Purrfume

Blog

  • A Closing Note from the House

    As the year draws toward its close, we pause to thank you. Four months ago the Purrfume Atelier was a rumour, a velvet cushion and a jar of regret. Today it is a house of forty seven scents, eleven thousand loyal wearers and one chaise that nobody is permitted to touch. We are, all of us, a little overcome.

    Our Chairman, Lord Percival Tumbleton, has asked that we say only this: that perfume is memory made visible, and that the best memories are warm. Aurelien adds that he would like his cream to arrive earlier. Céleste has made no statement, but has been seen sitting by the window with her eyes closed, inhaling the entire autumn. We take that as a blessing. We take it, in fact, as a review.

  • Sillage: The Trail You Leave Behind

    Sillage, from the French for wake, is the trail a perfume leaves in the air behind the wearer. It is a quiet signature, a ghost of a presence, and the sign of a fragrance that has been properly worn. A good sillage will announce a cat as she enters the room, and say something touching about her as she leaves it.

    We measure sillage at the Atelier in units of the Whisker, a scale developed by Aurelien in 2017. One Whisker is the distance at which a mildly interested cat will turn her head. Warm Laptop projects 3.5 Whiskers. Tuna Dusk, 11. Forbidden Counter, according to our instruments, is 14, which is, unfortunately, the length of the corridor. We have asked the corridor for its comments.

  • A Gift Guide for Those Who Do Not Give

    For the cat who gives nothing, we offer a gift guide that does not insist on reciprocity. For the friend who has everything, there is Warm Laptop, which makes them feel needed. For the friend who has nothing, there is Cardboard at Dawn, which makes them feel at home. For the one who has recently moved, Inside the Cupboard, a comfort in a box.

    For the difficult relative who has never once given you a gift, we suggest Distant Dog, since it will remind them of everything they have not done. For yourself, Forbidden Counter. Each order is wrapped in a ribbon, a card, and a small, quiet disclaimer that the giver may be accompanied by a nap. Order before 1 December. After that, we cannot be sure we will be awake.

  • The Atelier Diaries: What a Scent Costs

    We are sometimes asked why our fragrances are priced as they are. We can only answer with candour. A single 50 ml bottle of Warm Laptop requires 4.2 kilograms of raw materials, eleven weeks of maturation, one hand blown flacon, a silk lined box, and approximately six hours of Céleste’s attention, a resource we value at roughly $40 an hour, plus a nap.

    Added to that are the costs of the Atelier, the glassmaker’s wages, the fish, the transport of the fish, the regret over the fish, and the weekly delivery of cream to the Master Perfumer, who has not specified why. The margin is modest. The prestige is considerable. The remainder, after all fees, we invest in a reserve fund for the purchase of larger boxes.

  • Notes on a Wet Leaf, Unwanted

    There is a note in autumn that the great houses have long ignored: the smell of a wet leaf stuck to the underside of a paw. It is cold, green, rotting and slightly sweet, like a salad that has been told bad news. We spent six weeks on it, in the garden of the Atelier, standing in puddles and thinking.

    The result, Wet Leaf, Unwanted, is a small experimental edition of only 200 bottles. It opens with cold earth, drops into a bruised apple, and ends in a faint scent of indignation. At $88 it is not cheap, but then neither is the experience of stepping in a puddle on the way to a nap. Each bottle is numbered. Each is accompanied by a very small towel.

  • Autumn Collection: Forbidden Counter

    Some doors are closed for a reason, and Forbidden Counter was composed for the cat who would open them anyway. It begins with a bright accord of lemon rind and cold stainless steel, the glint of a surface not meant for paws. Then, at the heart, comes a hint of butter, a trace of roast chicken, and the unmistakable warmth of something left out. It is, we are told, “a crime in a bottle.”

    At $210 for 50 ml, Forbidden Counter is our autumn flagship and our most contested creation. Aurelien insists on calling it a study in longing. Céleste simply said, “Mine.” Wear it when you wish to leap, to linger, and to be moved on with a firm hand and a damp cloth. It will not apologise. Neither should you.

  • An Afternoon at the Nose Academy

    On Thursday we welcomed a delegation of young cats to the Nose Academy, where our Nez, Céleste, gave her annual introductory class. Fourteen kittens sat in a row on a long bench, each with a strip of paper, a bowl of water and an expression of hope. The first lesson was simple: smell a thing, and decide whether you are for or against it.

    By the end of the afternoon, the students had identified lavender (three correctly), toast (all of them), and a hidden sardine (one student, and he was immediately offered a scholarship). Céleste declared the group “promising,” which she has said only twice in eleven years. She then retired to her cushion for a rest and, one assumes, to reflect on the future of her art.

  • Packaging as Poetry: The Box Is the Point

    A great perfume is judged first by its flacon and second by its box, but it is the box that is loved. We design our boxes with the same care as our scents. They are made from recycled board in the colour of a pigeon’s wing, with a lid that fits snugly enough to resist a paw but loosely enough to reward one.

    Inside, a nest of tissue holds the bottle, and beneath the nest, a small card with a quotation from our founder: “Throw away the bottle. Keep the box.” We take this advice seriously. Last year, in an act we consider a triumph of branding, 71 percent of customers reported that they sleep in the box. A further 18 percent have sold the perfume and kept the box. We call this a success of unusual depth.

  • Fragrance Families, Reorganised by Temperament

    The traditional fragrance wheel divides scents into floral, oriental, woody and fresh. We find this unhelpful. At Purrfume we sort our compositions by temperament, a more reliable guide. The Sulkers include Fresh Litter Noir and Inside the Cupboard, scents that wish to be left alone but will notice if you leave. The Show Offs include Sunbeam Absolute, which enters a room as a spotlight.

    The Clingers are Warm Laptop and Cardboard at Dawn. They stay on the skin for hours and cling to the blanket after you have gone. The Mysteries, a small and secretive family, include Forbidden Counter and a scent we will not discuss. If you are unsure of your own temperament, we recommend a short quiz, which we have not yet written. Please come back when it exists, or sit on the quiz.

  • The Outlet: Admitting That Some Scents Failed

    We have always held that a great house must be honest about its failures, and so, with some embarrassment, we open the Purrfume Outlet. Here, on a long narrow shelf above the loading bay, you will find our seconds: bottles with a scratch, a dent, a slightly wrong stopper, or a scent that came out nearer to damp cardboard than intended.

    Prices are reduced by up to 60 percent. A 50 ml Warm Laptop with a tilted label is $74, and an Eau de Toilette that was once, briefly, a different thing, is $29. There are no returns, no exchanges, and no refunds, though there is, in a corner, a very small chair. Come and sit. Everyone who comes here is a little cracked, and that is what we love.