Instagram Archives - Page 2 of 2 - The Perfume Society

Join us in celebrating our 25,000 Instagram followers landmark moment

Instagram has become a really important part of how we share news with our perfumista following and our – and we’re celebrating a massive landmark. We just hit 25,000 followers. Not one follower ‘paid-for’, but all – so you tell us – just magnetised to our account, partly because of our access to the world’s greatest perfumers, and the fact we’re so often the very, very first to be shown launches from all over the world.
Cue whooping in the office! Cue cake!
We are keen followers of many other Instagrammers, too. So to celebrate this amazing 25K moment, we thought we’d also introduce you to some of our favourites. (Click on the bold Instagram account name above the photos – or the photo itself – to find them on Insta.) And of course, you can follow us on Insta by clicking here…

guerlain_pate_de_velours

This account has suddenly appeared almost from nowhere, from a French Guerlain addict with a truly astonishing vintage collection. Follow it – and s-w-o-o-n… (We are green with envy.) Utterly beautiful imagery, too.

wewearperfume

The Instagram account of Amanda Carr’s We Wear Perfume blog, which is also a terrific read (wewearperfume.com). Amanda’s a stylist of some years’ experience and it really shows in her pretty and informative Instagram feed, which is dusted with lovely mini-reviews.

stephan_matthews

A true industry expert, Stephan deserves a ton of followers for all the hard work he puts into a great blog (stephanmatthews.com) and #instafeed, which often links to interviews he’s done with industry (and other glamorous) figures. He sleuths out some wondrous vintage perfume advertising and shares fascinating historical nuggets.

littlefridasdream

Put together by a talented illustrator who designs Frida Kahlo-inspired iPhone cases, stationery and more (available on Etsy). Little Frida clearly has quite a love of perfume (we know the real Frida wore Shalimar, NB – which she’s photographed with here), and is often snapped with a pretty bottle, accompanied by winning perfume descriptions.

anillustratednose

Another illustrator talent, whose perfume watercolours and pen and ink drawings we’re big fans of. (We were thrilled to be there when Nafia presented Frédéric Malle with a drawing of one of his bottles, in person.) Lovely writing/reviews, too.

davidnewtonphotography

A professional photographer, David does’t only take pix of fragrance, but all manner of beauty and make-up products in breathtakingly beautiful still life. We dream of having one of his photos on the cover of our journal The Scented Letter, one day…

marlimar_

We don’t know much about this Instagrammer, Marjolijn – except that she takes really beautiful fragrance photos, from (we’re guessing) her personal scent stash.

thecandyperfumeboy

Blogger, vlogger, multi-Jasmine-Award-winning fragrance writer – and now The Candy Perfume Boy (a.k.a. Thomas Dunckley) has truly been bitten by the fragrance photography bug, showing that he’s just as much a visual talent as literary. (Read him at thecandyperfumeboy.co.uk)

synestessence

These guys describe themselves simply as ‘two Italian perfume lovers’. Wonderfully moody photos – though alas you’ll have to speak Italian to enjoy the accompanying scent memories.

givaudanperfume

Givaudan – one of the world’s leading fragrance houses, also working on the ground with growers and suppliers all over the globe – have upped their Instagame lately, offering ‘an insider look into our world of perfume: the art of creation, olfactive inspiration, and modern artisanship’. Meet their perfumers (seen here is superstar Yann Vasnier), learn about their ingredients – and the creations they go into – via this #instafeed.
Happy scrolling.

Fabulous new fragrant reads to get your nose stuck into

Make room on your shelves immediately – not for more bottles of fragrance, this time, but books about them. There’s a perfumed plethora of fragrant reads out there that we’ll be reviewing in the coming months, showing the ever increasing lust for more, more, more fragrance facts and behind the scenes peeps in to the perfume world.
Here are just a few of the favourites we’ve read already, but fear not – there are many more fragrant reads to stack up on your bedside table, and we shall attempt to cover as many as we can possibly get our noses stuck in to…

The Scent of You by Maggie Alderson (HarperCollins AU), 32.99 AUD

‘I experience the world through smell – I always have.’ So begins the latest novel by Maggie Alderson, and we couldn’t agree more. Central character, Polly, is a perfume blogger who loses herself in the world of fragrance while her own world falls to pieces around her – something many of us can empathise with. We love the fact Maggie was inspired to name her after falling madly for Vilhelm’s perfume, Dear Polly, and that she even created a blog and Instagram account for Polly to share her perfume reviews.

Having grown up surrounded by the beautiful perfume bottles of her ultra glam (ex-model) mother, and learning to explore the world by sniffing ‘…everything!’ Polly now distracts herself with, among other things, ‘Guy, the mysterious, infuriating and hugely talented perfumer.’ We’re rather wondering who this may have been based on, as that description doesn’t sufficiently narrow it down…
Currently the book has been launched in Australia, but having been utterly gripped by the first chapter – which you can read for free, here – we’re crossing everything that the book will be published in the UK and other territories, soon.

