Fragrance Junkie Central

[Mochapj]

I know there are a few of us on BT that are fragrance addicts, so I thought it would be nice to have a dedicated place where we can share our thoughts.

This is not to take away from the lovely What Are You Wearing Today, Fragrance Edition thread, but more a place to post longer reviews, chat about new brands or releases, and just shoot the breeze on anything good and smelly 🙂

For me, I recently acquired 2 new decants that I've been anxiously awaiting.  Ever since Lachaton mentioned that MMM was releasing a new scent called By The Fireplace I've been itching to get my hands on it.  My decant arrived yesterday, so I'm looking forward to marinating in it this weekend.  Secondly, I recently picked up a tiny sample of Shiseido Nombre Noir.  Supposedly it is one of the most expensive failures in perfume history - made by Serge Lutens for Shiseido back in the 80s.  Of course, with a backstory like that, I was dying to get a sniff 😄

What's new on your scent radar?  Do tell!

 

[Mochapj]

It was pretty close to exactly what I was looking for @Libellules

I considered something with pineapple or something with sesame, but was limited by what they had in terms of their building blocks.  They didn't have every conceivable scent, just the ones that come up in perfumery more regularly.  Considering how hard it's been for me to find already made scents with pineapple or sesame, it wasn't surprising that they didn't have them.  

[Libellules]

Ah I see! Well at least you got something you really wanted 🙂

[Mochapj]

My last stop in Paris was Etat Libre D'orange.  Unfortunately it was a lot further away from where I started than I thought, so by the time I got there it was about 10 minutes to close, so I didn't have much time to shop and sample.

ELDO is set up like a traditional salon (not hair salon).  On one side of the shop, they have a giant island with all of the fragrances laid out, and about 10 staff flanking the sides of the island, ready to assist.  On the other side of the shop, they have a collection of benches and couches done up in crushed velvet, where I guess you can just chill and experience the scents, as well as some displays of all their perfumes.  The space was exactly as funky as I would've expected for this brand, too.

 

I came home with a bottle of their signature scent, 69 Archives (which is also their address) and the lady I dealt with felt bad that I had basically run out of time so she loaded me up with a bag of samples, and a mini spritzer of 69 for my purse.  I got the sense that my ELDO experience would have been amazing if I'd had more time to hang out there.

A few other houses I wanted to hit, but ran out of time for were L'artisan Parfumeur, Histoires de Parfums and Juliette Has a Gun.  I did manage to catch a whiff of the newest JHAG scent at the giant Champs Elysees Sephora though, so I consider that a fair compromise.  Just means I have things to look forward to for next time. 🙂

As a sidenote, Sephora Paris carries a dizzying array of fragrances.  They had the whole Armani Prive line, a few of the stores I went to had the Guerlain Exclusifs, and the CE store had the biggest TF perfume display I'd ever seen in a Sephora.  I'm sure there were other perfumers too, but the CE store was sort of sensory overload.  

[veronika23]

Thanks @Mochapj for sharing your stories. Sounds like fun! I sometimes wish I'd be more into fragrances. I've become so sensitive to many things. Plus I am super  picky and don't want to smell like everyone else. I can never really describe what I am looking for and can never really get a sense of what something will smell like when I read the description. It's funny because as a kid I had a make your own perfume kit and loved it a lot! I loved mixing things and trying new combos. haha.

Thanks for the share!

[Mochapj]

It was a lot of fun, V and I'm happy to share 🙂

I am pretty picky about scent myself and have a whole laundry list of notes I can't stand.  I find when I moved away from more commercial perfume brands a few years ago and started exploring niche houses, I was able to find scents that spoke to me more than most of what I'd smell at Sephora.

I had one of those make your own perfume kits when I was a kid too!  I'm sure I probably always smelled wretched, but it was so much fun to blend things together.  

I think the only way to learn how to describe what you like and don't like is to start smelling a lot of things.  Once I really started getting into perfume seriously, I began keeping a scent journal and would jot down notes every time I tried something new.  It's helped immensely with identifying patterns and things I like or dislike.

[jemly]

what a dream.

[Mochapj]

My next stop was Ex Nihilo.  EN is a French niche perfumer.  They have a pretty interesting concept.  They have a line of 12 scents currently, but they also offer customization of their scents.  

Spoiler

As part of the customization process, you get to sit down with their perfumer and discuss scent preferences, as well as smelling the whole line.  Above are the options for customizing the caps; all are done in semi precious stones. 


This is where they sit down and smell everything with you.  First you smell the 12 fragrances, and then when you've identified ones you like, you can zero in on how they might be customized.  Each fragrance has 3 options that EH has pre-selected for customizing (presumably so they aren't putting their name on a 'custom' scent that they can't stand behind), in that they are scents that would be complimentary to the initial perfume.  They will decant each custom blend onto a blotter for you to compare against the originals, so you wouldn't buy it blind.


If you decide to customize a scent, that machine along the wall of the back of this photo is what blends the perfume for you.  It had some crazy name like Scentomatic or something silly like that.  The lady I worked with actually recommended I not customize a scent for my first purchase; she recommended I buy the scent that spoke to me first, and live with it for a while before I consider a customization.  Luckily, she told me they just installed an EN boutique in Toronto's new Saks this year, so if I feel the urge, I can get one customized at home.  

