to recognize me. I absolutely love my work and feel a very lucky professional. As for my earliest success, clearly perfumes like Red Door and White Diamonds, developed with other perfumer, certainly helped me but I have also been very influenced by discussions with Jean Louis Siozack who opens my eyes (nose I should say) on the value and interest of simple and clear ideas and way of creating. Also perfumes like “10 Corso Como” and “Cristobal of Balenciaga” are an important part of my olfactive evolution. Since I came back in Givaudan (I did Givaudan perfumery school, quite a while ago), “Dior Higher” has been a good way to start in a company. Since then, I have been lucky to have a good amount of wins, but when a perfumer pretends that he/she is very successful without mentioning all the people around him or her, this is pure arrogance.
CG: I absolutely agree with you about recognizing that perfumer success also comes with teamwork, very kind from you to mention the importance of others people to make a fragrance reach us, perfume wearers and lovers. Thanks.
Making fragrances now is very different from how was in the past mainly because there is few time to perfumers to perfect their creations against the strong demand of the recent market. With hundreds of releases per year are on shelves, some of them are easily forgotten over the years. Givaudan has created iconic unforgettable fragrances as Thierry Mugler Angel, Robert Piguet Fracas, etc, what you think it essential for perfumers to create winning fragrances nowadays which become modern classics for the present and the future?
OG: You have to realize that it is very different to work in a very quick project than one which last few years. With some customers, the development of a perfume can last 4 to 6 years. For shorter development I use proactive works. Each time I got a new idea, I start to do a simple sketch and from there develop little by little. After many years of work, I do have a nice reserve of ideas to pick from.
CG: This sounds nice, proactive ideas.
By the way, do you think the IFRA regulations of some materials will impact on how perfumers create their fragrances, that is, their creativeness on perfume making will be affected? In general, what you think about this issue?
OG: Regulations are affecting us, a lot. Being positive I would say that limitation always help creation. Jean Paul Sartre wrote that he never felt so free than during the German occupation in the Second World War, which means that nobody or nothing block your spirit and your ideas, just yourself. In fact more limited you are more creative you become to go around the obstacle. There is no doubt the perfumes are going to be quite different to what we had some years ago, I feel it is good to be obliged to evolved; it makes life difficult but so much more interesting.
CG: What are your deepest fragrant memories? Do you think they have influenced what you are today as a perfumer?
OG: There are few. The first one is the sound and the odor of the tempest in Brittany. It is intense, violent, salty, sexy, recomforting by its beauty and accelerating; not at all what people think when they have never lived a winter tempest in the North Atlantic. The other is the first time I eat tropical fruits like guava, papaya and mango…It was like paradise, sensual and erotic. The influence is as strong as the memory, never fading, as intense now as was when I discovered it.
CG: Do you have a fragrance dream? Some raw material you would like to explore on a fragrance, some accord would you like to develop and/or some personal focus on fragrance creation you envision from now to the future and never had the opportunity to work on?
OG: A fragrance dream is the fragrance I will have the idea tomorrow. I feel lucky to have the possibility to try all raw materials I want. Since many years I also have worked helping research trying to see which new product can work nicely and how. Like a kid in a candy store, I am fascinated by the scenttrecks (live studies of plants all over the world) developed by Givaudan. They are an easy way to travel like I was a kid in a boarding school, traveling in my readings.
CG: Givaudan has some excellent initiatives in sustainability on raw materials through its Innovative Naturals Programme such as the sustainable sourcing of Venezuelan Tonka Beans and of the Laotian benzoin in Northern Laos and the preservation of sandalwood oil from Western Australia. In general lines, how do you contribute actively to these initiatives?
OG: Very good question. My contribution is to use those products. Also during the development of those products the input of the perfumers are asked.
One more time, I feel very lucky to work in a company so much involved in sustainability in raw materials and use a product without destroying the eco equilibrium such as the sandalwood from Australia. Besides to have lived in countries which are opposite of Europe and where an important percentage of people lack education, the work of Givaudan to help places like Laos to develop natural raw materials to help them and give them also school for their education is very rewarding and push you to use those products.
The Sandalwood from Australia is another way to use a product without destroying the eco equilibrium.
CG: Now a very special question: What is the scent that expresses yourself, your essence?
