thePerfume-Reporter

"A woman who does not wear perfume has no future."

Coco Chanel

Navigation

New to Perfume?

Perfume is a lot like wine. Anybody can enjoy it but it takes years of real study to truly appreciate it. Don't get out your library card. Head to the perfume counter and start trying different scents. Surf the net and talk to your perfume-loving friends.

Instead of trying to learn about everything, learn about the scents you love the most. Buy one or two and get to know their notes.

Perfume is extremely complex. You're not smelling one thing, you're smelling dozens of elements interacting with each other!

Featured Resources

Features and Other Soft Stuff

NEW!!

Flowers and Florals

You can't beat the classics and for perfume, nothing is more classic than florals. Actually, florals are not the most ancient form of perfume but for centuries they've been the most enduring. Learn about floral scents, types of florals, and get some product names to test out. <more>

27 Things I'd Ask Coco Chanel

This is a fantasy story. I'm not actually channeling Chanel despite the euphonic way that sounds. Although I was very young while Madame Chanel was very old, I never met her or had any thought, until quite recently, that I might have liked to. Today I think about meeting her. I don't think <more>

How Perfume Changed The World

Actually, perfume didn't change the world. Money and perfume changed the world. And it all started with two families, one of which had the unfortunate surname of Fugger. The other family is a little better known: the Medicis. What they did was change the way the world worked in terms of <more>

The Perfumista Diaries

Perfume is partly about the thrill of the hunt. You're chasing something elusive--an aroma--and trying to find one that is both intriguing in the wild (that is, out of the bottle) and yet flourishes in captivity (on your skin). My first perfume forays after I regained my sense of smell were <more>

The Year I Wore Too Much Perfume

Most people I know well are shocked to find out that I like perfume. I guess my lifestyle was such that perfume would not have seem to fit. I found the reaction to my new infatuation with things scented to range from mild disbelief ("I had no idea you liked perfume") to profound <more>

Why Does Perfume Smell Like Food?

Obesity is on the rise in America. We're a nation of foodies, either drive-through junkies or kitchen snobs. So is that why so many of our perfumes nowadays feature food notes? For a guide to the world of fruity-florals, Joanna McLaughlin weighs in and names names. <more>

Check back later! More soon

We are especially grateful to Joanna McLaughlin for writing some articles exclusive to this website. Joanna McLaughlin is a freelance writer who writes about fragrance and lifestyle. She says to tell you her favorite perfume today is Tresor by Lancome, but ask her tomorrow and she'll say something else.

<take me back to NEWS>

Ingredients: Cardamom

Cardamom (sometimes spelled with an n at the end) is frequently mentioned in lists of perfume ingredients but unless you're an Indian chef or particularly knowledgeable spices, you don't really know what it is.

Cardamom is an edible plant of the ginger family that is used in cooking, traditional medicine, and in perfumery.

There are actually numerous varieties of cardamom, including green cardamom, black carmadmom, Java cardamom, and so on. It grows throughout Asia and Australia.

In some parts of the world, cardamom is smoked or chewed. Traditional Chinese medicine uses it as a medicine, mainly to aid digestion. Cardamom is also used as a flavoring in Turkish coffee or Indian tea (chai). Interestingly, Swedish bakers also use cardamom in some of their products.

Considered one of the world's most expensive spices by weight, cardamom is typically stored in pod form since exposing the seeds causes them to lose their aromatic potency.

Cardamom is used in spicy and Oriental type perfumes.