The Friendly Perfumistas Thread 35 - ❄️ ☃️ Winter may be here, but our scents will keep us warm!

[FestivelyScent]

Oops! Looks like we ran out of space on the last thread - I hope you all find your way over here.

Anyway, welcome fragrant friends to a shiny new thread!

As always, everyone is very welcome - we're most definitely open to Newbies. Come and discuss your Scent Of The Day (SOTD), old favourites, new infatuations, the best dupes and scents of any price point. We are very friendly! 😊

Nothing to be embarrassed about - a scent you love is a scent you love 😍Hope you find a match!

Ooooh there are 13 matches. Strongest is this one: never heard of it, but it starts at a tenner so ... not much to lose! 😄

and this: do love guerlain ...

SOTD Byredo Gypsy Water for the first day of the Easter holidays.

SOTE Dear Polly; really liking this now. It is perhaps a wee bit linear for such a spendy scent, but it's lovely nevertheless. Sweet apple, smoky tea - it has Traversee du Bosphore vibes but isn't quite as sophisticated or intriguing. It reminds me also of one of the Imaginary Authors perfumes that I wore a lot a few years ago, O, Unknown.

Duh, i mean Slow Explosions...

@Laiste do you have a picture of the aforementioned fragrance? 3 years ago my local Tesco still sold fragrances from their own brand but there aren’t many pictures of those

Hi all. SOTD is a relatively new purchase Nishane Ani. It’s not what I was expecting from reading reviews beforehand, but I’m really really enjoying it. It’s quite different to anything else I have.

@Laiste as it happens, top notes include pink pepper and ginger, and base notes include vanilla, but there is quite a bit else going on too.

Nishane Ani was top.of the fragrantica list I got when I put in @Laiste's notes!

Ginger appears to be having a bit of a moment. It's turning up in a lot of places right now.

Had a sad day weeding out all of the decants in plastic atomisers that have evaporated fast (my beloved Coromandel included ).

Trying to work out what's in the mystery glass vial with the missing label. It's a Roudnitska for sure. Judging by the colour it is Ocean Rain. Which doesn't smell like it has anything to do with oceans or the rain. Smells like a cross between le Parfum de Therese and something else perhaps Diorella? Love it that he took the commission and carried right along with his lifetime project...

SOTN is No19, as it was a lovely sunny day here, and it felt like spring. Still cold though. 🌷

@Thereislightattheendofthetunnel here is a dreadfully grainy and frankly useless picture of the packaging 😂 I do have an empty bottle stashed away somewhere as a keepsake. It's one of those things when i come across it i give it a sniff it it takes me right back! Like you do ...

I'll find it later and put a pic here. It's more or less dead plain glass with a black lid iirc.

Meant to ask - mourning the loss of all our big department stores now, we have very few physical shops selling perfume near me now. I miss browsing the rows of testers. Nearest to us for 'proper' fragrance shopping now is Milton Keynes which is 50 min drive away 🙄

Where do you all do your testing? Can you order any samples online?

My only new fragrance purchase for ages and ages (and new favourite) is Nuxe Prodigieux Floral. Gorgeous with grapefruit, magnolia and white musk 😃Discovered that in M&S. Would bathe in it if i could 😂

Love the Nuxe line - it's just summer holidays in a bottle for me. I have a bottle of the standard Prodigieux perfume but could definitely be tempted by some of the others!

As far as sampling is concerned, I now do most of mine as blind buys bought online. When I lived 20 mins from central London I would haunt Liberty, Bloom, Les Senteurs and Roullier White but all of them (minus Liberty) do an online sample service anyway. It's mostly niche stuff so I just pick ones that sound interesting or that someone on these threads has recommended. I also use scentsamples.uk.com, fragrancesamplesuk.com and notino.com for more mainstream scents. It can be hit-and-miss of course, but I'd rarely pay more than a fiver for a sample.

Plus, many of the niche / designer houses will have samples or mini sets available on their websites (although not always a cheapo option!) I have my eye on a Serge Lutens set currently...

Talking of samples, I am trying to work my way through some of my random ignored ones. Tried Bruno Fazzolari Ummagumma first thing which was a scrubber - synthetic chocolate bleaugh. Having a bit more luck now with Grandiflora's Queen of the Night which is a bit of a jasmine bomb but undercut with aldehydes. It's nice and huffable but not wildly exciting, nothing I've not sniffed before!

Maybe a small bottle of Libre for the symbolism and then take your time picking something more opulent also?

SOTD: shay and blue dandelion fig

I'm staying in Manchester city centre for the next couple of nights. I'm really looking forward to hitting the perfume departments in Harvey Nichols & Selfridges. But why have I woken up feeling bleugh today 😫
Sotd is Amouage Dia - clean, soapy, slightly bitter aldehydes.

