Sunday, February 24, 2008
Burr is the scent critic for the New York Times and he has a way with words. He reviews new fragrances the way movie critics rate Hollywood's latest offerings. Last year, between writing reviews for the Times' T Magazine and its blog, the Moment, he penned "The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York" (Henry Holt, $25).
There may be an anti-fragrance movement growing, but those in the pro-perfume camp should find Burr's book a good read.
It was only a chance encounter a few years ago with a perfume fanatic that caused him to fall into the world of scents and led to his first book on the subject, "The Emperor of Scent," published in 2003.
"Perfumers are deeply strange people," Burr writes in the current book, "simply because their sensorial perception of the world is so highly trained. The educated olfactory capacity makes spending time with them not unlike spending time with talking Labradors."
Burr is quite talkative himself, chatty and friendly during a quick visit to San Francisco last week. Tall, lean and clean cut, he was in fine preppy form in khakis and a charcoal V-neck over a deep-blue shirt. He's 44, travels a lot for the job and has had enough of being single already. "This job is wreaking havoc with my life. I don't have a boyfriend; I want to get married and have kids," he says with a laugh and a sigh.
Burr tests six to 10 perfumes a week for the Times. He dabs four to six scents along his forearms and wears them for at least 24 hours. He gives out five stars only rarely. San Francisco perfumer DelRae Roth hit the top note with Bois de Paradis in an October 2006 review. The review boosted sales for the niche perfume company. "Needless to say, it was thrilling," Roth said last week. "Your heart stops. It's such a challenge to be in this business when you're competing against companies with enormous resources at their disposal."
But at the end of the day, he's scent-free. "I don't wear fragrance at all. For me, wearing perfume is work."