The Perfume Challenge

[txcatx]

Do you have a box full of perfume vials and/or a vanity covered in perfume bottles? Are you the Goldilocks of perfume, just looking for the perfect signature scent? Do you want an opportunity to post daily about how your perfume of the day smells oaky and smoky with hints of blackberry and currant, like a cigar in a whisky barrel rolling through a Mediterranean orchard on a breezy summer morning?

If you answered yes to any of the above, or you just want to hop on board for the ride, join us for a 31 days of perfume challenge starting January 1st! Some of us from the 25 days of lipstick challenge wanted to continue the fun and exploration, and since many of us have so many perfume samples, we thought this challenge would be perfect. If you don't have 31 perfumes or hate everything that doesn't smell like Meyer lemons and fresh goat cream, that's fine--we're just aiming to use the neglected perfumes we have laying around and incorporate them into our perfume rotations.

And if you want more perfume vials, there's no better time than now to take a peek at Sephora's samples section.

Edit: Anyone can join in at anytime! We're here to support, live vicariously through, and encourage everyone in their olfactory adventures!

[pocketvenus]

Tried the new Tom Ford Cafe Rose. I'd tag it but only the old private label one shows up! To be honest, I don't really remember the original well so I'm not going to try to compare. Opens with a fresh, luminous rose with a hint of spice but not coffee. It takes quite a while for the coffee to kick in, and it's never very strong. Just a kind of deep bitterness that I probably wouldn't have described as coffee unless I knew the perfume's name. It's a nice rose in a similar vein to Serge Luten's Fille de Berlin. If you want a more caffeinated rose-coffee, you're going to have look for something more like Pekji's Ruh.

[Margalee]

@pocketvenus I smelled this in store and was soooo glad I didn't blind buy it. Tom Ford has a favorite or two of mine but the brand isn't really good for blind buys for me.

[QueenMarceline]

@pocketvenus Thank you for your review, this is one of the new releases I was interested in 🙂 @Margalee I agree about that, I feel like TF is honestly one of the most hit/miss brands for me (mostly misses...) 

[cianni]

I purchased By Rosie Jane Dulce Eau de Parfum 1.7 oz / 50 mL Eau de Parfum Spray as a blind buy after seeing it 10000 times on FragranceTok. Am I the only person who doesn’t like it? It really should be right up my alley in terms of notes, but I find it doesn’t last very long and almost has a plasticky scent. This is might be too niche, but it’s a sweet plastic smell if that makes sense - weirdly nostalgic scent that reminds me of opening a new Barbie as a kid. I don’t hate it, but it did not live up to the hype for me unfortunately 😞 I’ll still use it layered though!

[Margalee]

I tested Coach Love. This is one of the few Coach fragrances I enjoy. It reminded me of Daisy Intense but intensified. I do like strawberry bubbly scents. Coach Love lasted 4-5 hours on me. Somewhat disappointing since all the others lasted much longer but maybe I was looking for strawberry rather than the drydown which is really light in comparison to the opening. I did respray. It was nice to get that opening again. The start of this fragrance lasts quite awhile in comparison to other fragrances. I did end the day with a bad headache but I have sampled this twice before (no resprays) so I'm unsure it was the perfume. There was less of that dull Twilly sort of undertone scent that the full size bottle gives so maybe that is a grounding point the vial was missing. I still enjoy Coach Love and will retest but if I end up with a raging headache again then I think I should stick to Marc Jacobs Daisy Intense!

As a side note, the other day I woke up smelling like a bar of soap. Haha *Nerolia Vetiver*

[Titian06]

That's too bad about the headache, @Margalee !  I can certainly empathize.   Maybe it was from respraying; if you don't respray, you'll be OK with this scent.  I had to laugh when you said you woke up smelling like a bar of soap.  Now I really want to try that one. 😄

[vivaladoc]

Has anyone tried the new loveshackfancy fragrances? Thoughts? Favorites?

[Samtian]

@vivaladoc I was able to smell all 3 at Sephoria. I personally only liked LoveShackFancy Bohème Eau de Parfum Travel Spray 0.34 oz / 10 mL Eau De Parfum 

[Margalee]

@vivaladoc I might still pick it up in the future but there are a couple other brands I have been wanting for much longer so maybe after that. Summer isn't a bad time to constantly respray.

[Margalee]

@vivaladoc They have a $15 mini sampler. I was considering it but many of the reviews said they have no lasting power so I nixed it. The full size bottles are super cute though.

