This is the personal blog of a male fragrance nut, who goes by the name of Redneck Perfumisto over on Basenotes, or cologniac here. It’s something of a raw brain dump, so don’t be surprised if it’s a little odd here and there. The degrees of mania and lucidity vary over time, in a rather beautiful but unpredictable way. Which is which is hard to tell in a world where telling the truth all the time isn’t considered sane.
Fragrance is a funny thing. Everybody pays attention to it, but only a few of us hop up on our horses and follows it all the way to wherever it leads. If you do, you’ll feel like you’re alone at first. After a while, you’ll find yourself in the company of a few others. And if you’re lucky, you’ll eventually find yourself in a wonderful community of other strange people, similarly afflicted or blessed, depending on your point of view.
I like being in that community. It’s a nice place, full of wonderful people. It almost makes me believe – in everything. It makes me feel like I should stay there and never leave.
But sometimes you have to ride. And sometimes you have to ride alone. That’s when I come here. It helps me remember things. Just like fragrance does.
cologniac 
Dear Redneck
Lovely blog ! 😀 😀
Thanks, Mimi! 🙂 Welcome to my quiet camp out in the middle of the desert! This is where I come when I want to think about things, or just get away from the crowds. I was using it (when it was on Windows Live Spaces) before I found the tribe over at Basenotes. You’re welcome to stop in any time. I don’t post here a lot, but when I do, it’s usually stuff that just doesn’t fit anywhere else. We’ll see. I keep resolving to blog more, but there’s always something else that needs tending. LOL. I don’t know – maybe I’ll think of something this week. But thanks for stopping by – I appreciate it! -Red
Red,
I stumbled across this blog of your’s and found it f*ckin’ hilarious. Keep writing, dude.
– Tony (AKA Grottola)
Thanks, Tony – I’m glad you like it!
If you dig around, you’ll find all sorts of strange and interesting thoughts. Most of all, there was this point where I was really falling in love with the beauty of fragrance – this point in the arc of my life where the memories of old fragrances and loves, and the creation of new memories from new fragrances, all seemed to intersect in a kind of weird moment that I can bring back with either Daughtry tunes or the fragrance creations of Celine Ellena. It was a point where I realized that I could either hold on to the past, or trust in the universe and fall.
The beauty of falling is, that’s where the universe wants you to be.
I like your blog, and am a little angry that people are criticizing it. just wondering if you saw this: http://bigslyfragrance.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/are-fragrance-blogs-all-that-important-or-useful/
OMG – Bigsly actually read my blog! 😉
No harm done – Bigsly’s quite critical by nature – to say the least! Compared to what he says to me on Basenotes, he’s being a veritable cream puff with those comments. We’re still fighting over Luca Turin calling Polo Double Black a fougère.
One thing I will admit is that Bigs always has a valid point in the large. There is some question of whether the term fougère loses meaning when it gets used for fragrances that are hardly recognizable by the classic fougère accord. Likewise, I agree that we take fragrance blogs too seriously, and probably accord them too much importance.
I am forced to admit that my “creative” writing entertains a handful of my friends, perhaps just a little bit, and not much else. In fact, my greatest two posts, in terms of utility to others and popularity, were (1) an obscure designer fragrance review, and (2) an accidental review of a bunch of celebrity scents that I sniffed while waiting for my wife to try on clothes at Macy’s.
Taking a break from fragrance has given me perspective. If fragrance matters at all, it matters because it helps us find a few friends in this life, and to share in something beautiful and non-destructive with them. So, if I can count both you and Bigsly as two more friends, then perhaps I’m ahead in the game! Even if one or more of us is “wrong about something on the Internet”! 😉
Cheers, best wishes, and thanks for reading, amigo! -Red
What a great blog. So glad I found you over here, Mr. Redneck. Thanks for sharing your fragrance insights and quirky POV. The world needs more quirkiness. Your blog is some fine stuff.
MCG
Thanks, amigo! While I don’t find as much time for fragrance lately, I still try to drop in here every once in a while. I like to remember the days when fragrance was all that mattered. Who knows – maybe I’ll be able to return to the fragrance world. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one. Though we wake for the moment, rest will come. Perchance to sleep, perchance to dream again.
I’ve got a rather quirky one “in the pipeline” – maybe I’ll finish it today! 🙂 Cheers and best wishes! -Red
Cologniac – I found you at Basenotes reading your awesome story about K23 and Jitterbug perfume. Question for you: Did you ever make the perfume?
Hey there! Haven’t checked in here in a while – nice to see your comment! Oh, wow – I had forgotten all about that review / story. And no – I never made anything related to the novel. I even lost my sample of Anya’s scent, Kewdra, shortly after writing the review. I was carrying the sample with me everywhere, sniffing it constantly, and misplaced it. Fortunately, I have a really strong and durable scent memory, and the description in the story makes it even stronger. I can still smell it in my mind.
I was just thinking about Jitterbug Perfume recently. Such a great book. If I was reduced to only 10 books, that would probably be one of them.
The Mystery of Musk project was a lot of fun. Actually, all of my “Fragrance Period” was a lot of fun. I hope to get back into it again, depending upon what the multiverse has in store for me. I’ve been distracted lately, but hope to start sniffing again. Just reading that old review brought tears to my eyes. I’m definitely undergoing art withdrawal!
Well – time for another review! Or maybe two! 😉
Why do you have no photos of yourself? Are you defiantly afraid of backing up your fragrance experience? Or just scared?
Discretion is an old habit which dies hard. What begins as duty becomes favor to those of old and long acquaintance.
“You can understand,” said Holmes very suavely, “that I extend to the affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to you in yours.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes