let's talk about SCENTS đčđ„žđ«
An interview with one of my favorite scent people, Tracy Wan, on the overlap of fragrance language, trends, and TikTok.
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The first scent I ever loved, that I was able to understand as âa scent,â was Curve by Liz Claiborne. I donât remember my specific introduction, but I have two competing origin stories that I rest my first scent connection with.
One start was when I was a preteen in Kansas, only ten or so years old. My family lived in the state for a year, as my father was stationed there for a specific military training that could only happen in Fort Leavenworth. There wasnât much to do off the military installation, save for hayrides and worrying about gangs. (There were no gangs. But it was the United States during the time of Dangerous Minds.) My one respiteâwhich was my respite on every military post I lived onâwas the Post Exchange, or the âPXâ as armed forces families called it, a military-only answer to Wal-Mart unique to installations before such convenience-department stores were as pervasive as they are now, before Target and Amazon and Costco filled in every blank of desire in our heads. I would spend idle time wandering around the PX, looking at CDs and at toys and at beauty products. I loved colognes, not because I wore them but because of their sumptuous and interesting bottles. I was an aspiring artist (And emerging fag.) which meant I was drawn to the designer things. I remember the Curve bottle sticking out as being so playful, a squat neon green tonic that made you feel jazzy. The scent was peppery but light, the feminine and masculine shaping around each other. It made me feel like what I wasnât: as if I was strong, as if I were manly, as if I was in a place that wasnât largely fields. I donât remember if I bought it for myself or if it was eventually gifted, but the coveting of this neon green bottle made it âmy scentâ for years and years. I wore it from tween times through college, until a friend of mine said that âevery girl has an ex-boyfriend who wears Curveâ: that killed it for me â but also sparked my journey of scent exploration, via Demeter fragrances and Clean Men. Then, in my senior year, my dear friend Mia introduced me to Diptyqueâs Philosykos and I felt like something clicked. From there, I entered the world of Penhaligonâs and Serge Lutens and NicolaĂŻ and, after I entered Scent Bar in LA in the early 2010s, I was cooked â and ended up amassing a collection of over forty bottles. A butterfly effect bound by a very clear curve.
The other origin of Curve and I was that my grandmother gave it to me, which I know to be true. One Christmas, she gave my brothers and I each a fragrance gift sets that were stacked in displays in every JCPenny across the country. A giant neon green tin, it had a large bottle of the fragrance along with a soap, shampoo, and lotion. I felt like a king with this bounty, using a spritz of this giant bottle every day and only allowing myself to use the body products for special occasions (holidays, school dances, etc.). While I know my grandmother didnât introduce me to the scent because it was a good scent â it was a formality, something she had to get all the grandsons â I was the only one who âclickedâ with it, who found an understanding of myself in the smell. What she did was hardwire a behavior, acknowledging that you can and should go all out with how you smell, that itâs possible to have a âsignatureâ based in the nose: that was something she embodied, whether she intended to transfer that to me or not, as she always smelled of a sort of dusty jasmine, which is something I always associate with women of a certain age. One grandmotherâs buying in bulk to get department store credit card credit is a young gay boyâs dream come true. The gift stuck with me and, long after the scents were gone, I used the giant Curve tin to hide valuables (tickets to movies, articles about the Spice Girls, love notes).
My relationship to scent has evolved and, as many of my friends and people who have met me in person know, itâs a deep part of my life and lore. Iâm a Taurus. I embrace things like niche fragrances and irregular wines with abandon. I love my clothes more than I love myself on some days. I own more candles than I know people in Barcelona. My office chair is chartreuse velvet. If itâs something nice, if it can be devoured as a treat, I will indulge in it. Iâve never met a delicacy I didnât like â especially when it comes to the sense of smell. Iâm the type of person who, upon first encounter of something, puts my face in it for a smell. Not touch, not look: I smell it. I consider no greater compliment than being told âYou smell nice.â (CREAM.) which is only made better by someone asking âWhat fragrance are you wearing?â (TRIPLE CREAM.).
This is hardly a singular practice, as scents and fragrances are a fact of human existence. From ancient Egyptians extracting oils from flowers to ancient Greeks and Arabs perfecting liquid perfumes, scents are less a trend and more a constant. What makes them interesting is that, while niche at points, itâs a genre of interest similar to music and food and art and fashion: itâs something we all engage with to varying degrees, our interest dipping in and out as it relates to our communities and lived lives, which popular culture can shape. There are obviously trends within the industry â from Vogueâs recent chat about âsolarâ scents to Dazed declaring âhorse girl scentsâ in to Charlotte Tilburyâs launch of âemotion-boostingâ scents â that currently lean less literal, more into vibes and the abstract, all of which is and isnât marketing. This is all complicated by Sephora Kids and Niche Perfume Teen Boys, a phenomena that looks back to my own experience with fragrance, that this is a timeless pursuit despite childhoodâs earlier and earlier end.
