Une Nuit a Doha Stephane Humbert Lucas 777

Another city inspired fragrance and this time it’s all about sweet hookah tobacco and Doha nights.

Doha at night

If you ever buy or order hookah, the tobacco leaves come very wet compared to other forms of tobacco. It’s typically infused with flavored syrups and packaged in either resealable bags or jars to keep it from drying out. Most hookah tobacco is dyed bright red for aesthetics. Flavors often resemble those you would find in a candy store from fruity to minty to chocolaty or even actual candy flavors like gummy bears.

Nuit a Doha focuses on immortelle, tobacco, and vanilla and it’s very sweet. Immortelle is somewhat difficult to describe but it smells fruity, with nuances of hay, and maple syrup. In this fragrance, I pick up hints of ripe peaches, mango, and sweet cream as well as buttery caramel, and a tiny bit of licorice. Ginger and vetiver are listed but I don’t pick up on either of them.

Tobacco can be very loud and offensive in any form and setting, but as a perfume note in this fragrance it’s very subtle and polite. It’s unburnt and adds robustness and depth to the composition.

Rolling cigars at Dona Elba in Granada, Nicaragua

On a trip to Nicaragua a few years back with my beautiful Canadian friend, we stopped at Doña Elba’s cigar shop in Granada to learn how to make hand rolled cigars. It’s located in a Spanish Colonial house, with an open air center courtyard that featured a garden with parrots. The cigar rolling station was on the courtyard patio and the materials and equipment used were all traditional, which included dried tobacco leaves, agave gum to seal the cigar, and a wooden press, to compact and form the cigars. The smell of the dried tobacco leaves wafted all around on the warm tropic breeze and I could still smell the sweet tobacco on my hands after we left. Before burning, tobacco can be a very pleasant scent but most associate tobacco with cigarettes, and that’s not at all what this perfume is about. This perfume is sweet, warm, and ambery with no smoke.

Dona Elbas

While this frag certainly sounds like it would be very unique, especially since immortelle and tobacco are mostly niche frag notes not commonly found in mainstream perfumes, I get an overall generic feel from this fragrance. There’s nothing really unforgettable about it. Dont get me wrong though, it’s a beautiful fragrance with a lot of depth made with materials that are clearly of great quality and I do really like it, but I’m not compelled to own a full bottle though I’m glad I’m got to try it.

Worlds most expensive golden hookah

The projection is moderate to high as it’s potent juice and the longevity is fantastic. It’s a beautiful fragrance that will certainly not offend anyone nor challenge the wearer. And if you enjoy immortelle and or tobacco, you should definitely check this one out!

Season: Works well year round

Top: Fennel, mandarin orange, ginger

Heart: Immortelle, tobacco

Base: Vanilla, vetiver

2022 Generation Femme Stephane Humbert Lucas 777

I’ve been on such a roll going through these Stephane Humbert Lucas samples, I’m determined now to finish reviewing the rest of the set now haha. So 2022 Generation is the name of this fragrance though I’m not completely savvy to its name or meaning. Perhaps it is in reference to the 2022 FIFA that is scheduled to take place in Doha, Qatar? Lucas names most of his frags thus far in reference to places in the Middle East and the only thing I see relevant to 2022 is FIFA. I’m just guessing here but I must say the use of galbanum along side an almond and heliotrope accord in the top is most unusual. Galbanum is an incredibly potent green note while heliotrope is typically the main player in powdery fragrances along with iris and violet. With it’s cherry-almond facets that are quasi-gourmand in nature, heliotrope is a sweet fruity floral note while galbanum is an aggressive, musky gum-resin containing terpenes and even sulfur that is quite disagreeable on it’s own. And I know this from personal experience after spilling a beaker with about 15mls of galbanum tincture on my bathroom counter. The grout between the tiles soaked it up and my bathroom reeked of galbanum for weeks lol. Needless to say, these are two notes that are not usually coupled together. But Lucas has clearly worked some type of sorcery allowing these two conflicting notes to play well together.

