Can Smell Help You Find True Love?
Hi! I’m back. As everyone is aware, media is in a dark place so I’ve been pretty creatively blocked and stressed about work and you know the world. From here on out, Middle Notes is going to be a mix of fragrance and pop culture with scent as a throughline. I’ll be doing some more pop culture related things, interviews, and other types of franchises. I’m going to start paywalling some posts, so please consider subscribing—I have a cat to feed.
What I’ve Been Into
The White Lotus has taken over my brain—it’s a slow burn but the initial seeds of the scary Jason Isaacs’ patriarch southern incest adjacent (?) MAGA family is creeping me out. I’d die for Carrie Coon and Walton Goggins can get it. Also Patrick Schwarzenegger is almost a bit too good at playing Saxon, right? I’m dying to try the new Chopova Lowena perfumes, the bottles remind me so much of old school Moschino fragrances of my youth and their fragrance descriptions are so cute. My beloved Andrea Maack launched a new fragrance, Flux, which has notes of berries and woods. I believe I saw on Stele’s social media that it’s like woodsy cotton candy—I need to check it out ASAP. I also adored Parthenope—a lush coming-of-age Italian drama about a woman who very much goes by the beat of her own drum.
Can Smelling Good Get You a Date?
I mean, the obvious answer is always yes (I hope). Emma Vernon, a comedian, fragrance expert, and former matchmaker hosts Perfume Room—a wildly successful podcast about fragrance where she interviews guests about their relationship to scent. She started the podcast in 2021 and in her 20s had always been the go-to perfume friend. One of the first videos she did was "What the Fragrance You Wear on A First Date Says About You,” so Perfume Room’s first foray into the live dating event was a full circle moment for her.
On February 15th at Caveat on the Lower East Side, Vernon took her two interests and hosted Smells Like Love—a dating show all based on scent. “I decided to merge dating and fragrance because we are constantly fed editorial and social content that tells us we can attract another based on the perfumes we wear or how we smell. Ultimately no amount of Baccarat can change someone's personality, but I do believe in scent as an attractant. That said, I think headlines like "5 Fragrances to Seal the Deal" etc. are misleading because what might attract/arouse me might not be the same for you etc. In the same way I don't believe in universally therapeutic smells, I don't believe in universally attractive smells (though certain scents have certain studied properties (i.e., citrus has been found to be energizing), etc). Still I think scent is incredibly subjective. This show—through the lens of one eligible bachelor's subjective taste—was an experiment that explored these claims through a mix of play, entertainment, and expertise. Also—I LOVE setting people up and I love being on stage, and this was a fun way to get everything that brings me joy into one 1.5 hour show,” she says.
That joy was intensely felt—before getting into the romance of the show, Justin Welch, head of Fine Fragrance Experience at dsm-firmenich Fine Fragrance talked with Vernon about fragrance and attraction set up with blotters of “sexy” scents which included rose, melted chocolate, amber, and even body odor which was so masculine smelling in not a good way. However, Vernon previewed a scent that combined many of these scents which was pretty divine.
Getting into the romance part of the evening, we met the main dater was Jack, a therapist, who wears a fragrance that smells like the end of the earth, which feels pretty fitting for the current moment. Then the singles were Katie, Ogechi, and Savannah. The first round had Jack smelling the signature scents of the singles—with a curtained partition blocking the singles and Jack from each other’s view. Based on vibes, scents, and chatting alone Jack and Ogechi seemed to be immediately into one another. The singles then smelled Jack’s signature scent and all of them had to describe one another’s scents—Savannah talked about how Jack’s scent made them think of a specific episode of Spongebob Squarepants. Other questions came up like what does New York smell like which Ogechi said trash, but specifically “sexy trash is in the summer.” I don’t know exactly what that smells like but I am intrigued.
After rounds of smelling scents and questions, Jack and the singles were blindfolded and had to smell one another which was incredibly awkward and funny as they lined up noses to armpits and took in a big whiff. After describing what they think sex smells like, it was time for Jack to make his big decision and he chose Ogechi and the two exchanged numbers to schedule a date. Vernon got great feedback on the event and is planning on doing future shows. With the rise of in person dating events and the lament of how terrible dating apps are (can confirm), maybe it’s time to follow your nose instead.
Perfume Ad of the Week
There’s nothing my man David Lynch loved more than whooshing sounds. To say I’ve been sad about his passing is a complete understatement.