#or what fragrances might fit your favorite blorbos :)

[autumnsup]

2024: A Perfume Odyssey

For anyone who might possibly be reading this, it's not entirely accurate of me to say that my fragrance journey began in 2024. It really began the previous year through a combination of curiosity and boredom, and had its origins in my last trip to France, which was in 2017.

I went with 2024 because in March I took my first trip abroad since France, this time to Italy, and I was positively inundated with fragrance during the two weeks I spent there. Milan was the city of oud and other opulent odors, while Venice, Florence and Rome strayed more into floral and fruity territory, but all throughout I was delighted by the world of scents (and flavors) I had so newly (re)discovered.

After returning home, I flipped through my "library" of fragrances and found something lacking. For me, trying out a scent is like selecting an accessory to go with an outfit, or being briefly transported to a different dimension accessed by sense memory. I'd acquired a few of each over the years--notably Frédéric Malle Outrageous in travel size and Tokyomilk Everything & Nothing in full size--but most of the samples I'd ordered through the mail fell short of what I wanted them to be.

Full disclosure: my initial buying choices last year may have been influenced by an ASMRtist on YouTube and a movie star with a mission to create "clean" unisex fragrances. The results were entertaining if not as satisfying as I'd hoped. English-born Penhaligon's yielded some fun origin stories like Hammam Bouquet (Oscar Wilde's fragrance of choice apparently) and Blenheim Bouquet (Winston Churchill's), but few felt like something I would actually want to wear more than once or twice. I'm not drawn to most stronger scents like vanilla or patchouli, and I tend to be selective with florals or anything that smells like it came out of a magazine ad.

In Italy I smelled many things, including Véronique Gabai and Goutal Paris and Diptyche and Santa Maria Novella (referenced in the latest Ripley series on Netflix), but the only fragrance I brought home was VG Sexy Garrigue, which to me smells like being gently submerged in a honey bath on a sunlit afternoon. It carries just a whisper of oud, reminding me of the city where I found it, Milan, without feeling drowned by it. A transportive scent par excellence that also serves perfectly well as an accessory.

In contrast, there's D.S. & Durga. I'd become aware of this niche New York-based boutique fragrance power couple after being gifted a Spirit Lamp-scented candle a few years ago, but it wasn't until I'd returned from Italy that I finally took the plunge and ordered some samples from them.

I started with a four-pack comprised of I Don't Know What, Cowboy Grass, Sweet Do Nothing, and Amber Kiso. Based on the many reviews I'd read, these were some of the OGs mixed with more recent additions, but nothing prepared me for what I would experience upon spraying each for the first time.

(On second thought, I wouldn't say I was entirely unprepared. I'd been inhaling Spirit Lamp for a while after all--a delicious milky-sweet delicacy with underlying hints of metal and musk--and it has been designated the "sex candle" in our household 🤭).

I Don't Know What (a literal English translation of je ne sais quoi) is more or less as described: a woodsy framework meant to be layered and built upon, or otherwise lending a subtle glow to one's natural body scent. I found that it layered well with one of the fragrances I'd sampled last year, and I will likely add them both to my wishlist.

Cowboy Grass was a surprise. Not as transportive as I'd been led to believe (whoever is behind the marketing team at DS&D is a genius), but it grew on me as it revealed notes both leathery and sweet, like a warm breeze wafting through an open-air market in the desert. OK, so maybe that last sentence reveals it to be more transportive than my initial impression made it out to be. It doesn't evoke either cowboys or grass in my mind, but I could picture someone like Curt Wild wearing it, which makes it even more appealing to me.

Amber Kiso, on the other hand, was deeply transportive. I tried it for the first time right before settling into a long meditation session and felt like I'd been whisked away to a holy forest, or possibly a monastery in the Himalayas. A bit too strong in the amber department to wear regularly, but I will be bringing it out whenever I want to experience it just for myself and be transported again.

Sweet Do Nothing was as advertised, heavy on the orange blossom and evoking a casual summery spirit. There are certain true floral scents that I will tolerate, orange blossom and rose among them, and I will likely continue to spritz this one on through the summer without feeling a need to buy more.

In summary, D.S. & Durga is the most varied adventure in fragrancy I've had yet, and it's going to be a struggle to prevent myself from ordering yet more samples from them this year. 😩 Which brings me to my final confession: I caved in to a promotional deal with FragranceNet.com this week.

It wasn't entirely out of the blue because I'd been longing after a couple of Goutal Paris fragrances sampled in Italy, and I was thrilled to find a travel-sized Eau d'Hadrien for a very affordable price. I justified the rest of my purchases as either birthday gifts (Tea Rose for the mom and Burberry for the fiancé) or low-stakes forays into other realms of scent I hadn't experienced before.

I think I've amassed enough of a collection at this point to satisfy this particular itch for the rest of the season at least--Eau d'Hadrien especially was made for the heat of summer, with its ginger-sharp edges and sweet heart that could fit the likes of Arthur Stuart--but I don't believe it's the last time I will be waxing lyrical about olfactory matters, nor do I want it to be. 💋