In four weeks, fragrance lovers from around the world will gather in New York City for a perfume extravaganza known as the Sniffapalooza Fall Ball. I’m often asked what happens during these scent filled weekends and why I continue to go. Here’s my account from one of the days from the most recent Spring Fling to tell you why and encourage you to sign up for Fall Ball! The annual Sniffapalooza Spring Fling is a two day weekend extravaganza of the most fabulous fragrances. Day one is the “uptown day,” spent mostly at Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel and The Plaza, at the Krigler perfumery. Day two is the “downtown day,” with visits to independent perfume boutiques in Soho and the West Village. The day starts at Molton Brown in Soho. Two years ago Molton Brown kicked off its line of fine fragrances at Sniffapalooza, and each year we’ve been invited…
Fragrant Debuts: Eau de Sniffapalooza
With Sherri Sebastian of Perusa Naturals How does a perfume fanatic find out about the latest upcoming niche perfumers? At Sniffapalooza, a twice yearly event that brings fragrance lovers from around the world to New York for a weekend of spritzing, sniffing and shopping. Day one is jam-packed with up to 100 perfumes to try, a dizzying experience but loads of fun. On day two the pace isn’t nearly as frenetic, and there’s more time to enjoy all the new scents coming your way. The most interesting part of the day is lunch, when the “Eau de Sniffapalooza” forum takes place, where emerging indie brands launch and present their concepts and scents for the first time to this group of passionate perfumistas. Startups in the niche perfume industry are invited to debut their lines to the group, each giving about a 10 minute presentation to tell us who they are, what they…
The Master Perfumer – Roja Dove
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Any perfumista worth his or her Chanel No. 5 certainly knows the name Roja Dove. I knew it from the books I have written by him, as he is known as the world’s foremost authority on perfumery. I had the good fortune of being able to attend the Sniffapalooza Spring Fling in May of this year, where Roja flew in from London to make a personal appearance and launch his new fragrance line at Bergdorf Goodman. I had the even greater fortune of getting to interview him one on one. Now mind you Roja is not what you’d call a celebrity or rock star perfumer. I think he’d shudder at the suggestion of that. No other living perfumer has the prestigious title of “Professeur des Parfums,” which Roja earned six years into his fragrance career at the House of Guerlain, where…
A Fragrant Tour of NYC With at Sniffapalooza Spring Fling 2013
At 8 am on a Saturday morning in early May, a buzz builds in the beauty basement at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. Voices are at a fever pitch and the excitement is palpable. It’s as if a rock star or an A-list celeb would appear at any moment. Inside Bergdorf’s small cafe 140 people (including me) are waiting in anticipation for the start of something called Sniffapalooza Spring Fling. “It’s the most incredible, intense experience,” says Tamara, who flew in from Arizona. “You’ve gotten on trains, planes and automobiles,” says Karen Dubin, Sniffapalooza’s founder. “This is our 18th event,” she says in regards to this year’s Spring Fling. Twice a year, in the spring and the fall, fragrance fanatics invade the Big Apple, eager to sniff the newest scents from the biggest names in perfumery. Sniffapalooza is a phenomenon, attracting people from far flung locales such as Australia, Paris,…
6 Indie Perfumes You Need To Sniff Now
Twice a year fragrance lovers descend upon New York City for the tour de force that is Sniffapalooza. One of the fragrance event group’s signature perfume odysseys is the annual “Spring Fling,” a weekend event that explores scents all over the city. While many large perfume houses introduce new scents to our group, Sniffapalooza is also known for the debuts of small boutique labels. I love discovering new fragrances and sharing the stories. While we tried over 100 scents, I fell in love with six of them, all different, but complex and interesting. Some are just launching, others have been around for a few years, but all are making a big splash in the perfume world.
Making Scents of Wine
Kelly Jones broke the cardinal rule of wine tasting. She wore perfume on a visit to a Napa Valley winery. “Who is wearing vanilla?” asked the winemaker pouring a glass of buttery, oaky Chardonnay for Kelly. He explained to her why she shouldn’t have on perfume in the winery tasting room, that perfume interferes with the wine’s bouquet and aromas. But Kelly thought that the vanilla in her perfume enhanced the vanilla notes in the Chardonnay. She loved the sensory experience of how the wine and perfume co-mingled.
The winemaker did not kick her out, but Kelly was frustrated nonetheless. “I want to wear perfume while I’m drinking wine, those are my two favorite things to do.” Call it her “aha” moment, when she thought there might be more to pairing wine with perfume. She went home inspired to see if she could create fragrances that complemented wine. “I’d been studying perfume for quite a while and I had my own scent studio.” She went out and bought bottles of her favorite white and red wines.“One by one I sniffed and I sniffed and I went into my fragrance library and trying to find the notes that would actually celebrate what I was smelling in each glass.”
A Scentsational Weekend with Sniffapalooza
I recently returned from a weekend in New York City with Sniffapalooza. Sniffa what? How do you spell that? Funny name. Indeed, most people I know or meet have never heard of Sniffapalooza. They think it’s a word I made up. No, it’s actually a group of perfume lovers who get together to sniff out the latest and greatest fragrances from around the world. What has this got to do with wine? Read on. More…