Perfumed Pages Fall/Winter Events Now Open
Doubling down on scent community and communal exploration.
Hello again! My summer was very busy and looks like this fall/winter will be as well. I filed the final draft of my manuscript; looks like a Fall 2025 release date. WOO. FINALLY! Some other stuff happened too but I will talk more about that stuff down the line. Here’s what I can talk about!
Perfumed Pages Summer Sessions went beautifully, and I made commemorative tokens to send to folks in the cohort. I made a little promo video for this as well. I’ll write about the process and the idea behind them in a post later this week - but summarily, I’m having fun exploring different ways to tell stories about beauty. I’ve designed this coin to be the first object in a series I’m doing called Beauty Capital. I initially wanted to make a keepsake for Perfumed Pages folks - and it will continue to be available only to people who do these events with me for now. But there will be other objects down the line. I’m playing with idea of beauty culture and materiality - exploring conversations about beauty without trying to make a product that promises to make you more beautiful.
A photo from one of the cohort participants who received it next to one of the boxes of the letters I’ve sent with it in there. I love snail mail. The care of designing something to send out into the universe - it’s the best. It fills my cup.
I was bummed after the sessions ended and so inspired by all the conversations we had together over the 9 weeks. I decided to foster more of those conversations as I work on my next projects - they’ll be deeply intertwined. Being an artist and being a human being is just so much more fun with it is done with and in service of other people who love the stuff you love. With that in mind - there are two new Perfumed Pages events coming up:
Perfumed Pages: Exploring Asian Fragrance Houses
Also known as Against Orientalism - we’re going to commit to sniffing the work of Asian perfumers together alongside discussions with the creators and reading material on orientalism, authorship, and diaspora.
Not "oriental," but Asian. Not the idea of Asia, a concept in fragments and notes composed by European hands - Asian. What, exactly, is an Asian scent? This will be a recurring event series, spanning Asian diasporas. This edition focuses on scents from and inspired by Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, and South Korea.
This event will be October 11th, with an additional session October 19th.
This activation includes:
scent sampler of six fragrances, distributed by Luckyscent (purchased directly post-ticket, link sent via email after checkout)
hybrid event including Q&A with perfumers, scent evaluation live sessions, and prompt-based writing exercises
downloadables of prompt exercises
Discord server access and members-only resources
a limited edition, numbered artifact designed by me, mailed to you.
Halloween Sniff n Treat
Halloween Sniff and Treat
October 24, 2024: the week before Halloween, just an FYI. I’ve been curating weird and spooky and some downright silly fragrances to share for this for many months.
This activation includes:
scent sampler of themed fragrances from my personal collection, in a Halloween themed mailed package
Zoom event including scent themed flash fiction prompts, Q&A with perfumers, and fragrance and horror-themed games
Discord server access and members-only resources
Costumes are strongly encouraged.
There WILL be treats and giveaways for those who do commit to the bit. Consider this a good dry run of your actual Halloween costume. I, personally, have costume changes in mind.
I hope you’ll join me for one or both of these events. <3
Much love,
Arabelle