Sweat Scent

You too can smell like Fear. or Rain. Or, er, Lawn.

Eva Wiseman
Sunday May 13, 2007
The Observer

We have smelled fear, and it's really rather nice. Norwegian scent artist (or 'olfactivist') Sissel Tolaas created nine perfumes (including S&M Guy and Guy No.3) from the sweat of men who suffer from chronic fear. She collected their perspiration when they were at their most nervous - on a busy train for instance, or, in the case of S&M Guy, at a fetish club. The men sent their samples to her lab (funded by the company that creates scents for Calvin Klein and Prada) where she rendered them, to be smelled, scratch-and-sniff style, as art.

The exhibition, in Kansas, was the culmination of years of research - after completing degrees in chemistry, art, language and maths, Tolaas, 45, travelled the world sampling dirt, toys and overripe bananas to create a scent gallery of almost 7,000 smells, working with companies like Ikea to add a scent to their brand. Perhaps that's where she first sniffed scared men. She's currently collaborating with Vogue photographer Nick Knight's online fashion empire SHOWstudio to create a fragrance on the internet. Yes, the internet. This is the sharp end of a smell trend, where ladies are at last choosing to smell of 'stuff' rather than celebrities.

We're leaving JLo, Jade, Britney and the Beckhams on the shelves, reaching instead for Marc Jacobs' Cucumber, Rain and Orange scents (£39 for a generous 300ml). One sniff of Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely and most of you, we reckon, would choose to swiftly spritz on the Fear.