Galbanum plant

The galbanum doesn’t last very long though since it’s a top note. Within 10 minutes or so it’s completely dissipated and I’m left with a bright sweet heliotrope, cherry-almond, and tonka accord that becomes increasingly sweet moving into the heart. This is quite enjoyable and anyone that loves heliotrope should certainly give this one a try. It’s a very modern, fruity floral. And though the heart is a familiar play on heliotrope and almonds, the galbanum opening alongside these notes make for a very unique opening.

Potted heliotrope

Apricot is listed though I don’t pick up on it much nor the white tea. But it’s still a very fruity scent from the cherry-almond of the heliotrope. The projection is moderate to high. I dabbed a small bit on my left hand and I can smell it from almost a meter away so this is some potent juice! It lasts a very long time too, which for me is a major plus since most heliotrope frags I have are low projection skinscents that fade into the base after a few hours.

A few of my favorite heliotrope perfumes, Guerlain Meteorites center

I still detect heliotrope all the way through to the base but now it’s alongside sandalwood and tonka. Though I am not a fan of cherry notes I actually adore heliotrope and this perfume does the note more than fair justice. It’s sweet but not cloying though I imagine a heavy hand could really amp up this juice since it’s so potent. I love that this frag really brings out the cherry-almond nuances of heliotrope rather than suppress it to crush it into a powdery fragrance. Because this perfume isn’t very powdery at all though my nose tries to convince me that it is since my associations of heliotrope have all been with powdery fragrances. But nope, no powder. Just heady heliotrope in all it’s glory and just LOVE it. Will be buying a bottle of this!!!

Season: Spring/ Summer but works well year round

Top: Nectarine, neroli, almond, galbanum

Heart: White tea, heliotrope, cherry-almond

Base: Sandalwood, tonka, jasmine

Oumma Stephane Humbert Lucas 777

Oumma was created during the peak of the Western oud bandwagon and is a very standard, dare I say generic, rose/oud perfume even if it IS incredibly well blended and very smooth, non-abrasive. Oud can be very aggressive and even fecal, hence the phrase “barnyard oud”, but not here. Oumma takes that raw agarwood and sands it down and down further with very fine grit sandpaper until it’s smooth as glass. For what is normally a dirty note, the oud in this composition is about as clean as it gets.

Oumma opens with a synthetic top that’s almost plastic-y but this phase rapidly gives way to a very refined, polished woody oud and heady rose in full bloom. Jasmine adds a sweetness to the mix, while the balsams add the feel of incense. There’s nothing really new about the combination of these notes here. Nothing unique, nothing original. But the fragrance is pretty nonetheless. To me it’s a very gothic/ noir scent, better suited for cooler evenings.

The sillage and projection are fairly low surprisingly. Most oud-centric frags are serious powerhouses, monsters even. But Oumma settles into a skinscent within a few minutes of spraying on. That can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. It also doesn’t seem to last as long as the others I’ve tried from this house, which is actually pretty odd since oud basenotes are known to last a very long time. Which leaves me to conclude that this is most likely synthetic oud but I have no way of knowing for sure.

Fragrant agarwood beads

Overall, I enjoy the fragrance. It reminds me of Midnight Oud and even Rose Anonyme, though out of the three, I think I’d actually prefer Oumma for its smooth and clean qualites. But for the price and lack of longevity, there really are better rose/ouds available, value-wise. I’m still glad I got to test this one though. I love trying and comparing rose/ouds and though I wished it lasted longer, Oumma is very nice while it lasts.

Season: Fall/Winter

Top: Rose, jasmine

Heart: Peru balsam, tolu balsam

Base: oud, cedar, cyperus

O Hira Stephane Humbert Lucas 777

Though Fragrantica has this listed as straight up ambergris, this is really a labdanum and resin bomb. My last post was somewhat of a rant over these two notes inspired by finding the note pyramid for this fragrance on Fragrantica, what a joke lol.

So it’s all about amber here, but ambergris? I think not. I don’t really get any of that salty marine aroma though I’m sure it must be in there. It HAS to be, because this is incredibly expensive juice. A 50 ml bottle retails over $700 USD!!! Labdanum in itself is not a very expensive nor rare material at all so my only guess is that the price reflects the materials but this is just an assumption. Mr. Lucas could actually be pulling our leg here, bluffing the ambergris note since the actual notes were not divulged. I was actually surprised LuckyScent added it in as a free sample with my purchase to be honest since it costs so much lol.

