What Is Sillage?
What have boats, snails and perfumes got in common? They all leave a trail behind. A perfume trail is called sillage (pronounced see-yazh) and comes from the French word for “wake”. When a fragrance...
View ArticleHow To Decipher Sunscreen Labels
I know, I know. Summer is officially over, so why talk about sunscreen? We should store it away, right? Nope. Those nasty and sneaky UV rays are present all year round, and so we need to apply...
View ArticleWhat Does Noncomedogenic Mean?
Noncomedogenic. This long, complicated word is appearing on more and more cosmetic labels. But what does it mean? Definition of noncomedogenic It’s simple. Noncomedogenic means that it won’t clog...
View ArticlePerfume Glossary
I’ve already written about the different perfume families, fragrance concentrations, and sillage. But there so many other terms relating to perfume, some quite easy and intuitive and others more...
View ArticleWhat Do Indolic Perfumes Smell Like?
Indole. It’s one of the most confusing and misunderstood words in the perfume world. Few people know what it means, but a lot use it incorrectly. As a synonym for fecal or animalic. If a perfume...
View ArticleAldehydes: What They Are And How They Smell
“Women do not want to smell like a bed of roses!,” Coco Chanel insisted when she commissioned perfumeur Ernest Beaux to create a new, innovative perfume. To capture l’odeur de femme (the scent of a...
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