Like any trend, a lot of this is just chatter, of people yapping, of yapping turning to longing, of longing representing projections of our desired self via the nose. For me, Iâm always trying to smell complicated, spicy, a bit funky, and like a long unfolding punch. This isnât for you, the smeller, but for myself, so that I can be my own candle. Comme des Garçons Rogue does the trick (A fistful of beets!) as does Nasomattoâs Fantomas (Melon smashed on tin!). Like any object, thereâs always more scents to be had, always more to want. So where did that land me? In the zones of fragrance conversations online and, if youâre a reader of this newsletter, you know where this is going: fragrance TikTok, or FragranceTok, a zone of niche fragrances and scent descriptions and over-eager personalities who want to tell you about their latest obsession. Itâs cute! Results and tastes may vary but, for every type of scent person, there is someone on TikTok making content for you â and that is exactly how I met Tracy Wan.
Tracy is writer and scent sommelier (Obsessed. OBSESSED.) based in Toronto, Canada. Her TikTok, @invisiblestories, grabbed me for a few reasons: Tracy has a delicious way of describing scents, by going into extreme specifics, into personalizations that embody the elegance that I feel when I encounter a great smell and attempt to put it into words. Sheâs doing what I hope to be doing â but sheâs doing it in such a singular, exciting fashion, explaining scents as âpissyâ and âlike endurance, like when you lift a really heavy weightâ and âa moody Dutch still lifeâŠitâs got this hint of rottennessâ and âthat oily residue you get on your hands after petting a short-haired dog.â She advises to avoid single notes and think of scents as references, opting for abstract ideas instead of the literal. Also? Her French. Whenever any requiring of French comes up â Jean Claude Ellena, Ambre NarguilĂ©, Baccarat Rouge â she zips through the words with the elegance of un renard. Her accent is an intoxicant similar to that of fragrances, which makes the experience of her videos even better.
Sheâs very cool! Sheâs one of the rare voices who can speak as credibly about deinfluencing as she can about the surprising beauty of Lush scents. She shares stellar morals while getting down with all the âfume headsâ out there. After putting two and two together in the comments that weâre fans of each otherâs work, I thought it would be great to chat with Tracy about scent, language, TikTok, and navigating something you love when you canât always experience it sensually. Thus, the first of (what will be many) interviews on The Trend Reportâą with someone who I consider to be one of leading voices in scents â and someone who has a great approach to understanding how scent trends are changing and how they should change. On this fourth day of Taurus season, treat your senses and enjoy a lil scented convo.
KRF: I "met" you on TikTok, following you for what feels like years, always leaving fawning comments about your work. How did you get into TikTok? What was the, say, "spark" that put you on track to become one of the best (IMO!!) "scent influencers" out there?Â
TW: Ontario, Canada, where I live, went through one of the longest lockdown periods of the pandemic. I took to TikTok out of boredom, coupled with the fact that no one in my immediate social circle wanted to talk to me about one of the greatest passions of my life, scent. So I started speaking into the void, and eventually people started tuning in.Â
KRF: What are your thoughts on scent TikTok in general? It's a small but growing sphere that overlaps with so many different cultures, with some wild characters, from Jeremy Fragrance to that guy who makes dupes out of home products. I'm so curious what it's like "on the inside."
TW: ScentTok might be aggregated under one hashtag, but is in fact many disparate subcommunities, thanks in part to the fragmenting nature of the algorithm. I never see Jeremy Fragrance's videos. If someone hadn't sent me the dupe guy, he would have never organically come across my FYP. This is of course dangerous when it comes to the insular nature of our existence online, but I also enjoy it. My pocket of #perfumetok is gentle and supportive. Everyone has their own take on fragrance and relationship to it, and for the most part, we co-exist pleasantly.
KRF: What drew me to your TikTok is your way with language, not to mention your incredible French accent. I'm curious about your approach to language and scent. What's the relationship between these two things? How do you approach describing (or "selling") a scent? How does this change from TikTok to writing to selling in-person? And, as I always find scent is forgotten in writing (And should be embraced by more!), what are your tips for robust descriptions of scents?
