Smell & Tell: Helen Keller’s Smelling Session with Perfumer Michel Pasquier

Helen Keller participated in a smelling session with a perfumer in the fall of 1950. The event was described in an article titled “The World Through Three Senses” that Keller wrote for the March 1951 edition of Ladies’ Home Journal. The name of the perfumer was conspicuously absent, which was odd considering the postwar boom in women’s perfumes and the fact that Keller was an avid gardener who adored flowers.

It turns out that Helen Keller didn’t leave the perfumer’s name out of the article— the editor did. Michelle Krell Kydd discovered this after the American Foundation for the Blind launched the first fully accessible digital archive of The Helen Keller Collection in June 2019. The draft of “The World Through Three Senses” wasn’t hidden behind a paywall; it was hidden in plain sight. The perfumer’s name was Michel Pasquier.

Msr. Pasquier was an independent perfumer who compounded fragrances in his lab at 7 West 46th Street in New York City. Keller joined a small group of women in Westport, Connecticut who met with the perfumer and evaluated eight unidentified perfumes, each inspired by a single flower. The women used Pasquier’s “whiff sachets” during the exercise, and tried to guess the name of flower that inspired each perfume.

We’ll recreate the smelling session experienced by Helen Keller using single floral notes supplied by International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF). We’ll also smell Pasquier’s Tobruk perfume (1952) and see a vintage Pasquier gift set that includes the whiff sachets that Helen Keller referenced in “The World Through Three Senses”. Join us for several historic “firsts” at this Smell & Tell.

The Smell and Tell series of art+science programming is led by Michelle Krell Kydd, a trained nose in flavors and fragrance who shares her passion for gastronomy and the perfume arts on Glass Petal Smoke. Smell & Tell builds community through interactions with flavor, fragrance and storytelling. The unique and popular series celebrates its seventh anniversary year at the Ann Arbor District Library and is ongoing.

Smell & Tell: Helen Keller's Smelling Session with Perfumer Michel Pasquier
Date: Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Time: 6:30-8:45PM
Location: The Ann Arbor District Library, Pittsfield Branch
Address: 2359 Oak Valley Drive, Ann Arbor, M 48103
Phone: 734-327-4200
Admission is free and is sponsored by AADL
Link to Event: https://aadl.org/node/397484

Note:
Helen Keller communicated the value of the sense of smell throughout her lifetime. This is thoughtfully developed in an essay titled “Smell, The Fallen Angel”, which appears in the sixth chapter of her book, The World I Live In (1904). Keller felt that smell was a noble sense “neglected and disparaged” in ocularcentric culture. It still is.

Smell & Tell: The Smell of Mummies

The Smell of Mummies takes place at the Ann Arbor District Library
on Thursday, November 14, 2019, from 6:30-8:45PM. 

Several ingredients used in the ancient Egyptian ritual of mummification can also be found in today's luxury perfumes. Sound gruesome? Take heart. This isn’t fodder for conspiracy theories, but it’s definitely inspiration for the inevitable question. If aromatic materials used in perfumery were also used to send mummies into the afterlife what on earth do mummies smell like?

Are you imagining the smells of a dead body in the process of mummification when considering this question? Stop those thoughts immediately and put on your Sherlock Holmes hat! We’re in it for the science at Smell & Tell so Michelle Krell Kydd went to the Kelsey Museum of Archeology at the University of Michigan to smell mummies. Sounds strange, alluring and slightly macabre, but when the “Nose of Ann Arbor” needs answers she literally sniffs them out.

Kydd took her fearless nose to the basement of the Kelsey Museum and was escorted to a temperature-controlled room where she encountered a mummified a falcon, a mummified dog (that was really a fake mummy made from jumbled children’s bones), and a human mummy. At the end of her quest she was overheard telling a Kelsey Museum staff member, “Damn the mummy powder drinkers and the Victorians with their lust for the aromatic dead.”

