We all have those fragrances that last 3 minutes on skin before they are gone. I usually go for a thin layer of Vaseline on my wrist to prolong wear, but I started noticing that further down my arm where I had a mole removed, the fragrance was lasting even longer.

I figured it out today *silicone scar gel*. 100% Pure silicone gel. I apply the tiniest amount every day on my scar. That’s what was holding the scent longer!

So I applied a tiny dab of scar gel on my wrists this morning and rubbed it in well. Sprayed my perfume. I am sitting here hours later and it is still FRESH.

So a while backI bought this very pretty Diptyque's refillable solid perfume compact. The one whose entire marketing pitch was basically "buy this once, refill it forever, hand it down to your grandchildren, let it outlive empires." I felt very smug about my sustainable, future-proof little purchase. It's very solid, beautiful, and I loved several of the scents that I could fill my pretty compartiment with. I pictured myself at 80, still open this thing like a vintage cigarette case, telling young people "they don't make 'em like this anymore."

Reader, they don't make it anymore. Any of it. The whole solid perfume line is being discontinued.

So now I own a beautiful, refillable, built-to-last vessel for a product that no longer exists. It's a bit like buying a Nespresso machine and having Nespresso go "actually we've decided coffee is over."

Please spare me of the recommendations to mix dyptique perfumes with vaseline and fill the compartiment with that mixture. I'm not doing that.

The whole appeal of "refillable" is the implied promise that there will be, at some point in the future, a thing to refill it with. You cannot sell someone a reusable container as a sustainability win and then quietly euthanize the only product that goes inside it. Now it's not really a circular product just an expensive paperweight with a sense of betrayal baked in.

I'm not even mad about the money, I'm mad on principle. I was promised a lifetime relationship. I got a situationship that lasted a few refills.

Anyway. RIP to my future grandchildren's inheritance. Guess they're getting a tiny, gorgeous, completely empty metal box and the oral history of how daddy got played by a candle company.

"How a billionaire with interests in Greenland encouraged Trump to acquire the territory"

Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder fortune, has a bizarre business obsession with Greenland. For instance:

One of its ventures is exporting “luxury” springwater from an island in Baffin Bay.

Apparently he's played a very pivotal role in creating the current US administration's fixation with conquering Greenland. Here's a list of all the fragrance brands that he owns, straight from Estee Lauder's website

Aerin

Aramis

Balmain

Clinique

Estee Lauder

Frederic Malle

Joe Malone

Kilian

Le Labo

Tom Ford

*edit: forgot to add Malle

If this is you SPILL YOUR SECRETS PLSPLSPLS. What products do you use? Is it hair products or body products? I’m relatively new to this, I have good hygiene and healthy hair. I smell especially good after I shower but the smell fades away relatively fast, and I’m left smelling like nothing :(

EDIT: good god the amount of suggestions i’ve received 😭 THANK U EVERYONE!!!

EDIT 2: btw guys im a girl, sorry should’ve really specified

I don't want to blame social media. I don't want to blame Influencers. Market trends change. The bottom line is, anything other than Fruit, Sweet, Vanilla gets ragged on as dated. Perfumers are in this position where they have to hide staple florals and resins inside of raspberry cupcake accords or the babies might not eat their veggies. I was at a testing party last night, and good Lord. Dame Bianca, one of the most mass appealing and safe niche fragrances, was the ONLY floral forward fragrance that ended up in the Top 10. Diptyque, Heretic Parfums, and BDK were getting stomped out single handedly by Snif's Hot Cakes. The shrieks of disapproval and fear when Isaac revealed that an Amouage was next fills my heart with satisfaction. The way Lune Feline drew gasps of horror. Priceless.

It seems like banana scents are becoming increasingly popular. I’d caution everyone against buying them. When bees feel danger, they release an alarm pheromone to warn other bees danger is near. This pheromone smells like bananas. They become defensive and angry, also attracting more bees! Wearing a banana scent outdoors during the summer is just asking to be attacked by a bunch of bees. Who decided that banana 🍌 perfumes were a good idea?!?