What I detect most is honeyed labdanum, which is a balsam from the cistus plant, commonly called rock rose. This is dreamy labdanum though as the turpinoids and tar like qualities have been greatly smoothed out and sweetened. I pick up lots of benzoin which adds spicy cinnamon and vanilla nuances to the composition. There’s actually enough cinnamon that it could be its own note here.

This fragrance has a very leathery overall feel to it. It’s dirty but not cumin or civet dirty, but sweaty birch tar dirty. Brand new leather. It’s also a little boozy from honey. It smells like it should be sticky after being sprayed on skin, as concentrated labdanum tincture can be as well as honey. As a side note, at least honey can be washed off with water. Labdanum is not water soluble and if the absolute gets on skin it has to be dissolved with alcohol or some type of spirit but that’s the nature of resins and most balsams.

While I absolutely adore labdanum and this fragrance masterfully showcases the note as there’s no denying its beauty, there’s no way I could justify buying a full bottle since to me, it’s just a labdanum “soliflore” and I could easily mix one up myself from my collection of EOs and absolutes. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I could recreate this fragrance because I can’t or that my little tincture would be as nice as O’ Hira becauseit wouldn’t be. I don’t have all those materials readily available. I’m nota trained perfumer and I’m not THAT arrogant haha. What I AM saying though, is that I could very easily and cheaply tincture some cistus absolute that would satisfy any urge to wear a labdanum soliflore should one arise lol. And I’d still have my $700. Bottom line: yes it’s nice and the bottle is awesome but it’s not worth the asking price IMO. Next.

Season: Fall/Winter
Notes: Who really knows but definitely labdanum lol

Soleil de Jeddah Stephane Humbert Lucas 777

Judging solely on the notes listed on Fragrantica, this isn’t a fragrance I would have fervently sprung for even though I am a huge osmanthus fan. Combining osmanthus with a leather note raised a red flag, because leather notes can be very dirty. But I received samples with my purchase from LuckyScent and man this stuff is GOOD! I will definitely be ordering a full bottle!

Soleil de Jeddah opens with a sweet candied lemon, osmanthus, and ironically intense chamomile accord. I say ironically because chamomile isn’t typically a note that comes to mind when thinking about intense perfume notes, like oud for example. After drydown, the lemon gives way to a delicious vanilla note alongside the osmanthus, and chamomile. Vetiver isn’t listed in the notes but my nose picks it up here nonetheless. It’s a very light vetiver though and gives the composition a very subdued masculine feel, making this frag very unisex, though overall it DOES lean more feminine. The heart is sharply sweet from the osmanthus and vanilla, with moderate projection, so even though it’s sweet, it’s not all in your face. And it’s not sweet so much in the gourmand sort of way but more floral sweet. This stage lasts a long time, but it does seem to me that SHL fragrances have some serious lasting power, which makes it a more justifiable purchase since frags from this house do not come cheap. The base is a softer version of the heart. I never really detect the leather or the ambergris.

Osmanthus bush

Here in the southern US osmanthus, or commonly known here as “tea olive”, is a fairly popular evergreen landscaping shrub. While the flowers are in no way showy or even particularly attractive, the fragrance is incredibly intoxicating. They are potent in the same way that gardenias are, where even a gentle breeze can carry their fragrance on the wind. And even though the plant itself looks like a plain, generic green bush, they are anything but and make beautifully fragrant additions to any garden or landscape. And Soleil de Jeddah is one fragrance that really does justice to this incredibly gorgeous smelling flower. It really amps up the chamomile and gives it a much more heady aroma.

This fragrance is very unique but not completely alien to my nose since I can pick out some of the notes. But it’s surely something you won’t smell on everyone since these notes are not so commonly used like rose and jasmine are, for example.

Jeddah

I’ve never been to Saudi so I cannot really understand the connection between this perfume and the city of Jeddah. My associations are all based on my experience with the notes themselves. But I do know that Jeddah is a huge business hub and basically the gateway to Mecca, so I imagine the people do their best to keep it nice. And if this is what Jeddah sunshine smells like, count me in! Because it gorgeous!

