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Scent of the day part 10, the friendly perfumistas are spritzing again!

562 replies

IDontHateRainbows · 01/09/2026 11:12

Shiny new thread just in time for the new season - I'm thinking smoky, spicy gourmands as we head through autumn.

Old thread here
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5536911-scent-of-the-day-part-9-with-the-friendly-perfumistas-cheapies-or-niche-were-smelling-divine?reply=152661590

OP posts:
Thread gallery
19
tretaddict · 25/09/2026 17:31

IDontHateRainbows · 25/09/2026 14:53

Tried the tom ford tobacco chocolat again. I do like it, i can see it as s very christmassy scent. Chocolate + tobacco + bitter orange.

Father figure arrived thank you… I LOVE it!

JasmineMilkTea · 25/09/2026 23:30

HolidayHattie · 25/09/2026 01:17

I try to do this (make notes) but when I look them up later, they're often useless like "I don't know what this smells like but it's not too bad". Hope you do better.

Thanks! That's mostly where I'm at for now. I also try to sniff my wrist some hours later and make a quick note about longevity.

Fillybuster · 26/09/2026 00:21

SOTD was another attempt at Escentric Molecules 01. Once again, a whiff of juniper / gin followed by absolutely bloody nothing. Totally gone within minutes. Or less.

SOT rest of the DAY post-gym was thankfully masked by EA Green Tea until I eventually made it into the shower at 7pm

SOTE was Halfeti. Damn, I really like this one. But now have many BACs and FACs winging their way towards me with not a hint of Penhaligons in sight. And I suspect fb will be expensive, right?

JasmineMilkTea · 26/09/2026 00:34

IDontHateRainbows · 25/09/2026 09:11

Liberty do these perfume experiences, £25 and you get taken into a separate room and have someone talk through all the perfumes in a brand and let you sample them all..includes refreshments. Quite good value. It was my birthday so they offered prosecco, then poured not a flute but a massive gin glass full to the brim and kept topping it up.

After the experience they left me with the remainder of the bottle in the booth and said take your time! Help yourself! Obviously the intention was to get me so pissed I'd lose any self control and buy lots of perfume.

WELL IT BACKFIRED! I staggered back to covent garden and spent a lot in tom ford and parfums de marly.

But it is the cheapest and nicest way to get pissed in central London for sure.

Thanks for sharing! I agree with you - an entire bottle of prosecco in a booth in central London for £25 is definitely the cheapest and nicest way to get pissed! 😂

At that point, the sampling of scents is almost the bonus.

IDontHateRainbows · 26/09/2026 06:25

JasmineMilkTea · 26/09/2026 00:34

Thanks for sharing! I agree with you - an entire bottle of prosecco in a booth in central London for £25 is definitely the cheapest and nicest way to get pissed! 😂

At that point, the sampling of scents is almost the bonus.

You also get chocolates, biscuits, coffee.. and the attention of a perfume specialist for 30 minutes or so. There's no pressure to buy, the £25 isn't redeemable but I prefer it that way as I hate sales pressure. Liberty is good for that, unlike selfridges where they pounce on you if you ao much glance at something.

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MiaN · 26/09/2026 06:48

Vietnamese coffee D'Annam for me today. I got home from holiday after 1 last night, i need something strong to get me going. So big mug of black coffee and some strong coffee & condensed milk scent.

I would love to be able to get to the likes of Liberty, Harrods and Selfridges. The fragrance experience sounds fun

MiaN · 26/09/2026 07:10

@IDontHateRainbows I admire how you make most of the perfumes you actually want to wear. You bought yourself Figue Erotique and you used it up. I keep things for special days without any good reason - I am going to try to wear my favourites as my heart desire. I love my collection - it is one to be enjoyed -what I am holding it for?

IDontHateRainbows · 26/09/2026 07:27

MiaN · 26/09/2026 07:10

@IDontHateRainbows I admire how you make most of the perfumes you actually want to wear. You bought yourself Figue Erotique and you used it up. I keep things for special days without any good reason - I am going to try to wear my favourites as my heart desire. I love my collection - it is one to be enjoyed -what I am holding it for?

Yes, i do have plenty of half used small bottles and travel sizes. But fig erotique was so good I used it up.
The new TF, tobacco chocolate, will be my Christmas season scent i think.

