Smells have a complex relationship with humans.
Our olfactory sense is delicate and evokes primal feelings. In general, if one smells puke, one may find themselves feeling a touch green. The human nose also relays back to personal experiences you’ve had in the past. For instance, the smell of oranges makes me feel sick, because I used to gorge myself on them until one fateful evening when I puked.
And what is scent trapped in a bottle for our smelling pleasure? Perfume!
Perfumes are everywhere; they hold sway over humans. Wearing a sexy perfume will make you more confident. Wearing no perfume and smelling bad will (or at least should) have the inverse effect.
Unfortunately, a majority of people see perfumes as tacky or excessive. They can’t fathom that perfume is an art form.
When we let perfumers do their own thing and really develop their craft, they invent more and more complex smells, things that not only smell good and evoke a sensation but are entire worlds trapped in bottles and waiting to be sniffed.
When perfume does this, it’s not tacky; it’s art. And just like how you shouldn’t expect art to be pleasant, you shouldn’t expect perfumes to be pleasant.
I don’t mean unpleasant as how some people adore the smell of oud (fragrant oil extracted from tree resin) and others find it overbearing. I mean unpleasant as in the smell of oil, blood, swamp air or metal—haunting smells. An experience condensed into a bottle.
These artisanal perfumes are a rarity. Few brands trust consumers enough to risk breaking the mold and making perfumes that don’t necessarily smell good but do paint a story.
That being said, Toskovat’ Perfume knows that people want to breathe in its art.
Toskovat’ Perfume’s entire brand is about creating a vivid image in the mind of the consumer using only the olfactory scent. For example, Toskovat’ has a perfume line aptly dubbed “Extrait de mémoire” or, “Extract of Memory.”
One perfume from this line called “Age of Innocence” has the following notes. On top: cotton candy, bubblegum and strawberry. In the heart: metal screech, rubber, gasoline, rose and car seats. Finally, in the base: aquilaria malaccensis (natural oud), Haitian vetiver, cade and cedar.
It may be slightly difficult to imagine what exactly is supposed to be happening, but let me try to translate. It opens with a powerful sweetness, kind of like strawberry bubblegum. This then transcends into a metallic tang so pungent it’s like dropping a metal pipe in an empty stairwell.
Smelling this perfume transports you into another headspace, creating a memory that never existed but can be experienced by all who have the pleasure of huffing this scent.
Another scent that creates a powerful image is Tsokovat’s “Inexcusable Evil.” This perfume was not made to be worn, in my opinion. I gagged upon my first sniff.
A few of the notes in this scent include gunpowder, blood, bandages, iodine, burning flowers and fallen concrete.
The metallic notes are very clear to me in this fragrance. When I took the time to digest the scent, all I could think of was cleaning out my first ever stitch-worthy wound at work—washing my cut in the metal sink, nose numb from adrenaline, oven firing out burnt pizzas, “lightly” scented hand soap.
Tsokovat’ is just one example of an innovative perfume company creating art. Constructing an experience that forces you to contemplate feelings perhaps unfelt, having the same profound effect as staring at the Mona Lisa.
Another perfume art powerhouse, ILK Perfume, has created an entire line of easily wearable scents inspired by humans. The aptly named “Human Extrait de parfum,” or “Human extract perfume,” is quite literally the smell of a homosapien. It’s the smell of cool, clean skin in the breeze. It’s what the word pheremone smells like.
But what about art that evokes something you’ve never experienced? Something totally out of this world?
Well, perfume can capture that unknowable feeling like no other medium. “Abduction” by THE EYES ARE ALWAYS THERE is an encounter with an extraterrestrial in a square glass. Notes of spice, ozone and metal make up this perfume.
While I’ve never been abducted by aliens, one thing is for sure; this perfume smells foreboding, like you’ve seen something inhuman, something silver skinned and bug eyed. It’s disconcerting. It evokes the same sensation as looking at Saturn Devouring His Son, the painting by Francisco de Goya.
Thus, it’s my opinion that perfumes aren’t some tacky ploy to cover up body odor. Perfumes aren’t here to just smell good. Perfumes are here to introduce the human race to a new experience, a story, good or bad, told through the sense of smell.
Garrett McEntee is an 18-year-old English freshman from Benton.
