Perfume Enjoyer

Blind Buys and Videotape

For my first decade in the workforce, I was paid to watch television— a career I manifested as a child idolizing my Gen X camp counselors who competed…

Feb 16 • Maddie Phinney

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June 2025

No, perfume isn't Art.

The irreducible elements of olfaction

Jun 6, 2025 • Maddie Phinney

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April 2025

You're a Virgin Who Can't Drive: Red Jeans by Versace

It’s no wonder Millennials are entitled— they used to call us “Generation Y,” and from TRL to Teen Beat to an endless fountain of high school comedies…

Apr 23, 2025 • Maddie Phinney

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March 2025

Sex Smells: Bruno Acampora Musc

On April 30, 1975, America watched the fall of Saigon, marking the unceremonious end to a war so unpopular it shattered public trust in government.

Mar 30, 2025 • Maddie Phinney

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Perfume Nostalgia, Reformulation, and Why Things Can't Stay the Same.

Want to see a millennial shape-shift into a forensic accountant before your eyes?

Mar 18, 2025 • Maddie Phinney

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Our Bottles, Ourselves: Rive Gauche by Yves Saint Laurent

While cultural historians romanticize the first years of the 1960s as a period of promise, the decade’s close is almost universally timestamped by acts…

Mar 8, 2025 • Maddie Phinney

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February 2025

Bargain Bin Bouquet: Anna Sui by Anna Sui

On September 12, 1999, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt walked the red carpet together for the 51st annual Primetime Emmy awards; their CAA agents had…

Feb 25, 2025 • Maddie Phinney

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The Odor of Adultery: Aramis by Aramis

Chypre is a difficult perfume category to define, partly because the word itself straddles the denotative and the onomatopoetic.

Feb 19, 2025 • Maddie Phinney

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January 2025

Eau de Eulogy: Poême by Lancôme

Lancôme released Poême in 1995 accompanied by a campaign starring Juliette Binoche that drew from a $32 million annual ad spend, solidifying Binoche’s…

Jan 8, 2025 • Maddie Phinney

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October 2024

The Smell of Irony: CK One by Calvin Klein

In 1994 Comme Des Garçons released their eponymous perfume by Mark Buxton with ultra-utilitarian packaging by Marc Altan.

Oct 28, 2024 • Maddie Phinney

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August 2024

More Life: Drakkar Noir by Guy Laroche

The moment of perfume application is a sacred act, and there is no sanctity without submission.

Aug 29, 2024 • Maddie Phinney

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Hillbilly Smellegy: Baque by Slumberhouse

Remember being 14 and rifling through your parents’ liquor cabinet for something they’d never notice was missing?

Aug 21, 2024 • Maddie Phinney

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