A Day at the Beach...and a Sniff Back at a Multi-Sensory Experience Kit

She sells seashells

My spouse and I recently decided to make a weekday trip to the beach, just to get a change of scene. (Neither of us is working right now, so we might as well take advantage of the “perks” of our situation!) We took the subway to Coney Island and spent a few hours just sea-gazing while we wandered along the beach.

The weather was perfect for a pre-season beach afternoon, sunny and breezy, with minimal crowds (many more seagulls than humans on the actual beach) and maximum fresh air.

My perfume for the day was Andrea Maack Osmo (created by perfumer Dominique Ropion), an ocean-inspired composition of marine notes enhanced with citrus and pink pepper and grounded in cedar and oakmoss. (I think it also has a wisp of vanilla.) It was a perfect pairing for a long walk along the sand, followed by a cheapie tequila cocktail on the boardwalk.

This lazy, head-clearing afternoon reminded me of something else beach-related, and when I got home I looked in my “files” for some photos I took about a year ago.

I can’t remember how I first met Tessa Liebman, a New York-based professional chef and olfactory artist who works in the overlapping cultures of food and scent. (You can read her bio on the Olfactory Art Keller site.) We’ve been friends for several years at this point. I do know that I’ve intended several times to subscribe to one of her Multi-Sensory Experience Kits, which she’s been offering since late 2020, although I somehow didn’t get my act together until No. 5, titled “Sea of Love.” (Previous kits were inspired by themes like smoke, the sun, and snow.)

As soon as I notified her that I wanted to purchase one of the “Sea of Love” kits, we scheduled a catch-up over coffee. After we’d chatted, she handed over this bag and checklist, which I was able to take home and unpack at my own pace.

Tessa’s kits typically include some combination of a liquid fragrance, a solid fragrant item or two, something edible with a related flavor, and an accompanying playlist.

One of the food/flavor elements in “Sea of Love” was a little jar of tsukedani, seaweed that’s been simmered in a flavorful broth. I ate it over rice and was so immersed in savoring its umami kick that I forgot to photograph it!

However, the blend of salt with bits of dried algae (pictured above) lasted much longer, used bit by bit to add a briny touch to other dishes.

Tessa has made colorful agar-agar treats for some of her other, in-person events so I was happy to see these candies. They were slightly harder than others she’s served, rather than chewy, and were tinted to resemble bits of sea glass found on the beach. The green ones had a coconut-lime flavor and the blue ones included real seaweed absolute. I liked their shapes: they looked like the full moon and a crescent moon, which made me think of lunar phases and ocean tides.

Although I consumed the more perishable items from my kit pretty quickly, I still have the Sea Spray environmental mist and use it regularly in my workspace at home. It’s a blend of sandalwood and choya nakh (roasted seashell) with a sandy, driftwood-y scent. I enjoy the little ritual of spraying the ceramic seashell and hanging it near my desk for sensory inspiraiton.

You can follow Tessa at @scentsofplates on Instagram to find out what she’s doing these days. I hope she’ll consider offering another multi-sensory experience kit this year!

And, while we’re on the topic, here are a few of my favorite beach-y perfumes:

CB I Hate Perfume At the Beach 1966 and MCMC Maine (reviews on Now Smell This)

BDK Parfums Sel d’Argent (review on NST)

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz La Plage: Sea Spray (link to the DSH site)

Aroma Sanctum Mermaid (review on NST)

All photos by me.