Eddie Pensier writes:
If that were true, I’d wear it on my ass.
— Biophysicist and fragrance writer Luca Turin, when asked about Gabrielle Chanel’s dictum that perfume should be worn “wherever one wants to be kissed”.*
*It sounds ever so poetic but quickly falls apart in the face of a little logical thought. Who wants to go kiss someone and wind up with a mouthful of perfume? Personally, there are two places on my body where I particularly like to be kissed. One is the lips, and I’m not going to put scented alcohol there.
And I’m not going to put it on the second place either, because OUCH.
Related
- Cocktails & Cologne and Sasha Castel have blogged about Turin.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
While “kiss my ass” is a lovely insult, I have no interest whatever in anybody’s actually following through on it.
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If a woman is wearing perfume because she wants to be kissed, it ought to be enveloping her like a cloud. You’d smell it no matter where you moved in for a kiss. You can smell from afar, but only touch nearby.
One of the most palpable signs of our era’s sexual counter-revolution is walking through public spaces and not smelling perfume (or cologne for that matter). Now you can even zig-zag through the perfume counters at a department store and not smell a thing. The projection is skin-close and the scents so airy-fairy.
In the ’80s it would’ve hit you like a wave. Those things projected five city blocks away, and had darker, warmer, and more animalic scents.
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