Jump to content

XL REPUBBLICA - how Mika keeps himself busy ;-)

robertina

By robertina
in Mika News and Press

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 4k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Sarina

Sarina

Posted
Posted
OMG ! Lucky you ! I`d be happy to be an "inspirer". Everyone would be:wink2:

BUT I NEED THE ENGLISH VERSION. Kick him please !!!

 

 

 

Ahahah, thanks :thumb_yello:

I always prefer the english version too even if italian is my language..translations are always bad comparing to the original version!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
FralovesMika

FralovesMika

Posted
Posted

Mika’s latest column for XL in Italy, hot off the press!

 

MIKA XL Column June 2012 > July/August issue

Perfume; when a memory smells better than a flower.

 

When you close your eyes and think of your mother what do you imagine? When you close your eyes and think of your first love what do you imagine? When you close your eyes and think of fear what do you imagine? For me, almost always, I imagine the one thing that is the hardest to remember: smell. My mother always used to wear an Yves Saint Laurent perfume called Champagne and it would mix with the history of her day, from the smell of her cooking the evening meal to the slight petrol tinge of our old Toyota Previa. It was this strange combination of smells which meant that I was home. Smell is one of the most powerful things in my life. Even as a musician, smell has a far greater ability to trigger memories than music. I once fired an old assistant on a tour because she wore the same perfume as a teacher who made my life hell at the Lycée Francais when I was a boy. The fact that she found the same perfume as my evil teacher appealing meant that she couldn't possibly be a good person. I was proven right, and as the months unfolded so did she. I should have trusted my nose to begin with.

 

By 2015 the perfume industry is predicted to be worth over 33 billion dollars. Although this is mostly thanks to over commercialised and celebrity endorsed rubbish, there is no denying the fact that perfume is a major part of everyone's daily life. In New York recently, I was faced with Rihanna's enormous perfume advert on Times Square, every day as I went to the studio. I finally got a chance to smell it and was underwhelmed at the most. It smells fake, cheap and it’s clear that what you’re really paying for is not the quality of the ingredients but the cost of the bottle, the advertising space and most of all, the cost of her endorsement. Why is it that people have such a problem realising that smell and perfume are the same thing. How you smell is as important as how you look. From a purely chemical point of view, it’s not the floral top notes that will get someone to fall in love or sleep with you, but the muskiness of your natural body smell. Obviously it’s not ideal to sleep with someone that smells only of B.O. as that would be too overwhelming. However, it’s when the mix of your body smell and that of the perfume is just right, that a branded perfume turns into your perfect scent. Personally, smelling of strong body odour would be just as bad as smelling too much of Rihanna's perfume.

 

In a nutshell, here is how the basic perfume making process works today. Most of the time, a big brand or celebrity will decide to sell and market a perfume. They will hire a production company who will in turn select a marketing company as well as a perfumer, or 'nose' to create the scent. The marketers will do countless studies and market analysis to figure out what perfume would sell best, and who the scent should be aimed at. With this very precise brief they will then commission a perfumer to take all this research and mix a scent that would please the targeted demographic the most. Often, perfume bottles and even add campaigns will be designed before the perfume even exists. The 'nose' will sit at a desk and make endless blends of hundreds of scents, some precious and most synthetic. Every perfume is decided into three layers; the Top Note the Middle and the Base Note. The first smell you get is the Top Note, this is mostly light and floral or citrus. This will quickly evaporate however leaving the Middle and lastly the Base note. The Base note is actually what will react or adapt most with your skin and when its smelt on its own can often smell awful. These often smell woody or musky. Yes! Similar to the body odour you’re trying to cover up in the first place!

 

Unfortunately, most really commercial perfumes are all about the top and middle notes. The base notes are often seen as too ugly or off-putting. Think about it, when you put a fresh cut lily to your nose and smell it, there are so many deep and musky smells, almost bad smells, that combined with the light top and middle notes smell perfect together, but more importantly smell natural.

I have collected smells for years. I have calmed down now, but I went through a phase of storing anything that I thought smelt good or interesting in small brown glass vials. From rose oils to pieces of tarmac and even the hand of a plastic doll. You can imagine how excited I was to come across the work of eccentric New York perfumer Christopher Brosius. His perfumes range from traditional scents to ones called Doll's Head, In The Library or Burning Leaves. Self taught, Brosius did not go through the insanely rigorous and competitive training that you must now endure to graduate as a top 'nose'. He even goes so far as calling his brand "I Hate Perfume". He is more of a renegade who fights the normal commercial limits of making scent. If I had the chance to have a perfume custom made, it is clear that my main ambition would be to evoke a memory. If it was the memory of childhood for instance, then it would be the smell of my mother, but in my perfume memory of her, the Yves Saint Laurent would be as important as all the other "ugly" smells of a normal day. I would want the Cooking and even Toyota smell in there. My perfume would evoke a memory, and that would smell better than a million roses.

 

 

Here's the original just posted on MIKA's Facebook page, enjoy! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mikahepburn

mikahepburn

Posted
Posted

This article is so touching and well written.. Mika really made me think that memories were created by scents and the deep thoughts behind it, not simply just a smell that you can hear from anywhere. It's about thoughts and beliefs as well, not just physically what you see and what you can realise. My new favourite column!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RAK1

RAK1

Posted
Posted
T4P! :thumb_yello: but I don't see it on mika's facebook, there is nothing there :blink:

 

I'm not seeing it either. Maybe it was taken down for some reason.

Still an excellent column, made me remember scents from my childhood too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Privacy Policy

  I accept