There’s a cause fragrance commercials aren’t close-up photos of the elements famous in a particular perfume. As an alternative, they’re sweeping landscapes, a good looking man on a galloping horse, a wistful goodbye between two lovers with no backstory. That’s as a result of scent isn’t merely the notes — say vanilla, sandalwood, tuberose; it’s concerning the feeling they evoke. It’s simpler to provide a visceral response than present a technical definition. It is sensible, as scent is processed by the limbic system, the a part of the mind that handles emotion and reminiscence. So when Anna Dorn texts to ask me what I wish to odor like, she offers some thought-starters that sound like therapies for big-budget perfume advertisements: “like a library in ancient Egypt,” or “like Persephone rising from the ashes.”
Dorn is a prolific writer of three novels and a memoir, “Bad Lawyer,” the place she divulges secrets and techniques from her previous life as a reluctant lawyer making an attempt to fulfill her household’s expectations. She additionally moonlights as a fragrance stylist, providing scent fittings for purchasers carried out over textual content message. It’s not a longtime aspect hustle, but when there was ever a metropolis the place it might thrive, it might be Los Angeles.
I’ve employed Dorn to assist me discover a new scent, one thing extra adventurous than my present Sephora-grade choices. My hope is that like with a romantic match, I’ll discover one thing that ticks the containers, however finally has an unstated variable I’m drawn to. It’s a process nicely value her $150 price. The service guarantees eight tiny vials of custom-selected scents shipped on to me. The product is included in Dorn’s price, which implies she pockets round $70 per session, however to her, it’s a labor of affection she is glad to spend hours on. My inquiry comes on the excellent time to supply a distraction from engaged on her forthcoming novel “American Spirits,” out subsequent April with Simon & Schuster.
As a author, I’m disillusioned I don’t have a well-crafted scene to offer Dorn for example of how I wish to odor. However Dorn is adaptable; lots of her purchasers are newbie fragrance wearers like me. She peels again and asks what fragrances I already personal and love. I present an inventory: Glossier You, Versace Crystal Noir, Maison Margiela Jazz Membership. Scents I’ve cherished for years however I do know are simply the tip of the iceberg. She asks about notes I’m desirous about. I inform her I just like the tobacco, masculine vitality of Jazz Membership. “I used to think I didn’t like floral, but I realized I do when paired with spicier, woodsier notes,” I say. She is fast to answer, explaining she as soon as thought she was too robust for florals. She already has some concepts, which she categorizes as “baddie florals.”
Dorn’s data and love of perfume comes by way of in her work, notably in her most up-to-date novel, “Perfume & Pain.” “In the beginning, the novel had nothing to do with perfume, I just liked the title — which I jacked from a 1950s out-of-print lesbian pulp novel,” she says, “but then I started collecting all this niche perfume knowledge and I knew I had to put it into the book. Once the book came out, I had all these new ‘fraghead’ followers, some of whom have become friends and my perfume obsession just continued.”
Regardless of her obsession, her Los Feliz house isn’t a storage unit of scents. With regards to full-size bottles, Dorn says she solely retains about 5 at a time, taking to eBay to promote frivolously used bottles to make room for brand new ones. She estimates her assortment of decants — the insider time period for 2-milliliter bottle samples, which she orders from the web site DecantPlanet for between $4 and $12 — is within the lots of.
I’m intrigued by Dorn’s suggestion of “baddie florals,” however I wish to make sure that I don’t find yourself with a seize bag of grandma scents. (Suppose the notorious, however just too robust for me, Chanel Quantity 5.) Dorn instantly clocks my concern and deploys extra jargon. “Contemp [contemporary] andro [androgynous] florals, got it,” she replies. I attempt my greatest to answer with moody adjectives as a substitute of notes. I hope for one thing horny, mysterious and recent from nature. One thing that appears international, not merely tropical, however dare I take advantage of it on this context, unique.
“How do you feel about a heady, narcotic, floral? Is that too femme?” Dorn asks me. It sounds aligned with the adjectives I gave, however I’m not sure what narcotic means on this context. “In the Victorian era they allegedly didn’t let virgin women smell tuberose because they thought it would make them spontaneously orgasm,” Dorn clarifies. It looks like a problem. I inform her I’m desirous about tuberose.
Dorn has an concept and texts again rapidly to ask if I’m open to mainstream designers. In an effort to maximize her experience over, say, a Sephora worker, I determine towards it. I’m already fearful my favourite scent, Jazz Membership, which sells at mainstream mall retainers, has change into too well-known. “I don’t want to smell like everyone else,” I confess. Everybody most likely says that.
Dorn’s ardour undertaking is completely timed. Scent is taking heart stage in magnificence circles — the identical method skincare was as soon as the if-you-know-you-know dialog effervescent underneath the floor of a make-up tutorial, perfume is the place skilled magnificence critics and the on a regular basis obsessed are having probably the most nuanced conversations. Dorn thinks the rising appreciation for area of interest fragrances was born through the pandemic, when she superior from a lifelong lover of physique sprays and cleaning soap scents to a reader and commenter on Fragrantica, a perfume web site with its personal Reddit-like boards. Publish-pandemic, she started frequenting L.A. retailers Scent Room, Scent Bar, Le Pink & Co and Beverly Hills Perfumery, befriending gross sales associates and “nerding out together.”
There’s clearly a connection between prose lovers and nuanced noses, and I wish to be a part of the membership. I consider the phrases Dorn deployed in our textual content messages and as a substitute of guffawing, I’m impressed. I do know the ache of discovering the fitting adjective for a state of affairs. I discover that I’m much less desirous about Dorn’s mastery of the scents themselves than in the way in which she conjures them with phrases and decides the right way to pair them with real-life conditions. My journey has change into much less about discovering a singular scent than creating the arrogance to articulate the fitting scent for the fitting event, celebrating the multitudes we include moderately than placing all of them underneath one fragrant umbrella.
The primary scent I attempt is Moonmilk by Stora Skuggan. I’m intrigued by Dorn’s use of “creamy” to explain its sandalwood. At first, I fear I’ve over-applied, however as I end preparing — arguably my favourite a part of any night time — the scent settles into an earthy depth I can’t place with out Dorn’s cliff notes however know I like. It’s probably the most summary of the bunch, impressed by “liquid deposits in limestone caves,” one thing I’ve by no means encountered and sure by no means will. True to her narcotic floral promise and tuberose historical past lesson, Dorn contains Moon Bloom by Hiram Inexperienced from the Netherlands. There is no such thing as a spontaneous orgasm, but it surely smells like the wedding of the musky scents and heat and spicy florals (known as “oriental florals” by the business) in my entry-level assortment. I wish to put on it through the day.
Lina Abascal is a author and filmmaker born and raised in Los Angeles. She is the writer of “Never Be Alone Again: How Bloghouse United the Internet and the dancefloor” and director of the award-winning quick documentary “Stud Country.”
