Perfume

Mary J. Blige is on a roll. Hot on the heels of her first fragrance My Life -- which debuted in 2010 to be the most successful scent launch on the Home Shopping Network and won two of the perfume industry's FiFi awards -- the singer follows up with a creamy floral fragrance called My Life Blossom. Though Blige looks to have seamlessly added perfume and accessories to her list of accomplishments (she also designs a line of sunglasses called Melodies), she hasn't always enjoyed all that perfume has to offer.

Eat. Pray. Love. Spritz. Now inhale deeply and feel your life transform. It's only May, but 2012 is already shaping up as the year perfume wafted from the lively online blogs and into mainstream publishing in a big way. These days, new fragrance releases are greeted - and critiqued - with the intellectual sophistication formerly reserved for Paris fashion shows. Perfume is an art form and the "noses" who compose cutting-edge fragrances are rock stars. Writers, always hip to the zeitgeist, are avidly chronicling this renaissance and some books have even inspired their own perfumes.

It's not difficult to imagine Elizabeth Barrial, 36, the chief perfumer for Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, as a sorceress of the night. Besides practicing her potion-making craft, the esoteric perfume house's matriarch appears otherworldly. She wears her black and red locks down to her waist, and her eyes sparkle as she takes a whiff of one of her bottled concoctions. She and business partner Brian Constantine typically work behind the scenes, with her wares available only online . But once a month, during the full moon, Barrial escapes her laboratory to peddle her wondrous and macabre scents at the horror shop Dark Delicacies in Burbank.

She has become every bit as much a fixture in the playoffs as Kobe Bryant, Marv Albert's signature "Yesss!" call and a first-round flameout by the Portland Trail Blazers. So what if she wears perfume and at times fixes her hair in a ponytail. Violet Palmer has made it in a man's game, and she's not going anywhere. The NBA's only female referee has worked the playoffs six years running, and though the league will not publicly divulge its assignments for the first-round series that start Saturday, there's no reason to think Palmer won't be blowing her whistle into next month.

Survey a group of beauty-conscious Americans and many would undoubtedly agree that a Paris Hilton fragrance is for teenagers or twentysomethings and the sophisticated strength of Chanel No. 5 is for your grandmother. Certain scents typically have certain age associations. But ultimately, what makes a scent "young" or "old" is subjective. While most perfumers agree that simple and sweet, fruity florals are the scent of preference for women and girls who are likely to have seen "New Moon," and that big, powdery, floral bouquets are most often worn by older women, that perception is largely dependent on one's personal interaction with the fragrance.

Anyone who's ever been trapped in a crowded elevator intrinsically understands: Few people are gifted with noses so finely tuned to fragrance that they can distinguish between scents that allure and ones that merely annoy. Scents that fall into both categories — and the entire spectrum in between — were chonicled in the 2008 "Perfumes: The Guide. " That book has now been culled to 100 classics in the authors' new "The Little Book of Perfumes," which is scheduled to go on sale Monday.

The most popular season for fragrance buying is upon us, and with it, the clouds of perfume that mark the entrance to many department stores. Looking for a whiff of Marc Jacobs' vampy new Lola? How about Thierry Mugler's Alien Liqueur de Parfum, which is aged in oak casks? Even if most shoppers aren't actively seeking the stars of the fragrance world, they will get a sniff as they run the gantlet of atomizer-armed perfume girls who gleefully spritz shoppers and keep stores joyfully aromatic.

We've all been there. Trapped in an elevator with an overly perfumed passenger who has you holding your breath until the doors open. Held hostage at a restaurant next to a fellow diner whose Poison is tainting your filet mignon. Ambushed at a movie theater where the only recourse is to bury your nose in the popcorn. Perfume may be a pleasure to those who wear it, but its over-application is often a nuisance to others. Though fragrance is often worn to attract, it stands an equal chance of repelling because scent is so subjective.

The holidays are a season of beauty ? if the abundance of offerings related to looks is any indication. We've culled the outpouring to bring gift-givers some ideas in a range of prices for a variety of pretty predilections. Don't be surprised if your cup runneth over with beatific smiles Christmas morning. FOR THE RECORD: Holiday gifts: On Dec. 12, an article about beauty and fragrance gifts listed three Antica Farmacista home ambience scents as though they were two products: Vanilla Bourbon, Mandarin & Grapefruit and Sandalwood.

Have you been feeling a little down lately? Maybe it's the weather. The rainy days we've had this winter just might touch off a mild case of seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression that experts say generally appears during late fall or early winter, when sunshine is scarce. For serious cases, treatment includes light therapy, medications and psychotherapy. But for those of us who are just having a gloomy day or two, there are beauty products that claim to elevate mood.

