Category: Monthly Musings

  • Monthly Musings: Justification, February 2017

    Monthly Musings: Justification, February 2017

    A whole mishmash for blog readers in this post! Upon self-reflection, a theme I have picked up on is reflexivity, spurred quite clearly by the comments from others on my blog posts. I make an intense effort to ensure utmost transparency and have quite clearly from time to time dedicated…

  • Monthly Musings: Conditions & Maxims, January 2017

    Monthly Musings: Conditions & Maxims, January 2017

    The 2nd edition of Karen MacNeil’s The Wine Bible has recently come into my possession. I appreciate and find it totally collectible to obtain as many reference books and encyclopaedias as I can on topics that interest me. Philosophy encyclopaedias are a given, wine books are relatively easy to come by, and texts…

  • Monthly Musings: Favourites, December 2016

    Monthly Musings: Favourites, December 2016

    As promised in November’s musings, this month I will be exploring my favourites in this write up without any particular sort of organisation. These are the scents I would wear without much thought, due to the simple fact that they’re secured firmly in my mental wardrobe. And, knock on wood, if in the…

  • Monthly Musings: Standstill, November 2016

    Monthly Musings: Standstill, November 2016

    Perhaps due to a combination of post-exam exhaustion, reallocated (yet familiar) interests, and other rigorous endeavors, the inspiration to blog about perfume has come to a standstill. Smell, however, has not. In fact, the sense of smell is as honed as ever. It is no secret to those who follow my…

  • Monthly Musings: Signature, October 2016

    Monthly Musings: Signature, October 2016

    In my mind, it is ultimately very important to have favourites in perfumery because it puts principle into practice. The more I delve into my personal tastes as both a reviewer and a consumer, the increasingly static my tastes become. The wardrobe feature on Fragrantica forces some sort of contemplation,…

  • Monthly Musings: A Grand Narrative? September 2016

    Monthly Musings: A Grand Narrative? September 2016

    My recent vetiver write up explored an approach to the vetiver note, discussing it in context of how it is treated and how Ropion attempts to break away from that. Using Extraordinaire as a springboard for this technical discussion, I linked the application and concept of vetiver to a grander…

  • Monthly Musings: An Interesting Month, August 2016

    Monthly Musings: An Interesting Month, August 2016

    It has been a bizarre month for me – I experienced a sort of flatness, an uninspired lack of charge to engage in any sort of formalised fragrant writing. This made me ponder over the process of reviewing scent, forcing myself to look at fragrant writing as a concept. However,…

  • Monthly Musings: On Approach, July 2016

    Monthly Musings: On Approach, July 2016

    This month I have had intensive thoughts about the notion and practise of reviewing fragrances. I want to begin writing monthly musings because whilst I like writing in an academic style (serious, serious, and serious!) – there is always so much that goes beyond and behind a finalised blog post.…