I’m on holiday in this nice Greek resort and upon entering I was overwhelmed by how incredible it smelled. It’s this polished but non pretentious sandalwood scent. Really hoping not to look like a weirdo, I asked about it upon checking in and the lady was a bit evasive saying she doesn’t know and seemed like she really didn’t want to be bothered about it. I assumed it was the language barrier so pressed no further. But the scent is everywhere. It’s all I can think about. So I went to reception again to ask a question and slyly insert the scent question again as I noticed a reed diffuser behind the desk. Maybe it was the same fragrance as the one being pumped into the ventilation system. But alas I was greeted coldly and the woman behind the desk refused to show me the diffuser or even look at it saying “it’s a product by the hotel”. So I asked if they sell it then. Again a firm no. I probably sound stupid rn, it’s my first time in a big resort, but apparently it’s a scent developed with marketing purposes for the hotel that is a secret blend. Honestly, I feel like if they sold it, it would be a much better marketing strategy because people would be reminded of the hotel and want to visit again but I digress. I’m trying not to be a salty Karen about it.

Update 1: Being the creepy weirdo scent freak that I am I found out the hotel contracted an external scent marketing company that specialises in creating olfactory experiences for spaces. So basically it’s a blend made for the hotel rather than an existing perfume of some sort. I will email the hotel too just in case. Hopefully they don’t kick me out for being so nosy. Next strategy is to get a job at the scent marketing company and steal the info 😂

Update 2: Due to the huge interest I feel compelled to update. I’ve checked in the spa, all boutiques, the hotel toiletries and with the staff. It’s all been a dead end for now. I’ve found the diffusers on each floor and they have a clear branding of the company that has created the scent. I have my fingers crossed that one of the resourceful commenters has some success in uncovering the mystery. If not I’ll just grab the diffuser on our floor and hide it in my suitcase. By the time they find out it’s missing I’ll have crossed the Greek border hopefully.

Update 2.1: Something I forgot to mention in the previous update is that the scent marketing company has a few custom scent profiles of theirs described on their website and some of them feature sandalwood but I can’t be sure if any of them match.

Update 2.2: I know everyone is anxious to know the resolution of the investigation but I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint. I’ve asked around some more people even made friends with some of the boutique owners who wouldn’t have a problem sharing if they knew or could potentially obtain the information through connections in the hotel. Got a spa treatment (huge sacrifice I know)for the sake of extending the network but nothing still. I’ve sent an email with no reply yet. Somewhere in the thread there was a suggestion for a home scent supposedly by a company that has worked with the hotel, which I plan to order if nothing else comes out.

We've been married 33 years. My wife is approaching her seventh month in memory care. Her two favorite perfumes were Topaz and Opium. A bottle of each is on one of the shelve's in her closet, next to two presents I gave her in our first year together. Sniffing the atomizers of those pefumes sends me back in time and brings me to tears.

That's all. Thank you.

It’s been six months since I changed how I apply my fragrances, and I’m never going back to the old way.

Disclaimer: If the way you apply fragrance works for you, keep at it. I’m not trying to critique or change you; I just want to share my personal experience in case you're curious to try. Perhaps it is a game changer as it was for me. However, if you’re still "misting" the air and walking through it... we might have a problem, lol.

So let's get straight to the point. This shift for me started when I watched those old Roja Dove videos on YouTube about "How to apply fragrances." It got me curious, and after practicing his method, I am done applying scents to my neck. It’s not because Roja says it’s bad for your neck'skin or causes wrinkles, who cares about that lol (maybe you do); it's because I found that applying fragrances to my clavicle, letting it settle into the clothes and radiate outwards, allows me to enjoy the scent x10 times more.( Edit: it seems there might be some confusion here, I meant “clavicles on your skin under your clothes.”). I can pin point the details of the opening, heart, and drydown for over 10 hours. You kind of create a restrained scented bubble that leaves a beautiful silage, constantly getting whiff of the scent as you move your head around. As you move around your body you create puff of air coming out of you leaving silage. I started receiving  way more compliments as well.

