“In the factory we make cosmetics; in the store we sell hope.”

Hope for that experience, the etherial hypnotic sensation that can be created by triggering the senses.
Religious rituals have relied heavily on the overwhelming of the senses to create a feeling of awe. Hypnotising the mind, filling it with a strange scent, pleasant and seductive - perfume.

The Egyptians were the first to introduce perfume as a part of religious ceremonies in which aromatic gums, frankincense and myrrh were used to awe the ignorant. The word “perfume” comes from the Latin per fume, meaning “through smoke”. Literally creating a scented smoking haze that clouds the logical mind and allows the sub-conscience to run free through the fields of imagination, hoping to catch a glimpse or hear the voice of god. They understood then, what many marketers still practice now…

“Good  advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.”

Perfume houses today still practice this ritual, serving as the priests and priestesses and replacing Cleopatra with Kate Moss. They believe that a woman is a walking billboard, what we wear, the colour of our hair and how we smell gives off information about us, it creates a belief in a stranger about our character. Noticed how perfume advertising is rarely ever about the smell but more about the person wearing it? Always a single, sexy woman, the muse or embodiment of the scent. Mostly she is white, blonde/brunette mixed, thin and vulnerable looking. Who relates to that..1/10 of the world? What about the rest of us, who just appreciate a good scent but do not need the bells and whistles to go along which adds to a 400% markup to the actual cost of the fragrance?

It´s time to rediscover the roots of scent, the natural and importantly, individual. Let´s leave the smoke and mirrors where they belong, in the past.

“Scent is always individual. Your sense of smell is one of the most unique things about you – more individual than your fingerprints, than the shape of your ear, than the pattern of your retina. Your sense of smell is one of the most important factors that defines you as YOU.”  Christoper Brosius

We are individuals, though also a part of nature and sometimes it´s our memories of being in nature that are most pleasant and are evoked suddenly by a familiar scent. Let´s take a mindwalk to special places…

Winter 1972: A field of untouched new fallen snow, hand knit woolen mittens covered with frost, a hint of frozen forest & sleeping earth
In the Summer Kitchen: Fresh garden vegetables & herbs on a clear summer evening with a touch of smoked old wooden rafters
Greenbriar 1968: This scent of a memory of your Grandfather, the sawmill that he owned and the stone house where he lived.

These are not only memories, but also the names of scents which are available, in a bottle. They smell just like they are described and forego all bells and whistles, rather filling the mind with treasured scents, and that is why I Hate Perfume.