Who isn't familiar with the joy of unboxing a new computer, feeling its pristine plastic, and giving its factory-fresh surface a big sniff? No? Australian design trio Greatest Hits beg to differ. They are the creators of Stink Different, the informal name for the Apple Mac "perfume" they have devised with fragrance designers Air Aroma for an art exhibition in Melbourne. They say the scent "encompasses the smell of the plastic wrap covering the box, printed ink on the cardboard, the smell of paper and plastic components in the box and, of course, the aluminium laptop, which has come straight from the factory in China". In other words, it's the perfume of romance.
Stink Different joins an eccentric list of "miscellaneous" fragrances. Etat Libre d'Orange's Sécrétions Magnifiques trumpets its blend of sweat, saliva, semen, blood and breast milk (I guess urine and faeces were not magnifiques enough).
Miller Harris's collaboration with Jane Birkin, L'Air de Rien, is inspired by l'air de Jane's brother's scalp and her father's stale pipe. And Comme des Garçons released A New Perfume this year, which pongs defiantly of fake flowers, glue and Sellotape. In June we can look forward to the release of Coal by Icelandic conceptual artist Andrea Maack, which contains … coal.
For anyone feeling more pranked than perfumed by these scents, botanical skincare outfit Aesop has just the thing. Its latest offering is Post-Poo Drops, an oil fragranced with uplifting tangerine and ylang-ylang to "effectively neutralise disagreeable smells".
