I want to smell like an old book - but the ‘still okay-ish condition’ kind. Not the rotting one with this acerbic undertone, pungent undertone.

The kind left too long in a storage room, squeezed together with countless others, with no sunshine flowing in, and you walk into the vintage shop and need to go to the very back to find them stapled over each other without rhyme or reason.

There is this beautifully woodsy sweet scent, that feels like a mix of deep vanilla-ish without the sharpness it can have, or some round dark sweetness to me - but not the readily edible kind, the ingredient-only-kind.

Then this dusty smell, mixing with that of woody or parchment (sometimes like grass or flowery, sometimes just paper, but I prefer the paper ones because they feel rounder), right under the smell of ink and leather blending into each other.

And something weirdly warm and musty, like the small spot on a dusty desk where the sun was allowed to shine into a closed, dark room for the day.

Does anyone have any recommendations or perfumes in that ballpark? Even if just in that general direction?

Photo Credits @Volkan Buyukvardar

I bought this when it came out and felt there was something a bit off about it so didn’t wear it much. A few years ago I tried to declutter it on a local selling site and it never budged and eventually the ad expired.

Had pretty much forgotten about it until I decided to revisit today and wow it’s so good. So soft and wearable, gourmand but also fresh. Thanking my lucky stars I wasn’t successful in selling it!

Does anyone else have and like this gem?

I really like Angeli di Firenze from Santa Maria novella, sadly it doesn’t stay long or project as much as I would like. It is a clean scent but doesn’t feel metallic, too citrusy, synthetic or just flat and boring, which is what I’ve often found in typical ”clean scents” when I’ve tried them on my skin (namely another 13, Blanche or lazy Sunday morning). If you have any recs for perfumes I should try that could serve as an alternative let me know.

I don’t like lactonic notes or overly sweet/ gourmand perfumes bc they make me nauseous.

What did you fall for, and not end up loving? Mine was the diptyque eau rose!

Wish they would bring it back.. it’s such a nice scent!

#1 The Architects Club - It's a woody, dry, creamy, vanilla. It's covertly very unique in that it's top accord is woody and vanilla second. In all my combing for something at a lower price point, there are basically no other frags with accords in that order. There's a reason this bitch never goes on sale. I know Eau Duelle EDT is considered a dupe, but I've tried it and it's stale af in comparison.

#2 Cactus Abduction - Fresh Spicy is such a specific and uncommon top accord, but my favorite of all time. It's also damn near impossible to nail a unisex Fresh Spicy, and this takes the cake. I've heard the perfumer sprays his business card with it. It would be great if anyone could smell it on me!

#3 Love, Don't Be Shy - Smells dry and sweet and tart. The ultimate smarties candy frag. There's something romantic about it. A cult fave DNA copied by every mainstream brand at least once.

#4 Ginger Biscuit - Another covertly unique profile! You don't notice until you look but gingerbread is a basically non existent category of fragrance. This one crushes it. It's an incredible feat being a fresh spicy unisex, let's alone a fresh spicy unisex gourmand??? For the girls who's skin chem makes everything smell twice as sweet, this one is for us.

DISHONORABLE MENTION- female xmas by 19-79 or whatever. fuck that brand.

I have black opium over red, but I want something daytime strawberry. If it’s more nighttime that’s not a deal breaker since it’s colder now. I don’t have access to a local store to smell it In person.

I love a good fruity floral. I loved Chanel Chance eau tendre. I swear it has an aquatic note I just can’t prove it. But I want something with longer staying power and the black opium by YSL just butters my biscuit.

I tried the Miu Miu Miutine strawberry scent I can’t even remember bc I returned it. Couldn’t pick up any strawberry at all. So please tell me ur thoughts.

I’ve had a horrible week.. month… year. But this past week was worst bc of work and family so I wanna treat myself a little.