OG: As I mentioned before, my perfumery is about sensations and emotions. That means there is more than one scent. There are raw materials which I love like ciste and incense for their resinous odor as good in men as in women, the rose like Robert Frost wrote “a rose is a rose and was always a rose”. There are also products I love but we cannot use anymore like marigold which reminds me my grandparents garden when I was 3 or 4 years old (my first olfactive memory).
CG: Beautiful scented memory! And now, a classic question for a perfume industry professional. How do you envision the future of perfumery?
OG: The future is bright: With countries like Brazil and China, two giants who are waking up to luxury and moving more from perfumes of necessity like soaps and detergents, to perfumery of pleasure, we have a lot of work in front of us. Will the perfumery in the future very different of now? Yes and no. Yes because legislations are going to be tougher and tougher; No because the idea is still to create perfumes which make people smile, feel better, and fall in love.
CG: Olivier, to finalize this unforgettable interview, some news about your next fragrance works you would like to share with us.
OG: The only thing I can say is….It is a fragrance developed with passion, intensity and subtility, a clear idea with facets.
Thanks for your participation in this interview for Sniffapalooza Magazine. We wish you great fragrant achievements.
Cristiane Gonçalves, Senior Fragrance Writer
Sniffapalloza Magazine
Yves St. Laurent Paris
Fragrance Review
by Beth Schreibman Gehring
By now almost everyone knows of my passion for Nuit de Noel at Christmas time but besides my beloved Caron the other fragrance that I crave in December is Yves St. Laurent's completely irrepressible Paris! For some reason, this is the perfume that I love to travel with and do so as often as possible! Maybe it's simply a matter of the power of suggestion, could anyone possibly resist a perfume named after the one of the sexiest, most luscious cities in the world? I don’t know about you but I’m just not that strong!
I personally find Paris to be a very appropriate winter fragrance for many different occasions, whether it be a December wedding, Christmas tea, or a slowly unfolding morning spent with the New York Times Style section while drinking tea and eating warm chocolate croissants with your lover in bed. Paris is a fragrance that works equally as well with denim or cashmere and I've worn it with all that or nothing at all. It’s a bit like your favorite gold necklace, you know....the one that nestles between your breasts just so and warms very quickly, smelling of sweet skin and metal.
Images courtesy of Vintage Ads and Stuff, Duke Library, Pierre-Dinand website Additional images supplies by Editor.
Olivier Gillotin
Cristiane Gonçalves has recently joined Sniffapalooza Magazine in a new collaboration for new articles/new fragrances reviews and interviews exclusive to the Magazine. Cristiane is a fragrance writer and global fragrance consultant from Brazil, specialising in Oriental Perfumery, Luxury Fine and Niche Fragrances and Brazilian Perfume Brands. She is an award winning pioneer in Brazil in Fragrance Expertise Blogging as owner, editor and writer at Perfume da Rosa Negra which won the 9th Basenotes Awards Best Blog Finalist. She also writes for the main online fragrance publications such as Sniffapalooza Magazine, PerfumeCritic and Osmoz.
Cristiane has also a broad general culture and multilinguistic background and a solid experience and expertise in Management and Human Resources, acquired in top-levels companies such as Johnson & Johnson, IBM and Unilever. She is a true passionate woman for fragrances and an excellent learner in perfumery, having reached respect and recognition by great professionals in the global perfume industry. She is internationally involved in the development of scent culture and has the gift of connecting various dimensions as literature, visual arts, music and others artistic expressions with the magnificent perfumery world and her unique writing style. She may be contacted at cris.perfumedarosanegra@gmail.com . THE PERFUME Magazine gives a warm welcome to Cristiane Gonçalves and we look forward to this very special collaboration.
This isn’t a pretentious fragrance, it's lighthearted, fun and just sweet enough to be coy, yet when that vanilla warms up watch out because Paris not unlike the city it’s named for is just so very sexy and as so many things Parisian tend to do becomes very edible. Whenever I wear this one, I’m usually struck by a sudden longing for a bottle of Veuve Cliquot and a fancy box of foiled covered marrons glaces from La Maison du Chocolat ...... not to mention my utterly darling husband. Did I fail to mention that it also inspires a strangely obsessive craving for just about anything La Perla and last but not least any saucy thing written by Nin or Colette? I’m completely serious....try it and see!
