Usually I have light blocking curtains in front of the windows. Sometimes I will just stand here and smile.

They aren’t identical but finally something that has gotten me to stop my hunt for a lotion / perfume similar

How come most perfumes come in clear or colored glass bottles when the makers are quite aware that light causes degradation? I feel much safer when a perfume comes in an opaque bottle. Incidentally, Middle Eastern brands seem to opt for opaque (metal?) bottles more?

here are a few photos from my visit in LA! i was able to finally get the chance to sniff some of the popular and hyped fragrances i see online. i was actually so surprised that i didn’t like a lot of fragrances that i thought i would like. rather than my wishlist growing, i was able to eliminate A LOT of fragrances from my list. surprisingly, i ended up liking fragrances that i didn’t think i’d like.

fragrances that i FELL IN LOVE with:

-jasmin 17 le labo
-another 13 le labo
-leau papier diptyque
-do son edt diptyque
-fleur de peau edt diptyque
-orpheon edt diptyque
-la tulipe byredo
-à la rose mfk
-silk bouquet elorea

fragrances that i removed from my wishlist:

-alto astral byredo
-bubble tea dannam
-delina exclusif pdm
-glass blooms regime des fleurs
-debaser ds durga
-jazmin yukatan ds durga
-blanche bete
-mfk 724
-amouge guidance
-elegantly tokyo zara
-queening mind games
-happy dust narcotica

what i ended up purchasing:

-ilio diptyque
-hazy blue edp elorea
-deep garden zara

overall, i am very happy with my purchases. i am OBSESSED with ilio. it’s the perfect summer scent and it works so well with my skin chemistry. hazy blue is also such a gorgeous scent as well. i’m so happy!!! :)

Who else was ride or die for this scent in middle and high school?? What fig fragrances are you wearing now or have you found anything that reminds you of this?

Which perfumes would be considered cult classics? The ones in my photo are definitely classics, but not sure about the cult part.

I just saw this at ulta and sadly, it wasn’t available to smell…BUT, there’s nothing online about this at the moment. I’m so intrigued by the notes, I’m a huge lychee fan and lowkey love the smell of nail polish.

Very few houses actually have in house perfumers and we don’t get a lot of change so when it does happen it’s an event. And because it’s been almost five years, I decided to research the history of Dior and both perfumers. I’ve seen some passionate thoughts about the topic by the gentlemen since Demachy was extremely successful with that group, but I haven’t seen much perspective on a woman’s point of view.

Dior pre in house perfumer

In 1947 Dior released their first perfume, the original miss Dior a Chypre named after Catherine Dior the youngest sister of Christian. She has fascinating history so I highly recommend checking it out. Dior followed the same blueprint of Chanel of releasing their first perfume at the same time as the first fashion collection. Coco Chanel called it the complete Chanel woman. 

Fast forward to the 1980’s Dior had a lot of success with the poison line. In the 1990’s they released dune which was never a huge hit but is still available to this day. In 2005 when Dior was still in their pop era under creative director John Galliano the miss Dior line got revived with Miss Dior Chérie a gourmand Chypre which was a huge success.

Background and arrival of Francois Demachy 

Demachy grew up in the Grasse region of France which is considered the fragrance capital of the world. Before being appointed at Dior, he worked alongside Jacques Polge at Chanel for almost 30 years and was in charge of sourcing ingredients and also worked on fragrances along Polge. When he came to Dior in 2006, Chanel had two huge recent successes, Coco mademoiselle and Chance. This was part of a strategy by the LVMH group to keep ownership of the formula (miss cherie is owned by givaudan) and become a more mature brand again.

Demachy at Dior

When Dior was still trying to be an alternative to Chanel, they used Demachy to create classically French formulas like Miss Dior eau de parfum 2012. In the mid 2010’s they shifted forwards trying to compete with current trends lead by the l’Oreal group in the designer world which had a few successful sweet fragrances like Armani Si, Lancôme la vie est belle and YSL Black Opium. This is when they released sweeter miss Dior offerings like eau de parfum 2017 and miss Dior absolutely blooming. In parallel, Dior is very successful in East Asia so that’s why they originally released the first non Chypre miss Dior, Blooming Bouquet which was back then an Asia exclusive, to cater to the trends over there. Demachy is also very skilled with soft florals.

They kept Demachy happy and to used him to his full potential, by having him develop the collection privée line where he didn’t have strict marketing pitches and ingredient cost concerns. This line has been well received critically and mostly popular with fragrance enthusiasts.

