Clayton Ilolahia is the writer of the blog, ‘What Men Should Smell Like’.
What inspired you to start a blog and share your perfume stories?
My blog started over a New Year’s resolution. When I began writing What Men Should Smell Like, I had been consciously collecting perfume for almost 10 years. I wanted to understand perfume and the perfume industry but my attempts were being slowed by a demanding day job, which involved a lot of travel. My blog became a way to keep myself moving towards my goal of learning about perfumery and it was a fun way to research the stories behind the perfumes I had worn since my teenage years.
How did you come up with the name What Men Should Smell Like?
When I started, the perfume blogosphere had a predominantly feminine feel. It was important for me to have the word “men” in my title. I wanted to attract men that were not typical readers of blogs, which reviewed mostly women’s perfumes. It surprised me how many men never gave much thought to the perfumes they wore. They simply used what they were given during gift giving times like Father’s Day or Christmas. The title of my blog was about me raising the question and wanting to discuss what men should smell like. These days I get emails from men asking for advice on what to buy or they want suggestions to replace a favourite perfume that has been discontinued. I get emails from wives and girlfriends asking for advice on buying perfume for the men in their lives. I also get emails from mothers asking for advice on buying their son’s first perfume. I love receiving these types of emails and I feel very fortunate to be able to help guide such a significant decision.
On WMSSL you mention that your interest in “olfactory arts broadened following a serendipitous encounter with the world of niche perfumery in 2004”. Could you tell us more about that encounter?
At the beginning of 2004 I decided I needed a sea change. Later that year I packed my life into two suitcases and I moved from my native New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia. It was a fresh start, driven by my desire to swim in a bigger pond. When I arrived I had job interviews with different companies and I was offered a job managing a small perfumery started by an Australian luxury menswear store. They sold men’s suiting by the likes of Brioni, Ermenegildo Zegna and Paul Smith. During buying trips in Europe the business owners noticed a growing number of independent perfumeries opening in Europe and they decided to do something similar in Melbourne. To be honest when they offered me the job I was not overly excited; my background was fashion not perfume. But I had limited money saved so I needed to take the job. I managed this perfumery for a year before moving back to fashion but the experience stayed with me and opened my eyes to a world I never knew existed. It was my introduction to brands like Diptyque, Creed, L’Artisan Parfumeur and Miller Harris.
How did that encounter change your perception on perfumes?
Before moving to Australia, I only knew big international fashion-brand perfumes. After discovering independent perfumery in Melbourne, I learned there was an artisanal side to perfumery. Being an art school graduate this artisanal side of perfumery resonated with me and I immediately wanted to know more about how perfumes were made and the history behind the art.
You recently reviewed the Puredistance Master Perfume Collection. What qualities attract you the most in Puredistance?
Larger corporations have purchased many of the independent brands that were trailblazers of niche perfumery. While this has afforded these brands a rapid and successful global growth, I think many of these brands have lost some of the character they were founded on. I love and admire independent brands like Puredistance that work from the vision of one person or a small group of people, who are expressing very personal thoughts and ideas through perfumery. I also like the exclusivity of the Puredistance brand. I don’t know how productive this is in terms of sales, but personally, I like the fact that I will not see Puredistance in every perfumery I visit; this exclusivity elevates the brand for me. As for M, it was love at first inhale.
If you were part of the PD Team, what would you like to do & see the next year?
I want to be surprised. Niche or artistic perfumes should lead the way in terms of new ideas in perfumery but this is not always happening. I realized this when another “niche” brand launched the 500th (an exaggeration) oudh perfume for the year. Niche brands should be innovators not followers. I would love to see Puredistance continue to do this in 2014.
In December 2013, we will launch our fifth perfume Puredistance BLACK. The concept of the perfume is based on mystery, understated elegance and the beauty of the unknown. For this reason, we chose not to publish the notes of the perfume. Do you think you will experience a perfume differently if you don’t know the notes prior to smelling it?
I think we naturally try to link words or images from our memories when smelling perfume. The pyramid of notes that accompany a perfume provide some olfactory road signs to help us navigate a perfume but these notes are often unrealistic. Rarely do we smell actual jasmine when the notes say “jasmine”. Instead we smell the perfumer’s interpretation of a jasmine flower. By not publishing the notes the wearer is left to explore their own olfactory memories uninfluenced by words such as jasmine, sandalwood or bergamot. The responses to Puredistance BLACK will be interesting; I am looking forward to reading the responses across the various perfume blogs when BLACK launches later this year.
The niche perfume industry is getting bigger with new brands & fragrances being introduced to customers every year. How do you see the development in the industry?
Surely this type of growth is impossible to sustain? I predict that new brands created quickly with little thought will fall as fast as they were erected, but that is business. There will always be sublime perfumes, mediocre ones and terrible ones. With so many choices, I hope it will encourage consumers to become more educated about perfume, to know what they like and what they don’t. I also hope that in their educated state, perfume wearers seeking a niche product will look for independent retailers and perfumeries that provide a specialized and expert service to their clientele. There are some beautiful department stores in the world but I find it depressing to see row upon row of so-called niche perfumes represented by department store staff that regularly have a below average interest in perfume.
Are there any other perfume blogs you follow regularly? What other blogs/bloggers would you recommend to follow?
Here in Oceania we have a good range of diversity with bloggers such as The Fragrant Man and Australian Perfume Junkies. There are so many blogs it can feel like being back in high school where you decide in which part of the school yard you eat your lunch. Every clique of bloggers has their own niche, which keeps it interesting. Aside from those that have been established for many years I feel like there is a new generation of bloggers coming through who are very successful and have huge followings. Blogs like Olfactoria’s Travels and Persolaiseprovide a fun and informative read. I like blogs that challenge my thinking and inform me of places or perfumes I did not know exist. For What Men Should Smell Like, I hope to encourage readers to switch off their computers, to go out into the world and experience perfume for themselves instead of me preaching what is a good or bad perfume as this is often very subjective.