Every year a new limited edition version of this scent is launched with a different and gorgeous variation of the bottle, however the traditional formulation of Paris still remains my tried and true favorite. It just makes me so happy every time that I wear it because I'm always whisked back to the pastries and macarons from Bouchon Bakery, fresh flowers and the strolls down 5th Avenue in December that I enjoy with Jim while we munch on bags of steaming, freshly roasted chestnuts. Paris is a brightly contemporary yet truly seductive fragrance, elegant and redolent of vanilla, rose, bergamot and sandalwood, conjured with just enough violet to make any sort of holiday magic possible!
About Beth Schreibman Gehring:
THE PERFUME welcomes professional writer Beth Gehring as a new featured contributor! Passionate about life, colourful and inspiring, Beth Schreibman Gehring has been helping others create lives that they love for over 20 years. Years of experience as a visual stylist blended with an extensive background in public relations and an emphasis on personal and corporate branding allowed her to work in and eventually become the President of one of the most prestigious Jewelry, Gift and Tableware businesses in Northeast Ohio.
Along the way she discovered that many were drawn to her for her ability to live everyday with beauty, creating each moment as a magical new gift , a never-ending circle of celebrations, feasts and fun. It is her belief that in designing powerful and beautiful rituals for our lives and beautiful environments to live in, we create magical experiences for ourselves and our families. A life filled with personal revelry and celebration supplies all of the magic necessary to create anything that we can dream of! An experienced personal shopper, lifestylist and bridal registry consultant, she has the taste and expertise to help you choose gifts for yourself and others that that you will love giving and delight in receiving!
Beth has been privileged to have many of her articles published locally and nationally, and has enjoyed giving many interviews over the years, most notably to Martha Stewart Living, Gifts and Decorative Accessories, Town and Country and Tableware Today. A gifted cook and creative hostess , Beth has also had the distinct honor and pleasure of designing the table settings for several TV series, including "Julia Child cooks at home with Friends" , "Julia Child cooks with Jacque Pepin" and the " Todd English and Olives restaurant" cooking show. She has also created the table setting designs for the books of the same name. Beth is also delighted to be a featured writer on www.perfumesmellinthings.com
If you are now so very tempted (And I hope that you will be!) you’ll find Yves Saint Laurent's Paris very easily at almost any Nordstoms, Dillards or Saks Fifth Avenue.
Photographs courtesy of: Chestnuts -www.avignon-et-provence.com, Bouchon Bakery- Beth Schreibman Gehring
FROM ULTRA FEMME TO VIXEN WITH
A SPRITZ, HISTOIRES DE PARFUMS’ NEW TUBEROSE TRILOGY OFFERS
THREE SEDUCTIVE NEW SCENTS
One of the most anticipated releases for tuberose lovers is finally here!
- French perfumery pays homage to the tuberose with a new fragrance trio
that portrays the many personalities of this powerful floral -
Paris, France – French perfumery Histoires de Parfums is adding a tale dedicated to the legendary tuberose to their library of scent. Offering three interpretations of this unique and mysterious plant that blooms once per year at night, the Tuberose Trilogy evokes moods and emotions from ultra femme to vixen, giving you the option to choose the tuberose tome that best represents you.
First discovered in Mexico thousands of years ago, the tuberose is a flower of many faces, and its powerful fragrance is considered an aphrodisiac. It presents a noble challenge for any perfumer to bottle, yet has inspired many legendary fragrances through the ages. The latest addition to the Histoires de Parfums scent library, which includes 12 existing fragrances, the Tuberose Trilogy captures the sweet and heady perfume of the tuberose and combines it with different middle and base notes to create three distinct tuberose fragrances.
Histoires de Parfums
nterview with Gérald Ghislain
We reported it first last October, Gérald Ghislain
announces new Tuberose Trilogy launch's!
Channeling your ultra femme side? Try TUBEREUSE 1-CAPRICIEUSE (capricious), a powdery floral that combines the freshness of bergamot and the warmth of saffron with essences of iris and ylang-ylang. The base notes of opulent suede and cocoa leave a mysterious and addictive trail.
Ready to unleash the vixen within? You need TUBEREUSE 2-VIRGINALE (virginal), a floral oriental that combines sparkling mandarin orange and sweet cherry with smooth frangipani, Tahitian tiara flowers and sensual jasmine. A blend of patchouli leaf, blond wood and vanilla form the base notes of this deep and sensual scent.