CHANEL – The Art of Creating Fragrance by Lionel Paillès (Abrams Books), £125

A breathtakingly beautiful – and lavishly presented – six-volume set of books that foucs on single ingredients, revealing the artisinal techniques used to create those famous Chanel fragrances. Following the journey of the five main flowers from which the majority of Chanel perfumes are made, we learn about the growing, harvesting and meticulous processing of May rose, Grasse iris, Grasse jasmine, rose geranium and tuberose.
Stunning photographs by Pierre Even ensure a feast for the eyes, with fascinating facts dotted throughout. Did you know, for example, that since the very first bottle was made in the 1921, Chanel No. 5 has been made with flowers from the same picturesque patch of land between the Alps and the Mediterranean, known as the Pégomas Valley?
Gloriously celebratory, this visual tour of the French Rivierea by way of its fragrant flowers just makes us want to jump on a plane and run through the fields in a gauzy white gown and a straw hat, stat. Yes, it’s far pricier than your average book but you are getting a set of six, and these are volumes you’ll want to treasure forever – or give as a really special gift for that ultimate Chanel fan.

Flacons Guerlain: Collection de Sylvie Guerlain, by Bernard Gangler (Chêne), £42.24

Imagine being a member of the Guerlain family (oh, imagine…) and becoming obsessed by the bottles (easy enough even when you’re no relation at all, we find!) and then setting about making an extensive collection of them by scouring the flea markets and antique shops of France to hunt down every last rare example you can find. The book is written in French, but really it’s all about the lovingly documented flacons themselves – page after page of them – with greater emphasis on the visual joys than the writing itself, so even if your French is sub- Sixth Form, you’ll get by just fine.
We think this is the perfect ‘coffee table’ book with which to flagrantly display your love of fragrance – hours of flicking through, gazing and sighing happily are pretty much guaranteed, we feel. It’s so interesting to see how some of the bottles change through time – and those that barely change at all. Definitely one for your Christmas List if you can’t quite swing for it yourself right now.
Written by Suzy Nightingale

Thank you to all our fabulous #followers

We’d like to thank each and every one of you who has followed us on Instagram and helped us to reach an amazing 15,000 followers.
The fragrance world is actually incredibly visual – stunning bottles, beautiful packaging, creative launches – and we’re in the privileged position to see (and smell) everything.
So follow us for news of launches, to see our encounters with perfumers and other important fragrance names: a behind-the-red-velvet-rope ‘access all areas’ view of all that’s happening in the fragrance world.
And of course, there are our pretty pix of perfume bottles, posted every day…
See you on Instagram? We hope so.
Follow us now…

Whoop, whoop! We’re popping corks in The Perfume Society office…

We’re big fans of Instagram at The Perfume Society.

No, you can’t smell an Instagram post. (Though we’re sure someone’s working on it.)

But pictures can still convey a mood or a feeling (which is partly why ‘mood boards’ are created for perfumers, of course). So we have great fun trying to capture the spirit of an event or a fragrance, in visual form.

Sometimes, because we get around, our team manages to do this from different continents on the same day!

We’re absolutely delighted then, that without paying for a single follower (as some people apparently do!), we’ve organically reached a landmark 10,000 followers on this social medium.*

So: if you don’t already follow us on Instagram, find us here.

And if you do, we promise to continue to help keep your finger on the pulse-point of everything that’s happening in the fragrant world with breaking news, ‘backstage’ access and via the steady stream of new launches which appear on our desks.

We’d love to share a real glass of Champagne with you, but it’ll have to be virtual.
Chin, chin! (And thanks again.)

* Murphy’s Law being what it is, our following will probably now dip just below 10,000! People do ‘unfollow’ as well as follow (and we do it ourselves). One annoying thing is that once you hit 10,000 followers, you can only see the increments in hundreds, so we thought we’d share a little App we’ve just discovered called Followers, which lets you see who’s following you, who’s unfollowed, who loves you the most and who you’re following who doesn’t follow you back. (You’re welcome!)

Flash, bang, wallop, what a picture! More fragrant Instagrammers we think you’ll enjoy following…

Maybe it’s because our eyes are increasingly too weary to look at an endless scroll of words on a teeny screen.

Maybe it’s that with the prospect of Twitter soon allowing limitless soundbites, we’re slightly falling out of love with that social medium (while still posting regularly, anyway!). Half the fun is keeping it brief, eh?

And although we still hold Facebook dear, it seems that we’re not alone in finding Instagram a most enjoyable way to keep our finger on the pulse-point of fragrant thoughts and happenings. Scent may be about the nose, primarily – but it can be visually thrilling, too.

Among our own 6,500+ followers (and counting), there are some brilliant scented Instagrammers – and we thought we’d share a second wave of those we think you’ll love: vintage bottle collectors, brilliant brands and sexy shops. Just click on the blue name to find and follow. (And follow us here…)

1. Grandiflora Fragrance

Grandiflora is Sydney’s most famous florist – and last autumn, founder Saskia Havekes launched her own signature fragrance line, a-swirl with white florals. Many of these posts combine our two greatest loves: stunning floral displays and beautiful bottles.