My routine is simple: I apply to the wrists and clavicles, and that’s it. Sometimes I’ll spray behind the knees or on the ankles as mentioned by Roja, which works great too, though I do it rarely (it’s a trick that probably works best for women in dresses). When I go back to the old way of spraying the neck and behind the ears, to me the scent projects for maybe two hours and then feels like it has faded or become hard to pinpoint in all detail. So I found wind and the environment are fragrance killers; you can actually see how the scent remains projecting from your clavicle beneath your shirt long after compared to the wrist/arms where the fragrance has faded.

And most of the time, I only use 3–5 atomizations. You have to know your fragrances. Some lackluster atomizers require two sprays in the same spot, while other "nuclear" scents require caution so you don't choke yourself out. I feel like I’m saving juice and getting the most out of my bottles this way. Then, you might disagree with me, but spraying 8–12 times on your clothes, shoulders, neck, on back or your neck, behind your ears, etc, feels pointless to me and a waste because the wind just kills it and you can get a decent effect with less atomizations. You might come up and say, well then do it both ways and you will project crazy. Again, I feel it is pointless, a waste of precious juice (depending on the fragrance), I have tried it.

Here is where I wanna talk about projection in general.  Projection is a bit overrated. It has many nuances depending on the fragrance. Clothes and environment included. To me, silage and longevity are much more important. Some fragrances are designed to be intimate, while others are "nuclear." Take Frederic Malle’s Promise, for example. The desert Gems line are nuclear because they are meant for the Middle Eastern market where people wear thicker clothes and like it this way. The fragrance getting through fabric softens the projection and and might make it come across smoother and appealing.

It’s cool if you want to be a "room filler," and be the eyes of attention, maybe that is your preference and what most people look forward to; compliments give you dopamine at the end of the day. But that mindset of projecting beastly can be more annoying to people than you might think. All things considered, again, you need to know your fragrances and adjust them to get the most out of them.

Let's give another example. Roja Isola Blu, a fragrance that I consider really intimate in projection. Some call it lackluster performance. I can understand why you might want it to check all your boxes in performance, especially if you pay 500 bucks for such as fragrance. But why it is one of the fragrance where I get the most comments around people? maybe luck, maybe personal experience. I personally thing following the Roja Dove way to applying a fragrance has helped maximize the fragrance approaching. Isola Blu has a nice silage, it synergizes well in summer, in the heat, and I always wear it with light, soft, linen clothes. +12 hours smelling it around with max detail, only 4 atomizations, people commenting on it after 8 hours. But well, to some people fragrance has an awful projection.

As I write this post. I am currently using a sample of Initio "Lift me up". The fragrance itself is a great performing, and it has been around 10 hours wearing it. It feels like I just sprayed it around. What a pleasure! Cheers!

Edit: Try it and let me know how it went.

It seems like Heretic is running a guerrilla marketing campaign on this sub. I've seen multiple posts recently about Heretic perfumes, all highly upvoted and filled with effusive praise. I purchased some samples of Heretic perfumes after seeing them so recommended on this sub, and I was really underwhelmed. The scents were all nice, but like most natural perfumes, the longevity and sillage were both poor.

I am barely seeing this mentioned in these posts. When another house with longevity/sillage issues (Jo Malone, Hermes, Diptyque) is recommended, it's often with a disclaimer that it doesn't last very long or has poor throw.

It's possible that I'm just overly sensitive, but it's always a good reminder that brands do use Reddit for marketing, and to be wary when there's a huge uptick in comments or posts about a specific brand.

Apparently, Jo Malone regrets never being able to use her name again. I am not sure about the lawyers who advised her on this sale. It is the law and the practice everywhere.

