Story

They take us back to the past and connect us to the present: What is the link between smells and time? Nez invites us to explore the world via our sense of smell, adopting a novel approach that encompasses art, literature, photography, science, history, gastronomy and perfumery to illustrate the essential role that olfaction plays in our lives.

Contents

Gradually unfolding in the air and on the skin, perfume is often described as an art of time. As for our sense of smell, it is known to have the power to take us on a journey into the past. Why is this sense so closely linked to our memory and the emotions associated with it?
Perfume also takes time to make: long months, sometimes years, are needed to grow and transform fragrant plants, and for the creators to come up with the perfect formula so that a composition can reach the shelves. How does our society of immediacy cope with this slowness, and does the industry manage to speed up the process?
Harvesting produces ingredients which themselves vary over time, making it difficult to maintain the constancy imposed by the market, while also adapting to the constraints of legislation, which cause perfumers' palettes to fluctuate and the great classics to follow in their wake.
And since they are so delicate to preserve, how can we find olfactory information from the distant past? Is an archaeology of scents possible?
Finally, what does the consumer's growing obsession with keeping a fragrance on the skin reveal, as if we just can't bring ourselves to part with it?

The nose ...
Of leather
What is the olfactory environment of those who work in contact with skins?

Icons
They make good use of their noses and build the world of olfaction in their own way.

Noses out
Emmanuelle Dancourt's anosmic chronicle.

ODORAMA
Everything you always wanted to know about smells but were afraid to ask.

• Linalool, a ubiquitous compound
• Spotlight on honeysuckle
• Alcohol-free fragrances: smell and fresh water
• Pet scents dissected

MATCHES
Invisible, inescapable, scents are present in every field of creation.

• Aldous Huxley's Brave New World: smelling the future
• In the lair of the sorcerer of Entlebuch
• The chef, Malika Nguon
• Oltresenso, by Tamara Repetto
• Chop Suey, by Edward Hopper
• Céline Ellena's olfactory chronicle

MAGAZINE
An exploration of the world of perfume, through its key players, its manufacturing secrets and its history.

• Report: The mandarin from Madagascar
• Interview: Olivier Cresp
• Flashback: English perfumery
• The imaginary boutique

DOSSIER: Over time
Fleeting but engraved in our memory, ephemeral but the fruit of prolonged effort: a dive into the paradox of scents.

• The sense of smell past and present: when Proust's madeleine meets neuroscience
• A noseful of history: on the trail of the vanished fragrances of our ancestors
• A concentrate of time: can we reconcile the slow pace of nature with the urgency of projects?
• Natural but standard: the challenge of producing unchanging fragrances from variable ingredients
• A little hold, please: why industry is seeking to push back the frontiers of persistence
• Life is not one long tranquil effluent: how the passage of time can alter the smell of a perfume

CAHIER PERFUMS
From consumer product to work of art: Nez delves behind the scenes of the industry and deciphers the 30 new fragrances that are making the news.

• Investigation: IFRA, a guardian with two faces
• Genealogy: aromatic notes
• Brand portrait: Perris Monte Carlo
• Selection: favourites and new products
• Mood piece by Alexis Toublanc: led by the nose

1+1 Behind the scenes of a creation

ARMORESSENCE
Jeanne Vicerial + Nicolas Beaulieu