Season: Spring/Summer
Top: Lemon, chamomile, osmanthus
Heart: Iris, ambergris
Base: Vanilla, leather, iris

Rive Gauche Yves Saint Laurent

Rive Gauche EdT

Rive Gauche, which means “Left Bank”, refers to the left bank of the river Seine in Paris, which is considered the trendy and hip boho part of town where Yves Saint Laurent first opened his boutique in the early 1970s. I came across this little gem through a fragrantica swap about a year ago. I never would have tried it otherwise, I’ll be honest here. *sigh* Though you should never judge a book by its cover or a perfume by its bottle for that matter, I am, nonetheless, drawn to perfumes not just by the notes but also from the aesthetics. I mean, come on, who doesn’t love a pretty perfume bottle on their boudoir, right? And I hate to say it but for a women’s fragrance, it isn’t contained in the most attractive bottle. It’s metal and looks more like a guys fragrance. It actually reminds me of those aerosol canister body sprays that were so big in the 80s and 90s. Malibu Musk anyone? Anyone? Bueller? haha But I supposed it was something different at the time it was released, way before Malibu Musk.

The one and only Malibu Musk in a can

Aside from the bland presentation, the juice itself is a really nice clean fragrance. This has got to be the epitome of an aldehyde if I’ve ever smelled one. It opens with a burst of soapy aldehydes and damp green oakmoss. The heart develops into a slightly metallic, herbal floral musk which is also very powdery from the iris. I can faintly detect vetiver but it’s very light. I can definitely smell the rose, though it is fairly tame. The overall feel of the perfume is a lightly green and powdery soap. This fragrance won’t offend anyone, though some people find aldehydes migraine inducing. But aldehydes are top notes, so unless you spray it on right then and there, you shouldn’t have a problem. Aldehydes themselves are a rather soft, airy type of perfume material, so even an overload doesn’t mean powerhouse, because Rive Gauche is anything but. If you aren’t sure what aldehydes smell like, think Chanel No 5 which is also an aldehyde bomb. It’s the waxy, clean soapy smell that permeates the top notes, before the florals really bloom.

About four years into my fragrance journey I swapped a few perfumes I wasn’t wearing for a perfumers kit, complete with 2 different aldehydes (there are many different types of aldehydes) so I’ve become familiar with how they basically smell as singular notes. And from what I can tell, Rive Gauche is composed mostly of aldehydes and oakmoss. Those are the two main notes I detect front and center stage. The rest of the notes play minimally supporting roles, though the nuances ARE there.

Though it was produced as edt, edp, and parfum, I believe only the edt remains in production. It was also reformulated since it was first released in 1970. The edt is very easy to get online at fair prices but the edp’s have become very rare since being discontinued and the prices for them have skyrocketed. I own both edt and edp, and they are so similar that I don’t think it’s even worth the trouble or money to hunt down an edp. I acquired both of my bottles through swaps, otherwise I would surely not have the edp. But I’ve hoarded it away as a collector piece and never wear it though I tested it a few times after receiving it.

Rive Gauche EdP

If you enjoy Chanel No 5 and enjoy clean laundry type fragrances, I think it’s a safe bet to say that you’d probably like Rive Gauche as well, though keep in mind Rive Gauche is much less sweet and floral than No 5. There’s a bit of greenness to it from the oakmoss and it wears on the powdery side from the iris. It’s considered a feminine fragrance but I think in this day in age it’s fairly unisex since it’s not overly floral or sweet, plus I think the bottle would appeal to guys too. Overall, it’s a very simple, minimalist fragrance, though timeless and classic and easy to wear.

Year: 1971

Season: Year round

Top: Aldehydes, honeysuckle, peach, green notes, bergamot, lemon

Heart: Magnolia, iris, gardenia, jasmine, ylang, lily of the valley, rose, carnation

Base: Oakmoss, sandalwood, tonka, amber, vetiver, musk

Royal Extract Guerlain

Royal Extract falls into a small group of anomalous perfumes Guerlain has released in limited productions over the years. Vol de Nuit Evasion, Attrape Cœur, Guet Apens, Royal Extract, and a few others too. They all have different names and different packaging but they are all essentially the exact same fragrance.

Among Guerlain collectors, it’s more of a third tier collection piece. Top tier being the über rare, $25k collection piece flacons, like Shalimar Indes & Merveilles or the L’Abeilles flacons, which are practically museum worthy pieces. Second tier being the Lalique or Baccarat crystal pieces and even the porcelain Mitsouko flacons, for example. But for regular folks like myself, THIS is top shelf stuff.

Photo from my personal collection: VdN Evasion, Guet Apens, & Attrape Cœur.

I’ve had the pleasure of hunting down and owning three versions of this fragrance in Vol de Nuit Evasion in the traditional Cœur cap “L’heure bleue” bottle, Attrape Cœur in the Persiennes bee bottle, and Guet Apens in the cobalt blue lantern bottle. Royal Extract took several years to be able to test though because it’s such a limited exclusive and was only released to Harrods in London, so testers in the US are few and far between, much less full bottles. I was lucky to come across a decent size decant for swap on Fragrantica and I swapped my partial bottle of current formula Mitsouko EdP for it (which I’ve since replaced with a vintage full of oakmoss). To me, it was a great score because I’ve been dying to test it out and compare it to the others.

Guerlain is known for often releasing previously discontinued fragrances. But the re-releases more often than not come with some tweaking of the juice, meaning of course, reformulations. And this frag was tweaked every time it was released. It’s very obvious not only in the color of the juices, but in side by side comparisons. The scent itself, Royal Extract, is much more refined, cleaner, brighter and even sweeter than Guet Apens but it’s still that same fragrance I’ve come to love so much. Over the past 3 years, this perfume has become my most favorite fragrance to date. And not because of the “thrill of the chase” with it being such a rare, discontinued unicorn, but the scent itself is so incredibly gorgeous, it sends me into bliss. I could drown myself in this juice, figuratively speaking of course, ha. To me, it’s the most beautiful ambered vanilla I’ve ever had. And Guerlain is well known as the master of vanilla perfumes. From their iconic and historical flagship fragrance Shalimar to their coveted exclusives like Spiriteuse Double Vanille, Cuir Beluga, and Mon Precieux Nectar, which are considered some of the creme de la creme of exclusive vanilla perfumes and I own them all and truly love them all, but I love this one the most. I just really can’t get enough.

Screenshot of Notes listed on Fragrantica

Though these are Orientals, Guet Apens and to a lesser degree, Evasion, are heavy with labdanum, giving them a woody chypre undercurrent, faint but detectable. Royal Extract on the other hand, leaves out this “dirty” bit and focuses more on the vanilla and peach. To my nose, it’s very similar to Mon Precieux Nectar in that they both carry the same sweet honey viscosity (not literally, in the thickness of the juice itself, but rather how it is perceived). They are about the same level of sweetness, brightness, though MPN features a prominent almond note, Royal Extract being peach. I would dare say they share the same base.

Though many perfumistas couldn’t care less about this relatively obscure little group of discontinued perfumes, much less this one incarnation of it, die-hard Guerlainophiles go nuts over this stuff and clearly I am in that latter group haha. Why is it that Guerlain continues to seduce and tease with these limited releases? Why change the name, the bottle, and presentation of this fragrance every time? Though I have no idea, I can say definitively that it lends an air of mystery and evasiveness even, to the entire “hoopla” surrounding this fragrance and its history. And it gives us Guerlainophiles sort of a scavenger hunt if you will, that adds notches to the perfumista belt of experience. Because the truth is, not many perfumistas will ever get a chance to try even one version of this fragrance, much less four versions of it. And yes, I am proud of this little accomplishment, truth be told haha.

In every case of collecting items, whatever they may be, there are always coveted pieces that are rare and highly sought after. From stamps to train sets, to art and even cars, perfume collecting is no different. So I feel very lucky and very grateful to that super Fragrantican that afforded me the opportunity to try out this rare and gorgeous fragrance. And even though I practically already knew what it was going to smell like before I even received it, I’m still super thrilled that I got to experience Royal Extract and its subtle differences for myself. ❤

Photo credit to Monsieur Guerlain

* Fragrantica has this currently listed incorrectly as “Royal Extrait” instead of Royal Extract.

