Liz Upton
About Liz Upton
Liz Upton is a freelance journalist based in Cambridge, UK. She writes mainly on food, opera and cosmetics, and has a collection of more than 100 fragrances. Her food blog, Gastronomy Domine has been featured by the BBC and the Telegraph.
5 found. Showing stories 1 to 5, with most recent first.
An interview with Michael Boadi of Boadicea the Victorious
14 November 2008 Interviews
You might not recognise Michael Boadi’s name, but you’ve almost certainly seen his work. Boadi has a background in high-fashion hair – names like Chanel, Gucci, Etro and Missoni litter his CV, and he’s worked his magic on the iconic scalps of Kate Moss, Madonna, and Jennifer Lopez.
Boadicea the Victorious is Michael’s first perfume line. Surprisingly, he’s had no formal training in either hair or fragrance, but this collection of curiously voluptuous, rounded perfumes is full of warmth and quality, and has a thread of personality linking each fragrance. This is a luxe range, with only high-concentration, pure parfum available, all extravagantly packaged in black tissue, lead crystal, lead-free pewter and silver. Boadi calls the vessel designs, heavily engraved with knotwork on both sides, ‘Year 3000 Celtic’. The line, he tells me, is inspired by the very feminine strength of Boadicea, as well as the ideas of Britishness she embodies – all the fragrances, candles and containers are made in Britain.
...The perfumer who hates perfume: An interview with Christopher Brosius
01 September 2008 Interviews
Zephyr is a big dog. I met him a month ago and a few thousand miles away, but as I shut my eyes, it is as if he's lying on the carpet in front of me. He's rolling on his back, encouraging me to rub his pinkly dogsome tummy, and he smells very strongly and wetly canine. His master, Christopher Brosius, would understand this hallucinatory kind of scent memory - in this case sparked by some smears of doggy smell that rubbed off my hands onto my notebook and seem to have been fixed by something on the scent test strips I have tucked into the cover. Brosius' perfumery is all about lucid and occasionally startling scent memories and illusions. The vials in his shop are magic portals which allow you to revisit your grandmother's tomato greenhouse, experience a worm's-eye view of a luminous flower or stamp your way through a hot, mulchy forest; all standing in a bare room with your eyes tightly shut and your nose twitching with surprise....
Body Odour - or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Musk
20 June 2008 Articles
Some years ago, I used to work in an office with a guy who didn't wash. There is no subtle way of saying this: he stank.
The odour of a human body is complicated. It's not all armpits and stale sweat; most of your pheromones are produced by the oil glands on the scalp, and my old colleague had oil glands aplenty. There is (excuse me for the indelicacy) that groiny smell particular to men - women have their own smell too. And there are feet, and farts, and untold grotty things trapped in bodily crevices. My ex-colleague announced himself with a loud smell before he entered the room, and stayed there for a long time after he'd left....Virtual Sniffing - a look at the role of fragrance in Second Life
25 March 2008 Articles
Let’s face it. If you’re a regular Basenotes user – if you keep tabs on your growing collection using the wardrobe, if you participate in the community to crow about your latest buy, and if you use the directory to research all your fragrance purchases – odds are that you might have a slightly addictive personality. ...
In search of Oud on Oxford Street
20 December 2007 Articles
Oud is a note I fell in love with long before I found out what it was. About ten years ago, in search of some Lebanese ingredients for a dinner party, I found myself standing rigid in the middle of the pavement, trying to locate a curiously wonderful smell....
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