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Portraits Rebecca Teagarden

Isabelle Aurel | Explores a world of scent to find our sensual selves

Poke your nose into the glass. Breathe deep. Let the aroma fill your nose, your head. Take it all in.

Isabelle Aurel talks excitedly about crop year and harvest. (Remember when France had that big heat wave a few years ago?)

There are base notes and heart notes and top notes. And they are delicious. Aurel searches for the best in Paris, Grasse, maybe next year in Morocco.

The best blends take time and experience. "It's intoxicating; it uplifts your senses," she says, drinking in a New Zealand boronia at $125 for just 1/6th of an ounce.

Aurel's intoxicant is not wine. She is a perfumer; an alchemist of smells. The delicate, elegant woman sits on a metal chair that has been dressed up with a mink wrap secured with a big rhinestone pin. She is surrounded by an army of little brown bottles, 75 at least. Pure essence of Russian rose. Douglas fir. Lavender. Pine needle. Coriander. Clary sage. It takes weeks to create a custom perfume.

It's an artistic endeavor. As a photographer, "I always thought, how can I get scent to go with the photographs. Like a piece of music, a scent can take you back instantly," she says, snapping her fingers to make the point.

A drop here. Two drops there. She calls what she does "invisible flower arranging."

Aurel is possessed by smells, calls them "intoxicating without derailing the senses." Every bottle tells a story; the French gardens of Vaux le Vicomte; plants, herbs, spices, barks from Russia, Oregon, India.

Her own allergies and sensitivities drew Aurel to pure botanical essences. But this is also the way they used to do it. Naturally. With the scents unfolding, blossoming over hours.

There are drawbacks to the perfumer's finely honed nasal palate.

"I can smell so much sometimes I have to walk away. I can smell almost too much of someone's attitude. I can tell what people eat."

Then there are the dousers: perfume as repellent. Aurel says wearing a scent is all about subtlety.

"Perfume is about being attractive. It's not about being pushy. I can smell it, but others can't unless I put my hand out or someone kisses my cheek. It is my essence.

"Put it this way: If you're lucky enough to get that close to me, you can have a smell."

See Isabelle Aurel's work at parfums.desireinsunlight.net

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