Truth Kamikaze' video here in the meantime! As mentioned in an earlier post, at the end of October we were lucky to have the chance to visit our friend Alyssa from L'Eclair, in London. Not only has she developed a beautiful perfume, but the shop is charming and quirky in so many ways, it's a must see for anyone who visits. We even bought a bottle of the perfume, which came in a fancy bottle that you keep by the bath (or can even hang on your neck) and pour when you want to use it. You can read about the launch party at the store on another blog by my friend Jo. Alyssa kindly offered to be our model for a shoot. Unfortunately my attempt to arrange a shoot with a male model failed (too much planning on my part), so she agreed to pose and you can see the results here: If you want to have a sniff, follow this link to their website: L'Eclair London One of the questions that has come up since the launch is: Can a perfume with an Asian sensibility such as yours also be a successful commercial product? The short answer is yes - and I can give you a hint of why. A lot of Western perfumes have 'japanese' scents; some use woody scents, some have spicy notes, some have fruity ones and some have oriental ones too. But these scents can be used in any fashion from romantic to powerful. On the other hand, Asian perfumes don't necessarily have these things in their scents. Maybe they add these things to the scent of the perfume later, or to the smell of things that use the same scents as they do. But they definitely don't have one particular thing. A very popular and well-known brand of perfume is Jo Malone, which I described in a blog post earlier this year. Their products are all named after flowers, herbs, and spices (like Vanilla), but it would be impossible to make an oriental scent using these scents: none of them are from Asia. But by playing with the other scents Jo Malone manages to make perfumes that are oriental-esque. A recent advertising campaign had a lot of success by using oriental spices, and I'll have more on this in another post. Jo Malone is a big success, as is another well-known perfume which adds in exotic tones, but they both have oriental scents that are pretty much the same. Oriental-ish scents aren't unique and people can get the hang of this fact, no matter what they do. But because we tend to think that a perfume with an oriental smell means a specific Oriental vibe, it can put the perfume off for people who just want to smell good, but don't want it to smell 'oriental-ish'. I have made many attempts to explain this concept to people who want a perfume like Jo Malone or Oriental Mischief, but I haven't found a good way. Many of them don't understand the theory behind it, and I think that it will still be impossible to really make these scents understood to those who are looking for them. Maybe we'll eventually invent some new words for this smell, that don't really have an Eastern background. I haven't worn 'Truth Kamikaze' since the shooting: I've been a little tired and it's currently not the best time for me to smell different things. But I can see that it has been getting more popular in my wardrobe over the past week or so. Maybe it's the oriental background, or it could just be because I love the scent. But I have been wearing it more than usual. I hope you enjoyed this short post! I will return to other aspects of perfume in other posts. But until then, see you soon! The 'Truth Kamikaze' video here in the meantime! As mentioned in an earlier post, at the end of October we were lucky to have the chance to visit our friend Alyssa from L'Eclair, in London. Not only has she developed a beautiful perfume, but the shop is charming and quirky in so many ways, it's a must see for anyone who visits. We even bought a bottle of the perfume, which came in a fancy bottle that you keep by the bath (or can even hang on your neck) and pour when you want to use it. You can read about the launch party at the store on another blog by my friend Jo. Alyssa kindly offered to be our model for a shoot. Unfortunately my attempt to arrange a shoot with a male model failed (too much planning on my part), so she agreed to pose and you can see the results here: If you want to have a sniff, follow this link to their website: L'Eclair London One of the questions that has come up since the launch is: Can a perfume with an Asian sensibility such as yours also be a successful commercial product? The short answer is yes - and I can give you a hint of why. A lot of Western perfumes have 'japanese' scents; some use woody scents, some have spicy notes, some have fruity ones and some have oriental ones too. But these scents can be used in any fashion from romantic to powerful. On the other hand, Asian perfumes don't necessarily have these things in their scents. Maybe they add these things to the scent of the perfume later, or to the smell of things that use the same scents as they do. But they definitely don't have one particular thing. A very popular and well-known brand of perfume is Jo Malone, which I described in a blog post earlier this year. Their products are all named after flowers, herbs, and spices (like Vanilla), but it would be impossible to make an oriental scent using these scents: none of them are from Asia. But by playing with the other scents Jo Malone manages to make perfumes that are oriental-esque. A recent advertising campaign had a lot of success by using oriental spices, and I'll have more on this in another post. Jo Malone is a big success, as is another well-known perfume which adds in exotic tones, but they both have oriental scents that are pretty much the same. Oriental-ish scents aren't unique and people can get the hang of this fact, no matter what they do. But because we tend to think that a perfume with an oriental smell means a specific Oriental vibe, it can put the perfume off for people who just want to smell good, but don't want it to smell 'oriental-ish'. I have made many attempts to explain this concept to people who want a perfume like Jo Malone or Oriental Mischief, but I haven't found a good way. Many of them don't understand the theory behind it, and I think that it will still be impossible to really make these scents understood to those who are looking for them. Maybe we'll eventually invent some new words for this smell, that don't really have an Eastern background. I haven't worn 'Truth Kamikaze' since the shooting: I've been a little tired and it's currently not the best time for me to smell different things. But I can see that it has been getting more popular in my wardrobe over the past week or so. Maybe it's the oriental background, or it could just be because I love the scent. But I have been wearing it more than usual. I hope you enjoyed this short post! I will return to other aspects of perfume in other posts. But until then, see you soon! The 'Truth Kamikaze' video here in the meantime! As mentioned in an earlier post, at the end of October we were lucky to have the chance to visit our friend Alyssa from L'Eclair, in London. Not only has she developed a beautiful perfume, but the shop is charming and quirky in so many ways, it's a must see for anyone who visits. We even bought a bottle of the perfume, which came in a fancy bottle that you keep by the bath (or can even hang on your neck) and pour when you want to use it. You can read about the launch party at the store on another blog by my friend Jo. Alyssa kindly offered to be our model for a shoot. Unfortunately my attempt to arrange a shoot with a male model failed (too much planning on my part), so she agreed to pose and you can see the results here: If you want to have a sniff, follow this link to their website: L'Eclair London One of the questions that has come up since the launch is: Can a perfume with an Asian sensibility such as yours also be a successful commercial product? The short answer is yes - and I can give you a hint of why. A lot of Western perfumes have 'japanese' scents; some use woody scents, some have spicy notes, some have fruity ones and some have oriental ones too. But these scents can be used in any fashion from romantic to powerful. On the other hand, Asian perfumes don't necessarily have these things in their scents. Maybe they add these things to the scent of the perfume later, or to the smell of things that use the same scents as they do. But they definitely don't have one particular thing.