...Hello! I am new to fragrances. I'm really enjoying my olfactory explorations! I love how fragrance can be both transportive and grounding, taking you to another place and feeling or reinforcing the present moment. I grew up in a family where everyone had their one bottle of perfume and that was that. My dad wore Brut, my mom wore Elizabeth Taylor Passion, my sister wore Anais Anais, and my grandmother wore Jean Naté. That was the extent of my fragrance world! It has been wonderful trying many different fragrances and building a small collection so that I can choose my fragrance mood for the day. I'm also fascinated by the connection between scent and memory and have started assigning new scents to wear when I travel so I can associate that fragrance with those experiences.I hope to contribute to building up the Parfumo community as it is a much better option over other fragrance online communities!

...Nez did a good two-part essay on the category "Oriental" in perfume and the problem of trying to replace the term with "ambery." They basically conclude that we can't and shouldn't erase the Oriental category in the ongoing history of perfume, but that it must be noted that, as with all things Orientalist, it is an Occidental, colonialist view and reflective of both particular historical moments and political and cultural positions of power. "Orientalist" (which is an accurate category in other media such as art, dance, architecture, etc.) may be the better modern replacement for the "Oriental" perfume category.https://mag.bynez.com/en/repor...https://mag.bynez.com/en/repor...