Want to play with the big boys? TUBEREUSE 3-ANIMALE (animal) oozes power and inner strength with a floral and tobacco leather scent that opens with a bath of fresh kumquat and neroli and leads into a strong combination of plum, herbs and dry grasses. Blond tobacco and Immortelle flower leave intense base notes that linger.
The fragrances in the Tuberose Trilogy – TUBEREUSE 1-CAPRICIEUSE, TUBEREUSE 2-VIRGINALE and TUBEREUSE 3-ANIMALE – retail for $185/each at www.histoiresdeparfums.com, as well as at select retail locations nationwide. (Takashimaya NY)
ABOUT HISTOIRES DE PARFUMS
Histoires de Parfums is a library of scent housing 12 volumes of fragrance including men’s, women’s and unisex collections. Written by Gerald Ghislain, each bottle tells the story of a character, ingredient or historical year. Created from the finest raw materials, these fragrances are created in the longstanding tradition of French perfumery. Gerald formulates perfumes by incorporating classic olfactive families and unexpected elements to create unique scents with rich top, middle and base notes. For more information, please visit www.histoiresdeparfums.com.
Olivier Gillotin
Why I Write About Perfume…
By Beth Schreibman Gehring
Some people think that it is funny, this absolute fascination that I have with all things fragrant. They laugh hysterically when they see my perfume trays and my husband double dares them to open my closet doors and poke through my sample boxes! My obsession doesn’t come as any real surprise to me, because for my entire life I’ve been surrounded by fragrance of one sort or another, from my earliest memory of the little cobalt bottle of Attar of Violets that my mother kept in her mother’s velvet jewelry box and the Shalimar that she always wore, to the bottle of vintage Caron “Nuit de Noel” that I just purchased for myself at Christmas. In between there have been many favorites from Norell to Soir de Lune, Diorissimo to Halston. I’ve loved chasing their elusive magic with the promises present in each new bottle and succumbing to the hunger created by the marketing genius that supports the passion and vision of the master nose that created it.
I was only about seven when I became aware of my mother’s Shalimar and I instantly loved it. That could have been because it does smell just a little bit like chocolate mousse, which was at the time the favored smell of this particular toddler, but I also think that it was also because of the way that my father looked at my mother whenever she wore it. She would stand in front of the mirror and apply her lipstick and then she would apply her fragrance, layering perfume on her wrists and cleavage and then indulging herself with a spray or two around her hemlines.
At that moment, my father would walk into the bedroom as if on cue to fasten her pearls around her neck, brandishing their symphony tickets and looking at my mother with utter adoration. You could tell that he was utterly captivated by her. My mother was absolutely gorgeous with thick black wavy hair, huge brown eyes and a complexion that could only be described as cream mixed with honey. She’d been a Yardley English Lavender girl during the war and she really looked the part.
In my twenties I grew up to discover Diorissimo purely because Mick Jagger adored it and at that time the Rolling Stones were my world. I fell in love with all things British from that moment on. Piccadilly Circus and Mary Quant were my muses and life in the 70’s was such avant garde and decadent fun. The 80’s were reckless with Obsession and Opium and the 90’s brought me Enya, Aveda and aromatherapy.
So far the 21st century and the onset of my 50th year have brought me a hunger for the vintage scents of my youth and a passion for the wonderful artisanal perfumers that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. An hour or two in their company leaves me refreshed and excited. Artistic mavericks, passionate natural educators and perfumers embrace a bohemian yet elegant sensibility that allows me to enter the world of gorgeous handmade perfumes without feeling like a complete and total neophyte.
Although my passions have always been fashion and fragrance, my lifetime has been spent in public relations and luxury goods marketing, most specifically in the arena of fine tableware and jewelry. As you can probably imagine this does enable me to fall easily and passionately in love with a wonderfully sexy sales pitch and by now it should be apparent to anyone reading this that I am blissfully enslaved by my own brand of hedonism
The introduction of the internet has been an incredible tool for connecting with those of like mind and it was
through this medium that I discovered the entertaining world of the perfume blogs. As a writer, blogs appeared
to be a wonderfully fluid tool through which I could hone my craft and as a marketer, I was intrigued by the
possibilities that this new media could generate. So I began to read them obsessively and quickly became
brave enough to leave comments. I made many new friends and entered into a previously unknown realm of
fragrances through this brave new world. Most importantly I was having fun with my writing once again, enough
to rekindle a long held dream of becoming a fulltime fashion journalist.
