MEET KATIE PUCKRIK
Currently a journalist, performer and broadcaster Katie has also published her very own memoir - Shooting From The Lip! But our greatest fascination lies within Katie's very on YouTube channel dedicated to Perfume critiquing!
A very rare and exciting experience, which we thought we would dwell into more with Katie herself...
Meet the very familiar face of the 90’s Katie Puckrik, a former presenter on Chanel 4’s The Word. Along with her presenting career, Katie has found a new passion in smell… yes smell! She has reinvented herself into a perfume critic featuring on her own website: Katie Puckrik Smells as well as on her own YouTube channel that comes with a vast following.
We are excited to dig a little deeper into the smelly world of Katie!
So Katie we think your ideology of creating ‘scentertainment’ is fabulous! But tell us, is it hard to keep finding new and inventive ways to describing scents?
You've got to really love language if you're going to tangle with the job of making the invisible come vividly alive. The challenge for me when I launched Katie Puckrik Smells on YouTube in 2008 was to conjure the pleasure – or pain – I gleaned from perfume with just the power of my words. But since perfume has only recently been taken seriously as an art form, there isn't a “right” or “wrong” way to discuss it. So there is complete freedom in conveying the impact of a smell through metaphors, pop cultural references, personal anecdotes, and honest, vulgar descriptions. I thrive on the puzzle of coming up with new ways to conjure the personality of a perfume.
What’s the next step for Katie, perhaps a book or your own perfume line?
When people used to ask me about designing my own perfume, I always answered, “Just because I like wine doesn't mean I want to stomp on some grapes to make my own!” But I can see that someday I might want to create a perfume that says something different to that which is already available.
Realistically, writing another book is what I'll be getting into next.
Your perfume collection must be colossal, so truthfully how many perfumes do you own? And what is your ultimate favourite, and why?
Hmmm, it's hard to know exactly, since I “thin the herd” from time to time to make sure that I only have what gives me the greatest pleasure or intrigue. 50 bottles? Maybe 60? 70?
Out of those, I keep about 25 within easy reach, and usually three are on high rotation. Right now those three are Frédéric Malle Dans tes Bras, Etro Shaal Nur, and Bruno Acampora Musc. (But even committing to those is tugging on my heart, which is crying out for Guerlain Vetiver, People of the Labyrinths Amaze, and Cartier L'Heure Promise. And Mona di Orio Myrrh Casati...and Clinique Aromatics Elixir...and...)
Probably my favorite perfume is Bruno Acampora Musc. At least, it's the one to which I keep returning, the one that seems the most “all-purpose”. It's a dense, earthy-smelling musk oil that is sensual and wears close to the skin. It's the scent of slept-in sheets and lost weekends.
How would you describe your own personal sense of style?
I call my style “mixties”. One day, I noticed I was wearing a thirties-style blouse with a forties-style skirt, sixties-style shoes, seventies-style hair and eighties-style fuchsia lipstick. I did the fashion math and came up with mixties! I like any kind of stylistic flourish with an echo of the past. At the same time, the echo contains a yearning for an idealized future.
If you can match a perfume to our own brand’s thesis ‘Live life in colour’, what fragrance would it be?
Oooh, I'd match Onjenu's happy, pretty, easy-to-wear dresses with Carnal Flower by Frédéric Malle, a gorgeous tuberose perfume that's big, but also bright and fresh. Any time I wear Carnal Flower, it makes people smile, and the same thing happens when I wear Onjenu!
Katie discusses all things perfume on Katie Puckrik Smells.
See her YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/KatiePuckrikSmells
Read her blog here:
