Simon sniffs: a pioneering perfume protégé is doused down under in a fragrant Fitzroy foray

Fraser Island by David Stanley (Nanaimo, Canada) via Wikimedia Commons 

It's been over a month since my last post, though there has been the Christmas runaround to contend with, plus it took me several weeks at least to come up with that title. The wags amongst you might say I should have taken longer. 

Regular readers may remember my friend Simon, whose growing interest in niche fragrance I have been privileged to help fuel: his perfume collection is featured on the blog - kept in the tiny fridge on his narrow boat, despite space being at an absolute premium! - and I have also covered his various brand epiphanies, namely those of the unexpectedly exclamatory Fragrance Republic, Creed, and the unexpectedly capitalised BEX London. He has now been interested in perfume long enough to be upset by the discontinuation of favourite scents - nay, whole brands - in the case of FR!. (That may well be its own exclamation mark.)

In late November Simon travelled to Australia to spend time with his daughter, who had been working on a nine month contract out there. During his trip, covering Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, The Blue Mountains and The Gold Coast, he sent me a running photo reportage, which included the amusing leitmotiv of "Australians telling it like it is". (All the following photos are by him.)

None of this "tall" or "grande" nonsense...and be careful what you do with the cup afterwards!

Scissors - it needed saying, I guess, as there is of course the alternative of clippers.

Simon's favourite spot of his whole itinerary was the upmarket Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy. He is a bit of a "cafe lizard" and coffee aficionado, and I sense he was well served there in its sybaritic watering holes. 

I don't care for coffee myself, but could totally see the appeal of the squishy sofas, vibrant art works, and architectural pot plants placed at strategic intervals. Those are just the sort of comfy cafés where "doing a bit on work on your laptop" could all too easily segue into full time squatting.

The gorgeous photos of Fitzroy kept coming...

And it's not just hats the Aussies hang corks on!

One morning, Simon popped into a perfumery in Fitzroy called Lore, on Brunswick Street. It makes me happy that someone I nudged down the rabbit hole should choose to visit a perfume shop 17,000 km away with no prompting from me - I was actually asleep at the time. ;) For Simon is a fully fledged fumehead, sniffing stuff I have never heard of, such as the Australian brand, Goldfield & Banks. Not only that, but he made a purchase of a scent from the line, Wood Infusion. 

Notes: Australian Exotic Woods, Sweet Orange, Orris Italy, Agarwood, Lavender Australia, Patchouli Indonesia, Musk, Amber

(Origin Woods: Fraser Island - Queensland)

The creative director for Goldfield & Banks is Dimitri Weber, and the perfumer is German/Iranian nose, Hamid Merati-Kashani, whose other credits include several perfumes for Amouage, Marly, and Piguet. 

Helping him home in on a perfume he would love, Simon was under the expert guidance of Clea, one of the store's sales assistants, who mentioned that she knew and admired Dimitri Weber. She explained his artistic vision and how his fragrances reflect the region in terms of their choice of ingredients and/or general vibe. Simon even showed Clea my blog(!), a promotional manoeuvre that was entirely spontaneous on his part, I swear.

I see that the Lore Perfumery website also "tells it like it is", with the headline: "We Love Perfume", and the injunction to "Stalk Us". There's a Q & A with Clea on there in which she mentions that her favourite scent - if she absolutely had to pick one, which we all know is a deeply disturbing concept - is Nasomatto's Blamage, "Not only for the fragrance, but what it stands for." Now that intriguing statement had me immediately diving into Google to find out what she meant, and the result is very interesting - sounds like the sort of stunt Geza Schoen would pull! This quote is from Sydney fashion retailer, Sorrythanksiloveyou:

The creator wants us to know: “From our mistakes, can come something beautiful”. Legend has it that Gualtieri blindfolded himself and picked several ingredients at random, determined to create something from the chaos. The result is Blamage (the German word for ‘Disgrace’), a metallic, woody, and floral affair. 

Now though I had not heard of Goldfield & Banks, I immediately thought of someone who would have, namely Portia, the doyenne of antipodean perfume writing. He is doubtless familiar with Lore Perfumery, along with readers of his late great blog, Australian Perfume Junkies. And sure enough, I found a review of Wood Infusion and other scents he owns from the line over on Perfume Posse, and told Simon that he was in distinguished company with his choice.

And of course, if he is a perfumista worth his salt, Simon will want to go back to Australia one day and check out the inspiration for Wood Infusion, Fraser Island (or K'gari, the traditional name by which it is now known again)...

The end of a second summer...

NB I do not wish to suggest by my use of the word "doused" in the title that my friend was in any sense spritzed to excess during his visit - he may have been sampling things on blotters, or trying a discreet spray on a single wrist, or sniffing nozzles of testers, I don't know. I deployed the word purely - and shamelessly - for its alliterative value. For an instance of my being literally doused in perfume in a shop in Paris, see here.

PS There wasn't an obvious place to insert this earlier, but my mother is from Australia! She was born in a suburb of Perth, but also lived in Sydney and Broome, finally leaving for England in 1928, at the age of eight. I have been myself, in 1993, and would love to go back one day, having long since forgotten about the pesky flies. ;)