2023 perfume round-up
Jan. 7th, 2024 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lackingdazehmm...sometimes im like do i start hobbies out of actual interest for hobby itself or because i want to be the kind of person who participates in said hobby. i feel like with perfume and what i've seen of niche perfumetok, the latter sometimes overshadows the former, where being into niche perfumes makes u the kind of pretentious asshole who sniffs byredo pulp and is like wow this smells like the peak of summer intoxication sangria rotting fruit animalic primal insert biblical reference.
that being said, this year i got pretty into perfumes, to the point where at the height of my unemployment era i would drive myself to sephora to sniff perfumes and stave off existential dread TAT i used to really dislike perfumes, just bc my conception of perfume was designer and celebrity fragances ak this one sickly sweet britney spears pink perfume that my parents bought me from a dept store when i was like 5 (dont ask me why i have no idea what a 5 yr old would do with a perfume) and whatever foul stuff they use to spritz hollister. but a few years back, i thought i could give it a try and picked up a jo malone sample set as an xmas gift for myself. jo malone scents are quite banal but nice, so it opened me up to trying more things!
i usually don't buy full size bottles since i get bored of smells fast (rip to my full size jo malone peony & suede that i received as a gift) and prefer changing things up every few months. not to be sappy...but i like associating different perfumes to different phases in my life, so when i wear certain scents that i wore prominently during a period of time, its a little cheesy nostalgic thing ig.
over the past few years, i tried out a few niche perfume brands including le labo & boy smells. then somehow over the course of this summer i managed to accumulate like....4? 5? different perfumes. and sniffed a bunch more stuff! so here are the ones that made up my 2023 perfumes :)
haystacks by tamburins
top: pink pepper, juniper
mid: heliotrope, cyclamen, white rose
bottom: rum, tonka bean, patchouli, amber
sniffed this at the tamburins store in garosu-gil with r, then we looped back after i couldn't stop smelling it on my wrist. i really thought i didn't like vanilla scents (ex. not a fan of tom ford's tobacco and vanilla) but i think i just dislike it when vanilla leans too sweet and gourmand. i wear this all the time, and especially from august - november. there are spices in this (peppercorn) that balance out the vanilla aspect, and then it has wood & floral elements that are always my go-to. if i had to give a vibe summary, i would say it smells expensive but lowkey, a blue jeans and white shirt perfume with an unexpected twist. kind of like if "moving in silence" was a perfume LMAO. i don't think i've ever smelled anything like it? it works really well with my skin, so i always get compliments on it. i think when i go to seoul again, i might spring for a full size just to keep this in the rotation (because i only have a 10ml and she's running low 😭). sometimes i get sick of wearing it, but after i take a break for a while, i always come back.
10ms by kinfolk notes
literally thinking about how i need to stop using this to ration it because i don't think they sell this anywhere anymore....btw r was also there to enable the purchase of this perfume (as part of a set with la rose of versailles). we were wandering the construction adjacent area of seongsudong near that dior store, which is apparently where all the influencers shop bc there are 2363289 popups. and oh my god it was so freaking hot that day. this was also after i had already spent $$ at tamburins, so we just stopped in kinfolk with the intention of lounging in AC but!!! BUT!!!!! we both left with purchases..... anyways i originally just bought this to pair with the rose perfume, but since it's a very clean and neutral musk smell, i've enjoyed just wearing it on its own when i find florals too cloying or in combination with another perfume that doesn't prominent musk notes. it's like the butch lesbian ver. of the laundry detergent smell so it's always easy to wear and i never get too sick of it. it's a staple in my handbag! unfortunately i can't find the list of notes online, but it's mainly just musk and maybe cotton.
la rose de versailles by kinfolk notes
top: cumin, rose
mid: cedarwood, sandalwood
bottom: amber, myrrh
dont wear this one much because i realized it gets a bit grating for me when i sniff it on myself. it's a powdery rose smell but something about it strikes as very synthetic when i wear it on my skin. i thought it was fine in store tho....
custom scent from proust
top: lily, green clover, aloe
mid: amethyst, white blossom, lotus
bottom: mellow (pre-made base)
ofc am going to be super biased about this because i made this perfume myself! it doesn’t have great sillage but i have a lot of good memories attached to it and it’s an overall pleasant scent to me. it’s from a perfume making workshop i took at proust near ikseon-dong during the seoul trip. this experience helped me to realize how much i like the smell of lily and also lotus! it’s a very fresh smell and i was pretty gassed up when the perfumer at the workshop said it smelled good (real reaction bc why was she surprised…..). side note, the class was super fun. it’s the first time i’ve ever done anything like that by myself and it was a very calming experience! would recommend going alone as a solo date or with a group. there was a group of friends that came in during my class and they looked like they had a lot of fun giggling over it.
