Nosy Interview: Katie Puckrik

 Katie Puckrik (photographed by Kimberly Metz) in front of The Tadpoles of IC, ©Mark Hanson

Perfume blogger Katie Puckrik is a serious gateway drug. If you're at all interested in perfume, prepare to become a lot more interested after clicking through to her fragrance blog, Katie Puckrik Smells. Puckrik is the perfect pick for the first nosy interviewee I have not met in person, as I credit (blame?) her with upping my perfume-curiosity to a consuming (expensive!) degree. Her witty, addictive video reviews (bet you can't watch just one in her perfume collection series); insightful blog posts;  and entertaining correspondence with her perfume pen pal, Dan Rolleri, make her site one of my favorite spots on the internet, smelly or otherwise.

What do you smell like?  

Right this instant, I smell like the honeyed, musky roses of Keiko Mecheri's perfume Attar de Roses, and I can't get enough of myself! I keep hoiking the top of my shirt over my nose and huffing down my front to create a warm Attar de Roses vacuum.

As a perfume writer with a YouTube channel and blog, my audience keeps me on the hop trying an endless parade of fragrances that far exceeds what I'd naturally choose to wear if left to my own devices. After a day of testing and writing, I often smell like a perfume version of a patchwork quilt.

On the plus side, it means I'm exposed to a great deal of sensory stimulation that really amps me up creatively. In the con column, it takes me away from quality time wearing favorite scents from my own collection, which leans heavily towards what I call "Queen of Sheba fumes": rose, incense, amber, musk, patchouli, oud.

I adore theatrical, emphatic perfumes. I've always loved wearing deep,sensual scents, but it's only in recent years that I've embraced florals, particularly rose. Like many perfume thrillseekers, I'm fascinated by the stanky barnyard element in fragrances that add the beast to the beauty. Maybe I'm comfortable with those subtle physical flourishes after my years working as a dancer, accustomed to my perpetual "clean sweat" smell. Or at least I told myself it was clean- maybe it wasn't as subtle as I liked to imagine! Regardless, I lean towards perfumes that complement the built-in saltiness of my skin: ones grounded by sandalwood, musk and oud.

What do you like to smell?

I love to smell of the air in Southern California on a cold spring night: a bouquet of fragrant weeds, sweetshade trees, fireplace smoke, wet earth and chaparral. It's almost an incense.

There's a certain plastic wrapping smell I really like. The right kind of plastic will have me snorfing deeply into a faceful of it, like Dennis Hopper in "Blue Velvet".

Most of all, I love to smell my husband's warmed-by-the-sun skin. It's sweet/salty, a little like rising bread. When I go to kiss the back of his neck, it's really an excuse to sniff him. I read somewhere once that 1800's Chinese culture was horrified by kissing, because it was considered one step away from being a cannibal! It's a funny idea, but sort of true: the pleasure of a kiss does include the beloved's smell and taste.