I hadn’t done a perfume talk in a long time so I wondered how I could remember all those perfumes and creators and dates! But the group was so enthusiastic and asking great questions that it went perfectly and I had a great time. Almost 30 people came out to the presentation and the 90 minutes just flew by.
Unfortunately, a couple of days later I was hit with a cold and so I’ll have to wait a week before another perfume review. It REALLY is the worst part of having a cold… you can’t smell perfume! For many people this is Easter weekend. For others, it’s Passover week. But for all of us in the northern hemisphere, it’s pretty well the beginning of spring! And when I think of spring, I think of tulips! They don’t smell particularly nice but, in a field, they look spectacular.
Enjoy and I’ll be back next week!
Tulip fields at Sassenheim, near Leiden, 1886 by Claude Monet
The Perfume Chronicles 
FiveoaksBouquet
/ March 31, 2018Congrats on a successful talk and get well soon! Monet really was the master of floral landscapes. Breathtaking—even on a little phone screen!
Normand Cardella
/ March 31, 2018I know. I had a BIG dramatic Baroque Resurrection painting all lined up and then I stumbled onto this one. It won my heart.
Andrea
/ April 1, 2018I remember how interesting your talks are. I’m sure everyone was captivated! Get well soon. And yes…. Spring!!!!!
Normand Cardella
/ April 1, 2018People do seem to enjoy them judging by the comments I get at the end of the talk. Perfume can be a fascinating subject.
Undina
/ April 1, 2018Get better soon! Not being able to smell perfumes is indeed an additional unpleasant aspect of being sick. But look at the positive side: since you can’t smell it anyway, you do not need to carefully choose what to wear risking future associations of being not well with one of your favorites.
Since there’s almost no chance I’ll ever attend one of your talks, can I ask you about details? What topics do you cover? Do you use any visual aids? Are any perfumes present? Who is the audience?
Normand Cardella
/ April 1, 2018Thanks Undina!
I put together a PowerPoint presentation of 54 slides. The presentation plan is centered around 4 central themes…
1. definitions and terminology,
2. a brief history of perfume starting with Farina’s 1709 Eau de Cologne and hitting on all the milestones… including Fougère Royale, Jicky, Chanel No. 5 and Eau Sauvage,
3. the Great Creators : Ernest Daltroff, François Coty, Ernest Beaux, Edmond Roudnitska, Jacques Guerlain and Germaine Cellier, and
4. a survey of the 7 families using the SFP classification with examples of each family.
As examples, I set up ziplock bags ahead of time of 23 perfumes (23 ziplock bags). I’ll spray 5-10 scent strips depending on the size of the group which I am informed by the library the day before. I find that 5 people per scent strip is fine. It doesn’t slow down the presentation too much. The presentation lasts 90 minutes (in theory) but it always spills over a little. There is a question and answer period at the end. I bring along my Fragrances of the World by Michael Edwards so people can check out long lost perfumes and substitutions for perfumes that have been reformulated and have lost their appeal.
That’s about it! You should try it.
Normand