SOTD is Frederick Malle Lipstick Rose. Blind bought as am early birthday present from me to me. Because I love me 😁

I’m fortunate in having a HoF, John Lewis and Fenwick’s not too far away. I also go into central London fairly often, so do have lots of opportunity to go try things.

I actually went to Harrods a couple of weeks ago: the number of brands and perfumes available there are almost overwhelming and I find my nose quickly becomes tired. The downstairs perfume hall, while amazing in terms of the range of perfumes available to try, is so heavy with scent that it is very difficult to get a good idea of any individual perfume. The perfume hall on the 6th floor is better, if a bit intimidating. I have learnt the hard way that I get a much better idea of a perfume by having a sample to try at home rather than having a sniff in store. I’ve found perfumes I really loved in store didn’t work at home and vice versa. So I will now be trying hard to not buy anything I haven’t sampled at home.

Fortunately, lots of places now do discovery sets and samples (thank you Covid!). Jovoy (U.K. site) and Les Senteurs are great for getting samples of a wide range of perfumes.

SOTD Initio side effect.

I live in a large town on the edge of London, but sadly no dept stores here. Luckily, Central London is only 20 mins by fast train, but I completely agree with @AprilLady I get easily overwhelmed when smelling scents in huge fragrance depts a la Selfridges, JL, Harvey Nicks, Liberty etc, and find I don't really get a good, detailed impression of them.

I tend to try and pick just one or two scents to try instore (VERY hard), usually beforehand if I know the store well, spray a card or myself, then immediately leave the fragrance dept. I usually get to know if I like it from that, and if it's worth a 1 or 2ml sample. If I'm tempted to buy a FB, then I definitely try and get a sample first.

I do miss all our dept stores though, as I loved browsing all the different depts each season, esp at Christmas, then going to the upstairs restaurant/coffee shop. I still find dept stores comforting, and could while away hours in a really good one.

SOTD was a spray of Chypre Sublime, courtesy of my mum, who sprayed me from her bottle. I'd forgotten how long this lasts, but how I wish the patchouli was more prominent and rich, to balance the really quite strong rose.

SOTN is Shalimar, I keep saying it, but it's absolutely freezing! ❄️ So beautiful in the sun though - all spring-y and cheerful, esp looking at the hyacinths and daffodils blooming in the park. I'm feeling quite Easter-y! 🐣🌷

@Laiste try Hermes Twilly, the one with extra ginger. It's delicious.

Oh, I still so miss UK department stores. I now live in the arse end of nowhere, as it's eloquently described, in the west of Ireland. I'd have to travel over two hours to Dublin for a half decent department store, but mostly I can't be bothered. Milton Keynes used to be my nearest decent shopping centre in the UK. Shopping is the thing I miss most since my move. I think I need to plan another trip to London, it's been a few years since my last shopping fix.

SOTD Cartier, La Panthere. Tres sophisticated.

Jealous of those who are near dept. stores!

AprilLady your description of Harrods perfume halls - ahhhh how i loved London. Grew up near enough to central London to mooch about in Liberty, Harrods, H Ncks and all the rest nearly every weekend and yes, clouds of perfume and overwhelming scent is exactly right. Poshest was Fortnum and Mason obvs. Their thick carpet everywhere - even the lifts ...

I managed a Clinique concession (drenched in AE every day for free 😃) right next the the fine fragrance dept. and learned lots. One was that the nose 'switches off' to some degree after apx. 3 scents, so we were taught to advise fragrance customers to chose up to 3, spray them on their own skin (far apart) and wait an hour to see how the smell settled on them. Any more than 3 should be sprayed onto cards. But not ideal because it will smell different on your own skin.

If and when i'm ever anywhere near a lovely fragrance dept. these days i think of this advise - then ignore it and spray away like a mad thing 😂

Re: Shalimar. Love this. Have a bottle. But does anyone else find that sometimes it makes you feel weirdly hot?

@FestivelyScent I do love a department store wander too. Think my next London outing will be F&M and Liberty. Other than the perfume, I’m not a fan of Selfridges anymore - it feels very squarely aimed at rich international tourists rather than us normal folk.

@Laiste the three samples max rule makes a lot of sense. Very hard to stick to though. Thanks to your post, SOTD is Aromatics Elixir.

shalimar didnt make me hot Laiste, but its smell (on me) reminded me of road tar. not exactly what i was hoping for.

I didnt realise there were so many different perfumes before reading this thread. its a real eye opener

SOTD is 4160T Eau My Soul, a glamorous yet cosy combo, like sparkling champagne sipped whilst snuggled under a cashmere blanket. I am at my desk in stained joggers and fingerless compression gloves with unwashed hair 😆

SOTD Floral Street Sunflower Pop, it reminds me of Clinique Happy. I'm very lucky to live very close to lots of good perfume counters but I find them quite tight with offering samples.