Perfumer Christophe Laudamiel will be appearing at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City next month as part of the Brainwaves 2010 series:
What does Ecstasy Smell Like?
Perfumer Christophe Laudamiel + neurobiologist Stuart Firestein
The famed creator of Elton John Black Candle and Ralph Lauren Polo Blue talks to the Columbia University neuroscientist about how our sense of smell is processed by the brain.
The talk will take place on Saturday, 13 March at 4 pm. Tickets are $20, and can be purchased at the Rubin Museum website. Many thanks to Nancy for the tip!
33 Comments
Read more about commenting at Now Smell This.
Spiriteuse Double Vanille. UPS just arrived with my bottle, and it is most definitely the smell of ecstasy! So happy!
I know, this has nothing to do with the actual article, but I just had to share my excitement with people who understand the joy of perfume deliveries.
Have you sniffed Havana Vanille? If so, how does it compare?
I got my bottle of SDV after months of longing in the early part of last year, and it’s still amazing just how often I go to it. Stressed? A good squirt of SDV calms me right down. Having a PMS craving? SDV and a wee bit of Cluizel chocolate does wonders. Even if I don’t know what I want to wear on a particular day, SDV is like the perfect perfume for all moods and occasions for me. Effortlessly sumptuous and beautiful whether it is just a light mist or a more generous spray on pulse points.
In my opinion, SDV is far more boozy, rich and full of that sweet honeyed tobacco/floral undertone that only adds to the deep warmth and intensity of the perfume.
OTOH, Havana Vanille smells far lighter, has more minimal lasting power and reminded me of light as air spiced vanilla butter cookies one would bake during the holidays. There’s also something more green/plantlike in the HV to my nose, and the vanilla feels cleaner and far more sheer. I think it will be lovely in the summertime, but in all honesty, it doesn’t hold a candle to SDV in my perfumista heart, though I’m glad I have some since it is nicely done for what it is.
Yes, I sniffed Havana Vanille on paper, but not on skin. It was during a frantic rush through Barney’s on my last day in Chicago, so I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with it, but here’s my impression: Mostly tobacco, a little leather and rum. Quite light on the vanilla, and there was an odd, musty note that didn’t agree with me (clove, maybe?). IMO, it doesn’t come close to the yummy comfort of SDV, with its fabulously boozy opening and warm incense/woods drydown. Of course, YMMV.
The contents of those packages feed our SOULS – so DIVINELY – Ahhhhh Yesssss!!!
OMG SDV is my Holy Grail vanilla—-congratulations!!! so yummy!
so umm, do you rush out the door and meet your delivery person at the door of their vehicle bouncing up and down on your toes? Or is it just me?
RE: Delivery – I meet him at the door, to call out `Thank you!`, and/or have him push the stuck door inwards and open!! Once, I had to stand in the bathroom above the foyer and knock on the windowglass for his attention in order to point for him to drop the package at the garage door – due to a just-varnished slate floor in the foyer! He kindly obliged, and I explained the next time I could meet him at the front door. (and yes, I was fully clothed while standing at the brm window!!
:-0 )
I always have my loot shipped to work. I just hate to think of my poor little ‘fumes sitting out on the porch in the cold! Or heat. Or rain . . . .
Anyway, since our storeroom person distributes the UPS deliveries and already knows I’m insane, I can be as goofy as I want. This includes bouncing up and down in my chair, clapping my hands, chanting, “I got presents!” and occasionally hugging the storeroom person. You know . . . perfectly normal behavior!
seems about right to me!
Lemming for this one.
SDV is definite ecstasy. I don’t think Havana even comes close, but that’s my opinion.
Speaking of ecstasy, I think Montale has something called Vanilla Exstasy, but the one by them I really want to try is Vanille Absolu. Their Boisé Vanille was okay but not great.
Another really great one IMO is SL Un Bois de Vanille. So many! I also think the Maison de la Vanille do some good ones at a very good price.
I’ve never tried any of the non-aoud Montales, but have been thinking about Vanille Absolu, Intense Tiare, and Chypre Vanille for my next Luckyscent sample order. Are there any others you would recommend?
