Escape Artists
You’re lying on a beach, eyes closed. There’s a tang of salt in the air, a whiff of some tropical bloom. There’s the sand, which smells distinct and nothing like soil the breeze, thick with ozone (a word, incidentally, which comes from the Greek ozein, meaning “to smell”). This is the scent of relaxation, of vacation, of the specific stretch of beach on which you’ve chosen to location your towel—and if you ever encounter that combination of fragrances once more, you will most likely be instantly transported back, even if you are in an Idaho snowstorm.
This is the phenomenon which inspires perfumers to spike their fragrances with certain notes, regardless of whether it be the watermelon in Lily Pulitzer’s Palm Beach inspired Beachy or the hibiscus and passion flower in Michael Kors’ Bermuda: They are trying conjure a particular place, and take us there. “As a kid my family members would invest summers in Hawaii,” says Gaye Straza Rappaport, founder of Kai fragrance, a white floral bouquet characterized by a powerful hit of intoxicating gardenia. “There’s nothing like the scent of exotic flowers, and plumeria, pikake, gardenia, and jasmine seemed to grow everywhere. Each time I smell 1 of those flowers I’m instantly back on the islands surrounded by loved ones.” Perfume is like a time portal—one whiff of Chanel No. five, for example, and you are a kid at your mother’s vanity table—and a sort of teleportation mechanism to locations you’ve visited all through your life, thanks to straightforward biology: The portion of the brain that recognizes and processes odors is appropriate next to the region that stores our memories. It is like a small switch gets thrown among the two and a door is flung open what our nose knows is the key.
Everybody has a robust scent memory—not all of them bottle-able: 1 of my ELLE colleagues is reminded of holidays not by tropical delights, but by the oaky scent of wood smoke (she’s a mountain cabin fan) I get 
such a robust sense of London every time I catch a whiff of a particular asphalt-and-diesel-fuel combo that I’m practically standing in front of Big Ben for a few seconds like I’ve accomplished a quantum leap. But, thankfully, the most potent instant-vacation scent I’ve ever encountered is a, pleasant, and b, one that I can enjoy at home: Tahitian monoï.
Jennifer Aniston’s 5 Favorite Beauty Products
Jennifer Aniston has a new perfume out, called Jennifer Aniston Eau de Parfum, and she’s sharing some of her most favorite beauty products she uses everyday:
1. Jennifer Aniston Eau de Parfum, $ 39 – Jen says of the scent:
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Perfumes Sketches By Laura Laine
The best I’ll get when I close my eyes and think about a perfume is a flower. A moment in time. A sensation I experienced while smelling that perfume. Laura Laine, however, thinks about a perfume and, like possessed by it, draws some unearthly beautiful sketch. Something you’d say spilled from the very perfume bottle! (the following drawings were featured in Elle Russia, March 2010)
Or so it looks like to me. Some artists really nail it right (and they’re doing it without creeping the life out of me like most of the modern artists tend to). Take my Adored Husband, for instance – whenever he’s magically exercising his IT art, all I see is a bunch of Abracadabras when in fact it’s all just mathematics. And boy, does it look like art when he’s doing it (which I’m sure he cannot say the same about me when I do the laundry)! How do they do it? Drawing, painting, molding and so on… Is there a sixth – eleventh sense for that? (via, you can see more of Laura Laine’s talented work here)
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Perfumes Are Poisonous?
There was something bothering me for quite some time: I’ve developed an extra care syndrome (I think it goes beyond attention, beyond care, I think it’s maniac behavior already) to check the labels of many (if not all) the products we buy. It’s something I depicted from a very close cousin who opened my eyes on labels.
Since the first time I laid eyes on my cosmetics labels, I freaked out. Properly. Have you checked your vanity? See how many parabens, acetyls and so many other synthetic substances make your “beauty” product “work”? How about if you check your perfume’s label? See what the magic liquor is really made of? What? There is no ingredients label? Oooh, that’s right! There’s no ingredients label on perfumes! Why is that? (don’t miss the perfumes with real chances of harming us right after the jump!)