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MiaN · 26/09/2026 07:52

I can not handle the tobacco chocolate at all. It really smells like chocolate and cigarettes. It doesn't even feel blended to me - but I do not lice tobacco in general so I am not the prime market for it

IDontHateRainbows · 26/09/2026 08:23

MiaN · 26/09/2026 07:52

I can not handle the tobacco chocolate at all. It really smells like chocolate and cigarettes. It doesn't even feel blended to me - but I do not lice tobacco in general so I am not the prime market for it

Ah, see I'm in a tobacco-curious phase! Although the new maison crivelli tobacco I didn't like, couldn't get much tobacco from it

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IDontHateRainbows · 26/09/2026 08:26

Sotd Abel cobalt amber. Nice, but i wish they had dialed down the aromatic notes. Its a bit too zingy for me and doesn't contrast well with the amber and vanilla aspects.

I also tried the violette fr roll on perfume from the liberty bag. Its like a cross between another 13 and replica beach walk. A summery, beachy, coconut scent quite subtle. Really not right for autumn and I am very seasonal with my scents. Like clothing, i enjoy the marking of time and embracing new seasons with what scents i wear.

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QueefofSheena · 26/09/2026 10:06

I'm still wearing summer scents as the weather is mainly up in the 20's here just north of London. Its going to remain mild into October but it hasn't stopped me organising my autumn wardrobe and buying some new. Looking forward to warmer tones in clothes and frag.

Has anyone sniffed Discotheque's Next To Me Or Nothing? I'm tempted to blind buy a 7.5ml as I love some of the others

paristotokyo · 26/09/2026 13:39

@Fillybusterhalfeti 10ml is in the selfridges fragrance advent so if you wait a couple of weeks you can pick it up cheaper on reselling sites

Fillybuster · 26/09/2026 15:17

paristotokyo · 26/09/2026 13:39

@Fillybusterhalfeti 10ml is in the selfridges fragrance advent so if you wait a couple of weeks you can pick it up cheaper on reselling sites

Good point! Not planning on attempting to snag the SFAC myself so will keep an eye out for Halfeti on Vinted after 8th Oct. Thank you 🙏

SOTD Solaris. Nice summery vibe to match the ridiculously warm weather in London today. Still feels like mid summer despite it being end Sept.

MiaN · 26/09/2026 16:07

That’s my winter set-up ready — and a little tour of my perfume storage 😊

On the lower level left you can see some of the freshies — Clean Skin, Acne Studios, MAC Aquatic, Ellis Brooklyn Myth, Wood Sage & Sea Salt… you get the picture. I do wear these all year round, so they tend to live in this spot permanently. This is one of my tall, deeper IKEA Alex drawers.
I also have some fresh florals in there, plus the one misfit — VB Portofino, which I still don’t quite know where to put!

In the next photo, middle/bottom, I have some florals, some fruity/beachy scents in the middle, and… frankly, far too many citruses! I managed to catch the Atelier Cologne clearance sales a few times and, well, I may have taken the “clearance” part a little too seriously. 😂 I do use most of them though, they get love. I have full size torrino 21 somewhere too. Some of the florals, fruity scents and citruses get swapped around with the winter line-up depending on the season.

The last one is one of the shallow drawers, with some shorter minis and a few samples.

On the top level left it's shelf inside wardrobe - in lipstick holder I have some travel sizes I’m currently using. I’ve actually got rid of a lot of them! At the back are the ones that pretty much permanently live there —my 4 Byredo, Oribe Côte d’Azur, L’Interdit, Athalia PDM, etc. Turn the page and Guerlain Mon Guerlain always stays there too.

What changes are the more seasonal ones: the two TFs — Cherry and Fig — Lira, Granado Fervo Intenso (which may be going on the chopping block soon), Ginger Biscuit, Starlight, and the two Eight & Bobs. One is more early-fall, while the other has those proper winter boozy vanilla vibes.

And of course, the tea and coffee corner: Gris Charnel and Vietnamese Coffee, plus my true love Velvet Aura.

Symphony doesn’t stay up there. She goes headless in one of the drawers. 😂 She is simply too big-headed, and I worry that if I put her in the line-up she’ll eventually end up on the floor in pieces. I absolutely adore the scent, but that bottle is… a lot.

All the inner shelves are actually repurposed perfume packaging, and all the little storage organisers are the doors from advent calendars that I’ve reused.

Laura Mercier Ambre Vanille lives next to my bed, it is one of the few I have repurchased!

I also have a few Zara and Escada cheapies in the bedroom locker. Some are bedtime scents, some are bath time scents that I spray in the bathroom if I want to enjoy some scents without soaking myself in fragrance, and some are for when I’m at home and don’t mind smelling something a little out of character. I have the new winter ritual too - not sure if it is going to make it to my regular collection yet.

