I want to expand my knowledge of perfumes. Admittedly I know the niche, artisanal, impossible-to-find stuff like the back of my nose -- I work in a perfume store that specializes in this sort of thing. But there's a big gap in my familiarity of the mainstream, mall perfumes. I don't know these fragrances at all. They all smell exactly the same to me. They are, with a few exceptions, exactly the same juice in different bottles. Endless variations of flourescent fruits and white florals with no distinguishing features to latch on to. To prepare myself I went to Sephora at the beginning of the weekend and begged for samples of the most popular sellers. I studied diligently.
Dolce and Gabbana Light Blue is easy to identify. So is Chloe - it smells like Windex (not necessarily a bad thing. I like the smell of Windex). Hanae Mori Butterfly smells like the closet in my elementary school where textbooks were stored. Justin Bieber Girlfriend smells like strawberry Skittles. Flower by Kenzo is pretty - a creamy ylang ylang and benzoin combination.
Wonderstruck by Taylor Swift smells like Grape Kool Aid. The powder mix, not the drink.
The craziest fragrance of all was A*Men by Thierry Mugler. It's a brilliant blend of coffee, caramel and patchouli. Its drydown smells like the Carmelite candle by Cire Trudon; the smell of moss covered stones in a convent. Whenever I lifted the A*Men-scented strip of paper to my nose I couldn't help but formulate the same response: "this smells crazy!"
No comments:
Post a Comment