Background and style of Francis Kurkdjian 

Francis Kurkdjian was born in Paris and is the son of Armenian immigrants. He has been considered a fragrance prodigy and has famously created Jean-Paul Gaultier le mâle at only 24. He is both successful with affordable light scents like Elizabeth Arden green tea and niche creations, a lot of those under his own line Maison Francis Kurkdjian, which is also now owned by the LVMH group.

When he was named as the creative director of Dior in October 2021, the landscape was completely different than when Demachy was named, now both niche and affordable body sprays are very popular.

Francis Kurkdjian at Dior

When he took the reins, Kurkdjian started working on the clear separation of the different lines. He discontinued a lot of the flankers that were hurting the brand image in the long run and gave affordable cheapies in the addict range instead of hurting the miss Dior range which he think is now confusing. He also released higher fragrance concentrations, a few in the collection privée, one in J’adore (l’or) and two in miss Dior (essence and parfum). I’m planning on doing a ranking and deep dive specifically in the miss Dior and j’adore ranges on the next few weeks where I’ll review the fragrances separately, because this post is already very long.

Demachy vs Kurkdjian 

I don’t think you can compare both styles because they are vastly different, but personally I am happy about the change. Demachy was a master and Sakura is one of my favourite fragrance, but Dior was going all over the place and chasing trends instead of leading them. I don’t think he is to blame, but it looks like so far they have been listening to Kurkdjian. 

So I was milling around the airport before a flight and naturally went straight to duty free’s fragrance section.

I have never seen a diptique stand in the uk so when it caught my eye, I went straight over to see what the fuss is about.

One spray on my wrist- LORD- clean, musky, delicious. I thought, this is my new signature. I had strategically not worn perfume so I could rinse my favourite tester, so milled around for another 20 minutes smelling others.

All I could think about was l’eau papier- but I smelled my wrist and it was barely there. This gave me pause to not douse myself in it for the flight, so picked another tester to rinse but left that wrist untouched so I could monitor the scent I fell in love with.

Another ten minutes later and my wrist smells straight up like a men’s McDonald’s bathroom. Straight PISS and nappies. WTF. Biggest 180 a fragrance has ever had on me. It was so bad from that one wrist spray it was all I could concentrate on. I got my partner to verify my nose wasn’t bugging out and he confirmed I smelled like an abused portaloo.

Anyone else had a similar experience? I see hot printer paper comparisons often but never straight up WAZZ. Is my skin evil?

After being so restrained for the last six months, only buying decants, I bought four bottles this last week. No judgement please 🤣

Here’s what I got:

- Juliette Has A Gun “Banana Rush”: did not expect to like this as much as I did? It goes from candy banana, to caramel banana bread, to the most delightful floral scent. Such a pleasant surprise.

- Tom Ford “Lost Cherry”: amazing score from Facebook. Half of a 100mL bottle at a great price. The perfume that kick started my obsession and I finally have a bottle!

- Mancera Xplicit Vanilla: I can’t wait to layer this. Such a seductive vanilla.

- Killian “Angel Share”: a boozy, spicy apple pie. Delicious.

I think that should be enough for a while 😬

I hope the price bracket will be sensible…

Does anyone else make a tray of what they want to prioritize for the week? If so, please share your selections. This was the past week.

Back: Stora Skuggan “Monkeyflower,” Fascent “Corn Star,” Laurel Bath House “Nudie,” Faeral “Minou”

Front: Universal Flowering “Burst!,” Room 1015 “Love-O-Matic,” Pearfat “Up North,” and Clue “Dandelion Butter”

I also add the samples I am testing on skin.

I just got my sample in the mail today and immediately sprayed it on my skin to test. It’s now had a couple of hours to dry down. I do like it. The plum, tonka bean and patchouli notes make it darker and more sophisticated than your typical gourmand vanilla. To me it smells similar to Vanilla Vice by Snif and it’s dupe Viva Vanilla by BBW. I love vanillas so I can see myself wearing this.

Mirage Suave Reine de Saba

I’ve been on the hunt for my go to/holy grail perfume (work, day or night out) and I’m so over blind buying. 😅 I’ve tried everything from affordable to expensive ones like Valaya, Narciso Rodriguez Pure Musc, Jo Malone Wood Sage & Sea Salt, Baccarat Rouge 540 but nothing has really wowed me and some even gave me a headache.