twin flame by 5sens
top: cucumber leaves, cardamom
mid: osmanthus blossom
bottom: sandalwood, white musk
this is one of those sephora perfumes but i was intrigued by the cucumber smell, so i came back for it a few days after sniffing it on a mall excursion. honestly haven’t worn this at all since summer, so i regret buying it. i love the cucumber in the opening but the dry down is quite cloying and not all that pleasant to me. moral of the story is don’t buy perfumes from sephora.
when the rain stops by maison margiela
top: bergamot, vegetal accord, pink pepper
mid: aquatic accord, rose, jasmine
bottom: pine needle, patchouli, moss
sorry to be embarrassing i only sniffed this because riize anton said he wears it and i was curious -.- but it surprised me how much i liked it!!!!! not much to write home about because i don't think it's a very distinct scent but it's a surprisingly nice and clean masculine scent. green and citrus at first, then dries down to a warmer ver of another 13 (thanks to the patchouli in this). springtime vibes, quite comforting. very anton!
english pear & sweet pea by jo malone
top: pear
mid: sweet pea
bottom: white musk
nothing about this at first glance made me think i would like it but i liked it! surprisingly long lasting, with great projection. sprayed this on a whim and it was great on my skin, does get a bit cloying if i sniff too closely. very sweet but soapy. i usually don’t like fruit but the pear is crisp and not overbearing. was a little obsessed for the day and i think i’d also be obsessed if i smelled this on anyone passing by.
tam dao by diptyque
top: italian cypress, myrtle, rose
mid: sandalwood, cedar
bottom: rosewood, spices, amber, musk
sniffed this at a neiman marcus b/c of haobin lore — it was so underwhelming! just kind of like, ok that is vanilla (except there's no vanilla in it??) and some wood. then again, everyone has different skin chemistry so maybe it’s better on hanbin. but my general gripe with diptyque is that i think all of their perfumes have very little impact despite how expensive they are. i sniffed some other diptyque scents at their nob hill location that were recommended by the salesperson based on my preferences (i said floral and soapy) & none of them were very good imo……my friends who were with me said the same thing.
pulp by byredo
top: bergamot, blackcurrant, cardamom
mid: fig, red apple, tiare
bottom: cedarwood, peach flower, praline
there was a moment on perfumetok where people were bulk buying this because it’s getting discontinued — specifically piqued my interest when @/invisiblestories on tiktok talked about smelling it for the first time! was at the mall & stopped into byredo with a friend. we smelled a bunch of things (i think i told the salesperson i thought gypsy water smelled like target green hand sanitizer) but i also smelled pulp, which was very much like overripe fruit. the craziest thing to me was that i only brought one sample card of pulp home but i could smell it from across my bedroom after i put it on the table??? it wasn’t unpleasant but definitely not something i would wear since i think it’d give me a headache. kinda funny how people have such visceral reactions to pulp in the perfumetok world… it’s not that bad tho, just intense.
blanche by byredo
top: aldehyde, rose centifolia
mid: peony, violet
bottom: musks, sandalwood
not much memory of this but it is very quintessential white dress shirt and blue jeans perfume. honestly my friend and i agreed it smelled like a nice hotel, which checks out with the sandalwood. would wear if i came across a free sample but not something i’d want to spend money on.
for a moment in november, i was on the hunt for a good winter perfume and i was looking at l’eau d’hiver by jean-claude ellena from frederic malle. scent profile (top: bergamot, base: iris, hawthorne, heliotrope) sounds super intriquing!
but now that it’s already jan and i’m doing no buy january, i think i’ll just look ahead to a scent for spring. i’m pretty intrigued by frederic malle perfumes as whole, since i keep seeing them around but i’d buy a decanter first (actually this just goes for everything! i’m a big proponent of shopping decanters and samples because perfumes are way too expensive to blind buy without wearing a few times). i’m eyeing iris poudre for spring — the rose and iris in it + sandalwood is right up my alley. also looking at the eris parfums discovery set, especially the guava in delta of venus!
it’s been a fun year of sniffing, so i’m looking forward to whatever else in 2024 <3
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Date: 2024-01-17 09:00 pm (UTC)I always enjoy people's perfume thoughts -- have you hung around the
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Date: 2024-01-18 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-18 07:45 pm (UTC)