#scented-books

#scented-books

It's kind of crazy, but I just get ideas all the time. I genuinely thought: wouldn't it be cool if you could borrow scents like books? And would that work? Would people do it? Would they just think it was stupid? So far, no one seems to think it is stupid.

Being an incense obsessive myself, it's important to note that while there's a loose parallel with the sticks you light at home, incense colognes are far more malleable and dimensional. On the skin, incense becomes an atmosphere built from resins and woods that shifts and evolves with your chemistry as it diffuses throughout the day.

I remember the first time I remembered a smell. This was remembering to the extent that it stopped me in my tracks, taking me back to a specific moment, a specific place and a specific feeling. The smell was that of a bike shop. Mainly rubber, with notes of oil and plastic and a strong hint of sheer excitement. In that instant I was about 10 years old, in Bache Brothers Cycles at Lye Cross, near Stourbridge, in the West Midlands.

One scientist at MIT, Cyrus Clarke, is working to do just that. Alongside a team of fellow researchers, Clarke has developed a physical machine called the Anemoia Device, which uses a generative AI model to analyze an archival photograph, describe it in a short sentence, and, following the user's own inputs, convert that description into a unique fragrance. The word "anemoia" was coined by author John Koenig and included in his 2021 book, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

At a time when memories are increasingly flattened into folders, feeds, and cloud backups, a new experimental device from MIT Media Lab proposes a far more intimate archive: scent. Developed by Cyrus Clarke, the Anemoia Device is a speculative yet functional prototype that translates photographs into bespoke fragrances using generative AI, inviting users not to view memories, but to inhabit them through the body.

When I first heard of Heated Rivalry, I didn't think much about it. The words Canadian ice-hockey TV series slid into my brain and slipped right back out. But a week later, approximately everyone I'd ever met wanted to talk about it. People kept telling me that it was fun, sweet, and addicting. Most of all, they emphasized that it was really smutty. Every recommendation seemed to come with a warning to not watch with my parents.

Green Irish Tweed opens with a lot of iris and violet, but it settles into a lovely ambergris. It's masculine and musky without being stuffy. It's fresh and spring-y without being reserved for warm months. The sillage is hefty, especially with that floral opening, so be careful.

Her team's analysis of the residue samples contained beeswax, plant oils, animal fats, bitumen, and resins from coniferous trees such as pines and larches, as well as vanilla-scented coumarin (found in cinnamon and pea plants) and benzoic acid (common in fragrant resins and gums derived from trees and shrubs). The resulting fragrance combined a "strong pine-like woody scent of the confers," per Huber, mixed in with "a sweeter undertone of the beeswax" and "the strong smoky scent of the bitumen."

Each week we cut through the noise to bring you smart, practical recommendations on how to live better from what is worth buying to the tools, habits and ideas that actually last. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. When it comes to Valentine's Day, I'm nostalgic for candy hearts and childhood crushes.

For the 10 th year in a row, my New Year's resolution is to read more books. Ideally, as I tend to tell myself during these protean early weeks of January, 2026 will be remembered for languorous evenings on the couch, tearing through the inventory of novels that crowd the modest capacity of my living-room shelves, perhaps with a tumbler of scotch resting on a coaster.

In a packed room in Sydney, an excited crowd riffles through stacks of stickers and bookmarks searching for their favourite characters. Another group flicks through racks of clothing, pulling out T-shirts that say romance readers club and probably reading about fairies. A poster on the wall, with tear-off tabs, invites visitors to take what they need: a love triangle, a love confession mid-dragon battle, a morally grey man or a cowboy. Half of the tabs have already been taken.

The best woody colognes are a very broad umbrella. With notes including sandalwood, crisp cedarwood, resinous guaiac wood, coniferous, earthy oak, heady oud and trending (and fantastic) hinoki, it's a canopy out there, each with its own distinct aromatic profile. Most fragrances contain some wood note(s) in their scent pyramid, usually in the base or middle, as it adds depth, warmth and longevity, anchoring or grounding lighter top and heart notes.