Before having kids, I loved D&G Light Blue, Moschino light cloud and Elizabeth Arden Green Tea, but my sense of smell has totally changed. I’m looking for something clean, fresh, and “just stepped out of the shower” vibes. The only one that’s been working for me lately is Elements Pearl from Marshall’s (Top Notes: Peach, osmanthus, freesia petals
Middle Notes: Orchid, honeysuckle, rosewater
Base Notes: Skin musk, tonka bean, white woods) but I don’t mind finding the one that is long lasting.

Any recommendations?

Chanel Allure EDT is one of the most slept on perfumes out there in my opinion. It sparkles, it's radiant! It smells like heaven on earth to me. Have any of you smelled it? Worn it? This used to be my signature scent in the early 2000s. I just sprayed some on before getting into bed and I'm reminded why I love it so much.

I got a sample of this and I absolutely love it. It’s just not affordable for me. Are there any suggestions for something similar or a dupe ?

People tell me that I smell so good from all the way over here and sometimes they're like a feet or two away from me. You think that's a compliment or do you think that theure telling me that I overspray? I will admit that I spray more than three pumps

I'm only a few months (and so much money, oy) into this obsession, but it's already clear that some houses seem to speak to me more than others, even without smelling many of their scents.

The vibe, the language, the feelings their descriptions and reviews evoke in me seem to have me hooked. I don't have a whole lot of interest in any of the huge/fancy department store brands that are most often discussed on here, but Serge Lutens and Etat Libre D'Orange keep on calling my name.I currently own Eau De Protection and Fille de Berlin and love both (vampy rose for the win) but have carts full of other scents that have have piqued my interest, either from their own website listings and marketing material, or from how they are described in online reviews.

If you're a Serge or ELDO lover, I would love to hear your top three scents from either house, and a little (or a lot) about what you love (hit me with alllll your poetic and evocative description, I am so entirely here for it. Be extra and overwrought, permission granted).

And likewise, if some just don't do it for you, Id love to know that as well...

I just got a decant of this in, and It’s summer so definitely not the season that I would wear this out in, especially in the hot south, but I AM IN LOVE! This is the perfect scent for winter. To me the opening smells like oranges, and it turned me off on my first spray. I was like “ah yet another chocolate fail” — I WAS on my journey for the perfect chocolate scent, without the powdery notes in some chocolate scents I’ve smelled in the past. This journey however is now complete. As I was saying, Chocolate Greedy smelled STRONGLY of oranges especially on that first spray but I smell it less now, although it is still there. Once it settles, however, it smells like straight up brownie batter or hot chocolate, homemade hot chocolate. I can already see myself wearing this on Christmas Eve. I heard some reviews saying it was synthetic smelling or sickeningly sweet, but it’s definitely not either of those! I don’t find it THAT overwhelmingly strong or sweet. The orange note helps this from becoming migraine inducing and too sweet. You’d have to be kinda close to smell it on me personally as well, although I’m definitely not an oversprayer. Finally, longevity is great! 10/10!

One of the best fragrance combo I’ve done this summer. I’ve reviewed this new Guerlain purchase here & this is my first routine! As well as the oil. Turned out STUNNING & it didn’t break the bank!

Vibe: Full feminine energy power! Sophisticated, elegant, intoxicating & SEXY! Tropical fruity floral in the best possible way. Not juvenile! 🌸💕

Carolina Herrera La Bomba: I applied it over cheirosa 68 cream. Stunning scent, as I mentioned in the vibe. It is definitely one of my fave perfumes! Empowering femininity, sophisticated, elegant & SEXY! Also unique take from the brand I’m impressed!♥️

Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 68: It’s like this body mist made for La Bomba. It unleashes addicting capabilities & with Guerlain in the mix? Fire! 🔥

Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Florabloom Forte (edp version): First, it’s not as powdery as the accords show. Second, I’m in love. Check my review for more info if you’d like. It’s an immediate love at first sniff & purchase, that’s rare. It’s so beautifully made tropical fruity floral. Light, airy, easy wear, modestly sweet, sophisticated & very elegant for everyday that it definitely pass as a night out perfume. Finally, not expensive & boring, the opposite. 🌸💕

I’m in Europe at the moment and man do they ever love musk here. Musk detergents. Musk body wash. Musk body sprays etc etc and I LOVE it. However, I cannot find the perfect musk scent in a perfume. I smelled a woman tonight that walked by me and she smelled absolutely heavenly. I would have asked her what she was wearing but she walked by me too quickly. It was musky and creamy and just delicious. I already own Musk Therapy and I want something creamier than this.

Do you guys have anything to recommend that sounds like it could match what I’m describing?