 I ended up purchasing one of their 5 piece travel sets, which was a surprisingly good value.  You got 5 0.25oz vials of their perfume, and you could choose whatever combination of scents you liked to make up those 5 (i.e. you could get 5 of the same, or 5 different, or multiples of a few, etc)

Overall, this was another great experience and I'd highly recommend this boutique, too.  The staff were very attentive and friendly, and spent well over an hour with me discussing their whole line.  

[ChristalM]

Thanks!

I recently received a sample of Sweet Morphine and I think I am in love! I was looking to call Saks in TO to see if they have the travel set luckyscent has online.

[Mochapj]

Ooh, @ChristalM let me know what they say!

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to customize a bottle of any of the travel size ones I brought back, but SM was one of the ones I picked 😉

[ChristalM]

@Mochapj

Sorry but Saks do not have the travel set with SM 😞 I might get it from Luckyscent. Not sure I am ready to spring for the full bottle just yet...

[Mochapj]

Thanks for letting me know @ChristalM!  That's too bad. 😞

I wonder if the Luckyscent one lets you customize the set like I was able to at their boutique?

[ChristalM]

@Mochapj

Will do!

Oh nice. I am surprised I like it that much given the description but it works 🙂

[Mochapj]

Finally had a moment to put together my thoughts about the perfume shopping/experiences I had while I was over in Europe, so I figured I'd share them here.

First up, Serge Lutens Palais Royale:

Spoiler

This was the bell jar counter, where they had every scent that is available in the special packaging, including all the ones that have been retired from the permanent line over the years.  I own a few of the retired ones already, and there was one I sampled whilst there, but it didn't end up my cup of tea.  The bell jars are very pretty, but they are larger and have a decent markup over the spray dabber bottles.



These were display cases with some of their LE/discontinued/special edition bottles.  All hand-painted or carved and very intricately done.  It was really enjoyable to just stand in front of the cases and take them all in.


This was the Section D'or display.  They had all 6 of the scents, but no bottles out for sampling, just the paper blotters.  If you wanted to try any of them on, you had to ask for them.  

The Palais Royale store is like some sort of dark, gothic atelier.  It was beautiful, but sort of maudlin with all its moody lighting and abundance of royal purple accents.  It's also within a very quiet courtyard set back from the street, so you'd never know it was there if you weren't looking for it.  I had a lot of fun chatting with the one woman who was working the store that morning, and we spent close to half an hour discussing favorites and trying on new scents.  They also had the entire beauty line available, but I've never heard anything good about it, and it was much pricier than I wanted to spend on cosmetics.  Overall, I would highly recommend any SL fan to make a pilgrimage if they are ever in Paris.  

I came home with a bottle of their newest scent, Bapteme du Feu which is a different take on gingerbread than their other ginger-based scent, 5 O'Clock Au Gingembre.  Bapteme is an intoxicating scent, with notes of gingerbread, gunpowder, osmanthus, woods, mandarin and castoreum.  I've worn it a few times since I got it, but am not ready to put my impressions of it down just yet.  I will say that it works a lot better on me than 5 does, which I wanted to love so badly, but smells so terrible on.

[Mochapj]

Another new JHAG Luxury Collection scent 'White Spirit'

[Libellules]

Picked up a sample of Orchid Soleil yesterday from my SA yesterday. This one is interesting. I've only had it on a few minutes. I can smell the tuberose, but there is a spicy gourmand aspect as well. It initially smelled coconutty, but that isn't a note. Maybe the combo of the chestnut and vanilla? Or "whipped cream?"

[jemly]

rice notes in fragrances is blooooowing my miiiiind ! 

(have etat libre d'orange 'putain des palaces' and 'fils de dieu' on two separate arms right now.)

[Mochapj]

Loooooooooooooove rice notes.

I wish they came up more often!  I feel like you and I were discussing Black Opium Nuit Blanche because of rice notes; I ended up trying it at duty free in the airport and got no rice notes at all 😞

[melissalld]

So what is this Juliette Has A Gun I keep hearing about? I don't think I've ever seen it at my local Sephora. Not that I need more fragrances to get hooked on!

I typically like anything spicy, sharp, and clean although I've recently fallen for Prada Candy. I bought the rollerball first but I returned it because the scent was so weak. Unfortunately, the full-size spray isn't much better. After a few minutes it's pretty much disappeared. All my other fragrances have all-day staying power, I don't get it.

[Mochapj]

JHAG is a French niche perfume brand.

they have a line of about 12-14 scents, 3 or 4 of which are a 'luxury' line.

notes they commonly use are rose and oud 

they became more well known because of the not a perfume scent because it is based on ISO super e which sort of doesn't smell like anything at all.

[jesscheems]

I had a sample of Juliette Has A Gun- Not a perfume (I think that's what it's called?)...I got complimented on it and loved it so much!! I have to bite the bullet and get it ..I love Prada Candy too!

[Mochapj]

Also, the giant Champs Elysees Sephora had a new Juliette Has A Gun scent in their luxury line.

Notes for the woody oriental include licorice, orchid, tonka bean, papyrus wood, cedar, patchouli and gaia