I feel like Bee Shapiro gets me, man. She’s a beauty writer for the New York Times and the creator of a cruelty-free New York indie beauty line Ellis Brooklyn. They primarily do fragrances, body creams and candles for now, and their stuff is also paraben-free and vegan.
Bee recently launched a new fragrance called Sci Fi, which — hello, I named my daughter after Sarah Connor, one of the greatest sci-fi heroines of all time, so of course the name totally speaks to me!
This Sci Fi crosses the event horizon between the familiar and the unknown. The central note is vanilla, which is something your nose KNOWS, but it’s combined with other notes that are rarely paired with it to create a different and, in some ways, futuristic experience.
The whole same-but-different thing is one of the hallmarks of the best sci-fi to me. It doesn’t always have to be about aliens or zombies, man! (Although El Hub would beg to differ.) I think the best sci-fi stories are about everyday people in extraordinary circumstances, and Sci Fi is one of those extraordinary fragrances.
My Top 5 Sci Fi Essentials!
- Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card (don’t bother with the movie)
- The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker
- The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (one of those rare instances where the movie is almost as good as the book)
- Black Mirror Season 3’s “San Junipero” episode (all of the Black Mirror eps are brilliant, but this one won a bunch of Emmy’s for a reason)
- Terminator and Terminator 2 (I like to pretend that the other movies in the franchise were never made)