TW: I got into fragrance because I couldn't put it into words. This is compounded by the fact that there's such a scarcity of scent-specific words, especially in English, that you find yourself dancing around an idea more than capturing the idea itself. I find the slippery nature of trying to capture an olfactive impression fascinating, and I love a challenge. Lately I've been thinking that not having an internal monologueâwhich in my experience feels like thinking or moving through the world impressions-first versus language-firstâhas something to do with it.Â
My approach to scent descriptions is to choose honesty over accuracy. What's honest to me (as in, what does this remind me of? what does it make me feel? what images come to mind?) might not be accurate to the fragrance, but will connect with other people more than a rote list of notes. I think we fall into the trap of wanting to adhere to how the fragrance brand talks about itselfâthe rub, of course, is that these perfume pyramids and lists of notes are often made up, and do not necessarily reflect the materials used. Knowing this, it grants you, the scent describer, a certain level of freedom.Â
KRF: You talk a lot about thinking of scents as more ideas or moments instead of, say, "a note." Can you explain this philosophy?Â
TW: I'm mostly asking as I love this but I feel like my scent brain is too literal. Is there a way to train a palate to be less literal? An interesting exercise is to describe a scent without using scent wordsâno smell references (e.g. this citrus scent smells... like mandarins). See where that gets you. Borrow from the world of emotions (is it uplifting or grounding?), textures (is it dense or airy?), temperatures (is it warm or cold?), imagery (what comes to mind?) Again, giving yourself the permission to not adhere to some level of accuracy helps. It's not a test. The beauty of scent is that it's personal.Â
KRF: Fragrances as a culture will never not be on-trend â but there are always trends within scents. Now there seems to be a unique sphere of chatter and buzz happening right now about, say, "ugly" scents (gasoline, metals, packaging) that is hyping up brands like Toskovat and Nasomatto, which in ways seems to evolve last decade's love of liquid scents (booze, tea/coffee, juices). Even the Times did a story on blood scents! What are your thoughts on this? Is this more an expression of post-modern, anti-old world thinking from makers and consumers? Or is this all just marketing that TikTok (and scent "outsiders") have run with?
TW: My take on this is that we have become too loosey goosey with what we consider a trend. I love ugly scents; I don't think we are there yet. I say this as someone who works in a perfume store occasionally and has never, ever been asked about an ugly scent. Surprise, surprise: people want to smell like Baccarat Rouge, Delina and Bianco Latte.
What I do see as a trend â which I recently made a video about â is the overlap of scent and neuroscience. Or perhaps more accurately, brands leveraging loose neuroscience to sell "mood modifying" fragrances. What a joke. All scents have mood modifying properties. I don't need a brand to tell me what's going to uplift me. I can find that on my own.Â
KRF: What do you want to see trend as far as scents? What do you think will be the next crazy at some point after these "ugly" scents?
TW: The only trend I want to see is people wearing whatever the fuck they want. Right now I'm seeing a lot of perfume decisions being impacted by external factors (compliments, virality, packaging, etc.) It should come from within. Either you love it or you don't. I guess I don't want a trend.
KRF: What are some fragrance best practices that you think people miss? Since you made a video about not buying a fragrance later in the day from a scent store has altered my brain chemistry. I'm curious about more practical and tactile items, mostly in the after-care / post-purchase world. Also? A confession: I am really bad with buying scents online, meaning I will often fall in love with an idea of a scent, buy online without trying, and live with the results. (I'm looking at you, Diptyque L'Eau Papier! Which I was very disappointed with as all I get from it is mass market Bulgari! Which was not what I was looking for!) Is buying scents online always "bad"? Outside of cross-referencing with resources like Fragrantica or TikTok, how can one "get scents" online? Or is the answer simply doing a discovery sets?
TW: I think the antidote to the rapid, unsustainable pace of consumerism we see today is taking more time before you make a purchase. This pertains to scent as it pertains to everything. But because we're talking about perfume: don't make any decisions on the spot, especially if it's in a scent environment that is not showing you the full picture. Bring a sample home and test your desire. Do you still want to wear it a week later? Do you want to wear it in a different mood? Would you want to wear it if it came in an ugly bottle and not the pretty one you're holding in your hand? Not a ton of perfumes pass all of these tests. That's the way it should be.Â
If you're shopping online, don't just go by what the perfume brand is telling you. Read reviews. Watch videos of other people's impressions. It's hard to get a full picture of a scent ever, but having more data points helps.Â
KRF: What scents do you want to see smell more of? What do you want to see smell more of from people looking sniffing for scents? What's missing in the scent world that is very much needed now?
TW: I'd love to see more curiosity around materials and how perfumes come to be. Where is your vanilla harvested? What is "white amber"? I am thinking of a TikTok video I saw of a woman who bought lemons from the grocery store because she didn't understand that the lemons growing on the lemon tree outside her window could be harvested. We are so divorced from the natural world. Fragrance, in some ways, is a direct connection to it. It should helps us love the world more.Â
All delicious food for thought! If you loved this conversation, obviously follow Tracy on TikTok for more. And, if youâre interested in learning more about her and her work or even want to work with her, check out her website. If you too are a âfume head,â please share your favorite scents in the comments â and we can get down with scents we love. Happy Taurus season, angels â
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