When the Ann Arbor District Library asked Kydd about the smell of mummies she had this to say, “Mummies don’t smell like decomposition, but they don’t smell like Chanel N°5 either.” We’ll smell beautiful natural extracts used in mummification that are also used in modern luxury perfumes at this Smell & Tell program. Simulacra of Mummy a perfume inspired by the smell of mummies at the Kelsey Museum, will also be experienced.

The scent flight for The Smell of Mummies includes: N° 1: Lotus of Nefertem, N° 2: Hatshepsut at Punt, N° 3: Mut’s Kyphi, N° 4: Egyptian Jasmine, N° 5: The Embalmer’s Jar, N° 6: Simulacra of Mummy, N° 7: Victorian Sham, and N° 8: Allamistakeo’s Cigar. If you don't know who Allamistakeo is and consider yourself an Edgar Allan Poe fan, visit the Poe Museum website and learn about Some Words with a Mummy. Warning: What you learn may alter romantic notions of Victorian culture, should you harbor them.

The Smell and Tell series of art+science programming is led by Michelle Krell Kydd, a trained nose in flavors and fragrance who shares her passion for gastronomy and the perfume arts on Glass Petal Smoke. Smell & Tell builds community through interactions with flavor, fragrance and storytelling. The Smell and Tell series celebrates it's seventh anniversary year at the Ann Arbor District Library and is ongoing.

Notes:
Smell & Tell events are listed on the right hand page of Glass Petal Smoke and removed after an event takes place. Complete information for specific public programs, like The Smell of Mummies, will be posted in the blog for reference over time.

The body of work for Smell & Tell programming, which began in 2012, reaches the 100th program mark at the University of Michigan with the introduction of Sacred Scents, an exploration of religiously significant scents from Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the three Abrahamic traditions. The event, which is designed for University of Michigan Students, debuts on November 7, 2019.

Smell & Tell: The Smell of Mummies
Date: Thursday, November 14, 2019
Time: 6:30-8:45PM (early arrival recommended)
Location: Ann Arbor District Library (Downtown Branch)
Address: 343 South Fifth Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Phone: 734-327-4200
Admission: Free as Smell & Tell is sponsored by AADL
Link to Event: https://aadl.org/node/397485

Perfumes of Place: Wunderkammer Tincture №.9

Vanilla Orchids

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the Ann Arbor Distilling Company was the woody aroma of vanilla. It perfumed the July air with the efflorescent lilt of linden blossoms on breeze-borne sillage. The nose was quicker than the eye when it came to locating the source. It was the aroma of spirits maturing inside oak barrels at the distillery and it smelled like perfume.

The curiosity spark. Ann Arbor Distilling Co. Fall Gin in barrel nine.

Curiouser and curiouser. Look closely at the dark amber trail on the lower right hand corner of the oak cask. What you see smells amazing and that’s because of what it is; oak sugars and aromatics that have dried down after the spirit weeps, leaving a sticky brown sap behind. It’s proof of the barrel’s exhalations, an oak barrel used to age bourbon in a previous life.

The aromatic trail isn’t unusual or a sign of an irreparable leak in the cask, especially during hot summer months. Wood is a natural material that breathes. The angels get their share when alcohol evaporates through the wood and then, at times, a caramelized oaky resin is left behind when a bit of spirit escapes. It’s like finding a feather from an angel’s wing. The invisible is manifest, but it's sensed before the redolence is seen.

Charred oak stave from a bourbon barrel

John Britton, chief distiller at the Ann Arbor Distilling Company, has a funny name for the fragrant sweet resin, which in distiller’s parlance is called a barrel booger. I have another name for it; Wunderkammer Tincture № 9. It's named after the gin-filled oak cask that prompted a collection of various resins from the distillery's barrels at my request.

After 24 hours of maceration Wunderkammer Tincture №. 9 is begging to make friends with linden blossom, patchouli and oakmoss. And so it goes. Wunderkammer Tincture №. 9 sits next to Zoltan’s Equine Horse Chestnut Tincture, another essence that’s part of my Smell Memories of Ann Arbor collection. Not quite a wunderkammer—yet. A perfume accord is incubating. So is the idea of olfactory representations of place with respect to Ann Arbor, Michigan, the place I've called home since I left New York eight years ago.

