44: Confessions From Behind The Fragrance Counter

We all remember navigating the mall through the huge beauty floors (because you always had to enter the mall through a department store for some reason) where your friendly fragrance sales associates would be demo-ing the latest,  pungiest (you know what I mean), designer-iest fragrances. Well, we have always wondered what it's like to have one of the most glamorous jobs at the mall: perfume girl. So we decided to talk to one former fragrance demo (and current illustrator and artist extraordinaire), Lauren Tamaki, who has over 10 years of behind-the-counter experience shilling scents to the world (well the part of the world that visited Canadian department stores). Selling fragrance is not unlike speed dating — you're getting to know someone's desires and aspirations and what makes them cringe or go weak in the knees — all in just one sense. It is also not unlike a well-heeled territorial game of survival of the spritziest, as Ms. Tamaki tells us from her time on the sales floor. Check out Lauren Tamaki's  work: http://laurentamaki.com/[What we smell like today: Victoria's Secret Tease Crème Cloud, Burberry Hero]Find more info, episodes, and merch at Smellyalater.liveLeave us a voice message on the SYL Hotline at Speakpipe.com/smellyalater and we may respond on a future episode.Follow us on Instagram @smellyalater.mp3Leave a (nice) comment & (5-star) review wherever you stream, and if you feel so inclined, respond to our Spotify episode prompts please!😇As always, thank you for listening <3