I know, right? Musc Ravageur, Carnal Flower, etc. Yes, and yes!

Mmmm, Fracas. The vintage is even more shattering. (See what I did there?)

Chanel has their own flower fields in Grasse, France. Talk about quality control!

Better grab 'em before they're gone. Creed's discontinuing some of their best.

I love Theorema and write about it in my book. The Internet "perfumistas" turned me onto it. It's all their fault I'm lusting after vintage and discontinued scents!

I never knock perfume until I try it. I wonder who the perfumer is...

You should get a mini of Giorgio to job your memory! ;-) Chanel No. 19 and Diorella are two pivotal perfumes for my descent down the rabbit hole. They're still around, but the vintages are superior and complex. And yes, Rene Gruau was an amazing fashion and perfume illustrator. I love his perfume ad with a giant…

I have heard of Interlude, but didn't write about it. So many perfumes...so little time! I'll have to hunt it down. "Dark, intriguing" gets me every time.

Kingdom is unfortunately pretty pricey now on eBay. Have you tried Serge Lutens' Feminite du Bois? Or vintage FdB by Shiseido? Give them a shot.

That's so wonderful, the idea that one perfume can stand in for someone. I think many girls who go on to wear perfume or makeup are linking themselves to their mothers and grandmothers through glamour rituals. Wearing perfume has so many meanings...

Interesting! I'd love to read it, or at least hear more. When perfumers weren't fetishizing the female body's purported "animal" odors, people went right back to being afraid of it. I feature a couple 70s ads that body odor shame women in horrifying ways. You have to laugh not to cry.

The L'Air du Temps that's out now is nothing like the original, which was my grandmother's signature scent. It was floral with a touch of spice from clove/carnation. I love it! And I wouldn't call the original clean at all. Very romantic and dreamy. I think Lily of the Valley tends to be quite clean. Muguet is…

Secretions Magnifique is incredible — and incredibly scary. I devote a whole section to it, and the perfumer Antoine Lie, who I got to interview. I'm in Paris as I write this, and just stopped by the Etat Libre d'Orange shop for the first time. It's as chic and bizarre as you would imagine.

The ad is crazy. I wish I could find it; it would've gone in the book!

Thank you!

I write about all of those perfumes in my book!

First off, I believe you mean: Ex`cla-ma`tion. :-) Also, come back to the dark side!

I LOVE Tabu, and all their ads are incredible. Perfume — especially heavy, so-called Oriental perfumes — still had a lingering bad rep in the 20th century, a hold-out from late 19th century beliefs that only courtesans (aka prostitutes) and skeevy people wore it. I'm convinced the brand Dana took this as a marketing…

Charlie was the perfume I first associate my going-back-to-college mother with. I write a pretty extensive post on it on my blog (with that awesome commercial), and it's in the book with Shelley Hack striding into a glam and feminist future...

I got a sample of Angelique Encens JUST as they were discontinuing it. The last time I was at Creed, every single perfume I loved was on its way out. WTF