Sumptuously Stroke-able Scents (how can a fragrance *feel*?)

What does a fragrance feel like? This week, Suzy Nightingale and Nicola Bonn are following their noses into the wonderfully tactile world of perfumery, where scent can suggest velvet brushing bare skin, the smooth swish of nylon, or the crumbly comfort of freshly sliced cake. These are perfumes that invite you to reach for a description with your fingertips, imagining the nap of a fabric or the warmth of something delicious before you’ve quite found the words.

There’s oudh wrapped in the softness of sun-warmed suede, a mineral hush reminiscent of petrichor (wet earth after rain), and an aromatic breeze that seems to arrive with your hair already windswept. Elsewhere, jasmine slips into something sleek, while incense and patchouli lead us towards the glowing windows and shadowy corners of a city after dark.

Texture gives us another way into a fragrance, beyond identifying individual notes. Does it feel plush or sheer, cool or deliciously warm? Does it settle around you like a favourite piece of clothing, or suggest the pleasure of stepping outside and taking a properly head-clearing deep breath?

From desert velvet, cake-soft warmth and (not too) sweetness to mineral stillness, crisp air and even the smooth touch of Prada’s iconic nylon, these scents offer six very different ways to experience texture and touchable, strokable sensations in fragrant form.

For this episode, Suzy & Nicola ask you to re-imagine what the way you experience your perfumes. So close your eyes as you listen to the descriptions, and imagine how they’d feel if you could reach out and touch them…

Find On The Scent podcast on Apple podcasts here or wherever you download your podcasts – or listen to it and read the show notes on our website, via PODCAST on our menu.

Suzy Nightingale

Are you a regular listener? We know we’re biased, but any perfume-lover who isn’t tuning in on a regular basis is missing out. On The Scent podcast was part of the inspiration for this website (and our magazine): a podcast destination for anyone fascinated by fragrance, or keen to learn more. A place where perfume snobbery is stripped away, and fragrance is accessible to all.

What began as a monthly sniff-in on the Outspoken Beauty podcast soon became so popular in its own right (and with so many listeners sending in questions and asking for more), that On The Scent just had to go weekly – this time on its own perfumed platform! Today, the podcast regularly attracts over 40,000 listeners per show.

Encompassing everything from icons and all-time classics to what’s new on the high street via the more niche indie brands, beauty broadcaster and columnist Nicola Bonn and award-winning fragrance journalist and expert Suzy Nightingale give personalised perfume prescriptions, describing fragrances in such an intoxicating way you can almsot smell them and help navigate the thousands of scents out there to find the truly incredible ones. Also, expect interviews with well-known figures, delving into their favourite scents of all time, and opportunities to get to know some of the most exciting perfumers in the world.

Nicola Bonn