By Isaac Siegemund-Broka
Contributing Writer
Junior Chris Bickel is a master of the olfactory.
“I wear fragrance because it’s like having your favorite song broadcasting all day long, letting people listen to it and enjoying it with you,” Bickel said.
Bickel has been collecting and using perfumes for a year and 10 months and has been actively learning about them for the past 10 months. He reads books about fragrance and participates on online perfume forums. Bickel said he tries to be involved with the trade in any way possible.
“I bought my first fragrance because my sister had recently gotten one. I was jealous until I realized that I could have some too, all for me,” Bickel said.
In the future, Bickel hopes to pursue a career in fragrance as a perfumer.
“The perfume industry is ripe for disruption by a new class of perfumers who want to change the way people think about perfume and make the public appreciate the true works of art in everyday chain drugstores. Hopefully that class of perfumers can be headed by myself,” Bickel said.
This fragrance connoisseur said he regards perfume as an art form that should be respected and carefully considered.
“I love perfume because of its abstract ability to create an atmosphere and mood. Artistically, you can convey a feeling in perfume through the way materials within a fragrance interact, but unlike paintings or music, an emotional connection with smell is abstract and unfounded in any definite right or wrong,” Bickel said.
Bickel currently owns 40 bottles, totaling almost two liters. His collection features a wide variety of fragrance styles and compositions.
Among Bickel’s perfumes are traditional “fougeres,” fresh, planty and customarily masculine fragrances named after the French word for “fern.” He also has “chypres,” strong and spicy colognes named for Cyprus, and “orientals,” musky, sweet and exotic perfumes also referred to as “amber.”
“All classes of perfumes are named for their structure. For example, a ‘chypre’ is a combination of bergamot, a citrus, labdanum, a resinous component, and oakmoss or patchouli, which are earthy components,” Bickel said.
Bickel’s favorites include “Feminite du Bois” by Shiseido, “Mitsouko” by Guerlai, and “L’Air du Desért Marocain” by Tauer Perfumes. Many of his perfumes cannot be found locally and must be bought through small independent firms. However, some do come from larger chain stores.
“Do not downplay drugstore perfumes. There are masterpieces to be found in the most unlikely of places,” Bickel said.
Bickel’s peers also say they enjoy his fragrances and his perfume expertise.
“I love that Chris has such an eclectic taste in cologne. We went to a store in the El Segundo Plaza before a school dance and he helped me pick out perfume, knowing my preferences and adjusting accordingly,” senior Amie Simmons said.
Others just admire Bickel’s perfume choices.
“Sometimes Chris smells really good,” junior Jessie Somberg said.
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