Upcoming Events, Olfactory Art, Dating with Your 👃🏽

+GUERLAINESQUE & 2025 PERFUME TRENDS

Jan 16, 2025

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Hi friends, it’s Nadia! I hope your 2025 is off to a healthy, safe, and beautifully scented start. My hiatus went a little longer than I expected. Life has been feeling overwhelming, and many of us have been watching so much suffering through our phones over the last few years. Our hearts go out to the City of Angels, devastated by the fires. If you’re looking for ways to help beyond donations, here’s a great resource shared by The New York Groove on how to support L.A. communities.

Let’s take a moment to check out, step into a fragrant bubble through your inbox, and find some joy together. <3

I haven’t shared a SOTD in a while, but I have been wearing so much fragrance!

Sana Jardin’s Incense Water ($165): I recently bought the Sana Jardin discovery kit. I like to describe it as an incense water you can literally drink. It’s a fresh rosewater scent that is bright, fruity, romantic, with a creamy incense dry down. It’s not a rose bomb at all, but rather a fresh sip of botanical water that calms you down on a hot day. It doesn’t last long (sadly), but I don’t mind reapplying because it’s so beautiful.
Scent Trunk Top Sellers Sample Set ($20): The best $20 I’ve spent this year! You get 5 samples by incredible brands which include, Black Frankincense by Dana El Masri of Jazmin Seraï, Stroopwafel by Ineke Rühland of Ineke, Cloud Cardamom by Mauricio Garcia of Herbcraft Perfumery, Moon Jasmine by Loreto Remsing of Laromatica & LARŌ, & Black Hemlock by Joshua Smith of Paraphrase. I’m going to post a review of them shortly. spoiler: they’re amazing.

Today’s newsletter covers upcoming events, new boutiques and launches, & a fragrance dating show you have to attend!(we wrote about a fragrance dating service that once existed in NYC).

Today, Thursday, Jan 16:

Olfactory Art Keller Opening Receptions (5–8 PM)
- Soft Time: Ro Miller’s debut solo exhibition explores how scent can reshape our perception of time and domesticity. Featuring multi-sensory works, including the centerpiece 3 Steam, the exhibition invites us to rethink how fragrance transforms personal spaces and softens life’s rigid structures. On view until Feb 22
- Stinks to Heaven: Olfactory Art Keller’s Project Room presents an immersive tribute to Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven by German artists Janine Mackenroth and Camilla Nicklaus-Maurer. Inspired by the Dada “wild woman” who may have co-created Duchamp’s Fountain, the exhibit reimagines art history through a heavily scented bathroom. With overlapping scents of American and German toilet cleaners, a typical toilet bowl, and Duchamp’s letter projected on the wall, it challenges ideas of authorship, gender, and conceptual art. Visitors can also snag a cheeky nail polish bottled like a toilet brush. On view until Feb 22.
Aromatherapy Workshop (7–9 PM)
Explore aromatherapy techniques and create your own essential oil perfume.📍Brooklyn | Tickets here.

Friday, Jan 17 — Sunday, Jan 19:

Botanical Mixology: Sip and blend at The Alchemist’s Kitchen (1/17, 6:30 PM)
Intro to Perfumery: A beginner-friendly primer (1/18, 11 AM–12 PM)
Scent Composition Workshop: Dive deep into fragrance creation (1/19, 1–4 PM)

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Perfume & Society: Fragrance and Femininity, 1/25 11am-12pm
Dive into the evolution of perfume, gender, and societal shifts—from post-war resilience to 1960s liberation and the rise of unisex scents.
The New York launch of Viscose Journal Issue N 7 “Scent” will happen at Olfactory Art Keller, 1/30 6:30pm
Join cultural critic Rachel Syme at Strand’s Rare Book Room for a letter-writing workshop celebrating her new book, Syme's Letter Writer—a whimsical guide to reviving the lost art of correspondence, 1/30 6:30pm
Bonus Beyond NYC: After Hours Fragrance Consultation at Merz Apothecary, 1/30 6-8pm

February Sneak Peek:

Sensual Scents & Aromas at Brooklyn Brainery, 2/7 6:30-8pm
Join art historian Jessica Murphy for an interactive and multi-sensory sips and scents class exploring six romantic fragrance notes and their histories.
The Scent of Chocolate class with Stephen Dirkes (2/8)
Romantic Candle-making (2/8)
Aromatic Affection: Wine & Fragrance class (2/13)
Valentine’s Home Scent-making (2/14)
Valentine’s Sip & Pour Candle Making (2/14)
February’s Perfume Room LIVE Event is a Fragrance Dating Show!
The only dating show where scent is the ultimate matchmaker, Smells Like Love is the brainchild of the brilliant and hilarious Emma Vernon of Perfume Room. Emma will be hosting this fragmance show Valentine’s Day weekend. Think scent matchmaking, laughs, and giveaways. Singles mixer to follow; bring your best scent and game. Get tickets now.📍Caveat (21A Clinton Street) 🗓 Sat, Feb 15 4-5:30 PM 🎟 $25 advance | $30 door | $15 livestream
The Creators Series celebration at Fragrance Alliance Network, featuring renowned perfumer Pierre Bénard Segu presenting his new fragrance, Lilith, Sombre Héroïne, 2/15
IWIRC NY Annual Galentine Perfume Making at Olfactory NYC, 2/19
Bonus Beyond NYC: Happy Hour with Pearfat Parfum at Squasht boutique in Chicago, 2/6 5-7pm.
Although this is sold out, I want to plug Pearfat Parfum’s romantic cinematic scent making workshops. Hope there’s more!

In the News

Guerlain has officially removed the word “oriental” from their website and descriptions of Shalimar, opting for “amber” instead. As the perfume house often credited with popularizing the “oriental” category, this quiet shift signals their position—intentional or not—in the long-standing debate around the term’s use in fragrance.
2025 Fragrance Trends: What’s in the Air? Fragrance in 2025 is all about bold self-expression and sensory storytelling. According to Parfumado, we’ll see velvet fruits, reinvented florals, and grown-up gourmands taking over. Cosmo says homes are getting fancier with elevated, fragrance-forward decor. Meanwhile, Fragrance Reddit is buzzing about marshmallow, violet, incense, strawberries, and even aldehydes. Genderless scents continue to expand, with By Rosie Jane predicting that traditionally “masculine” notes like leather and amber will be modernized for everyone. Boozy accords (think cognac and rum) are trending, and oil-based fragrances are gaining ground for their beast-mode longevity. Bold "power notes" are officially back (when did they leave!)- according to Sir Candle Man. The vibe for 2025? Maximalist, daring, and completely personal. What are you guys excited to smell this year?
Stéle opened their second boutique, right in the heart of Nolita—the unofficial (and let’s be honest—official) perfume district of NYC. As
The Dry Down Diaries
so perfectly put it: “If Williamsburg was a modern-day temple, then Nolita is the Vatican.” I finally visited the new space, and I have to confess—the fragrance demon in me was fully revived. It’s truly a haven for those who’ve perhaps spent too much on perfume (but regret nothing). Expansive, gorgeously curated, and dangerously tempting.
My favorite hand sanitizer brand is getting into fragrance (who isn’t?). But this one makes some sense since their products are already beautifully scented. I have their Rosewater on heavy rotation and will never, ever go back to regular hand mists. Touchland is launching eight “skincare-infused” body & hair mists early February, touted to have mood-boosting and odor neutralization effects thanks to Givaudan tech. Scents include Mango Mojo, Lush Tropicale, Golden Amber, Peachy Lychee, Sparking Bergamot, Cashmere Woods and Rich Pistachio.
NEST released a Santa Barbara Strawberry Perfume Oil and Body Mist (starting at $35). As a NEST and 🍓 fan, I might blind buy this.

Random Notes

This mustard collection, curated by cake icon Aimee Frances
Saffron Milk Kadak Chai Tea Recipe - fragrant, warm, & yummy.
What do you guys think this 19th century Victorian dressing set smells like?
DIY Fire starters that smell amazing?! I never knew.

That’s all for today, friends! Stay warm and smell good.

x
Nadia

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