Stef of Girl With The Curious Nose and The Lip Print was my very first reader! I’ve had my eye on her since way back when Scents of Self was but a wee Blogspot site called “Get It Together, Serena” that mostly existed to point out plot discrepancies in Gossip Girl. Today my favorite perfume blogger from down under teaches us about the trickier-than-it-looks art of perfume photography and tells us how she chose her wedding perfume.
Why do you write about perfume?
Perfume stirs something in me, I feel that experiencing a perfume is like listening to someone’s story. Yet I never found anyone in my life that understood my love of perfume quite the same way, I never had anyone to talk to about my passion for scent. That’s when I started blogging.
It also fulfills my need for creative activity. I have always been a ‘writer’ in that I’ve forever been scribbling down my thoughts and any abstract or random scene that plays in my mind. If I don’t write I feel restless, so perfume blogging helps me to have some creative release but also allows me to explore my passion and share it with others. I may also use it as justification for my purchasing habits…
Frederic Malle En Passant is the (gorgeous) perfume that you’ve chosen to wear to your upcoming wedding. What made you choose En Passant? What were some of your other options?
En Passant wasn’t even a scent I’d considered, yet as soon as I smelled it I knew it was perfect. It’s very delicate yet relaxed and this was the vibe I am going for with my wedding. I’m not doing the whole traditional floor-length gown, veil and 5 meter train…that’s just not my style. I loved that En Passant feels breezy and pretty without smelling like anything else that I own, it’s unique without being over the top.
Other scents that I’d looked at include Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose (which I will definitely end up buying, but didn’t feel right for the wedding), Guerlain Cruel Gardenia, Chanel Beige and Puredistance I.
What are your favorite perfume houses?
I love so many! In terms or more mainstream houses I really find myself gravitating towards YSL, Chanel and Guerlain – the French do perfume so well! For niche scents Frederic Malle and Annick Goutal are both amazing – as is Serge Lutens, although I don’t own any of his scents as yet. For indie scents I love Sonoma Scent Studio, Ava Luxe and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. Quite a mix!
What is your favorite place to shop for perfume?
Probably Myer Bourke street here in Melbourne as they have a great range of niche and mainstream scents, I love to play with the testers there, sniff my way around and chat to the specialty perfume sales people (who actually know what they’re talking about!) Otherwise I love The Perfumed Court for online shopping and sampling – they have an amazing range!
“Girl with the Curious Nose” has some of the most gorgeous perfume photography I’ve ever seen. How do you manage to make perfume bottles look so good?
Thank you! I have a great SLR camera which does all the hard work and I play with filters on Photoshop…I’m very much an amateur when it comes to photography. However, it’s another passion of mine and something I’d like to improve my skills in.
Basic tips for anyone who wants to dabble in photographing their perfume bottles is always seek natural lighting as flash can reflect on the glass. Try as many different angles as you can and snap, snap, snap! With digital film there’s no wastage, so keep going until you have a shot that you love.
What are some of your other interests outside of perfume?
Being a lover of the written word, I am also an avid reader. I love reading and collecting books, hunting around dusty old second-hand book stores to find something new to read. I also really enjoying cooking and baking, I usually bake each weekend and I’ve started a herb garden on my balcony to accompany my love of cooking.
What perfumes are you hoping to find under the Christmas tree/Menorah branches this year?
I would love to get a bottle of perfume for Christmas, but sadly my family seems to think I already have enough. However, if I could have anything I would hope to find a bottle of Serge Lutens Un Bois Vanille, Chanel No.5 Eau Premiere, Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose or Guerlain Tonka Impériale.
SCENTS OF SELF 
How curious… It seems that main reason to blog and to read about perfume is always that love and passion for perfume it isn’t understood in our current life! What a cruel world! Maybe we just should ask more people around us… or just force them to join us!
Question for Ari: How do you know she was your very first reader…??? 😀
Ooh, good catch! I should have said first commenter.
I thought maybe you were the real ‘catcher’ (of all of us)! 😉
Now I really think we are not alone, Stef… Ari… and the lots of people loving perfume out there!!! don’t you see we are a plague… ?? so we are… Let’s face it: what I think it happens is that we seem to hide our passion… I wonder why???
I think from now on I’ll say ‘I just can’t live without sniffing everything everytime’ to everybody around me, and let’s see what happens. Have you tried?
haha I make no effort hide my ‘dedication’ to perfume with family and friends – mainly because I always seem to have random bottles scattered about my house so anyone who comes over is likely to find one on the TV cabinet, on the coffee table or in my study…they’re everywhere!!
Ari,
thank you for introducing me to Stef’s blog! I immediately started to follow it and now will happily watch more perfume porn, um, er, I mean perfume eye candy!!
You perfume pervert! 😉 I am glad to have connected you to Stef’s great blog!
I will check out Stef’s blog now – I knew the name, from Basenotes way back or somewhere? – but didn’t realise The Lip Print had a blog too. Am very in awe of people who can take a good photo and that’s a great tip about not using flash. I have just about worked how *to* use flash on my ancient digital camera.
PS And you probably didn’t mean to imply any correlation, but of course not all blogspots are “wee” – Olfactarama and Perfumesmellingthings being two examples of bigger blogs that haven’t migrated to WordPress..
Heavens forbid, Vanessa! I am a firm believer that if the material is good enough, the platform of the blog doesn’t matter at all. But “Get It Together Serena” was a very wee blog indeed 🙂 It was actually Robin of Now Smell This who suggested that I switch to wordpress- she extremely generously responded to a barrage of emails that I sent her with some excellent suggestions and advice.
If I could wave a magic wand, I would migrate to WordPress myself, because it has a much better functionality as far as I can gauge, but I sense there is a fair bit more involved in a switch that waving. : – )
Though it doesn’t yet auto-correct reader typos… : – )
The biggest inconvenience is mainly copying your posts over. Creating an account itself takes five minutes, and choosing the “look” of your blog takes half an hour. I will say that I was able to completely switch over in maybe three hours. I would really encourage you to look into it! WordPress gives you a much better sense of how your blog is performing.
Thanks Ari for this intro to Stef and her blog. I hadn’t been aware of it at all, but have now been enjoying browsing her past reviews and articles
I’m so glad to have connected you to Stef’s blog, Linda! I think that she is most definitely worth checking out.
I’m so glad I finally got back to reading this. Stef, you seem like such a nice and down to earth person on your blog and here; it’s a pleasure to read what you have to say and to follow your fragrant adventures!