2. Atelier Cologne

Christophe Cervasel and Sylvia Ganter, the co-founders of this ‘intense Cologne’ line, are both very visual – you’ve only got to look at the montages they create for each new fragrance launch. But their Instagram feed is super-colourful and fun – and features odd little ‘flicker-book’ or video, further bringing the collection alive. (See also main visual for this post from Atelier Cologne‘s Insta-feed.)

3. Memoirs of a Perfumista

Nyal Dillimore is scent-obsessed full-time mum who dreams of opening her own perfume boutique and has a real eye for an arty Instagram shot or stylish montage.

4. Beaufort London

From one of the new ‘rising star’ perfume houses, this Instagram feed is characteristically dark, moody and occasionally captures really atrocious weather (well, the name is inspired by the BeauFort wind scale). We’re blown away. (Almost literally.)

5. Odette Toilette

A great way to catch up with one of our favourite perfumistas, the extremely witty and clever Lizzie Ostrom, author of Perfume: A Century of Scents. It follows her scented adventures and travels. (Above, see ‘Paula’, her travelling scent trunk – which is alas too heavy to lug around, as Lizzie explained to us in The Scented Letter). Great vintage bottle shots from Lizzie’s collection are regular highlights.

6. Scent of the Day

This Instagram feed features mini-reviews of masculine scents – one for every day, as the name suggests. Sometimes packshots, often taken by the perfumista himself. One for the chaps, perhaps.

7. Peony Melbourne

This Australian perfume shop’s feed has us wanting to cash in some airmiles for a visit Down Under. Absolutely swoonworthy flower shots show up alongside beautiful bottle pix, fabulous architecture (because we’re not only interested in perfume, right?) and even the odd scoop of ice cream. What. Is. Not. To. Love?

8. Guerlain

The official Instagram account of the legendary French perfume house also brings us news of skincare and make-up, but it’s the go-to destination for official Guerlain news about upcoming fragrance launches. (And we really like the short films which often feature.)

9. Vetyyver

Subtitled ‘A German perfume diary’, this guy’s a seriously cool photographer, documenting an impressive collection. If you’re looking to fine-tune your own Instagram shots and filter choices, there’s a lot to learn here.

10. Iscentyouaday

An ultra-dedicated perfume blogger (who also happens to be a big fan of ours!), Iscentyouaday pledges to review a perfume a day (and succeeds) – her sub-title is ‘1001 Days of Perfume’ – and while featuring more than the odd cat picture (what IS it about fragrance fans and cats?), her Instagrams are sweet and often alert you to worthwhile posts such as ‘Perfume for Paupers: How to Smell Good on a Budget. And we like to think we’re all about encouraging new talent as well as showcasing established names.

Happy scrolling…!

Written by Jo Fairley

Love Instagram? You need to know about Ulrich Lang’s Aperture Insta-comp

If you’re at all visually-minded, Instagram has probably become your favourite social medium. But now budding Mert & Marcuses (or Sam Taylor-Johnsons) can have a shot – literally – at coming up with a photo which perfectly captures the new fragrance from Ulrich Lang. And perhaps win a really terrific prize, as a result…

Ulrich Lang‘s fragrances are beautiful – but so are their ‘photographic’ boxes. This latest, with its moodily setting sun, is by rising star photographer, 20-year-old Olivia Bee. (You could call her precocious, actually: Olivia shot her first ad. campaign, for Adidas, aged just 14.)

The fragrance inside – Aperture (which is US-based Ulrich’s most sensual launch yet) – has been unveiled at Liberty, where you can enjoy smelling it for yourself. Very wearable, with an underlying sexiness, it’s a woody-spicy ‘shareable’ scent.

And Ulrich would like you to feel inspired by Aperture‘s notes, or the scent of the finished fragrance, to create a photo of your own.

Top notes: aldehydes, pink pepper, black pepper, white pepper
Heart notes: tobacco, jasmine, cedarwood, hints of lily of the valley
Base notes: musk, vetiver, ambergris, animalic notes, amber

To enter, you simply upload a photo that captures the spirit of these notes onto your Instagram account, remembering to hashtag it: #luxelibertylang

At the end of September, the top 25 photographs with the most ‘Likes’ will progress to the final judging and a short-list of Liberty‘s top five favourites, with Olivia Bee then choosing an overall winner. (The winner will be contacted in mid-October, with the news.)

Not feeling artistic? (More used to uploading pictures of your cat, or dinner…?) Why not just cast your vote by ‘Like’-ing what’s already been uploaded?

We just did…

Aperture by Ulrich Lang £125 for 100 ml eau de parfum
Try it at: Liberty

www.ulrichlangnewyork.com

Please note: You must have a high-resolution version (300dpi or higher; no smaller than 12″ x 8″) of your photograph available to send over if you win. Liberty recommend that you take a photo on a camera and then upload it to Instagram rather than taking it directly through the app. The packaging requires a horizontal format, so take a photograph with landscape orientation. Click here for more terms and conditions.

Tag: Instagram