Kim Kardashian was "flour bombed" Thursday night -- that is, someone hurled a baggie of flour at her -- as she arrived on the red carpet to market the launch of her new fragrance. The flour bomb assault on Kardashian could lead to new rules of engagement between the public and public figures. Hollywood and the tabloid machine relish images of celebs interacting with fans at red carpet events -- like Tom Cruise being close enough to grab a fan's camera and pose with it. But such proximity can potentially be fraught with danger.

Anyone who's ever been trapped in a crowded elevator intrinsically understands: Few people are gifted with noses so finely tuned to fragrance that they can distinguish between scents that allure and ones that merely annoy. Scents that fall into both categories — and the entire spectrum in between — were chonicled in the 2008 "Perfumes: The Guide. " That book has now been culled to 100 classics in the authors' new "The Little Book of Perfumes," which is scheduled to go on sale Monday.

Justin Bieber's line of perfume — for women — recently made its debut. He seems to know his market. One teenage girl gushed, "I love him! I love him! When I use the perfume, I feel him!" And it's not only Justin — I call him Justin although we travel in different universes. Last year, there were 69 new celebrity perfumes. There was Katy Perry's Purr, Beyonce's Heat and Jennifer Aniston's creatively named Jennifer Aniston. It got me thinking that we seniors should have our own scents.

Macy's Herald Square is teeming with tweenage girls this muggy, late June afternoon. One of them, Miranda Santiago, has chosen to spend part of her vacation from Argentina camped outside the store, near a life-sized cardboard cutout of singer Justin Bieber promoting his just-released fragrance for women, Someday. Never mind that most of the "women" here today are in middle school. "I love him! I love him!" wails Santiago. "When I use the perfume, I feel him!" She and the others are vying to be among the first 325 to buy Bieber's $135 VIP gift set the following morning, which comes with a chance to meet Bieber at Macy's later in the week.

Mary J. Blige is on a roll. Hot on the heels of her first fragrance My Life -- which debuted in 2010 to be the most successful scent launch on the Home Shopping Network and won two of the perfume industry's FiFi awards -- the singer follows up with a creamy floral fragrance called My Life Blossom. Though Blige looks to have seamlessly added perfume and accessories to her list of accomplishments (she also designs a line of sunglasses called Melodies), she hasn't always enjoyed all that perfume has to offer.

Southern California weather doesn't change too drastically from winter to spring and there's no specially branded latte being served at Starbucks to nudge us into the next season, but we can count on lighter fragrances to bring on the feeling of bright sunshine, blue skies and longer days. Spring's newest fragrance releases are whisper soft but upbeat and bright with citrus, fruit, aquatic and floral notes — qualities many women look for when adding a new scent to their fragrance wardrobes.

While I agree with Kathleen Doheny's article ("Lodgings Beat Pollen to the Punch," Healthy Traveler, March 23), she missed several problems for many of us allergy sufferers: People who use perfume by the bottle and those who bring animals (cats and dogs) into rooms. Many people are as allergic to perfume and animals as they are to pollens, and those things can cause as severe an allergic reaction. For smoke or perfume your nose knows, and you can request another room. But with animals, you know they were there only when the asthma attack starts.

HERE'S another nightmare for you: In November, my friend and I traveled from LAX to Ohio. At LAX, we discovered we had a three-hour delay. When we unpacked in Ohio, my friend noticed that her perfume bottle containing less than the regulated 3 ounces had been emptied of its expensive contents. JUDY GORDON Malibu

The holidays are a season of beauty ? if the abundance of offerings related to looks is any indication. We've culled the outpouring to bring gift-givers some ideas in a range of prices for a variety of pretty predilections. Don't be surprised if your cup runneth over with beatific smiles Christmas morning. FOR THE RECORD: Holiday gifts: On Dec. 12, an article about beauty and fragrance gifts listed three Antica Farmacista home ambience scents as though they were two products: Vanilla Bourbon, Mandarin & Grapefruit and Sandalwood.

It's not difficult to imagine Elizabeth Barrial, 36, the chief perfumer for Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, as a sorceress of the night. Besides practicing her potion-making craft, the esoteric perfume house's matriarch appears otherworldly. She wears her black and red locks down to her waist, and her eyes sparkle as she takes a whiff of one of her bottled concoctions. She and business partner Brian Constantine typically work behind the scenes, with her wares available only online . But once a month, during the full moon, Barrial escapes her laboratory to peddle her wondrous and macabre scents at the horror shop Dark Delicacies in Burbank.