Exploring the weird & wonderful world of fragrance & funerals
On June 25th, Jon Underwood, one of the founders of Death Cafe, and an evangelist for frank discussions about death, passed due to acute promyelocytic leukaemia. He was 44 years old. I met Jon in 2016 at a talk I was giving in London. He was warm, kind, and supportive. We had a nice chat... Continue Reading →
Over the last year I have had several requests for more information and deeper reads on subjects brought up on the blog. So after banging around my shelves a bit, here is the Death/Scent reading list. Some of them are staples of both olfactive and death literature, others are weird and wonderful deep cuts. This... Continue Reading →
Happy Krampusnacht everyone! It's that special time of year when we gather round the fire and hope that we will not be carted away to the lair of a horned sasquatch with a sadistic streak and a penchant for children...oh the holidays! It's in Krampus' honour that we present this year's holiday gift guide. If you survive the... Continue Reading →
In this series, we examine aspects of death and bereavement through art, olfaction, and imaginative thinking. Feel free to follow along at home and leave your take on this scented death meditation below. This Week’s Muse This month we are going to be examining human remains used in artistic pieces. Some of these works serve... Continue Reading →
In this series, we examine aspects of death and bereavement through art, olfaction, and imaginative thinking. Feel free to follow along at home and leave your take on this scented death meditation below. This Week's Muse St. Francis Borgia at the Death Bed of an Impenitent, Francisco Goya, 1788 As this is the last of... Continue Reading →
In this series, we examine aspects of death and bereavement through art, olfaction, and imaginative thinking. Feel free to follow along at home and leave your take on this scented death meditation below. This Week's Muse Girls 3, Matsuyama Miyabi, 2016 I have a huge crush on Matsuyama Miyabi, a contemporary artist that mixes the... Continue Reading →
In 2015 Kalain, a French start-up opened to a flurry of news articles. They claim to bottle the olfactive essence of your dead relatives for bereavement purposes. The process is simple; send them a scent infused item like a pillowcase, they work their magic, and bada bing bada boom you get a bespoke essence of your loved one Patrick... Continue Reading →
In this series, we examine aspects of death and bereavement through art, olfaction, and imaginative thinking. Feel free to follow along at home and leave your take on this scented death meditation below. This Week's Muse The Genius of France Between Liberty and Death, Jean-Baptiste Regnault, 1795 Even though the Rocco and then the Neoclassical... Continue Reading →
Perfumers seem to endure forever. It is one of those professions where you just keep going for decades. Even after you're gone, as long as the bottles keep coming, to the customer, it is like you never left. However, once one of us does leave, especially in the fiercely competitive but passionately connected world of... Continue Reading →
