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!

[greeneyedgirl107]

@pocketvenus Thanks so much for the info!  I need to check these out!  I've often wished that there were more inexpensive EDT that were decent.  I'd love to build my fragrance collection, but often the prices are off-putting for me to buy more than one prestige brand at a time.  I just wish my mall had an H&M.  I will have to go north of the city one of these days with a shopping list.  And hit the Nordstrom, too - for all the makeup I've been wanting to try.  🙂

[pocketvenus]

@greeneyedgirl107, there is definitely a lot of inflation going on these days 😞 I find seeking smaller and more independent houses can be a good place to look as they don't have huge marketing/distribution budgets to account for so that extra $ can go toward more expensive ingredients.

Here's a list of my favourite "mid-range" houses for value though they are definitely more expensive than H&M

Chanel

Comme des Garcons

Diptyque (EDT)

Etat Libre d'Orange

Hermes

L’Artisan Parfumeur

LUSH

Papillon Perfumes

Serge Lutens

4160 Tuesdays

[greeneyedgirl107]

@pocketvenus This list is very helpful!  THANKS!  🙂

[pocketvenus]

@greeneyedgirl107, you're very welcome! Hope you get to make a H&M/Nordstrom trip soon 🙂

[txcatx]

@pocketvenus Oh, thanks for the reviews! I may try to stop by H&M tomorrow to check these out.

[pocketvenus]

@txcatx, you're very welcome! I definitely recommend checking them out, especially the Formentera if you like fig. It's got the leafy green, the milky sap. When I'm back, I'm going to try the vetiver and ylang on my skin.

[pocketvenus]

Today I tried Chanel’s newest LE release in their exclusifs line, 1957. It opens up less sharp than I expected, abstractly floral and hespiridic. The dry down grows more powdery from the iris and becomes quite musky and blurred out. Although it’s billed as a clean white American musk, it is vaguely animalistic on me! It is definitely not the dreaded kind of “laundry” musk one gets in a lot of perfumes. Even so, I feel like the fragrance loses its shape too much. I'm not a fan of clean musk fragrances though so 1957 really doesn’t compare to the greats from this line for me like Sycamore and Cuir de Russie.

[lachaton]

I'm trying out Imaginary Authors Cape Heartache. Imaginary Authors is a line that I always want to love, but even though I like some of the scents I wouldn't say I love any of them (yet). But the marketing is wonderfully intriguing. 

On my skin, Cape Heartache is a sweetened leather - smooth and comfortable, like a favourite well-worn suede purse or gloves. The leather scents quickly die down, and then I can smell the woodsy notes (but I don't pick up on any fir or pine). A couple hours in, and the scent has really opened up to sweet berries. 

Overall: it's too sweet (even for me, who generally loves sweet scents and gourmands) and not enough pine. 

[pocketvenus]

@lachaton, I feel the same way, they do have a great concept! But the descriptions never called out to me. I don't know why. Maybe if they did unimaginary authors I would be more enticed ha ha. I would definitely be tempted to test a perfume based on a writer I love.

[pocketvenus]

Tried Zoologist's Tyrannosaurus Rex and it was actually kind of terrifying. Imagine a brief and sudden blast of coniferous green that becomes camphorous and medicinal and makes way for a bizarre, sweet and plasticky bubble gum note pitted against against choking, acrid clouds of leaded gasoline. If that's not enough, as the scent calms down, creamy indolic florals emerge from the wreckage. I do think the balance of all these extremes work well together, but the only thing I could imagine wearing with this is Lady Gaga's meat dress and a rubber gas mask. T Rex gave me a smarting headache to boot. I guess it's aptly named!

[lachaton]

@pocketvenus  I love that you're trying Zoologist! It's a house that I hope to try more of in the future. I have a sample of Camel (which I have yet to try). I'm very curious to try Tyrannosaurus Rex after reading your thoughts. 

Nightingale is one I would really like to try, as well as Civet so I was pleased to read your thoughts on Civet! I think I would likely appreciate Elephant.

[pocketvenus]

@lachaton, I’m definitely thinking of another samples order and trying Camel. Perfume critic Luca Turin gave a four star review to Nightingale 🙂

I'd love to hear what you think of T Rex if you try it! I forgot to mention, the dry down is very unusual on me and reminds me of calamine lotion!

[Vmaster]

@lachaton  I think you will enjoy Camel. The sweet date note is really nice and it also is easy to wear.

[lachaton]

Thank you, @Vmaster ! I think I will. I haven't tried many scents with date, but you know I'm partial to sweet scents 🙂 

[Vmaster]

@lachaton, 🙂

Camel is an Oriental. Dried fruits (gourmand) are what you smell the mostly at the get go. It gets a little smoky, resinous and slightly animalic soon afterwards. Camel reminds me of an Arabian type of fragrance. Granted it is not a floriental (floral oriental) fragrance (which I believe you enjoy the most) but it is not an overly sweet gourmand either. It can be potent - most likely due to the Myrrh, so you probably only want to do one or two sprays and gauge it from there. It will mellow out as it moves into the drydown.

[pocketvenus]

Just sprayed Zoologist's Civet maybe 2h ago. I was expecting something very difficult and musky because of the name but it's not at all. It has a very engaging opening with citrus and spice notes that zing around like Bat's did. This blends with a panoply of other notes very quickly. It's rich and reminds me of an old-school chypre going in a sweet and leathery direction, although it's not as architectural as a vintage. The dry down is very rich, a little burnt and a little sweet in a good way and it's not "dirty" like I thought it might be. I associate the house with avant garde sensibilities so it's interesting that this smells much more classical. Ultimately, I think I'd like something more angular but it's still good and I'm glad I tried it!

[txcatx]

@pocketvenus What an interesting collection of perfumes. I saw "civet" and immediately thought of the kind of coffee I have absolutely no interest in trying, ha.

[Vmaster]

@txcatx  For what it's worth, Zoologist only use aromachemicals, so there are no actual animal notes used in any of their fragrances. Real Civet does smell nice but they have to kill a civet cat in order to harvest the glands, which is not good.

On the other hand, when Siberian musk deer are killed, the whole animal is used (primarily for food and clothing) so it is not some sort of senseless killing.

[txcatx]

@Vmaster I assumed, and that's definitely good to know. But my mind just immediately went to everything I learned from a former roommate who worked for a local coffee roaster. I always found the concept of civet coffee intriguing, yet disgusting. 

[Vmaster]

@txcatxWell, the beans are cleaned afterward. 🙂

I did add some info to my previous comment.

[pocketvenus]

I tried Zoologist's Bat last night and today thanks to a recommendation by @Vmaster 🙂

Bat has a challenging, kaleidoscopic opening that is dizzying. Sweet, tropical fruit; rich black topsoil; cold, wet, flinty stones; growling animal musks, these are all present from the beginning, vying for your attention. In rapid succession you find yourself with fleeting impressions of peeling open a ripe banana, peering into sunless caves with dripping water, thrusting your bare hands into moist earth, catching a whiff of rotting compost.

The scent settles down into a perfect balance between dank edges softened by a fruity, musky sweetness that blend more and more harmoniously as time passes. The sweetness eventually takes over the in the dry down but only in its final stages. Very long lasting!

The dankness of Bat reminds me of a personal favourite, Dzongkha by L'Artisan Parfumeur. Bat is like you began with Dzongkha, but fell from the shadows of those airy, smoky, mountainous peaks, landed softly in clods of dirt and fallen fruit and was slowly rolled into the wet mouth of a cave.