After lots of research and development, perfumer Christopher Brosius finally captured the fragrance of roast beef in liquid form. It evoked not only beef and gravy, along with carrots and potatoes.
It was the smell of Sunday lunch made by his family.There was one problem. While delicious-smelling, it didn’t exactly smell good on skin. At his company CB I Hate Perfume, Brosius makes unusual perfumes that smell like wet earth or a summer day at the beach. But roast beef was a stumper.
After years of thinking, he decided to layer the scent with notes of parsley and black pepper. He added more traditional perfume notes such as patchouli and tobacco and called the final scent CB BEAST. Most perfumes smell sweet or smoky, but CB BEAST smells savory and salty. “When you put it on the skin, it loses its immediate meat-like quality,” Brosius explains.
Roast beef isn’t the only thing on the menu at Brosius’ Brooklyn perfume gallery. A number of his 46 perfumes have food aromas. After all, few smells are as evocative and pleasant as familiar foods.
I talk with Brosius over the phone after visiting his gallery. He urbanely describes why he sometimes makes scents that may not smell good, but make people feel good. It’s an unusual approach to perfume. He’s been described as the rebel and even the “bad boy” of the perfume world, mostly for turning smells we take for granted, such as roast beef or dirt, into wearable scents.
A Pennsylvania native, much of his love of scent and food dates back to childhood memories of his aunt, a killer cook and Avon lady. He entered the perfume field through what he calls a series of accidents, including a stint as a taxi driver. But he was especially adept at identifying and remembering different scents, making him a natural perfumer.
He had a career in the beauty industry before founding his perfume company. CB I Hate Perfume is intended as a counterpart to perfumes that Brosius considers vague and synthetic (hence the aggressive name). Striking out on his own meant striking perfumes, such as “Gingerbread.”
Many food scents Brosius uses are homey, meant to spark emotion. With a bite like real ginger ale and a toasty edge, Gingerbread smells eerily like the holiday treat. The perfume is derived from the same spices that go into actual gingerbread.
In the gallery, I notice a small…
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