Frk.W
New in Town
- Messages
- 35
- Location
- Stockholm, Sweden
I like a lot of fragrances, and I have a lot of fragrances. My own favourites change from time to time, and I like a lot of different things on others. I don't like "fresh" fragrances that smell like fabric softener, and I don't like sweet fragrances that smell like candy, pastries or desserts unless it's countered with something interesting (like that burning plastic/burnt sugar note in Pink Sugar, which makes the scent sort of morbidly fascinating), but I try to learn to appreciate just about anything. I prefer classically constructed scents, odd scents and scents with a lot of personality, though. I'm more interested in people who smell weird than people who smell like cupcakes.
My own favourites are Bandit, a smoky, bitter green leather chypre from 1944;
Miss Dior - the 1947 Miss Dior, a prissy green floral chypre with a dry bite to it;
M/Mink, a modern fragrance from the Swedish perfume house Byredo, which smells like ink, incense, fur and cold air;
Youth Dew, by Estée Lauder, a classic balsamic oriental from 1953, which is deliciously dirty especially in perfume.
Estée Lauder is a perfume house with a very distinct signature, and it's also a house that produces well-constructed, qualitative fragrances that have stood the test of time and are generally very well respected among perfum enthusiasts, whether the strong, brash house signature appeals to your personal taste or not. Please read Bois de Jasmin's beautiful review if you're curious, or the one at Now Smell This, or tens of reviews at perfume community http://www.basenotes.net.
As for concentrations, that's very much a matter of taste. Parfum concentrations are often made with better materials than lower concentrations, but some houses - notably Chanel - treat the different concentrations of their fragrances as variations on a theme, with differences not only in material quality and strength but also showing different aspects of the scent itself. Chanel No 5 in eau de toilette form emphasises the aldehydic sparkle, the eau de parfum is a heady 1980's iteration that brings out the the powdery aspect, and the parfum has a glorious sandalwood note that is not as prominent in the others. They are all different facets of the fragrance, not just stronger or weaker versions.
My own favourites are Bandit, a smoky, bitter green leather chypre from 1944;
Miss Dior - the 1947 Miss Dior, a prissy green floral chypre with a dry bite to it;
M/Mink, a modern fragrance from the Swedish perfume house Byredo, which smells like ink, incense, fur and cold air;
Youth Dew, by Estée Lauder, a classic balsamic oriental from 1953, which is deliciously dirty especially in perfume.
Estée Lauder is a perfume house with a very distinct signature, and it's also a house that produces well-constructed, qualitative fragrances that have stood the test of time and are generally very well respected among perfum enthusiasts, whether the strong, brash house signature appeals to your personal taste or not. Please read Bois de Jasmin's beautiful review if you're curious, or the one at Now Smell This, or tens of reviews at perfume community http://www.basenotes.net.
As for concentrations, that's very much a matter of taste. Parfum concentrations are often made with better materials than lower concentrations, but some houses - notably Chanel - treat the different concentrations of their fragrances as variations on a theme, with differences not only in material quality and strength but also showing different aspects of the scent itself. Chanel No 5 in eau de toilette form emphasises the aldehydic sparkle, the eau de parfum is a heady 1980's iteration that brings out the the powdery aspect, and the parfum has a glorious sandalwood note that is not as prominent in the others. They are all different facets of the fragrance, not just stronger or weaker versions.
