LES Block Deemed City’s Smelliest Inspires Perfume

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The Lower East Side may be tony and fashionable these days, but sweet-smelling it sometimes is not.

In fact, a block in the district has been dubbed the smelliest in New York, and its stench has become the inspiration for a new perfume. That’s right, a new perfume.

The stretch of Broome Street between Allen and Eldridge streets was described by New York Magazine in 2011 as smelling like “high meat and old squeegees.” A tour of the block at the time revealed the stereotypical aromas of rancid food and stale urine, but the source of the most offensive “signature Broome odor” seemed to be a mystery.

But offensive though it may be, it also has been deemed a New York scent worthy of a fragrance. The Nova fragrance company recently tweeted that it had “recreated” the smelliest block on the Lower East Side.

The fragrance created by Nova owner Julie Zangrilli was described by the New York Magazine Bedford + Bowery blog as reminiscent of “decaying rat, detergent, dog, sweet BBQ and ‘standard stink,’ among other things.”


The publication reported the scent would likely remain a prototype, although it was made available at the Bedford + Bowery Bazaar this past weekend.

A Gothamist writer said the perfume did indeed include the “burnt rubber and pulsating 1,000-degree asphalt funk” that defines the block, along with a “sickly sweet quotient,” and a “mentholated” scent that is not found in nature.

Zangrilli also created a perfume inspired by the wastewater treatment plant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn – although multiple reports described that perfume as a pleasant experience with its roots in the nature walk on the site. Zangrilli told Bedford + Bowery the Greenpoint scent was inspired by “lush plants, berry’d bushes, and a single lucky rose” on the nature walk, along with “metallic” and “urban notes.”

The Greenpoint scent is available through the month of September, according to Bedford + Bowery.


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