香水配對諮詢 The case for perfume profiling
“I don’t get it,” says an old university friend. “Surely you either like a fragrance or you don’t?” We were discussing our respective days. As a criminal barrister, she was off to assess the profile of a suspected rapist; my day, meanwhile, would be spent being “profiled” for perfume. A service increasingly popular with boutiques, profiling is designed to help clients discover the right fragrance for them. (It’s arguable who put their law degree to better use, my friend or myself, but I defend the right to a signature fragrance, m’lud.)
“我不明白，”一位大學老友說道，“你要麼喜歡一種香水，要麼不喜歡，肯定是這樣吧？”我們正討論着各自的日常工作。她是刑事律師，平時要評估強姦嫌犯的“心理畫像”。我的一天則花在與香水配對上。香水配對(perfume profiling)是精品店裏日益紅火的一項服務，旨在幫助客人發現合適的香水。（我和我的朋友都有法學學位，很難說誰更是學以致用的那一位，但我捍衛擁有一款招牌香水的權利吧，法官大人。）
As someone who isn’t loyal to any one scent but who nonetheless has olfactory opinions, I’m inclined to be as sceptical as my friend. Perfume is like art, right? You don’t know much about it but you know what you like. And, more pertinently, what you don’t like.
我不執念於某一種香型，但在嗅覺方面頗有主見，因此我也和那位朋友一樣對事物充滿着懷疑。香水就像藝術，對吧？你不太懂，但你知道自己喜歡什麼樣的。更重要的是，你知道你不喜歡什麼樣的。
Apparently not. “It’s hard to find a fragrance because there are so many,” says perfumer Azzi Glasser, whose profiling service at Harvey Nichols in London poses questions of loves, hates and favourite designers.
但事實似乎並非如此。“很難挑選出一款香水，因爲選擇範圍太廣了。”香水師阿齊格拉瑟(Azzi Glasser)表示。格拉瑟在倫敦夏菲尼高百貨(Harvey Nichols)提供香水配對服務，問許多與愛好、憎惡和最喜歡的設計師有關的問題。
Corny as it sounds, finding the right scent can be life-changing. Benjamin Paul Mabbett, the ma de consultation at the Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie, tells me that one client broke down in tears when she found a fragrance that suited her: “I’ve been smelling of cat’s pee for 26 years!” After being guided through choices for an hour, she had picked Lalique’s Perles de Lalique (55). Each time she returned to stock up on it, she reeked of confidence.
雖然聽上去是老生常談，但找到合適的香型可以改變人生。Roja Dove高檔香水店的高級顧問本傑明保羅氠貝特(Benjamin Paul Mabbett)告訴我，一位客人在找到合適的香水之後喜極而泣：“26年來，我的身上都有貓尿味！”在被領着挑選了一個小時之後，她選擇了萊儷(Lalique)的水晶之珠（Perles de Lalique，售價55英鎊）香水。每次回店裏“囤貨”的時候，她信心洋溢。
Mabbett’s profiling consultation (150, redeemable against purchase) is great fun. It is approached via the celestial marble corridor of the Salon de Parfums, which sits like a sort of posh perfume souk at the top of Harrods. Inside, it’s all Swarovski crystals, that shade of Prince-purple, and a sofa area like the VIP bit of a nightclub. Mabbett puts me through an hour of rapid decision-making, with some interesting discoveries along the way — one fragrance smells strongly of Play-Doh, which, he explains, is because it’s packed with “amber notes, and vanilla, benzoin and labdanum”.
馬貝特的配對諮詢（150英鎊，如購買產品可免費享受）服務樂趣橫生。在哈羅德(Harrods)百貨頂樓，穿過香水沙龍（Salon de Parfums，它像一座薈萃了時髦香水的集市）富麗堂皇的大理石走廊，便可到達他的店面。店裏鑲滿了施華洛世奇(Swarovski)水晶，主色調採用美國歌手Prince標誌性的紫色，沙發休息區類似夜總會的VIP包廂。馬貝特帶我經歷了一個小時的閃電決策過程，中途不乏有趣的小發現——一款香水帶有強烈的培樂多(Play-Doh)彩泥氣味，對此他解釋說，因爲它“使用琥珀香調，富含香草、安息香和勞丹脂的氣味。”
In the end we narrow my “profile” down to the chypre family and I pick the beautiful Risqué (345) by Roja Parfums from the 400 fragrances on offer. Risqué is both fresh and leathery, with notes of bergamot and patchouli, cedar wood, vetiver, rose, jasmine and hyacinth. Mabbett assures me that Risqué will “take the wearer to the edge of the forbidden”, so I’m expecting something really exciting to happen any day now.
