22 Dec 2024
i love weird perfumes: a december sample review (the chic, the strange, & the ugly)
the moment you’ve been waiting for. or that i’ve been waiting for. welcome to the first podcast edition of digital fruits!
today i’m talking to myself about niche perfume opinions and ones i’ve tried this month.
fragrance brands discussed today include: Vyrao, Binaurale, Etat Libre D’Orange, Hilde Soliani, Lubin, Tauer, Frederick Malle, Orto Parisi, Masque Milano, Byredo, Papillon, Marlou & moreeee
as I return to the podcast world (iykyk (https://open.spotify.com/show/5Zlxxa9ogufsfgqO7dM7JR)), i’m still deciding exactly what I want DF the podcast to look like. but what I do know is I want it to be a space for me to yap about things i’m obsessing over- for better or for worse. i’m brewing up ideas, but there’s one thing that has persisted as a top-of-mind topic that I actually NEED to talk about for my peace of mind: the weird perfumes i’ve tried this month. a hobby i’ve been returning to this winter and honestly can’t stop diving deeper into.
i’m thinking I may do a monthly-ish edition of the pod where we go over what i’ve been trying in the perfume world!
i’ve been really enjoying engaging in creative hobbies that are relatively offline and tactile and most importantly have nothing to do with my creative career. i think its soooo so important to protect our creativity in this way. which is why i’ve become an armchair expert on niche perfumery and also cookie recipe developing (that’s for another day).
sooo let’s discuss what i learned this month about perfumes and some of the highlights (the good and the baaad) from the 25 samples i played with this month. some of these took me on a journey from love to hate, hate to love, or just flat-out were incredibly fascinating (or incredibly gross). frankly, as I try out more samples this as a series will be helpful for me in actually remembering and cataloging my opinions on these (and that’s on ADHD).
(Top left to bottom right: Vyrao, Clue, Etat Libre D’Orange, Stora Skuggan)
here’s what we learned this month about perfumes
first of all! every esoteric it girl knows a few key things about perfume. (1) perfume is incredibly personal both literally because depending on your skin chemistry a perfume can pull differently on each of us and in the sense that discovering your taste in perfumes is a journey that can look wildly different to the next person. and (2) what makes a perfume cool is your relationship to it.
i’ve always loved fascinating perfumes and scent memories, but recently, diving in the deep end of niche perfumes has been incredibly rewarding this year. its helping me feel closer to myself and my personal taste/style (aka… just feeling closer to myself in general). i love having a cute little hobby that (1) has nothing to do with my career AKA stokes creativity in a way that has nothing to do with monetization (a whole other newsletter topic) and (2) is just a little thing I do with myself (although I do tend to force sample sniffing sessions upon my boyfriend and mom and best friend and grandma and…).
& something else you’ll find me talking about on digital fruits often is how engaging with the 5 senses is an incredible gateway to not only being able to engage with more interest and curiosity with the world around you but by proxy being able to get curious about, and get to know, and spend more time with yourself as well. The 5 senses are best engaged offline, and the more we learn their languages the most we can interact with our entire world. I view the 5 senses as an anti-brain rot gateway drug. And exploring the olfactory worlds through the delicious, and the strange, and the nostalgic, has been so fun and fascinating and im so grateful i’ve reconnected with a hobby that conjures so much curiosity and creativity in my life.
But like, tl/dr. im being dramatic, its really just fun. Its fun, its fascinating. It goes so much deeper than i ever thought it could.
anyways! here’s what i’ve learned this month as i’ve fallen deeper in love with this hobby. (plus some bonus ones I thought of that I didn’t mention on the pod version):
* I don’t HATE gourmands I am just particular and don’t like super sugary sweet gourmands. i am trying to have an open mind!! Queen Hilde Soliani helping me get over my gourmand fear
* if you love perfumes, strange scent stories, and also generally being hot you will looove the divas at Nose Candy pod (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nose-candy/id1676389104), the way they discuss perfumes is so fun and interesting
* not all roses, not even all peppery roses, are created equal
* on that note, I still don’t know if i have for sure found my perfect spicy leathery rose but I am CLOSE.
* you do NOT need to blind buy full bottles ever. get your butt on Scent Split (https://www.scentsplit.com/pages/frontpage?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAyJS7BhBiEiwAyS9uNVE2GWH5xUhoW4Hyk9XClREsHvftxLOtm6kZeldvJ88WsXpRo1TTYBoCMR8QAvD_BwE) rn and play with some $3 samples first. because…
* … my opinions changed like 10 times in one week over a handful of these. some I loved then hated, some I hated then loved. really worth going on the journey with them! i HATED some of the perfumes that ultimately ended up on my “need the full bottle right now” list. literally one day just woke up obsessed with a couple of the ones I hated on first sniff.
* I want a tea scent so bad but NOT these tea scents. so we are still on the hunt. need to try One Day I think? and Arielle Shoshana’s matcha scent
* the dupes don't always dupe. brittany breeze is NOT wood sage & sea salt contrary to semi-popular belief
* thought I liked skin scents with good longevity but turns out I do actually want other people to be able to smell me lol
* my skin literally eats up perfume if I don’t spray it on my clothes I am cooked and yes I moisturize before and spray enough!!
