Base notes form the foundation of a fragrance. They provide longevity, depth, and stability, allowing the brighter top notes and expressive heart to evolve fully on the skin. These materials slow evaporation and anchor the composition, shaping the character that...
The heart of a fragrance is where character, emotion, and complexity converge. Heart notes typically surface around 15-30 minutes into a fragrance’s diffusion, propelling momentum from the top, and foreshadowing resonance within the base, creating a living, evolving...
PLEASE NOTE: The following account is going to be long. But if you care about and want to support small brands, you'll read until the end to learn about how a brand with obvious private equity backing has stolen a perfume name I trademarked, is culturally...
Families. The fragrance expert’s favorite way to slice and dice the world of scent. But what’s really in a name? Unpacking the myth of fragrance families.
Through the use of ace alliteration and a touch of verbal vulgarity, the always provocative Tom Ford once again courts controversy. But is his latest fragrance creation indeed Fabulous? #trademarkedfucking
Is Perfumery Art? Does It Matter? Christopher Street resists simple classification because it operates as a structured account of lived environments translated into scent, rather than as a composition understood purely through its materials in isolation. The...
The System Applied to Christopher Street The earlier entries in this series approach fragrance from the level of individual materials, examining how something like oud or chocolate is formed, stabilized, reconstructed, and ultimately recognized. Those pieces isolate...
The Myth of Chocolate Chocolate is often treated as a simple and immediately legible idea in perfumery. It is assumed to be sweet, soft, and inherently pleasurable, as if its identity were self-contained and obvious. The name alone appears to carry enough meaning that...
The truth about oud and the importance of transparency in fragrance formulation. A continuation of the CM Blog series on de-classifying ingredients.
“We should never look to recreate the fragile ego of celebrity culture in perfumery, but instead learn from it.” The CM ingredient series continues.
On naturals, synthetics, and real concerns of sustainability in the world of fragrance. A continuation of the CM Blog series on de-classifying ingredients.
“If fragrance families are like settings, then ingredients are the cast tasked with bringing these olfactive landscapes to life.”