Beauty

makes sense

lisa hoffman and tom binns created a new way to wear perfume.

by ray siegel

Fragrance master Lisa Hoffman went to Pilates class reeking of some new fragrances that she had been testing earlier that day. After being forced to endure the stench throughout her session, a light bulb went off in Hoffman's head: "What if I could take off my perfume?" That's the idea behind her new collaboration with Tom Binns. They've made fragrance that you can wear, but aren't stuck wearing via jewelry that is actually scented. Our reaction was, "How has no one thought of this yet?"

It makes perfect scents! (Wah wah!) There's a piece in their collection for all of your pulse points: The wrist, the ears, and the décolleté. The secret is Hoffman's wooden beads, all infused with five of her signature fragrances. The scent makes its way through tiny holes in the metal (Binns was inspired by the movement of champagne bubbles).

The cuffs, pendants, and earrings come in five different finishes, with different fragrances to match not only your favorite metal, but how you're feeling throughout the day. "Our senses have different preferences at different times of day," Hoffman explaines "I wanted to stay loyal to my fragrance, so I changed it to make it wearable all day. In the morning we like crisp happy notes, but at bedtime our senses are heightened, so I took out the notes that keep you up at night." Hoffman doesn't play favorites though. "Choose a favorite child?! I won't do it! I go through different phases and at the moment it's Tunisian Neroli. Lately, my current combination is three French Clary Sage, one Tuscan Fig, and two Tunisian Neroli." That's another great part about Hoffman's groundbreaking (or nose-breaking?) beads—you can play around with them to customize your own signature scent.  

We were just as wowed by these magical beads as we were by Tom Binns' "perfume bottles." As any true artist would, Tom scrapped his entire set of initial designs before the collection came to be. We got an exclusive look at the complete set of final sketches so you can follow Hoffman's and Binn's genius.

Starting tonight, the collection will be available at Lisahoffmanbeauty.com.