* notes I love historically and continue to love to this day are: leather, rose, pink pepper & black pepper, guaiac wood, incense, jasmine, vetiver, suede. basically I love a woody, earthy, smoky, and/or spicy smooth floral but my heart is open to more
* and upon researching the scents i’ve loved over time, LOTS of violet leaf, cedar, & sandalwood (often with vanilla) showed up to my surprise too. i also tend to always love an herbal-y citrus.
* i am a Chanel No. 5 DEFENDER. despite the fact that typically I am not a musky/aldehydic lover at aaaall (though Epona by Papillon is changing my mind a little). “grandma” perfumes are actually incredibly beautiful and complex. and although I wouldn’t wear Chanel No. 5 on a night out, it’s one of the coziest clean post-shower getting ready for bed scents I own. it has its place IMO and I am not afraid to say it
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THE list of december perfumes, ranked
the perfumes with a little “🎙️“ next to it are the ones I went the deepest on in this pod, but I did make sure to touch on all of them! lmk if there are any you want me to cover more or circle back to on the next perfume-pilled ep in january! (and let me know if there is anything I need to add to my sniffing next list)
full bottle worthy give it to me right now
* Portrait of a Lady - Frederick Malle 🎙️
* Terroni - Orto Parisi (the most eternal on me but especially on my clothes) 🎙️
* Epona - Papillon (me & Epona went on a JOURNEY) 🎙️
* Tobacco Rose - Papillon 🎙️
* Happy Hardcore - Binaurale (this is crack to me. smells like mall) 🎙️
* Magnetic 70 - Vyrao
* Free 00 - Vyrao
loved
* Orgasmo - Hilde Soliani (goodbye Lost Cherry, hello Orgasmo) 🎙️
* Georgette - Vyrao 🎙️
* I Am Verdant - Vyrao
* Au Couer du Desert - Tauer (this one smells like a Moroccan spice market in the hot dusty air. my mom thinks it smells like an innertube)
fine
* Biblioteque - Byredo (THE charli xcx endorsed scent of brat summer)
* Witchy Woo - Vyrao
* Eau De Protection - Etat Libre D’Orange 🎙️
* Basic Witch - Xyrena
* Montebaco Cuba - Ormande Jayne
interesting
* Hot Milk - Hilde Soliani 🎙️
* Rain on Oak - Scents of Wood (photorealistic wet dirt!! the one I talked about in newsletter 01)
* Petal Jus - Binaurale (hot robot stripper scent) 🎙️
* Corpallium - Marlou (controversial. but more wearable than you think. to ME)
absolutely not
* Times Square - Masque Milano (artificial plastic strawberry and street. need to try more lipstick-y scents because this one made me sad lol)
* Russian Tea - Masque Milano 🎙️
* Thé Yulong - Armani Privé 🎙️
* The Sixth - Vyrao
* Brittany Breeze - Lubin (90s men cologne but not in a good way)
my to sniff next list (lol honestly this list could be endless)
* Matchbox Romance - Binaurale
* Jasmine Tea - One Day
* White Rice - d’Annam (the streets tell me this is the best rice scent)
* Black Jade - Lubin (the “Marie Antoinette” scent. my history nerd ass needs to smell for personal hyperfixation reasons)
* Rose & Cuir - Frederick Malle (actually the whole line)
* Rock River Melody - Regime des Fleurs (also actually the whole line)
* Little Flower - Regime des Fleurs x Chloe Sevingy
* Ghost in the Shell - Etat Libre D’Orange
* You or Someone Like You - Etat Libre D’Orange
* Hypnotizing Fire - Harmonist
* Craft - Andrea Maak
* Salt & Pepper - Hilde Soliani (actually I would be interested to smell literally everything from her)
* Slightly B***h - Fillipo Sorcinelli (same from Fillipo he is so interesting to me)
* Sunday - Arielle Shoshana (her matcha! potentially a contender for my perfect tea scent?) 🎙️
* OH I almost forgot… that one Space scent (https://eaudespace.com/) that is apparently really photorealistic and also gross lol
& everything from…
* Clue
* Gumamina
* Marissa Zappas
* Stora Skuggan
* Thin Wild Mercury
* the last few from Vyrao
* the last few from Binaurale but especially Matchbox Romance mentioned earlier
* the rest of Papillon
you want to share this post with your friends so bad you want to click share so bad it hurts
ok love you hope you enjoyed!!! perfume is alchemy to me, and one of the many ways we can connect with ourselves through engaging with our senses. i will most definitely be getting more samples for January so I can report back and continue this convo as my civil duty to you.
what are you controversial perfume opinions? any on this list you disagree about (or equally are obsessing/hating over)?
give me all your perfume thoughts, questions, & hot takes and i’ll go over them on january’s perfume ep.
talk soon! <3,
emma
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