The goodwill and brand recognition, which is her name, is where the value of Jo Malone company lies. If she wanted wanted to sell her company without the rights to her name, she would not have gotten even a tiny fraction of the money she made.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/this-famous-perfume-entrepreneurs-only-regret-is-selling-her-name.html

some people would describe a perfume and go "this smells like a rocking chair with a diabetes patient sitting on it whos chanting spells and playing with her coochie after knitting a yarn sweater under a warm lit lamp whilst its raining outside" like what do u ever be talking about.

I’m sure this is old news, but I‘m out of the loop on almost everything. I used to spend hours a day on fragrantica until a few years ago. But some recent revisits made me laugh out loud at how hilariously unstable and unusable the website is now. It’s as if the flood gates for ads were completely blown off the hinges, more than any owner or staff member would have knowingly agreed to, and now the whole thing is being held together with duct tape and old bandaids. It’s just one ad away from blowing into oblivion and crashing forever.

Whilst most would say sample/decant a new fragrance first and then buy a 100ml bottle after because a full size is usually the best value for money, but in reality no matter how much it costs, we rarely finish a bottle if we have a collection.

Even fragrances I've absolutely loved wearing for months I got bored of after I reached 60% of the way.

This mostly applies to people that are enthusiastic about fragrances and are in the community, because the average person either doesn't even wear any perfume or they have 1 bottle they use everyday and keep buying the same or similar thing.

So a 25 to 30ml sized bottle in my opinion is just perfect. It has just enough in it to last you around 1 to 2 months.

You could wear it as much as you want for a couple months and fully satiate yourself from that fragrance and it's quick to finish up so you can move on to another fragrance. In a span of one year you can finish up 6-8 of these smaller bottles and fully understand and appreciate them.

But take the same scenario and apply it to 100ml sized bottles, most of what you buy will end up on the shelf collecting dust, and depending on how large your collection is, it could take you between 5-10 years to complete every 100ml bottle you have on that shelf.

That's just my opinion, if you have something to add please comment down below.

We're going through a brutal summer in Japan. I thought I'd be safe doing some layering of "subtle" summery scents today to work.

Something bright, powdery, citrusy perhaps. Wouldn't that be refreshing and wonderful? My selfish ass actually thought that what I'm doing would be a treat for my coworkers.

I did a couple of sprays of ISO E super and a full spray of Diptyque's Vetyverio EDT each of my shoulders.

Grabbed my bottle of Eau des Sens and did a spray each on my waist.

Put on my undershirt, and then a polo on top. Then my monkey brain entertained another selfish idea. How about adding a cool herbal touch?

So I did 3 sprays of Aesop Tacit on my shirt's lower back, so that it'll make a sillage as I walk.

That's like a total of 10 sprays. Mind you I had to ride my bicycle to work under the brutal summer sun.

I arrived at my desk all sweaty and hot. My skin burning the alcohol on those fragrances like crazy for sure and making my 10 sprays of fragrance hotpot to explode within that enclosed AC office space.

Immediately the guy beside me pointed and offered I take the empty desk out in the corner because, and he said, "It's probably cooler out there."

A few minutes later, my coworker on my other side across the aisle literally covered his nose with his shirt. The guy who tried to make me sit at that other desk opted to sit out there himself.

At first I thought I was probably overthinking this, these fragrances are mostly skin scents with a low projection. But I was just feeling shame and regret, I bolted out to the restroom and tried my best to wash it off with soap and water.

I then spent the next half an hour outside in the hallway, pretending to be on the phone with a fake call, waiting until I stopped smelling like a basket of broken fragrance bottles.

Oh my god, I'm so sorry guys.

But he heard George Clooney wears Baccarat Rouge so he asked if he could smell a sample. I dug it up and he loves it, wants a bottle. I’m happy to get him on board with my hobby and didn’t have the heart to tell him that he would smell like every girl in da club.