It wasn’t too long after I began to tentatively post some reviews of my own that I was invited by various
editors to become a regular contributor. I love the many wonderful writers that I’ve been privileged to share
these virtual spaces with and I’ve been honored that so many readers have responded to my articles and
reviews with pleasure. I really enjoy hearing from those who have let me into their lives through our shared
love of scent. It’s a gift to be able to connect with so many fascinating people and one that I don’t take for
granted. I know that I’ve done my job when people write me to let me know that they consider me a friend
because of the memories that we share.
My love of perfume is such an intimate part of me that I can’t bear to be standoffish or haughty about it, although I’ve had friends suggest that
I should grab my 15 minutes of fame and push the proverbial envelope of notoriety. When I write about fragrance I can’t help but bring my passions to the page and like my mother before me I desperately want my readers breathlessly near the nape of my neck, inhaling my perfume.
I’ve been honored to have met so many people who have read my reviews and we throw our arms around each other and hug like long lost friends. I love being their portal into a world that we all cherish, I love being a part of their lives. They are so generous with me and the only reason that I exist as a writer at all. Without them I’d just be sitting here all alone in my dressing room on my island of perfume samples, typing away on my laptop pretending that I was making a difference in the world.
Writing for editors who are as talented and professional as mine has given me entre’ into a world that was previously completely off limits to a layperson such as myself. I’m not a nose and I have absolutely no professional training in perfumery. I’m a blissfully happy consumer and I know what I like, but I have absolutely no professional language with which to express it. I feel that as a blogger or citizen journalist of sorts that I must be respectful of this world that I do not completely know, yet am privileged enough to be a part of. Fragrance has been such an important part of who I am and how I present myself that I think that perhaps I do have something to share. I’m not one who truly cares what notes comprise the fragrances that I adore, I care about how I’m feeling when I wear them and how people respond to me. I’m not at all concerned about being an expert…
I truly just want to feel the love. I have one hard and fast rule. If I don’t like the fragrance, I won’t write about it. I’ll give you my opinion but it’s truly just my opinion, nothing more. What we are talking about is perfume which is by its very nature one of the most personal things that we use every day, in the most intimate of places. I truly have to believe that the people who create these elixirs that we love feel exactly the same way about them as we do. I am aware that people I’ll never meet will read my words and I know that they pay attention to my opinions. Like I said…I just truly want to feel the love!
It’s fun to think of myself every now and then as someone who is shaping public perceptions of the perfume industry but I can’t fool myself for very long nor do I want to. Perfume is as intimate as passion and that’s all it will ever need to be for me. What’s peculiar when blended with my particular chemistry might be pure joy for another. Isn’t that part of the delight of finding a personal fragrance that is both adored and provocative? The personal connection to the process of discovery far supersedes for me the trendiness of wearing the latest and greatest, although the latest could be a perfect fit and is always fun to try! I know that I’m not writing for the Wall Street Journal or The New York Times and as much as I’d wish to say that I was, I’m simply a woman who enjoys writing on her blogs about beloved perfumes and the profound impact that fragrance has had on my life. For now, I’ll leave the marketing to the professionals and simply concentrate on the simple pleasures that I experience each time a new perfume comes my way. After all of these years I still seem to enjoy trying them all and for now, that is more than good enough.
Each new fragrance discovery takes me back to that first moment when perfume became equated with passion and I treasure those earliest memories. Last year when my mother died I had the bittersweet pleasure of inheriting all of her pearls. She had quite a collection, baroques and freshwater, a simple strand of creamy white cultured ones and her favorites, a gorgeous opera length strand of natural blue grays that belonged to her grandmother. These pearls are well over 120 years old and belong to a time in history when free divers held their breath and dove into the watery depths, braving uncertain tides and dangerous creatures so that they could be harvested for the very fashionable tastes of my grandmother. They hold the essence of those women as well as the scent of every woman who’s ever worn them. On the days when I miss my mother the most, I go to my jewelry box and put them on. They have a beautiful luster and a wonderful fragrance, lighthearted and giddy like the woman that she was when she was having fun being herself, always the belle of the ball, forever the sparkling Yardley girl.
