What Makes a Perfume a Masterpiece, According to a Veteran Scent Blogger
Neil Chapman, who runs the 10-year-old fragrance blog The Black Narcissus, discusses scent’s cultural, social, and historical values.
April 29, 2022
9 minute read
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Scents are among the most powerful, and the most personal, sensory triggers. Because the olfactory nerve connects directly to areas of the brain that are responsible for processing memory and emotion, aromas activate our individual constellation of associations. Neil Chapman, author of the 2019 book Perfume: In Search of Your Signature Scent, deeply understands the connections between smells and feelings. A driven, self-taught student of fragrance and its history since childhood who describes scent as “the soundtrack of his life,” Chapman has carved out a distinct niche in the landscape of perfume writing. On his 10-year-old blog, The Black Narcissus—a captivating combination of technical and historical analysis of scents, pop cultural musings, and personal memoir—he illuminates the myriad facets of scent and its powers, revealing his encyclopedic knowledge of the subject along the way.
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