I’m also using empty perfume store advent box - the one that looks like jewelery box to store few spare travel sizes at the bottom and samples at the top. I have a few boxes of samples as well, but I’m generally pretty good at moving those along rather than letting them take over the house.

All my perfumes are vampires and are kept in the dark, only one perfume is in the bathroom(s) at a time and those are cheapies.

Scent of the day part 10, the friendly perfumistas are spritzing again!
MiaN · 26/09/2026 16:16

the Mac is Turquatic, not aquatic! sorry for the type - that's excellent freshi

MiaN · 26/09/2026 16:57

I have 4 hair and body sprays with my hear products and 2 perfumes in a memory box :).

I have more than I need, I have to admit. It’s definitely a hobby for me, but I’ve reached the stage where I don’t want to add things to my collection quite so easily.

I haven’t bought an advent calendar yet this year, and even though I was in the Canary Islands this week with plenty of good deals around, I didn’t add anything. I used to come home from every trip with at least one or two!

I haven’t reached the “one in, one out” stage yet, but it could definitely be on the cards for next year. I love my perfumes, but I also don’t really want my collection to get much bigger than it is now.

“Oh, that’s lovely” is no longer enough of a reason to take a bottle home. I’m starting to ask myself: Is it actually better than what I already own in the same vibe/category? Would I be willing to let go of something I have for it? And probably the biggest question — do I actually want to smell like this, or do I just enjoy smelling it?

I think that’s probably the difference between enjoying perfume and collecting perfume for the sake of collecting. I still want to discover and try new things, but I need to become much more selective about what gets to come home with me.

Even for travel sizes - I had too many.

IDontHateRainbows · 26/09/2026 17:43

Tried the abel cobalt amber again, seems nicer this time. A grower?

I have 2 more from the warm set to try, pacing myself.

Interested in d'annam after @MiaN 's tale of Vietnamese Coffee which sounds lovely. They do a discovery set of 9 x 2ml for £45 which is now on my want list.

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MiaN · 26/09/2026 17:58

Which one are you thinking of, they have 3 sets? I don't think vietnamese coffee will be for everyone - better chance if you drink strong black coffee! I have to say - it has been my favourite fragrance set in years. Even though some are just strange to my nose

Fillybuster · 26/09/2026 17:59

Oh wow @MiaN : your collection is a thing of beauty!

Like you, I keep almost all my fragrance in the dark, as it occurred to me a few years back that standing on my dressing table wasn’t doing it any good. Until now, it’s been housed on the same large shelf as my jewellery, but it was always a bit of a squeeze and that’s become increasingly problematic over the last few months as the bottle collection has grown.

Last week I identified a solution which involved clearing a different shelf completely so that I could reorganise and split perfume and jewellery. In turn, that required me to clear a couple of shelves in our study.

No biggie, right?

Huh

I started at 2pm. Right now the house looks like a tornado has gone though. There’s paper everywhere. The recycling bin is overflowing. My room is a tip! DH is muttering darkly.

And I haven’t even got as far as clearing the first shelf in my wardrobe yet!!!

😱😱😱😱😱😱

MiaN · 26/09/2026 18:01

You will love it when it's done

TragicMuse · 26/09/2026 21:09

I put on Figue Amour this morning.

then I sprayed some Ex Nihilo Blue Talisnan at around 11am an can still catch it. What a lovely scent!

OvaHere · 26/09/2026 21:13

BDK Gris Charnel today. Much prefer this in a sprayer. Does anyone know if the one in the JL FAC is a spray bottle or a dabber?

AlPaccacino · 26/09/2026 22:19

IDontHateRainbows · 26/09/2026 08:23

Ah, see I'm in a tobacco-curious phase! Although the new maison crivelli tobacco I didn't like, couldn't get much tobacco from it

Ive been going through a tobacco stage as well and dug out my A * Men Pure Havana. It’s so lovely, tobacco and honey and vanilla.

JasmineMilkTea · 26/09/2026 23:41

IDontHateRainbows · 26/09/2026 06:25

You also get chocolates, biscuits, coffee.. and the attention of a perfume specialist for 30 minutes or so. There's no pressure to buy, the £25 isn't redeemable but I prefer it that way as I hate sales pressure. Liberty is good for that, unlike selfridges where they pounce on you if you ao much glance at something.

Thank you, that's amazing to know! I too hate sales pressure, especially for something like perfume where I want to try it on my skin multiple time to see how it develops.

Am seriously considering it as a treat to myself the next time I make it to Liberty.

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