Is Parmesan cheese “sharp”? Is talc “powdery”?

It may be harder to imagine the texture of a seashell from a salty smell, or something of that sort, but we’ve been associating textures with scents quotidianly without thinking much about it.

With perfumes, this may be easiest to get with gourmands—smooth, creamy vanilla, perchance? In either direction on the spectrum, though, it becomes more polarizing:

• I have a natural repulsion to perfumes that smell “oily” to me. I haven’t found a better way to describe it. I can’t be around a saturation of Marc Jacobs’ Daisy or anything of its ilk.
• Having had little to no experience with floral chypres until recently, I’ve discovered it as a new source of joy. Smelling it is almost like drinking an ethereal liquid, satiny golden-green freshness barely vaporized. At first sniff, it quenches a potent thirst I didn’t know I had. Le Labo’s Ylang 49 and Mad Madame by Juliette Has a Gun both do this beautifully.

Sweet intoxication! Must go, it’s calling.