最後，我們將“配對”範圍縮小至西普(chypre)家族。我從400款候選香水中選擇了Roja Parfums精美的Risqué香水（售價345英鎊）。Risqué清新、有皮革味，融合了佛手柑、廣藿香、雪松、香根草、茉莉和風信子氣息。馬貝特向我保證，Risqué會將“使用者引向禁錮的邊緣”。好吧，我期待着哪一天能上演什麼激動人心的事情。
At Diptyque’s fragrance-fitting, I find myself sniffing the air as fragrance expert Julie Bonin offers me candles to smell (candles’ scents have less complicated structures, so they’re a good way to figure out a person’s likes and dislikes). Its 34 scent (65) is composed of 100 notes and turns out to be my favourite. Its fig, sandalwood, roses and tuberose alternately dazzle like excitable children before each settles down into a wearable blend of green woody opulence.
在Diptyque的香水配對櫃檯，香水專家朱麗娠坓(Julie Bonin)給了我一根蠟燭聞，於是我試圖對着空氣嗅出點什麼。蠟燭的香味化學結構比較簡單，因此容易分辨出一個人對香味的好惡。Diptyque的34號香氛（售價65英鎊）由100種氣息組成，是我的最愛。它的無花果、檀香、玫瑰和晚香玉氣息好似容易興奮的孩子，交替散發出迷人的味道，最後沉澱下來，幻化爲縈繞周身溼木材味的豐盈感。
London has two new fragrance boutiques — Creed at 99 Mount Street and Frederic Malle at 14 Burlington Arcade (a perfume hotspot where you’ll also find Penhaligon’s, Chanel and By Kilian) — both of which offer free profiling. Creed has a serene drawing room — you can take a group of friends (book first) and work your way through the 44 fragrances. I’m asked which scents I already wear — Le Labo Santal 33 (150); Shay & Blue Blood Oranges (55) — and what I don’t like. “Oud,” I tell boutique manager Claire Slaney. When she slips in Creed’s new eau de parfum Royal Princess Oud (130) however, which uses a green oud from Cambodia with iris and vanilla (something else I thought I didn’t like), I’m surprised by its freshness and lightness.
倫敦新開了兩家香水店——蒙特街(Mount Street) 99號的Creed和伯靈頓市場街(Burlington Arcade，香水聚集地，在這裏還能找到潘海利根(Penhaligon's)、香奈兒(Chanel)和By Kilian等品牌）和14號的Frederic Malle，它們都提供免費香水配對服務。Creed配備了安靜的休息室，你可以帶上一羣朋友（需提前預約），挨個嘗試44種香水。我被問及自己用過什麼香水——回答是Le Labo Santal 33（售價150英鎊）和Shay & Blue Blood Oranges（售價55英鎊）——以及我不喜歡的類型“沉香。”我告訴經理克萊爾斯萊尼(Claire Slaney)。但當她拿出Creed的新款沉香香水Royal Princess Oud（售價130英鎊）時，我卻訝異於它的清新和輕盈。這款香水取材於柬埔寨的一種綠色沉香樹，混以鳶尾和香草味（也是我以爲自己不喜歡的東西）。
Equally at Frederic Malle — which opened earlier this week — I find myself veering. They may have 22 fragrances but each is exquisitely different. I’m tempted by the woody Angéliques sous la Pluie (130), Malle’s collaboration with Jean-Claude Ellena. “Ellena is like a watercolourist, he likes fragrance to be translucent and effortless,” says Margaret Magnuson, who has worked at the brand for eight years and who tells me it’s a fragrance for someone who is confident and “does not need to broadcast their arrival. A lot of architects and photographers like it.”
同樣在不久前開張的Frederic Malle，我發現自己又被顛覆了。Frederic Malle可能只有22款香水，但每款都是製作精良而又迥然不同。我鍾情於散發着木質氣味的Angéliques sous la Pluie（售價130英鎊），它是Malle與讓-克洛德埃萊納(Jean-Claude Ellena)合作的結晶。“埃萊納就像水彩畫家，他喜歡爲香水賦以半透明、慵懶的質感。”瑪格麗特氠格努森(Margaret Magnuson)表示。瑪格麗特在這家品牌工作8年，她告訴我，這寬香水適合性格自信，“不需要大張旗鼓地通知自己到來的那種人。它受到許多建築師和攝影師的青睞。”
I’m not sure that pinpointing a signature scent via profiling is so easy. You’ll find one you love, several even, but these things take time and however good the profile, you need to live with the fragrance. Glasser chose Sequoia Wood (95) from her eponymous new line, The Perfumer’s Story, with top notes of fresh-smelling neroli underscored by cedar, patchouli and white musk for me — but it came with instructions: I have to wear it every day, day in and day out, even under my arms and in my hair. “Promise me,” she says, “because only then will you really feel the magic of the perfume.”
我不清楚通過配對找到一款招牌香水是否真有如此簡單。你會發現自己鍾愛的一款乃至幾款，但這需要時間。而且，不論配對有多好，你都需要學會與香水相處。格拉瑟爲我挑選了自己同名品牌新系列The Perfumer’s Story的Sequoia Wood（售價95英鎊），其前調採用清新的橙花油，配以雪松、廣藿香和白麝香，不過這款香水使用起來也很講究：不管在家還是出門，每天都要使用，甚至是腋下和頭髮都要噴。“答應我，”她說，“因爲只有這樣，你才能真正感受到這款香水的魔力。”