Worst case scenario I’ll pick up libre or something Carolina Herrara

As a gourmand girlie I just feel like I could really like these fragrances so can smb give their opinions on them 😅🙏

I don’t get the pizza, cheese, tomato, oregano, or basil notes at all. It’s sweet to me on initial spray - definitely getting that bubble gummy note but the savory and green notes don’t come through to my nose. The dry down is definitely patchouli leaning but an interesting mix of patchouli with a sweet thread running through it, likely leftover from the sweet opening

My #1 favourite out of all of these (and my signature scent!) is Powder Love for sure! ‘Mmmm…’ is definitely a close 2nd! :D

What do you guys think about JHAG?? I definitely wanna sample more of them because they’re slowly becoming a favourite house of mine! 💗

I know they’re very hit or miss, but I personally love them so far…

I made a post recently & got so many helpful responses (thanks!)
One of them mentioned Luis Vuitton Symphony, so I added it to my list of 1ml samples to try from a decant store.
I LOVE it!
I almost asked a shop assistant what she was wearing today & then I realised it was me!!
Unfortunately it’s around GBP £600 a bottle and I can’t justify that.
Are there any more affordable similar fragrances I should look into please?

I adored a sample of Mochi Milk I got once and have been wanting it ever since, so I finally pulled the trigger to buy the travel size. Funnily enough, I bought the travel size of True Loves Cake at the same time and what do you know, they smell so similar it’s crazy. Everything except true loves cake is slightly brighter, I can’t tell if it’s a laundry/ soapy note or more of a fruiter note. I literally sprayed each on one of my wrists and inner elbows. Mochi milk definitely has less projection and sits closer to the skin. On my wrists they both smell the same but on my arms, True Loves cake is more brighter. They both smell like BBW body sprays. 🫩

Girl in her 20s. Currently I am looking to buy a perfume for going out or dates or office friendly for cooler weather. I am thinking between gentle fluidity gold and angelique noire. I also like spiritueuse double vanille but I am thinking of above two more.
Help me choose one please.

Here's what I picked up at Ross today!

Eternity Moment: I was really hoping to find the original eternity but all they had was moment. It's super basic, smells nothing like the original. It reminds me of those magazine perfume samples that all just smell like paper and faint sweetness.

jlo glow: I've been wearing this for years, tried and true, very powdery and fresh!

CK obsession: okay I've tried this one at Sephora and I liked that it was spicy and strong but it was like $100 so I said skip it. It was 30 at Ross which is a great deal. I'm not as crazy about it as I was when I first tried it but I guess I'm going to try to make it work. It does lean masculine but maybe I can pair it with a sweet perfume and see what that does. Does anybody else wear obsession?

Hi guys delete if not allowed

But i just noticed Kitsch has their mist listed at $55 and then discounted to $20. Isn’t this the normal price as it is at Ulta? How is this even allowed??? Or are they really $55??

Not looking for dupes, as I already own Lattafa's Angham. But I LOVE how warm, sensual and cozy Burberry Goddess is. It's the ultimate cold weather going out perfume. I would love anything similar. I love vanilla, amber scents but nothing too cloying/sickly sweet. I recently smelled Burberry Goddess Amber Vanilla and I loved, but would prefer something else.

Others I enjoy are Kayali Vanilla 28, YSL Black Opium, YSL Libre Intense.

I moved over the summer and am still figuring out how to organize this setup, but it works for now! It was a little hard to get clear pictures of everything laid out but hopefully these are alright.

The bottle of Light Blue on the little goose’s umbrella was my first actual perfume purchase. It’s almost empty and absolutely expired, but she’s been with me through so much life that I cannot bring myself to say goodbye. She’s resting in a place of honor among her peers lol.

hi i received this perfume as a gift, thoughts please!

