Scent Strategy: Not a Roll of the Dice

The Palms in Las Vegas has enjoyed a certain Not-Your-Father’s-Resort ever since it hosted MTV’s The Real World series back in 2002. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the signature scent chosen in the hotel’s recent excursion into Vegas’ ambient scenting trend, an earthy-leathery aroma very much reminiscent of your father’s cologne.

The Palms scent, called Teakwood, began pumping throughout the resort’s lobby and casino in late-May and, after numerous complaints from both patrons and staff, was discontinued less than a month later. “The place literally stinks. I’d almost rather smell the smoke,” noted one visitor in his online review.
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Olfactory Fact #97: One Smell Makes You Larger and One Smell Makes You Small

The scent of cucumber alters spatial perception to make an area seem larger, while the scent of roasted meat creates the illusion of closer quarters.

Olfactory Mathematics

The lack of adequate equipment to study the motion of the planets in the 16th Century did not prevent Nicolaus Copernicus from accurately demonstrating that the sun was not, in fact, at the center of the cosmos. Through mathematics, the brilliant astronomer was able to disprove the convoluted logic of his contemporaries by mapping the trajectories of the planets correctly if and only if the sun - not the earth - was placed at the center.
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Honorary Whiff-Guy

Men’s scented body wash: It’s not just for metrosexuals anymore, thanks to the debonair Isaiah Mustafa, whose cheesy commercials as the looks-so-hot-smells-so-cool Old Spice-Guy have done for marketing scent what the Whiff-Guys have done for scent marketing.

“Hello ladies. Look at your man, now back to me. Now back to your man, now back to me,” says a towel-clad Mustafa in a voice dripping testosterone ala Barry White. “Sadly he isn’t me, but if he stopped using lady-scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he’s me.”

Mustafa debuted as The Man Your Man Could Smell Like during the Super Bowl touting the slogan, “Smell like a man, man,” after Procter & Gamble discovered that women purchase approximately 70% of the shower gel for men in their households. More recently, he went viral with an equally hilarious series of personal videos to everyone from Demi Moore and Rose McGowan to President Obama and the Huffington Post. But if you’re not one of the 180+ “fans” who have so-far received a one-to-one message, you probably shouldn’t hold your breath.

“I am just one ridiculously handsome man,” announced the Old Spice-Guy last week. “I can’t write to everyone.”

Olfactory Fact #406: Little Flowers can pack Prescription-Strength Power

A new study from Germany’s Heinrich-Heine University suggests that the fragrance of jasmine acts on gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors, which help to regulate over-excitement in the brain, similarly to such anti-anxiety drugs as valium.

The Yellow Rose of Texas…Not.

Remember the Amorphophallus Titanum? You would if you’d ever gotten a whiff of one. The plant, whose name literally translates to “Giant Misshapen Penis,” is as infamous as its close cousin, the stinking corpse lily (Rafflesia Arnoldii), for its distinctive floral bouquet reminiscent of decomposing flesh.

A rare specimen of the exotic plant is currently raising quite a stink at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Because the titanum blooms briefly only once every few years, the museum decided yesterday to stay open 24 hours a day until Lois (that’s the flower, named after a former employee’s mother) bursts into odiferous bloom, an occurrence which will last only about 8-10 hours and has kept throngs of museum visitors waiting anxiously for days.

“I’m really excited and anxious to see it and smell it, but it’s nature and we can’t rush that,” says staff horticulturalist Zac Stayton, who brought his sleeping bag with him to work and said he does not plan on going home until the the 5-foot-tall bud opens, which is expected no later than tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon. “This is the price you have to pay for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

ScentWorld 2010 Registration Open!

Registration is open for the most scentsational event of the season, ScentWorld 2010! This third annual conference and expo at the luxurious Gansevoort Miami Beach Hotel from November 17 - 19 will feature leading industry experts from all over the world discussing new strategies, techniques, and trends in scent branding, marketing, advertising, product design, hospitality, fashion, and much much more!

Sign up before October 1st and receive a 15% discount on your registration fee!

A Perfumer’s Dream Exhibit: Whale Vomit?

An exhibition at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo is featuring a rare chunk of one of the most coveted (and priciest, with a market value of about $20 per gram) ingredients known to perfumers - ambergris. Also called “grey amber” or “floating gold,” ambergris is actually bile secreted by sperm whales. Fresh ambergris smells absolutely horrible, but, after a few years’ exposure to the elements, the substance develops a sweet, musky and alluring smell that leading fragrance makers say adds a distinct and highly appealing character. While synthetic versions have been developed for the fragrance industry, genuine ambergris has become the stuff of legend.

Upon discovering that a small amount of natural ambergris had been carefully stored at the Tokyo museum for years, Kanebo Cosmetics struck a bargain to excise and process a tiny sample. Dissolved in alcohol and matured over a period of several months, the final distinctively sweet smelling product is now part of the “Great Mammals Exhibition: Inhabitants of the Seas” which opened on July 10 and will be available to curious whiffers through September 26.

A Whiff of Victorian Charm

With an eye toward the Victorian “vinaigrette” of smelling salts popular among fragile ladies prone to the “vapors” or simply adverse to unpleasant aromas, Erica Weiner Jewelry has recycled an old fashioned favorite for the new fashioned woman. The Perfume Locket Necklace is a gunmetal-plated perforated locket on a stainless steel chain which houses your choice of DS and Durga’s custom essential oil blends, Foxhunt or Empress Jingu.

Steve Martin’s Snooty Contract Demands

Lear jets and bendy straws are for wimps. According to Steve Martin’s massive rider for his tour with the Steep Canyon Rangers (hilariously “leaked” at the comedian’s own website), this guy takes prima donna-ism to a whole new level with three pages of demands including that “at least six (6) but no more than sixty-five thousand (65,000) holistic aromatherapy candles shall be placed in dressing rooms and lit no later than 1 hour prior to Artists’ arrival, enough to resemble Susan Sarandon’s bathroom in ‘Bull Durham.’ Approved scents include Sandalwood, Clover and Flop Sweat.”

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