Today's installation is the first provided by a perfume reviewer: Joseph Colbourne is known as Alphairone on Fragrantica, Colbourne on Basenotes, and has his own Youtube channel. Joseph shares his love of scent was kindled when he was a child smelling lily of the valley in his backyard. He also shared that he has studied independent perfume making for several years, though is on hiatus from study and composition. Lastly, Joseph shares a love of botany and music, so I couldn't resist asking for music recommendation for smelling. His suggestion: Chihei Hatakeyama - Late Spring (LP)
The following definitions are in his words. These are well trodden words in the sensory landscape, thank you Joseph for highlighting them in the Odorbet*!
Liminal - The space between the conscious and subconscious, reality and imagination. the natural and synthesized, the certain and the unknown. This liminality is served through so many metaphors in fragrance, especially as one pushes their nose further and examines, moment by moment, these spaces.
Visceral - Smell is the oldest of our five senses, and it is what ties us to our most primal instincts and the earliest formations of what would become perception and also emotion. While it is the least celebrated and embraced of the five senses, I for one find it to be the most profound, for these very reasons.
Synesthesia - When I have begun to pay closer attention to scent, I've noticed over time how my other senses begin to perceive it—visualizing color, hearing tones, feeling textures. As far as taste, well we know that it is so dependent on its close sibling of smell, that it's no surprise the taste buds often seem to be animated as well.
*Joseph (JJ) Colbourne (Natick, Massachusetts, USA)
IG: jjcolbourne
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JJColb/