Mary Tutwiler

The sweet scent of LSU

by Mary Tutwiler

Some people bleed purple and gold. Others just want to smell like it. (Think magnolia, jasmine and cypress, not hot tar, summer sweat and stale beer.) Perfumer Katie Masich is trying to catch that LSU essence in a bottle and will have it on sale by late spring or summer, 2009. Her company, Masik Collegiate Fragrances, concocts the elusive fragrance of college campuses and markets it for $60 for a 3.4-ounce for men’s cologne and womens eau de parfum. So far the 30 year old entrepreneur has created a scent for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Pennsylvania State University. Next year, the company will unveil the perfume of the universities of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Auburn, as well as LSU. Masich is looking for notes that invoke the school colors. “There’s the purple and gold,” she told the Times-Picayune, “so we want aromatics that are royal, regal. There’s lavender and violet. For the gold, you think about amber, honey, bourbon.” Bourbon — she got that one right.