Cured bourbon vanilla beans by Ann@74 via Flickr

I consider the fact that Andy Warhol wished for "some kind of smell museum" when he was alive and that his wish never came true. He just collected things. I look at Wunderkammer Tincture №. 9 and promise myself that I’ll replace wishing with doing. Encoffining a growing collection of smell memories is not an option. It's time to bring them into the light.

Notes:
You can smell Wunderkammer Tincture №. 9 at a gin-themed Taste & Tell Program I’m giving on September 18th at the Ann Arbor Distilling Company. The free event is sponsored by the Ann Arbor District Library for adults 21+.  An optional gin tasting flight can be purchased for a nominal fee for those wishing to imbibe as they learn about local artisanal gin.

Classic chypre fragrance fans who love gin take note; one of the autumnal flavors in Ann Arbor Distilling Company Fall Gin is oakmoss. It's the ingredient you're used to smelling on your wrist after a spritz of vintage Mitsouko by Guerlain. Eau yes. No elegy for oakmoss or hack chypre perfumes by faux niche brands that would make a nun hurl expletives.

Kevin Curtis at Angel's Envy calls bourbon barrel exudate "barrel candy". It smells better than it tastes, but that doesn't stop Curtis from punking innocents who visit the whiskey house. The exudate tastes like "licking an ashtray" according to Curtis. That's because a smoky dose of 4-methyl guaiacol is doing way too much talking on the palate.

Olfactory Curiosities: Equine Musk from a Horse Named James Bond

If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living that moment all over again. —Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

James Bond's debonair horse musk has been macerating for a little over six months. The musk tincture was made using pieces of an aromatic callous-type growth called equine horse chestnut that grooms remove by gently rubbing them off a horse's leg. The shape and positioning of equine horse chestnuts are unique to each horse. Their origin and purpose is still a mystery, though some speculate that they're vestigial scent glands or toes.

Equine musk isn't found among animalic essences in a perfumer's training kit. There are several musks (all synthetic), castoreum, civet, civetone (synthetic civet), and ambergris-type molecules, but nothing associated with the smell of horses that's derived from horses. This is rather odd, considering that perfumery was born in the Middle East in 1200 BCE and research suggests that horses were domesticated 9000 years ago in the Arabian Peninsula.

James Bond, the horse with the debonaire musk.
Image by Michelle Krell Kydd.

Horse musk derived from equine horse chestnut was explored by a group of curious natural perfumers, and documented by Lisa Abdul-Quddus in a post for Le Parfumeur Rebelle (February 21, 2011):

It happens often, yet I still get amazed at how simple actions can spark inspiration and discoveries. Take, for example, a conversation back in January 2009 between Natural Perfumer Justine Crane and one of her Antiquarian Perfumery students, Paulha Whitaker. Paulha started a discussion about a subject totally different from where that discussion ended. Basically, she casually mentioned the smell of [equine] horse chestnuts and very briefly described what they were. Justine suggested she tincture them and voila The Natures Nexus Academy of Perfumery Arts students had begun a journey in horse smells. Paulha generously supplied the students with [equine] horse chestnuts and there began the experimentation.

Lisa Abdul-Quddus attends Smell & Tell programs at the Ann Arbor District Library and shared her equine horse chestnut story during a 2015 presentation I gave called Musk: The Essence of Seduction. A few weeks later she shared a sample of her tincture with me. I still remember the first time I smelled it. It was sublime, powdery, musky and evocative of softer tones found in Tonquin deer musk.

James Bond, retired racehorse extraordinaire, enjoying the good
 life in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Image by Michelle Krell Kydd.

I visited a retired racehorse named James Bond in Ann Arbor, Michigan with Rebecca Bizonet, a librarian and archivist, who is friends with the horse's owner. We obtained equine horse chestnut for tincturing, which Bizonet used to shape Madam Plague Doctor perfume for The Plague Doctor's Cabinet of Olfactory Curiosities. She's attended Smell & Tell events since 2012 and is an avid natural perfume hobbyist.

