Sniffapalooza Strikes Again

Today's brand also sells a Perfume Gun, packaged in what looks like a cleaning spray bottle.

We might be wine buffs, swirling reds and whites in balloon glasses and comparing notes, then perhaps buying an expensive bottle or three. Or cacao connoisseurs, nibbling on squares of midnight dark bars and barks to access smoothness, depth of flavor, how the texture melts on the tongue.  

But we are fragrance fans/followers/enthusiasts/collectors, and we follow the noses of Karen Dubin and Karen Adams of Sniffapalooza, founded in NYC by the first Karen in 2002. We sniff and spritz to our hearts' content.

This time, Sis (my sister, MaryAnne, from Connecticut) and I trekked into the Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Boutique on Madison Avenue at 72nd Street, not far from Ralph Lauren. The intimate space was packed with at least 40 people for an 11 a.m. start. Men and women in Burberry, good shoes and cool eyeglasses. A pretty redhead in a long Barbie-pink gown. Asian, White, Black perfume and overall style lovers. Young people just starting out, taking notes on an iPad, and older people, like me, who slipped out of my pumps and into my comfy sneakers after the event. Girlfriends telling each other their birthdays were coming up, so maybe they could gift themselves. Fragrance fans who knew to lift the glass dome off a scented candle and smell the dome. (Still an amateur, I had lifted the wax candle to my nose.)

A chic boutique staffer in all black, Gilda Atlan-Perez, offered a large tray of mimosas in slender flutes, then a platter of small pastries and mini muffins.  

"Don't be shy," she said as she moved around the room. It was, after all, Sunday brunch time.

When I said no thank you, Gilda said, "You don't drink champagne? You're not French, huh?"

We laughed. But she surely was French, presumably Parisian. Refreshingly over 50, slim and beautiful, not too tall. Black pantsuit, impeccable black suede booties with low heels and squared gold buckles, cleanly filed nails polished red, large pearl button earrings, black hair swept back off the face and slightly flipped at the bottom. Gilda was charming. And her eyes and the soft skin around them had depth, the depth that comes from living life.

Why the party (which Sniffapalooza charged $20 to attend)? Frédéric Malle, the Frenchman who famously started out at Barneys New York, is unveiling a new fragrance on April 17: Acne Studios par Frédéric Malle. 

Acne Studios is a Stockholm-based fashion house known for its distressed denim, footwear, wool scarves and more. (The acronym initially stood for Associated Computer Nerd Enterprises. Later a backronym was announced: Ambition to Create Novel Expressions.) This new fragrance joins Malle's Portrait of a Lady, Lipstick Rose, Carnal Flower and others released in collaboration with famous noses. 

A young perfumer, Suzy Le Helley, 32, and Acne's Jonny Johansson are behind the new "clean laundry" layered scent. 

The buildup was brisk. "I will take just a few minutes of your time and then we are going to smell it," said perfume and education advisor Josh Mayhew, who led today's masterclass. He and Gilda passed around white cards spritzed with the scent. We waved them and inhaled. Josh asked the audience to call out words to describe it.

Layered, soft, sweet, musk, powdery, floral, soapy, clean, the people said. Sis and I really liked it. It smelled really good. I noticed layers of fragrance right away, not just one or two pronounced notes. In an instant, I imagined myself wearing it, smelling fresh and delicious, and confident about that, and thinking that other people would notice my clean, lovely scent. It could become my signature.

Then Josh let the cat out of the bag. "It's rose, violet and orange blossom with peach and incense, all resting on top of a white musk base. It smells like fresh clothing, fresh linen, fresh clean garments but with a French twist, a floral from another time."

"We all own a lot of perfumes, all of us," said Sniffapalooza co-founder Karen Dubin after Josh's presentation. But she didn't talk long, because she and everyone else wanted to dash off and smell the hair mist, the body butter and rubber incense. The boutique extended a 15 percent discount to us ("unheard of," they said, because fragrances don't go on sale), and everyone received a parting gift, an elegant rubber incense disc to hang in a closet or cupboard and three fragrance samples. We carried our loot out in the brand's small orange shopping bag.

Since a 50 ml bottle of perfume spray costs $295 here, it is not in my immediate future. (Sis always loves irises, in both real flower and bottled fragrance form, so I had scoped out the Iris Hand Cream* last night and she bought a small tube.) But I love a good glimpse of beautiful people and a beautiful scent on a Palm Sunday morning in New York. 

FYI, here is Vogue's report on the Acne Studios perfume launch.

*From the website:

Frédéric Malle was inspired by the history of iris as precious perfume for the gloves and hands of the Medici family. 

Its subtle, silky texture was harnessed by Olivia Giacobetti with musk and cedar to produce a clean, soft scent, combined with the perfect textural balance: shea butter, vitamin C and lemon tree honey make for a rich, nourishing cream that absorbs instantly, to fully hydrate your skin.