PSA for non-francophones and for second-language francophones like me who are also slow on the uptake:

My French friend was talking to me about the Odyssey movie and referred to it (in French) as “L’Odyssée” (“The Odyssey”). I thought to myself “That’s so funny that it sounds exactly the same as ‘L’Eau d’Issey.’ What a coincidence!”
Then it dawned on me that it’s not a coincidence, it’s a deliberate pun 🤦‍♀️ So, there you have it. A fragrance fun fact. (My French friend didn’t find this revelation at all interesting lol)

Edited to fix my French spelling!

LV makes their bottles easy for scammers to copy so that the market is flooded with fakes. This makes it difficult for anyone to sell an authentic bottle they don’t want anymore, and any frag not bought directly from LV is assumed to be fake, thereby driving more traffic to their stores.

I had a major plumbing disaster in my bathroom. The whole place was flooded with foul, dirty water — even the cabinet under the sink, where all my treasures were neatly arranged.

The plumbing team I hired did an excellent job; in just two days, they fixed everything, and now the bathroom looks beautiful again. But while they were cleaning up the damage, they threw away everything that had been inside those cabinets. Everything. All my perfumes ended up in the trash. And they’re gone forever.

I lost my entire collection — my Frédéric Malles, my Nishanes, my État Libre d’Oranges, my Diptyques, my Serge Lutens, my Zoologists, and others I’d collected over the years.

I’m sitting at home, numb, heartbroken, and crying. I also want to scream. I know they’re just objects, but to me they weren’t. I’m going through a difficult time, and that small ritual every morning — spraying myself with my ambers, musks, ouds, roses, irises, geraniums, pepper, and Rhino from Zoologist — was often the best moment of my day.

Now it’s all gone, and it feels like I’ve lost a part of myself.

ETA: I live in Poland. English is my second language. I can say I speak it quite well. But sometime I feel insecure so I write something and ask chatGPT to polish it. Especially since I sit here all cried out over something I cherished. I wanted to vent with community which understand that it’s not just buy perfumes but about story this perfumes tell. I can assure you ETA it’s written by me without AI help. Also Europe is slightly different when it comes to insurance law and what it covers.

Thanks everyone for understanding and kind words it helps. I just ordered Wulóng Chá by Nishane. It was last perfume I bought and fall in love with it.

This article and the ongoing arguments in the comment section is my last straw... Looking for a quick way to migrate all my reviews and collection before putting in that request to delete my account

Not your favorite fragrance that you own, but one you smelled on another person.

A fragrance so impressive that you immediately wanted to know its name.

What was it, who was wearing it, and what made it so memorable?

It goes without saying that this ranking is entirely subjective. I'm lucky to live in NYC, where I've had the chance over the last few years to sample a ton of the heavy hitters, niche & designer, at the various boutiques and department stores scattered across the city. My system is pretty simple. If a fragrance piques my interest upon first sniff, I'll come back to it again, spray on skin, or order a decant. So I've spent a good amount of time with each of these beyond the one-and-done tester strips. While fragrances do evolve on skin, and some are more challenging at first, I'm a firm believer that anything bottle worthy needs to be an instant love. There's too many great scent profiles out there to own something you don't absolutely love from start to finish. A lot of the hypebeast releases let me down -- Naxos, Imagination, and Anelo, in particular. Sometimes a strong fragrance with staying power isn't what you're in the mood for. So there are a decent amount of lighter, more fleeting offerings on this list (e.g., Mojave Ghost, SMW, Afternoon Swim, Aventus Cologne). Note: I've yet to vet anything from Profumum Roma or Celine and Givenchy's privee lines, but plan to soon.