Equine horse chestnut from James Bond. The pocket knife was used to
break up pieces after they were removed by hand. Instruments aren't
needed to remove stubborn chestnuts, but are helpful in separating the
layers after they're removed. Image by Michelle Krell Kydd.

I obtained rear and front samples of equine horse chestnut, and front and rear samples of another type of keratin-containing growth called an ergot (unrelated to alkaloid producing ergot fungus found on rye and related plants). Rebecca and I also visited an Icelandic horse named Zoltan, whose owner loved the idea of tincturing the smell of a horse, a scent she described as spiritual and comforting.

An equine horse chestnut on the inside of James Bond's front right leg,
seen to the left of his shadow. Image by Michelle Krell Kydd.

The goal of the equine musk experiment was to find out if the there was a difference between the smell of rear and front equine horse chestnuts. This is what I discovered after making tinctures with a 1:5 ratio of animal material to 190 proof alcohol, and evaluating them after six months of maceration:

• Rear horse chestnut tincture from James Bond smells of sweet hay, flinty musk, powder, sun-warmed blankets and horsehair. A facet in the drydown smells like pages from an old book. 
• Front horse chestnut tincture from James Bond starts off boozy and fruity, carrying the same tonal qualities as the rear horse chestnut. Drydown is more assertive and vaguely salty—it smells like the horse is in the room with you when you close your eyes and smell the fragrance blotter. 
• Front and back equine ergots from James Bond were combined to create the proper ratio of aroma material to alcohol (there were less ergots to work with). Equine ergot tincture is milder than equine horse chestnut tincture. It has a faint trace of white floralcy (methyl dihydrojasmonate) when the fragrance blotter starts to dry.
• Front and rear equine horse chestnuts were collected from Zoltan, an Icelandic horse known for long hair on its mane and tail. Samples were collected when the outside temperature was 90 degrees, and Zoltan was a bit sweaty compared to James Bond, who has less hair. 
• The front equine horse chestnut tincture from Zoltan smells funky and barn-like when initially smelled a perfume blotter. The funk disappears when the alcohol evaporates. The resulting aroma is sweet, musky, powdery and redolent of dry straw and horsehair. Something akin to Tonquin deer musk is also present (confirmation by GC-Mass Spectrometry needed) with nuances of honey and vanillic urine.
• The rear equine horse chestnut from Zoltan smells the same as the sample taken from the front. Similarity in odor may have something to do with the fact that Icelander's have more hair and produce more sweat on a hot day, which affects their overall scent, including that of equine horse chestnut.

Jame Bond's dark brown coat shines under a warm September sun
revealing topline musculature. Image by Michelle Krell Kydd.

Equestrians have strong bonds with their animals that are meaningful, emotional and highly sensory. Sara Stenson of Art of Equine Massage and Bodywork has this to say about the scent of a horse:

The scent of a horse is holy to an equestrian, a spiritual mantra, and a koan for living. We can go for a few days without that bouquet in our noses but that is pushing our limits. When things get rough we hightail it for the paddocks to replenish our fragrance of horse. It is a warm smell, somewhat of a musty smell like hay in the spring, it is a sweet smell, more radiant than a rose. Bury your face in a horse's neck and the whole of that horse enters into your blood stream to permeate your whole body until all the nerve fibers vibrate in its essence. It is a natural sedative and no perfume made comes close to what horse musk awakens inside the human. It stirs the sense of tranquility, that somehow no matter what is wrong the aroma of a horse will make the world seem fresh again. It is a whiff of contentment, a sigh, a breath, a whisper, a kiss of wind that floats you into their soul, down the portal of their eyes to see the truth written there. The world is once again at peace.                                                                           

—Sara Stenson, "Scent of a Horse" (May 22, 2015)

Research on the aromatic properties of equine horse chestnut tincture can shape new molecules for use in perfumery. The first step would be a GC-Mass Spec analysis of tinctures to isolate specific molecules responsible for dominant olfactory characteristics of equine horse chestnut.

