NOSTALGHIA, part one: something comforting

on the elusive ideal of the emotional support perfume, and other scented reassurances

As winter begins to show her rugged face to the hapless American South, so too, is it time to begin the second three-part series slash vanity project on my perfume blog after long and regrettable delay. The first series, now retroactively labeled AGAINST NATURE, dealt with profiling three specific non-floral smells I’m sure you are now familiar with. This new series, however, will focus less on individual notes and more on the process of how we remember smell. Collective memory, personal meaning, cultural association are a crucial part of how i ‘read’ perfume so to speak, and I find my criticism far more inspired by Art History and Literary Criticism than most beauty writing I can find online. To this effect, NOSTALGHIA will be an argument towards perfume as sentimental object and cultural text. So sit back, grab a box of tissues, and cry with me.