The Nose Knows

No one has written as evocatively about fragrance as perfume-industry legend Luca Turin. After a five-year absence from the field, he's back with a new column at our sister site, Style.com/Arabia, and as this excerpt from Caterina Minthe's interview with him shows, he's as entertaining as ever.

I rubbed my eyes, surprised to read a perfume review that, uncharacteristically, could be described as actual literature. I read the words again.

Odalisque's superbly judged floral accord of jasmine and iris, both abstract and very stable, allied to a saline note of oakmoss, initially feels delicate, but in use is both sturdy and radiant. It is as if the perfumer had skillfully shaved off material from a classic chypre accord until a marmoreal light shone through it.

I took a sharp intake of breath and reached for the phone to call my publisher. "I've found our perfume critic. His name is Luca Turin. Apparently, he's a biophysicist? I think he's living somewhere in Greece. This man is a genius."

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