Happy Halloween 2020 everyone. Now is the winter of our collapsing health service. Brits grit our teeth for covid-19’s second surge (flu season, cold weather, schools back, universities back, continued incompetency and contemptuous scapegoating from Boris Johnson). However I am relatively cheerful as I love Halloween. I love watching seventies and eighties horror films under […]
‘You smell like a baby prostitute’, Mean Girls, 2004
Such a quotable movie. I’ve linked the greatest hits YouTube clip below to start where Janis tells Cady she smells “like a baby prostitute”. Janis can sense Cady slipping away from her, going native with the Plastics under the influence of Regina George. This sickly sugary fragrance is just the latest indicator. Is Janis wondering […]
Colonia by Acqua di Parma
I frankly love this scent. I was initially attracted by its history and minimal, classic packaging. In 1916 a small factory in Parma started producing a single recipe – Colonia – a light refreshment for scenting hankerchiefs. The beautiful crest is the coat of arms of the Duchess of Parma, Marie-Louise 1816-1847, Austrian arch-duchess and […]
“Eau de Homophobie”, Withnail and I, 1985
I want to kick off a little series about scent in the movies. In this short scene from Withnail and I, beautiful young Paul McGann (“I”) strides in a full length leather coat with his lovely curls across a grotty Camden pub to the toilet. A waft of whatever cologne he is wearing brings him […]