Idle Thoughts of an Idle Perfumist

Nobody can expect me to visit Venice and not visit a single perfumery. However, this was a family trip, so, in order to preserve the mental health of family members (I would be the selected caretaker anyway 😀), I carefully picked just one, one that I have been very curious about for a long time.

The combination of three of my favorites – perfumes, art glass, and Shakespeare (although the drama in the title is not one of mine most favorite) forced me to pretend I didn’t notice perfumery on the Rialto Bridge (and they had novelties on display, ah – but two perfumeries would be too much for my family’s mental health…) and focused on visiting this one.

Continue reading “The Merchant of Venice”

What shall I say? If I had to specify the idea of ​​what the first Slovak niche brand should look like, it would look like this.

But from the beginning. When I found out that a boutique with its own line of niche perfumes has opened in Košice, I was really curious. When they opened a branch in Bratislava, curiosity became unbearable. I had originally planned to set aside a special time for my first visit, but when I soon passed the Carlton Hotel, the gravity between the perfume maniac and the nearest perfumery made me suddenly decide that I have more than enough time right now, stepped on the brake, turned the steering wheel and shifted to get into the orbit. Who am I to fight the laws of physics?

Continue reading “1907”

If we dive into the history of the perfume craft, we find ourselves in France, where alchemical art was imported from Italy. Catherine of Medici (16th century) is credited with expanding the craft, although such a definition may be little bit a generalization. But it was her who brought along a bunch of Italian poison-makers and perfumers as a part of her entourage when moving to the French royal court.

Continue reading “Divine smells of Grasse”

Estée Lauder was born in 1906 as Josephine Esther Mentzer of New York in a Jewish family of immigrants from what was then Austria-Hungary – her mother was Rose, born Schotz (and Rosenthal in the meantime) from Hungary and father Max Mentzer from Czechoslovakia.

At the age of 18, she started working in her uncle’s shop, chemist Dr. Schotz, where she sold cosmetics made by him.

Continue reading ““Every woman can be beautiful” or Estée Lauder”