155. Rachel Syme Wants to Earn Your Perfume Compliments
Perfume Room
Emma Vernon
4.9 • 618 Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2024
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
New Yorker Staff Writer (and lifelong fraghead!) Rachel Syme is in the Perfume Room this week! Creator of the now-defunct, infamous Perfume Genie Twitter threads, and newsletter-turned-Substack, The Dry Down, Rachel's on the *perfume beat* on and off the clock.
Today we chat all about her recent work trip to Paris, where she spent several days with Master Perfumer Francis Kurkdjian and then wrote it about (read below); she shares the contemporary and vintage gems of her personal collection; the perfume hacks that guarantee compliments (and why she avoids them); and most importantly, Rachel discusses how to write about scent!
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FRANCIS KURKDJIAN ARTICLE: https://tinyurl.com/64987c5p
FRAGS MENTIONED:
H&M Pear, Erbario Toscano Cuore di Pepe Nero, YSL Opium (vintage), Vilhelm Parfum Fleur Burlesque, CdG Series 3: Avignon, Marissa Zappas Honey Rose, Cacharel LouLou, Lancome Tresor, Giorgio, YSL Opium, Paloma Picasso, Van Cleef First, Bijan Bijan, Boucheron, Diptyque: Orpheon, Benjoin Boheme; Molecule 01 + Iris, D.S. & Durga DURGA, PHLUR Vanilla Skin, Hilde Soliani Hot Milk, Clinique Happy Heart, Scout Dixon West, Baccarat Rouge 540, Dior Sauvage Eau Forte, Elie Saab Le Parfum, Papillon Tobacco Rose, Oriza L. Legrand Relique D’Amour, Regime des Fleurs: Nitesurf Neroli, Tears; Parfums MDCI Peche Cardinal, Andy Tauer L'Air du Desert Marocain, Glossier: You, Doux; Papillon Tobacco Rose, Tom Ford Rose de Russie, Marissa Zappas Honey Rose, Diptyque Olene, Indult Tihota, Andrea Maack Coven, CdG Avignon, DS & Durga Burning Barbershop, La Curie Incendo, Vilhelm Mango Skin, Vacation, Bobbi Brown Beach
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the perfume room. |
| 0:12.5 | You know what scent I am wearing today for my scent of the day? |
| 0:14.8 | I am wearing an oldie-book goodie, one of my favorite bottles in my entire collection. |
| 0:19.2 | And I will just add the caveat that I did recently |
| 0:22.3 | decide to put under my bed like 80% of my bottles. Like I only have a handful of bottles displayed |
| 0:28.5 | and this one made the cut. Today I am wearing my favorite cheap thrill, $7 from heaven. I'm wearing |
| 0:34.9 | H&M pair, which was also created by one of my favorite |
| 0:38.7 | perfumers of all time, who was no longer with us, Olivier Pichu, who also created Orphion and |
| 0:44.0 | Benjamin Bohem and so many other of the most incredible dipteak scents that I love and revere. |
| 0:51.4 | So of course, it's no wonder that he also created this beautiful $7 |
| 0:56.4 | Instant Classic H&M Pear, which to me does not smell like pear. It smells like green apple. |
| 1:01.9 | Like it smells like you are putting on a body splash of like the juiciest, |
| 1:07.9 | greenest, jolly rancher green apple kind of fragrance. It takes me to, like, |
| 1:12.5 | being in limited to in the 90s and, like, being in the body splash section. And it is just, |
| 1:17.7 | like, a scent that is easy, pure, unbridled joy. Now, unfortunately, I don't think you can buy |
| 1:23.7 | it in H&M anymore, but I'm sure you can find a bottle on eBay, although I would be scared to see what those prices are, especially when it should retail for $7. Anyway, that's what I just put on. I smell like I just got out of the shower. It's so fresh. It's so fun. And it just makes me happy. Let's get to our guest. Today we are joined by Rachel Syme. Rachel is a staff |
| 1:46.7 | writer at The New Yorker covering all things culture and when we are really lucky, specifically |
| 1:51.2 | perfume. And this of course comes naturally to her because in her personal life, she is a collector, |
| 1:56.6 | a vintage officianto, co-writer of the Dry Down, which is a former newsletter turned substack, |
| 2:02.1 | and creator of Perfume Jeannie, a beloved Twitter series where she used to match people's |
| 2:06.7 | very specific fragrance requests with very specific fragrances. Most recently, she lived out |
| 2:13.2 | all of our dreams and spent a few days alongside legendary master perfumer Francis Kirkchan, first in |
... |
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