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The Language of Smell

  • Horbuncle

    by Abigail Hinsman
    horbuncle - (noun) the coarse, pungent, and crusty fecal stench characteristic of a dead horseshoe crab (water arthropod).        I remember being...

  • Soursop - Guanábana - Guyabano

    by Abigail Hinsman
    Annona muricata A wineskin shaped custard apple, green and covered in spikes. Cut in half, it is a white and black butterfly. A giant worthy of s...
    Posted in language of smell, soursop

  • Banana Magnolia Enfleurage

    by Abigail Hinsman
    Banana Champa Banana Champak Banana Champaca Banana Champaka Michelia figo Magnolia figo  Literally, "in flower," enfleurage is a traditional meth...

  • Fresh Cacao Flesh and Seeds: acloon, custaream and coralime

    by Abigail Hinsman
    The milky sacs of flesh around the seeds give off a fresh and soft passion fruit and plumeria aroma. A sweet flavor like green mango and starfruit....

  • Wild Veil's Gardenia Enfleurage

    by Abigail Hinsman
    Every day fresh blossoms are culled and laid on the pommade (plant based fats and waxes), and spent blossoms are removed. This ancient technique is...
    Posted in enfleurage, gardenia, gardenia enfleurage, language of smell, lexicon of smell

  • "Attar of Roses" Scented Geranium

    by Abigail Hinsman
    Pelargonium graveolens "Attar of Roses" Spicy play-doh, clay and rosewater, sandalwood, cinnamon, lavender musk rose, powdered pink lemonade. There...
    Posted in olfactory poetics, pelargonium, pelargonium absolute, perfume poetics, perfume writer, perfume writing, perfumery, poetics of fragrance, poetics of odor, poetics of olfaction, scent writing, theory of olfaction

  • Lexicon of smell

    by Abigail Hinsman
    It’s well known among people who work in the area of olfaction that the English language is a wasteland when it comes to vocabulary for scent. Th...
    Posted in fragrance writing, fragrant poetics, fragrant writing, odor writing, olfactory poetics, perfume poetics, perfume writer, perfume writing, phenomenology, poetics of fragrance, poetics of odor, poetics of olfaction, poetics of scent, poetics of smell, sense writing, sensory writing

  • Balsam fir

    by Abigail Hinsman
    The most overlooked (and perhaps defining) note in Abies balsamea needles is the scent of the starch-based adhesive placed along the interior of e...

  • Tamarind absolute

    by Abigail Hinsman
    Gelatinous, garnet colored, sour and smoky aroma with notes of tree bark and sandy soil. I made this organic extract from long term tincture of Tam...

  • Hyacinth

    by Abigail Hinsman
    Hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis) The scent of hyacinth squeaks against your teeth like a green banana skin. It pokes through spring soil as a juic...

  • Parma violets - Viola alba

    by Abigail Hinsman
    Parma violets - Viola alba. The most fragrant of the Viola species, the Parma violet descends from two lines of Viola alba (white violet). It dates...

  • Hyraceum

    by Abigail Hinsman
    Hyraceum . "Africa Stone." Petrified urine and fecal "rock" excreted by the Cape hyrax (Procavia capensis, "dassie," "rock hyrax"). Southern Afric...