At home in Sydney, Australia
Email Contact: clayton@whatmenshouldsmelllike.com
Looking back I have always had an interest in perfume. My first cologne was Yves Saint Laurent’s Pour Homme, a purchase I made as a teenager. The following year I wore Chanel’s Antaeus. From high school to university and into my professional life, perfume has always filled my wardrobe. It wasn’t a conscious decision to be a collector, but it became a pastime when I moved from my native New Zealand to Australia in 2004. Since then, I have collected a diverse range of all things scented. Around this time I also took an interest in the fragrance industry and fragrance chemistry. To better understand the perfumes I collected it seemed natural to want to understand their composition and the industry behind them that forged their creation.
What Men Should Smell Like is my blog, a project I began in January 2011 as part of a new year’s resolution. I didn’t begin with a clear objective except that I wanted to write about the perfumes I had collected. I didn’t expect it would evolve the way it has, but I am quite happy it seems to know what it is doing (I don’t!). As new ideas come to me, I find space for them somewhere on a page. And if the name didn’t give it away, the fragrances discussed on What Men Should Smell Like are all fragrances worn by men.
For easier navigation my blog posts are organized by the following categories:
Collection Privee:
In this section of my blog you will find reviews I have written for each of the fragrances in my collection. I am always reviewing and adding content to this area. I hope those interested in purchasing a fragrance or readers who already own something in my collection will find this section informative as well as interesting.
ISBN:
When I first began digging deeper into the world of perfume finding books on the topic was no easy task. Organic chemistry textbooks are not an interesting read and aromatherapy guides on essential oils are not targeted towards perfumers. In this category you will find posts of perfume books or articles I have collected that helped me understand more about perfume or were simply an entertaining read.
Creation:
The art of perfumery is fascinating. Aside from the fragrances in my collection I also have a collection of raw natural and synthetic perfumer materials. I find smelling, thinking and writing about the individual components used in modern perfumery is a great way to understand the structure of fragrance and better understand the minds of the world’s great olfactory authors.
A scented blog:
Collection Privee is reserved for perfumes I own. In this area of my blog you will find general comments and thoughts about perfume, new releases and opinions on scents outside of my collection.
Scent Adventures:
The world is filled with scent. Every time I travel, I try to find time to have at least one adventure that involves smell. Sometimes this takes the form of a shopping guide in the cities I visit and other times these posts are simply my travel experiences that have a scented theme.
The Perfume Magazine:
Last year I began contributing to The Perfume Magazine (formerly Sniffapalooza Magazine) an American based online perfume magazine. I write a monthly article for their men’s page and in this section you will find links to my ongoing work with the magazine.
Hi, I’ve been meaning to write sooner. I discovered your blog a few weeks ago, and feel an affinity toward how you are writing about perfume and the fragrances that hold your interest. There is a clarity and simplicity, I love your perspective. Thank you. Valerie
Hi Valerie. Thank you for expressing your appreciation and inadvertently introducing me to Soliflore Notes, a blog I have now been reading. Your experience hearing Sissel Tollas speak reads as a fantastic experience. I look forward to reading more of your adventures! Clayton
Clayton, It’s really great to connect. I’m looking forward to the weekend so I can read your completely comprehensive take on Florence and Rome. It looks amazing. Best, Valerie
Cheers Valerie, enjoy what remains of the week!
Unfortunately I have no blog to share, but as another male NZer migrated to Aus, I am glad to have found someone who shares the sometimes anti-social interest of scent.
Thanks for finding my little piece of scented cyberspace. I hope this side of the Tasman is treating you well.
Hi Clayton,
Just came across you fabulous blog and thought you and your readers might be interested in a day runing in London at The School of Life: http://www.theschooloflife.com/Weekends/A-Day-of-Good-Scents.
Hi Clementine,
If I were in London I would love to come along to one of your seminars. Aside from A Day of Good Scents I am also interested in How To Be Cool : ) Your site made for some great bedtime reading. Thanks and all the best, Clayton
Hello,
I know you speak about the beautiful scents involved in fragrances, but does the packaging of the scent ever have an impact on you or catch your eye to try the scent first? And if it does then what would you look for?