[Margalee]

So after I posted a couple days ago I looked up the notes to D&G Devotion. I thought I must have really had Coach Love on my nose when smelling D&G Devotion. So I tested again today. Turns out the first go round it skipped the candied lemon opening and went straight to mid and dry down. I got enough of the opening to make me waffle on the fragrance.  This is not finished candied lemons to my nose

 This is the lemon rinds baking in the oven. The opening is a blast of lemon like arctic air. The lemon does ride into and along with the mid notes. More faintly. I love the mid and dry down. Dusty, a bit warm and benignly sweet. The opening is a bit sharp to me on first impression. I wish it were more sugary or like ready to eat candied lemons. It does move into the mid phase in about half an hour so not so bad. I did read this is modeled after panattone which I love to eat. I feel like this is the whole process of panattone rather than the finished product by itself.

[Titian06]

Thanks for the update, @Margalee !  I've never had panattone, but I love lemon as well as D&G so I may try to get a sample of this. 🙂

[Margalee]

@Titian06 Guess I should also say I really like Devotion regardless of it's everchanging moods. Supra I like but I haven't gotten the "stickiness" of the first test again, which I miss a lot. I'll probably end up purchasing a travel size of Supra. Maybe Devotion is a tempermental woman and Supra is just tempermental although Supra is much more of a feminine scent in the classical sense than Devotion IMO.

[Margalee]

@Titian06 I was just going to post for others opinions as I am wearing Devotion again today and am getting of something akin to Fresh's Lemon Sugar/Sugar Lemon before people said Fresh switched up their formula. I definitely recommend people try this. I think it's a very personal fragrance. I'm sort of surprised this didn't come out earlier in the year but D&G is probably after the holiday market. At this point this feels like a spa/ lazy day scent for me. Maybe it's just my mood. I love fragrances with movement but this and Mugler Goddess Supra have movement in the bottle. Different everytime I spray.

[Margalee]

I got a whiff of a few perfumes today. I like Libre Platine very much. It's far enough off Libre Intense for me to be interested. It does retain the Libre DNA very much and even seems lighter in the dna drying down but it starts off more different than the other Libres. I'm really hoping a travel size comes out because $162 is the more inexpensive price... I revisited Coach Love. It's more strawberry this time and the rose is a little stronger. Still a but creamy, musky(?). I do like this. D&G Devotion. Pretty bottle and pretty fragrance. It seemed a bit similar to Coach Love at first, maybe mixed with Twilly a bit but maybe I had some Coach Love on my nose. Haha I am getting something like light cocoa now. I'll have to research the notes. YSL Myslf seemed a little too masculine leaning for my taste. Not heavy cedar or anything but too masculine for me. I'm not sure I'll be hopping in on another fragrance anytime soon but I'm too afraid to say I won't because last time I said time to quit I ended up with a few more. 

[thelastrecluse]

I smelled Libre Platine on a flap card (or whatever you call it lol) recently and it was so good!! I agree with your description. Would love to get my nose on an actual sample though. 

[pocketvenus]

Tried the new Frederic Malle, Heaven Can Wait. It's quite lovely and understated yet still sensual. It blooms on the skin. Not as iris heavy as expected, the spices are warm and gentle, sweet but never overly fruity. It shares the same "skin" vibe as Dans Tes Bras but the latter is definitely more synthetic. I feel like Malle is better when it doesn't try to be brash and aggressive. It excels at being very polished, subtle and with something to say.

Also tried TOM FORD Myrrhe Mystere 1 oz / 30 mL - it's one of the better releases as of late which, to be honest, is not saying that much. The price is tough to swallow. I know there's been a few years of inflation across the entire industry but not too long ago, this sort of price could land you a top rate, totally opulent Amouage and it's really hard to eat that difference. For me anyway. One really feels like these houses are bilking us. The myrrh here is pretty tame, nothing like what you might get with Mona di Orio's Myrrh Casati or Hermes' Myrrhe Eglantine. Everything that might threaten the scent's commercial viability has been removed. It goes down really easy with a kind of rich, smoky amber wood dry down.

[vivaladoc]

I wanted to try Tom Ford, though I was wondering if the myrrh would be too much. I’ve heard it’s a very good fragrance. 

[Samtian]

@pocketvenus Heaven can wait sounds interesting, adding it to my to try list, thanks!

[Margalee]

@pocketvenus Thanks for the review of Myrrhe Mystere. I've been hoping someone would test this. Also I was thinking the same thing about prices.