These blue gray pearls are the very strands that she was wearing that night with my father and they still smell faintly of her Shalimar and the essence of my grandmother’s sweet violet perfume that started me on this journey so very long ago. It may be my overly vivid imagination, but I even believe that they still smell of the sea. I can still see my mother, brushing her raven colored hair and laughing at my father while she was dabbing on her perfume. She seemed to know something of the mysteries that could lay between a man and women and she shared her knowing openly with us. Her love of fine perfume became my touchstone, her raw and honest passion for life birthed my own gift of self expression and I am grateful for the love of her.
She pushed me mercilessly to create a life filled with beauty and was thrilled when I began to write. Quite often she is my Muse and a luscious one at that. It would have been my parents 68th anniversary this past Christmas day, so I broke out her pearls just before dawn. I inhaled deeply and was amazed to find her standing beside me, if only for that moment in my mind. Beautiful fragrance or any scent for that matter has the profound ability to reconnect us instantly to the richness of our lives and those who matter most to us; a gift that because she is gone I am profoundly grateful for. Now that I am grown, with a wonderful husband and son
I know what she knew to be true.
She knew that the sense of smell was the most potent of our senses, lingering long after the moment had passed and that one whiff of something exquisite was enough to bring back a breathless memory or two. I love sharing my memories through my passion for perfume. When I was a young girl, my mother told me that the most beautiful things in the world are quite often not seen, but available through the subtlest of nuances. I am thankful for the opportunities that I have been given to know all of the many ways that her words were destined to come true.
It delights me to know that I’ve may have inspired you to try a fragrance that you wouldn’t normally dare or that I’ve reconnected you with a long forgotten fragrant love. But if I’ve left you speechless even better...that was my mother’s gift. She brought so much beauty to my world and taught me almost everything that I know about fragrance, fashion and seduction. She was an extraordinary cook, filling our home with the most decadent aromas and a wonderful gardener who grew such fragrant peonies that one stem could perfume a room. She loved gardenias and wore them whenever she could. My mother’s delight in everything beautiful has always inspired me to create my own luscious life. What more can you ask for than the gift of being able to create your life as a work of art thorough every breath, every day.
That’s who she was, who I strive to be and that is why I love and write about fragrance...
About Beth Schreibman Gehring
THE PERFUME Magazine welcomes professional writer Beth Gehring as a new featured contributor. Passionate about life, colorful and inspiring, Beth Schreibman Gehring has been helping others create lives that they love for over 20 years. Years of experience as a visual stylist blended with an extensive background in public relations and an emphasis on personal and corporate branding allowed her to work in and eventually become the President of one of the most prestigious Jewelry, Gift and Tableware businesses in Northeast Ohio.
Along the way she discovered that many were drawn to her for her ability to live everyday with beauty, creating each moment as a magical new gift, a never-ending circle of celebrations, feasts and fun. It is her belief that in designing powerful and beautiful rituals for our lives and beautiful environments to live in, we create magical experiences for ourselves and our families. A life filled with personal revelry and celebration supplies all of the magic necessary to create anything that we can dream of! An experienced personal shopper, life stylist and bridal registry consultant, she has the taste and expertise to help you choose gifts for yourself and others that that you will love giving and delight in receiving!
Beth has been privileged to have many of her articles published locally and nationally, and has enjoyed giving many interviews over the years, most notably to Martha Stewart Living, Gifts and Decorative Accessories, Town and Country, The Cleveland Times and Tableware Today. A gifted cook and creative hostess, Beth has also had the distinct honor and pleasure of designing the table settings for several TV series, including "Julia Child cooks at home with Friends" , "Julia Child cooks with Jacque Pepin" and the " Todd English and Olives restaurant" cooking show. She has also created the table setting designs for the books of the same name. Beth is also delighted to be a featured writer on Perfume Smelling Things.
Images courtesy of Vintage Ads and Stuff, Duke Library, Pierre-Dinand website. Additional images supplies by Editor.
I remember watching my father as he’d scoop up her pearls and arrange them around her neck just so. Then putting his lips to her neck he’d deeply inhale her fragrance with his eyes shut and a gentle sigh. I remember wanting that magic for myself even as a very young child. You could tell by the way that he looked at her that she was completely adored by him. She rewarded him with a kiss and a perfectly knotted bow tie and then they were off, a veritable explosion of cashmere and velvet disappearing gaily into the snowy midwinter night. To bear witness to such a memorable display of heady passion was provocative for a youngster with a fiery imagination like mine. I’ve never forgotten the longing that it stirred and that was the moment that carnality took on common sense and won.
