5/12/10

The Fragrance Time with Pierre Negrin 香水相對論


Pierre Negrin, the perfumer at Firmenich said, 
Della, have you heard of any artist saying that they mixed Red-orange with Blue-violet, Green, Yellow-green, et cetera, et cetera, in order to deliver a sensual expression in their paintingNo, not to my knowledge, Okay, my point is that, what makes the audience appreciate and understand an artwork is based on the artist's creative stories not the colors they use, you know, the same scenario applies to perfumery, Do you mean that a list of the fragrance ingredients does not necessarily correspond in how they communicate with the consumer? That's right, take Patchouli as an example, how many consumers can actually distinguish its smell from fragrance? Sheepishly I admit: It ain't easy for me, Voila, I don't blame you, a perfume story that focuses mainly on the ingredients makes the consumer draw a blank, Yes, I agree with you, it should be the creative thoughts of perfumers, not the inert materials that entice the audience to experience fragrances, but why does the industry still keep telling the same old ingredient story to connect with us?  

Pierre Negrin, 紐約Firmenich的調香師說,
Della, 妳曾聽過任何畫家解釋他們是如何使用橘紅,藍紫, 色,黃等等的顏色來完成一幅感性的畫作嗎?依本人拙見, 還未曾聽說過,那麽我的重點是,其實點燃普羅大眾對創作熱情的重點在于畫家的創意故事而不是顏色的名字,你是說一份香水成分的名單不能反映出消費者對香水的了解,是嗎?是的,就以廣藿香為例,請問有多少人可以從香水中辨別出它的味道來?心虛得很,連我這個香水包裝設計師來說也不是一件容易的差事。嗯,情有可原,以“成分”故事來牽引香水消費者的心只能讓他們丈二金剛摸不著頭,是, 同意你的看法,調香師的創意思維比那些毫無生命力的材料有意思多了, 可是我就是不了解為什麽業界還是一意孤行,老調重談那些“香水成分”的故事呢?

5/9/10

Forget-Me-Not 勿忘我



Instead of doing what I was supposed to do, I took a long walk in the lovely garden on Bowery Street.  Birds were singing; flowers were blooming; bees were humming. In the midst of such happiness, it was so easy not to think about all the sadness until I saw these fragile forget-me-not flowers under the shadow of plum trees.

In front of the blue sea of flowers, I found myself whispering: Forget me not, forget me not, forget me not.

According to some scientists say, the sense of smell is one of the first to fail as Alzheimer’s disease progresses. This Mother’s Day, I sincerely pray that my mom, who begins to show some early signs of memory problem, being able to smell the scent of her own daughter forever…

Please forget me not, mom.

5/4/10

The Flavor of Laziness on Sunday 星期天的慵懶味道


It's good to make a change, if we were not careful, life can quickly become monotonous, predictable, a drag. So when the sunshine shone through the windows in this morning, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to vary things a bit, to break with routines.

Therefore, I decided to enjoy my coffee, fruit salad, and reading Sunday New York Times in my bed. The sweet taste of mangos and strawberries in my mouth, the sound of flipping through the newspaper, and the fresh smell of lemon, a sort of detergent odors, lingering on my bed sheet, exuded a lovely flavor of springtime laziness.

As the sunlight gradually sprinkled into my bed, the warm atmosphere in my room made me think: maybe the word "deadline" shouldn't appear in my dictionary for a while, especially on Sundays...

改變總是好的,因為只要一不小心,我們的日子可能一剎那就變得單調平凡,可預期,煩煩瑣瑣。因此當早上的陽光透過窗戶投射入屋,我不禁想著其實打破常規也不算是壞事一樁。

所以,就這樣決定賴在床上大喇喇地享受咖啡,水果沙拉,讀讀星期天的紐約時報。芒果和草苺的甜美滋味溶入口中,翻閱報紙的聲音聲聲入耳,再加上床單隱隱散發出那種帶有清潔劑味道的檸檬清香,空氣中自然地流露著一絲絲春天的慵懶味道。

當陽光悄悄地撒滿我的床單,一室的溫暖讓我開了竅:“截止日期”不需要時時刻刻出現在我的字典上,尤其在禮拜天…