These molecules should possess performance characteristics of animalic base notes used in perfumery (see notes section). We need this kind of creativity and innovation in fine fragrance, especially where animalic materials are considered as horses aren't harmed when their chestnuts are removed as it's part of their regular grooming routine.

Notes:
Experience Equine Musk on March 27, 2019
I'll be sampling equine horse chestnut tincture from James Bond at Haute Skank: An Olfactory Menagerie of Animalics in Perfumery on Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at the Ann Arbor District Library. I've been asked to develop a Smell & Tell program about my equine musk experiment and am giving it serious consideration. Smell & Tell events at AADL are free to the public and take place monthly.

Horse chestnuts that grow on trees.

Horse Chestnuts and Equine Horse Chestnuts are Different
Equine horse chestnuts are unrelated to horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum) that grow on trees, which are toxic to horses as they contain esculin, a coumarin glucoside. The scent of horse chestnut flowers is beautiful and deserves further exploration in perfumery. Horse chestnut tincture has a barn-like aroma (lower volume funk when compared to monofloral chestnut honey). The term "equine horse chestnut" refers to the aromatic growth on a horse's leg versus the plant material.

Function of Animalics in Perfumery
Animalic notes reduce volatility and bouquet ingredients in a fragrance formula. They also and add a touch of sexiness to perfumes, evoking intimate human aromas that remind us of the fine line that occupies the space between intimacy and animal archetypes.

Animalics Can Be Polarizing
Yuanxiao Xu, a copyright specialist at the University of Michigan Library, invited me to speak at a lunch and learn on copywriting smells and tastes on October 11, 2018. (Xu attended Follow Your Nose in the Great Outdoors, an autumn scent hike, in September 2018). I blind sampled six-week-old equine horse chestnut tincture from Zoltan with attendees (it was allowed to dry on perfume blotters and enclosed in glassine paper the day before the event).

A majority of attendees described Zoltan's musk as floral, powdery/chalky, musky, sweet, sweaty, like a wet screen door, and almond-like. One attendee found it fusty and metallic. She revealed that she was sensitive to smells, which makes sense when one considers that scent evaluation is subjective. It's not easy to migrate to an evaluative point of view when you're distracted by what you like or dislike, which is what I focus on when teaching others how to evaluate aromas at Smell & Tell events.

Blind Evaluation of Zoltan's Musk at Westland Library
Equine horse chestnut tincture from Zoltan was used at the September 26, 2018 Nose-talgia Smell & Tell. The tincture was 13 days old (a mature tincture requires three to six months).  The best evaluations came from two elderly women who appeared to be in their seventies. Each was spry and confident, one more outgoing than the other (the mild mannered woman later asked why her dog "Suzie" liked to spend a lot of time smelling her when she entered the house after an excursion).

The two women offered the following descriptors before being told that they were smelling equine horse chestnut tincture on perfume blotters: powdery, sweet, musky, soft, floral/fungal (Suzie's owner) and "smells like outside". The tincture was young and would shape shift in a few weeks, but the descriptors were likely to remain. The "smells like outside" element comes from hay, earth and other natural materials in the horse's environment. The rest is, more than likely, the smell of the horse.

Why Animalics are Attached to Myth
Interest in animalic ingredients as medicinal or aphrodisiac is commonly attached to myth. If an ingredient smelled to high heaven (the excreta-like scent of civet), had a history of use in attack or defense (external or within an animal's body, e.g. ejected as ambergris), or was associated with a rutting beast (deer musk), it was purported to have powers that enhanced fertility/virility, defied death, and/or kept one invigorated when taken as a tonic. Some of these myths continue to be held as beliefs today.

James Bond and Perfume
Sir Roger Moore's favorite perfume was in keeping with suave characters he played in film and television (Simon Templar, James Bond, etc.). Moore's favorite fragrance was Jicky by Guerlain (1889), a perfume that changed fragrance history with its abstract structure and the inclusion of synthetics. It was also a favorite of Sean Connery. Moore gets perfume props because he was a member of the Fabergé Inc. board and a debonair Bond.