If you missed them, here are links to part 1 (scented body products), part 2 (travel sizes & coffrets), part 3 (more travel sizes & coffrets) and part 4 (home fragrance). Coming up next: solid perfumes.

From Odin, candles in their four unisex fragrances (Sunda, Owari, Century or Petrana). $65 each at Barneys…

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Indie niche line CB I Hate Perfume has launched M5 Where We Are There Is No Here, the latest in the Metamorphosis series. All of the perfumes have now been numbered; this one is 405…

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Christopher Brosius, the “CB” behind CB I Hate Perfume, calls his perfumery’s headquarters and storefront a “gallery.” Located a few blocks away from the busy main shopping strips of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, the store does feel as much like a gallery, a studio, or a workshop as a retail venue. It’s a former industrial space that now looks half-loft, half-garage, decorated in a minimal, monochromatic scheme with little visual detail to distract you from experiencing CB I Hate Perfume’s fragrances.

And there are many, many fragrances indeed, with testers arranged by category in white box-like shelving units. In the “Perfume” category, you’ll find six series of fragrances with abstract designations such as “Archetype” and “Metamorphosis.” Some of them are inspired by Brosius’s childhood memories and his favorite works of literature and film, and others are his reworkings of classic concepts in perfumery (musk, rose, etc.). The Perfumes are available as perfume absolutes and cologne-like “water perfumes.” The next category includes fourteen series of Accords, from “fruit” and “flower” to “smoke” and “skin.” These oils, individually bottled and packaged at the time of purchase, are meant to be enjoyed singly or layered in your own combinations…

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E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View (1908) is one of my favorite novels, and its Merchant-Ivory film adaptation (1985) is one of my favorite movies. I’m also a longtime admirer of CB I Hate Perfume, so it’s strange that I only recently realized that this niche perfumery offers a scent inspired by a scene from the novel. Christopher Brosius created M4, or A Room with a View, for CB I Hate Perfume’s Metamorphosis Series and designed it to evoke “the moment when one simple beautiful gesture can transform an entire life.”

In the passage that gave Brosius the idea for this fragrance, the young heroine of A Room with a View, Lucy Honeychurch, is picnicking with several other proper English tourists in the Tuscan countryside. She strays from her prim chaperone and, after passing through a wooded area, finds herself looking down a hillside blooming with violets; the only other person enjoying the view is George Emerson, an enigmatic and free-thinking fellow traveler. George impulsively steps forward and kisses Lucy, thus opening her mind and her senses to new possibilities (in romance and in life) and setting the rest of the novel’s plot in motion…

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Frankly, if you’re the kind of person who needs a perfume to express who you are … well, Sephora is on that side of the river, thank you very much.

— Perfumer Christopher Brosius of CB I Hate Perfume, quoted in The Invisible Scent at New York magazine.

CB I Hate Perfume has re-introduced the (anti) celebrity fragrance, Cumming, under the name 2nd (Alan) Cumming. If you missed the first Cumming, see the review and the commercial.

The fragrance, which is reportedly unchanged, is now in the CB I Hate Perfume house packaging, and all profits go to charity…

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In this country, a lot of people wear perfume for everyone else. People wear my perfume for themselves first. Everyone else comes second.

— Hear, hear. Christopher Brosius of CB I Hate Perfume, quoted in Sniffing Out New Scents In Brooklyn's Williamsburg at the Wall Street Journal, found via CaFleureBon.

Spring! Finally. It isn’t summer, but it’s almost summer, and if, like me, you detest the cold, that’s very nearly the best thing about it. The absolute best thing, of course, is the flowers. My list is heavily weighted towards the “pretty floral” fragrance category, and it’s also heavily weighted towards niche, and expensive. Sorry, it just worked out that way. Hopefully, my fellow bloggers did a better job on the diversity front: see Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc, Perfume Posse and Perfume Smellin’ Things for more top 10 lists. Meantime, here’s mine:

CB I Hate Perfume Black March: the smell of spring, and the perfect thing to wear on a warm, rainy April day, although there’s something about it that can tend towards the melancholy. If you can’t afford it, you can make do with Demeter Dirt — someone called Black March the high def version of Dirt, and that’s apt…

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As it is for many people, fall is my favorite time of year. Perhaps this is because around here it is the most fragrant season: the cool, damp leaves send up a sweet, cidery rot, I could swear there is always a tinge of woodsmoke in the air, and the evergreens seem sharper and straighter as the deciduous competition flames out. Early every morning, after bumping around and out of my pitch-dark apartment, I take a deep draw of cool air and wonder if this smell is a regular olfactory hallucination, since I live in an urban neighborhood with bylaws against bonfires and no apple orchards for miles. Whether I am susceptible to seasonal scent suggestion disorder or not, I love the colors and skies of autumn, and the weather is often invigorating enough for me to look fondly upon the hooting, rowdy herds of schoolkids that suddenly appear on every sidewalk. Even if fall doesn’t make you feel this disgustingly cheerful, you can still spend your season of mists and mellow fruitfulness in gorgeous perfumes. Please comment with your own fall favorites and let me know if you’ve sampled the new Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles. I haven’t tried it yet, and am wondering whether it will be added to my current autumn Lutens rotation of Chêne, Santal Blanc and El Attarine.

Etro Shaal Nur: Rather like a more contemplative, citrus-tinged Habanita, this is an airy, incense-smoke version of Molinard’s classic vetiver-vanilla. While not being particularly strong — it’s better sprayed than dabbed — Shaal Nur has impressive projection…

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CB I Hate Perfume has launched two new fragrances, M #4 A Room With a View and AmBrosius:

M #4 A Room With a View ~ “A Violet perfume inspired by a favorite passage from E M Forster. This perfume captures the scent of the hills above Florence…”

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