life's daughter, death's bride

i love u. happy 2026. enjoy

listen ill take it under advisement but i do want to remind you that im a bad person who loves a toxic relationship so i will be actively rooting for her to end up with whichever boy is worse

My article, A Cultural Autopsy of the Celebrity Perfume, is live. If you ever wore any of the Britneys or the Rihannas or the Beyonces, you should read it.

My first substack is live! (not paywalled. never paywalled.) In it I discuss the latest YA book scandal, fake Russias, kdramas, and four leather perfumes.

My review of Le Lion de Chanel, and how it contains a hundred years of perfume history, is now live. I would love if you read it! ❤️ "Though Le Lion contains no synthetics meant to mimic the traditional perfumery ingredients taken from animals like hyrax or civet, it does smell animalic. That strange, earthy, slightly disgusting but also comforting smell of living things — that’s what animalic perfumes smell like, and that is present in Le Lion. Animalic doesn’t always mean a horrible funk, and can in fact be quite wonderful — butter smells animalic, honey smells animalic. But more than that it is the smell of us, of humanity, of other people’s bodies. An animalic perfume is always marketed as sexy, and they are, but more than that they are intimate. It’s that quiet moment in the morning when you wake up before your lover and are surrounded by the smell their slightly dirty hair. Le Lion remains at every stage slightly animalic, slightly medicinal, golden and strange."

A few fragrance reviews from Perfumes: The Guide (2008 and 2018 editions), Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez

Perfume photography in Sali Hughes’ Pretty Iconic: Poison by Dior (1985), Shalimar by Guerlain (1925), Angel by Mugler (1992), Youth Dew by Estee Lauder (1953)