-
Scent Scales: The Androconia Patches of Butterflies and Moth
A butterfly’s wing is covered in thousands of tiny scales, most of them there for color. But on many adult males, a few patches of scales do something else entirely: they make a sort of species-specific perfume. These are scent scales, and the patches they form are called androconia. Androconia patches The name comes from…
-
Smoke and Endurance: The Thurible in Miles Greenberg’s WAR
A swinging censer of smoke is one of the oldest ritual gestures in the West. In Miles Greenberg’s recent durational work WAR, it moves out of the sanctuary and into a shuttered Manhattan movie theater, where an object built for prayer becomes a tool for endurance. What a thurible is A thurible, also called a…
-
Scent + Art Festival | Riga, Latvia
The second annual Scent + Art festival in Riga, Latvia this May was a much needed boost of community and creativity that amplified scent in courageous, and intuitive ways. The curation was inclusive and experimental, towing the line of serendipity and faith in the interdisciplinary nature of art and scent. Founder Sandris Mūriņš and his…
-
The Bottle is Leaking the Perfumer Lied
Recent Notes from the Invisible, Sometimes Confusing, Often Privileged World of Perfumery As part of his continued, generous efforts to educate the consumer, experts or influencers and businesses of the importance of ingredient transparency in perfumery, officially the Perfumery Code of Ethics, Christophe Laudamiel and co-author Tanishq Kumar wrote a chapter (page 35) in a…
-
Scent of Museums
The scent of a museum is generally considered quiet, idealized and hermetic. Institutions try hard to create sterile moments for the visual and non-touchable to speak aesthetically without the intrusion of other senses (no touching! no smells! no voices please!). Regardless of old or new art, museums often smell like their audiences (often stale le…
-
On the Nose: What to Learn from Funk and Fragheads
Happy grad season!! This Odorbet word selection is by Alexandra Segal*, Wesleyan University class of 25, who recently wrote her undergraduate anthropology thesis on perfume and queerness. It received both High Honors and the 2025 Gay, Lesbian, and Sexuality Studies (GLASS) Prize for best research and writing in the field. Alexandra grew up in Los…
-
Scent as Red Flag
A red flag symbolizes a warning, danger, caution, potential problem and further investigation is warranted. Scent naturally serves as a warning signal to our nervous systems (“food is not safe!”, “fire!”, “not healthy!”, etc). Using scent in environments whether we are aware or not, lures you to buy, to eat, to linger or to move…
-
Luca Turin: 40 Years of Perfume Obsession
There is something both inclusive and exclusive about scent reviewing. In full disclosure, while I have amassed an impressive collection of scents that could fill a kiddy pool, I never read or listen to reviews. That said I realize the importance reviewers might be to the landscape of perfume and consumers. I like that, unlike…
-
Leonardo & Perfume Rennaissance Recipes
(Image 16th-century censers, Blois Cathedral © Léonard de Serres) In a museum which was once the living and dying chambers of Leonardo De Vinci, Château du Clos Lucé in central France, there is an exhibition exploring scent during the time of this Rennaissance man and parenthetically his mother “Catarina’s” life. The exhibition press materials share that his…
-
The Smell of Work
No longer a smell of success but a quiet, revolt to the culture of work is emerging amongst Chinese youth. The ban wei, the smell of work is a new term invented by the youth to amplify the notion of being over saturated with and in someways infected with work. The smell of work is…
