Alyssa Harad Reads at Scent Bar

By Tom When I got the invite to (finally) meet Alyssa at ScentBar where she was going to read from her book "Coming to My Senses" I immediately marked my calendar. Not only because it's a brilliant book (it is) but also because Alyssa had been a contributor to PST for a long time. I'm assuming that Marina had the pleasure last year in NYC of meeting her, and I wasn't going to miss my chance. There was a lively Q&A with Los Angeles writer Denise Hamilton, followed by Alyssa reading a couple of chapters and showing us some of the scents she had written about, as well as letting us smell (and even TRY) such vintage finds as Rochas Femme (why don't they sell stuff like that anymore) and Emeraude (the fact that it's gone is simply criminal.) Alyssa in person is just as you'd expect from her writing- warm, funny and full of life. She was kind enough to inflate my ego by telling me how thrilled she was when I put up a positive review of Ginestet's Botrytis, which was included in one of her beautifully written chapters. She told me that she felt validated that someone else loved it enough to write about it. I felt validated that she said so. I've included the link to Amazon for her book; it really is a must read (I purchased mine there on Kindle.) If she makes an appearance anywhere near you, you really should go. I say it a lot. but I'll say it again: perfume people are the best.. images: my iPhone