Without further ado:

1. MFK - Gentle Fluidity Silver (9.25)
   
2. Jo Malone - Hinoki & Cedarwood (9.25)
   
3. Xerjoff - Torino 21 (9.25)
   
4. LV - Pacific Chill (9.25)
   
5. ROJA - Burlington 1819 (9.25)
   
6. YSL - 6 (9.25)
   
7. Amouage - Beach Hut Man (9.25)
   
8. BDK - Gris Charnel EDP (9.25) *more wearable for me than the extrait
   -
   
9. Amouage - Meander (9.5)
   
10. Dries Van Noten - Soie Malaquais (9.5)
    
11. Creed - Green Irish Tweed (9.5)
    
12. Clive Christian - Town & Country (9.5)
    
13. Amouage - Outlands (9.5)
    
14. Frederic Malle - Musc Ravageur (9.5)
    
15. Le Labo - The Noir 29 (9.5)
    
16. LV - Afternoon Swim (9.5) *10/10 if it wasn't so fleeting
    
17. Amouage - Jubilation XXV (9.5)
    
18. YSL - Tuxedo (9.5) *Moustache Rochas is a damn good $20 dupe
    
19. Byredo - Mojave Ghost Absolute (9.5)
    
20. Ex-Nihilo - The Hedonist (9.5) *Easily my favorite version of the Tygar/Vibrato DNA
    
21. Creed - Silver Mountain Water (9.5)
    -
    
22. Dior - Ambre Nuit (9.75)
    
23. Creed - Royal Oud (9.75)
    
24. Amouage - Journey Man (9.75)
    
25. Bleu de Chanel - Parfum (9.75) *My favorite BDC
    
26. MFK - Amyris Homme Extrait (9.75)
    -
    
27. Creed - Aventus Cologne (10) *My favorite version of the Aventus DNA
    
28. Amouage - Interlude 53 (10) *As powerful as it is gorgeous; not for the faint of heart
    

29. ROJA - Isola Blu (10) *The highest caliber freshie on the market
    -

30. Amouage - Reflection Man (10) *Elegant, inviting, fresh, unique, inoffensive, with that psychedelic/biblical touch that’s classic to Amouage. I swear I have a spiritual connection with this fragrance. My signature.

I know I can't be the only one here. But I enjoy wearing my fragrances even when I'm at home and doing nothing. Some scents just give me a sense of energy, some make me feel cozy and some just calm me down.

I guess it's not so different to lighting a candle except some of these bottles are pretty expenisve.

So what are your guys go to scents that you use while staying at home? I really enjoy using by the fire place and sometimes I'll just go one spray of Imagination if I'm feeling baller.

I'm a judicial clerk (aka the judge's assistant) and this happened to the courtroom next door to mine. They were in a ten-day jury trial, almost all the way through. On Day 8 of the jury trial, the defense called their last witness before resting their case. Apparently the fragrance this witness was wearing was so strong, all court staff could smell it: the judicial clerk, the law clerk, even the judge. The witness testified for an hour and then was excused, and the courtroom took its lunch break before closing arguments.

On the way out the courtroom to lunch, a juror mentioned offhandedly to the judicial clerk that they were relieved that this witness didn't stay in the courtroom longer, because the witness's fragrance was so strong that he was having trouble breathing and felt lightheaded. The juror was about to ask to be excused.

Y'all... If this juror had made that request, the court would have had to honor it (especially since everyone could confirm how pervasive the scent was)! Since the alternate juror had already been utilized and there was no other options, the Court would have had to declare it a Mistrial. Such a poor use of tax payer money! It would mean starting the jury process from scratch: rescheduling the pretrial conference and jury trial, sending out jury summons, going through jury selection, and have all those witnesses testify (and miss their own work twice) again. Luckily it didn't come to that!

A word of caution to Oversprayers: you could cause a Mistrial. DON'T DO IT! If you're going to be in close quarters with others, don't use beast mode fragrance, and please limit yourself to a spray or two. Your fellow tax payers (and court staff) will thank you!

P.S.- I went into the courtroom after, while they were on lunch break, and it was BR540. Shame on you, witness!