Oh, get a sample of Montale Soleil di Capri, unless you absolutely hate white musks. It’s an amazing scent. Jasmine Full is also really nice… heady!
Thanks, Joe! I was wavering on the Soleil di Capri, anyway, so you’ve just enabled me right over the edge!
Soleil de Capri is terrific. if you are getting samples, definitely get one of SdC.
I really love Soleil di Capri and Chypre Fruite on first try and had to own decants of both, so I highly recommend them. On the more intoxicating side, Montale Sweet Oriental Dream is just luscious and heady while Intense Tiare is a gorgeous tropical stunner of a frag with the tiare, a hint of rose and the coconut and creamy floral drydown. I managed to score Intense Tiare in the parfum concentration and it is amazing, but the edp is just as enchanting. I haven’t tried any of the Montale vanillas yet, but everything else I’ve tried has been fantastic. Sample them if you can. You won’t regret it.
Excellent! Thanks for the recs, everyone! I can feel my credit card getting ready to levitate out of my purse yet again. I hate when it does that!
I have a sample of Montale Vanille Absolu. It is not bad, but I find it a little to medicinal in the beginning. I find Havannah Vanille much better.
This lecture sounds fascinating! I am actually taking an entry-level neuroscience course at Columbia right now (and coincidentally we are studying olfaction at the moment), and so I will share this info with my class. Last class we learned that the odorant vanillin activates a variety of areas in the brain – as anyone on MUA has probably already figured out!
Your class sounds interesting too! Let us know if you make it to the lecture.
Gosh, after all those perfumes that are supposed to smell of cannabis and heroin, I must admit my mind didn’t leap to ‘joy’ when I read ‘Ecstasy’.
Lol. Good point! For some reason, when I first read the title of the article I thought of Exclamation instead of ecstasy and shivered. I remember every girl in my seventh grade class seemed to be wearing that stuff when it launched. I can still smell it in my mind and it just makes me think of all the awkwardness of being thirteen and in junior high. Ack. You couldn’t pay me to go back again.
So I suppose ecstasy, to me, smells of my collective perfume collection, new books, clean sheets from the line, good coffee or how my kids smelled as babies. Oh yes, and I think SDV definitely fits into that category as well.
Glad to know I wasn’t the only one whose mind jumped to that conclusion…
Oooh, my former boss published a paper with that guy. This sounds like a really cool event.
Cool! But with which guy?
so…..before I run out of space….does anyone want some of the Balsamo della Mecca split that I am ordering? I hate to leave out everyone on NST…..
Daisy,
This is my first time posting on NST (usually I am few days behind with my readings). I’d love to participate in the split (annat6@hotmail.com)
Hi Anna, I’m sending you an email. And welcome to NST, I’m glad you’re posting—come, be one of us!
Thanks!
A’we been reading this blog (and other blogs) for about a year now, but never got a chance to comment. By the time I get to my emails, its already too late.
I’ll try to keep up with you in the future
Did everybody see how smooth she was there? How long until Anna’s wallet has a spot in the ICU with all of ours? Of course, I think I was the softest touch of all – Daisy just mentioned Theorema and the next thing I knew I had three bottles. It became frightening after that. Sometimes I think that my perfume bottles mate in my perfume cabinet (they have their own place now), and sometimes I only wish they would. Hmmm, maybe Epic Woman and Mitsouko had a baby and that’s how I wound up with a full bottle of Une Rose Chypre.
LOL —that’s it! I’m never, ever sneaking down stairs to look inthe perfume cabinet in the middle of the night!
BTW —you’ve found another of my very favorites: Une Rose Chypree…..that is soooo sooo soooo amazing (did I mention it’s amazing?)
Why, oh why is SDV so weird on me? I desperately want to love it. I can’t really pin it down, but ecstasy usually smells upwards of $300 an ounce for me. Right now it is Un Rose Chypre, my new friends from Amouage, and my vintage Guerlain extraits. I think I have a chypre phase coming on. Yesterday I was struck by the NEED to wear Mitsouko and it smelled like Heaven.