Thank you
Hi Jasmine. I have only recently begun to be interested in packaging. I always appreciated it, but it was never a real consideration for me. I am usually attracted by the advertised notes, what other bloggers have written, if I have not experienced a fragrance for myself. With so many new small niche brands launching perfumes I often think it is the packaging that lets them down. Brands that invest a lot in the appearance of their product, for me, either have good financial backing, or they believe strongly in their product. At the risk of sounding cliche, they don’t make perfume packaging like they used to. As a man, I think the weight of a bottle is very important. For instance The Different Company’s solid metal caps and reburned heavy glass cases are, to me, very nice as is Frederic Malle’s design aesthetic. I also love the traditional Guerlain bee bottles and the shape of Hermes’ bottles. Simple clean lines, anything art deco would catch my eye. Coloured glass, green, red or blue. I think if perfume brands thought more about their product design (and I don’t mean gimicky e.g Tommy Hilfiger bottles made to look like a vinyl record called ‘loud’) I would certainly take more notice. How does packaging impact your decision to buy a fragrance?
hurm. i have now made your website my homepage. this is the best blog on men’s colognes i’ve ever seen. i intend to keep reading every post, and buying most. perchance, do you ever sell colognes?
specifically, i lust after the gin fizz by lubin. i want to smell it so badly.
Thanks for your enthusiatic support. Unfortunately I do not sell colognes as each review is created from the single bottle I own of each fragrance, but watch this space as in the new year I would love to find a way to share my favourite scents either through a perfumed letter or sample offering. Cheers, Clayton
many thanks. i’ll keep a gimlet eye.
get it? gin gimlet fizz!
Your blog is fantastic. Great writing, so many interesting details and facts and just so…elegant and elaborated. Thank you for sharing your fragrance interest in such an inspiring way.
Sincerely,
Sylvia
senseofscent.blogspot.com
Thanks Sylvia,
I followed your link and enjoyed reading your blog. I hope the perfume creation is going well! I added your blog to my blogroll so I can continue to follow you adventures over in Stockholm.
Regards!
Clayton
Thank you! The creation went really well. The process in itself was enormous pleasure with all the explorations and experiments and searching for something that is undefined until you actually get there.. And then the reward of having a fragrance that is made for me by me. It’s exciting. Self-discovery and pleasure indulgence in one.
Just wanted to say I really enjoyed your thoughts on Pomegranate Noir. I have that one as well and could relate to much of what you said. You can’t always wear it….but it is so – interesting I believe would be the word – to just have it. It is like some diva that appears suddenly on a stage to take possession of the entire world and then go to lie on a velvet sofa until she decides to make another appearance. It is so…bold and with absolutely no interest in ever compromising or making excuses. I find that very invigorating.
What a magical piece of imagery. I love the texture of velvet you have incorporated into your description. Also that a fragrance I have thought of in a masculine sense can be described in such such a hyper feminine way. I will have a spray of Pomegranate Noir tonight when I get home from work and see if this delicious diva appears for me. I want to meet her! Enjoy the rest of your week Sylvia.
Hahaha…send her my best if she comes! Actually – to be honest – I perceived it as a unisex or male fragrance when I bought it. And then I looked up how JM describes it and it was all this stuff about dresses and God knows what. I think thats when the diva came into the picture.
Generally – I have issues….serious issues with the perfume marketing copywriting… Have to do a post on that! And on Ambre Narguilé, my other favorite among is-it-super-feminine-or-supermasculine-fragrances.
You too Clayton!
Cool, love to read your thoughts on perfume marketing. Always an interesting topic!!
You, sir, have been nominated for 7X7 blog award; see the details here:
http://comeduemaiali.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/7-x-7-link-award-two-pigs-spill-the-beans/
Cheers!
Thanks for your support! I’m very grateful and happy you like visiting my blog : )
Happy blogging in 2012 xc
Hi Clayton, having just stumbled across your intriguing blog I wonder if you have heard of a NZ artist Dane Mitchell (excuse me if you have, I haven’t had time to read many of your posts) Dane works specifically with smell and I heard a wonderful interview with him and Kim Hill on Radio NZ last year. I think it may interest you… http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/20110430
Best,
Susan
Hi Susan. Actually I went to the same art school as Dane. He was a year ahead of me and then I took a few years off to travel before finishing my degree in 2002 after AIT’s Ponsonby art program was moved to the city’s university campus (now AUT). I wasn’t aware Dane Mitchell was working with scent so thanks for sharing the link. I would have loved to have seen last year’s Tangible Intangibles exhibition. I’ll have to keep an eye out for his work here in Sydney or on my trips back home to NZ.