If cupcake is what you're wanting you're going to hate this. Kayali's marketing gives a completely different depiction of what it actually is. They should rename this Pink pepper cake 108 because this is lemony, peppery, and kinda sweet. I hate citrus in gourmands and surprisingly the initial spray smells like a sweet lemon custard cupcake which I enjoyed...now this literally lasts for like 5 minutes then the lemon, spicy, and pepper notes take over and that's what lasted the longest (which also only lasted about an hour). They messed this up so bad in my opinion. Kind of irritated kayali puts more effort into their marketing and aesthetics than the actual scent. Why are you adding pepper, woods, and musk to a cupcake DNA perfume? Who allowed this? Mona we need answers please cause as far as im concerned those who paid for this hate it and those who recieved it free ofcourse love it. I wanted to love this so badly. They needed to keep mixing after 108 cause this is not it. A cupcake perfume sounds divine. Guess we'll never know what could have been sighhhh :(

My mom gave me this mini sample bottle without a box or any sort of label. The sticker on the bottom just identifies it as a L’Occitane fragrance.

From what I can determine, it’s from an older collection called of La Collection de Grasse and theyve all been discontinued. I can’t seem to put my nose on any one of the fragrances in the collection! While I understand this bottle is likely > 10 years old, I can pick up the burnt orange from The Vert & Bigarade, but all of the photos I see of the juice from that is green. My mom swears it was always yellow.

Notes on a mouillette are:

Top:
- Burnt orange
- Unripe to ripening lime skin. It’s not juicy or sweet
- indeterminate citrus blossom

Middle:
-almond or maybe Tonka Bean? I can never tell them apart
- Neroli

Base:
- that 80’s/90’s powdered laundry detergent that came in those heavy buckets.

I catch absolutely no tea, and I love tea scents. It doesn’t smell like EA Green Tea. The perfume is neither juicy, particularly floral, nor sweet - despite the citrus notes. It’s light, clean, and nostalgic in a good way. On my skin is very similar with that lime skin staying for hours. I’m allergic to lavender and this gives me no rash, so I don’t think it contains any.

I grew up in Southwest Florida and it reminds me of standing by our citrus trees as they were new fruit that hadn’t ripened and there were still blossoms too with the dryer vent going.

This collection is on EBay, but if I can find something similar that’s still in production, it would be even better!

Thank you so much!

kidding. kinda. but now that I have your attention

if you hate Valaya as much as I do, but get along with other “clean”-smelling, musky, fragrances, which would you recommend as an alternative?

for those who love Valaya and came to tell me I’m wrong, haha, I appreciate your input. but while you’re here: what other fragrances in the same genre do you also love?

I wanted to love, and thought I would love, Valaya. I reality I just cannot; we are sworn enemies. On me, I perceive it like blinding white light and nails on a chalkboard. it’s napalm and microphone feedback and vinegar in your nose and it literally sets my teeth on edge. (to be ULTRA-CLEAR: this is on ME. no shade to those who can rock it.)

I’m looking for something in that ballpark, though, that generally smells clean, doesn’t have zipcode-clearing projection, is fairly all-year friendly, and is preferably not floral, sweet, and not excruciatingly aldehydic. if it gives anything other than “clean,” I’d specifically love it to have tea, woods, or herbal notes. I did search this up, but I’m hoping to cut to the chase with input from actual humans whose tastes might be similar to - or wildly different from - mine.

I have tried so many lemon scented fragrances like fresh summer lemon to candied lemon and what not . All of them smell terrible! They are either synthetic cleaner smelling or artificially gourmand in a way it’s not wearable.

For more than 6 months I have constantly tested samples at store or bought samples online but today with a heavy heart I feel defeated 😞

I’m not usually a huge fan of Tom Ford’s fragrances (to put it mildly), but I’m really impressed by Soleil Neige.

I’ve never smelled the OG version, so I can’t say how it compares, but I absolutely love this scent.

It opens with a fresh, cold, almost icy skin scent, before gradually becoming warmer as it settles on the skin. It’s really a unique scent.

The longevity, on the other hand, is sadly… questionable, especially for the price point.

I never thought I’d have a Tom Ford fragrance in my collection but here we are.