December 3 -- Smell and Tell

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I did something excellent on the evening of the 3rd.  I went downtown to the library, even though it was cold.  Even though it was dark.  Even though I wasn't sure if I'd have trouble finding a place to park.

I'm so glad I did!

Michelle Krell Kydd, who used to work in the perfume industry, gave a talk about patchouli -- its uses past and present, where it comes from, what perfumes it's part of............. 

We heard about the way our sense of smell works (smell info goes straight to our emotional brain, and only later does the translated smell info get to our cerebral cortex).  We heard stories about perfumers she knows and loves (including a French man who has a mohawk and wears a red leather jacket).  Stories about what some supposed health risks of various ingredients is doing to the perfume industry.  Stories about how patchouli has gone in and out of fashion over the decades..........

Michelle calls the talks she has given at the library "Smell and Tell."  She brings various scents and perfumes for her lucky listeners to smell. We started with the smell of damp earth, and then some 15-yr-old patchouli (one of the only scents that gets better over time).  We smelled several different perfumes that consist partly of patchouli.

We got to smell a part of the scent of patchouli which now is synthesized (GMO yeast makes it!).  We are the very first people outside the lab where it was invented to smell it as a group..............  Cool.  :-)


Where was I for the previous 9 of these talks?????  She was fascinating and engaging.

I always love finding out about some cool topic that I had no idea about, but which is its own world.  The world of scent/perfume has its own rock stars, with recognizable styles.

Of course there are perfume rock stars and divas, but I never thought about it.................

Anyway -- it was Different.  And excellent.  A whole nother aspect of living in our world that I'd never given any thought to.  She can sit on a crowded New York City bus and know which perfumes people are wearing, and who designed those perfumes.........

Who knew.



In addition to the great presentation, I spotted someone in the audience whose daughter went to elementary school with mine.  It was nice to catch up with her, a tiny bit, and to hear that her sister (a college friend of mine) is doing well, and to hear that another friend of hers and mine is also doing well.

An evening very well spent!



I definitely need to pay a lot more attention to what is going on at the library!  I am wondering what other really interesting things I've been missing!

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