Mon Guerlain

This new release from the house of Guerlain has been getting polarizing reviews and lots of flak for making Angelina Jolie the face of their ad campaign. I’ll admit that I was in no real hurry to rush out and test it. Besides being spoiled by my collection of Guerlain exclusives, I just haven’t been blown away by ANY of their modern mass market releases. From Insolance and La Petite Robe Noir to Idylle, L’Instant, and the Aqua Allagorias with hundreds of flankers in between, none of them have ended up in my wardrobe nor even close to making it to my want list except the original La Petite Robe Noir which I bought online but ended up swapping it for a Black Orchid and Rive Gauche from a lovely Fragrantican because I couldn’t stand that Merachino cherry syrup note.

Guerlain is notorious for reusing their perfumes in various concentrations and renaming them, a la Metallica/Metalys/Reve de Lune or the more known affair of Guet Apens/Attrape Cœur/Royal Extrait/Vol de Nuit Evasion. Or how they diluted some frags and even passed them for exclusives. For example, they took L’ Heure Bleue, diluted the juice, changed the color, threw it in a Bee bottle and called it L’Huere d’Nuit while tripling the price. Same with Mayotte/Mahora and a few others.

Mon Guerlain, formerly Mon Exclusif,
is also a recycled perfume, however, they went down with the price this time and I can totally appreciate that!  This is a vanilla and tonka bean bomb though the immediate top is a bit weird to me. Lavender is also a big player but it plays a big supporting role and is very mellow and not in your face at all.

I digress here I know, but I went on a lavender kick several years ago and bought half a pound of organic food grade lavender. I made cocktails, and teas, and scrubs. I even made lavender sugar cookies and while they were pretty and even pretty good tasting, they threw me over the edge and made me lavender sick! I couldn’t smell lavender again without getting nausea lol. Just like after a bad hangover. So I have avoided anything lavender until recently as it seems my tolerance is finally returning, though even still, a sniff of pure Lavender EO still makes my stomach churn.

Mon Guerlain has a fair amount of lavender but it doesn’t invoke any hard feelings (or nausea) in me at all and wears as a light and fresh vanilla with a drydown that recalls Cuir Beluga. It’s definitely a fresh Oriental but it’s not heavy and syrupy like they typically can be.

My biggest complaint is that it doesn’t seem to last very long with any real projection though I can still detect it as a skinscent after 6 hours.  That’s actually good for many people though I like a bit more projection in my frags. But for the price, it’s something I can live with.

Guerlain wanted to go mainstream and they’ve succeded! And what better way than offering an Exclusives grade perfume at a consumer friendly cost. Because while it DOES smell more “mass market” vs “niche”, it still bears a more sophisticated accord that smells “very Guerlain”, though not in a “Guerlinade” fashion. And though it already was an exclusive in it’s previous incarnation as Mon Exclusif, I can actually see the juice fitting into the Elixer Charnels collection just fine. So that actually says a lot about the juice I think.

Bottom line: It’s good! And even though I already have a bottle of Mon Exclusif, I think I will still end up buying a bottle of Mon Guerlain and wear it instead, for collections sake lol. 🙂

Season: Appropriate all year round.

Top: Lavender, Bergamot

Heart: Iris, Jasmin

Base: Vanilla, Sandalwood,Tonka

Lazy Sunday Morning Maison Martin Margiela

Lazy Sunday Morning is a super clean, unisex summer fragrance. It’s light and airy with just a touch of sweetness. Think clean laundry, snuggled up in a warm blanket just out of the dryer. This is the epitome of the “clean linens drying in the sun while the summer breeze carries the fragrance of flowers in full bloom” fantasy. It’s soapy clean with just a hint of florals.

The main notes I detect while wearing are clean white musk/ambroxan slightly sweetened by pear and orange blossoms with a hint of lily of the valley and roses. And though patchouli is listed as a base note I really don’t detect it at all. The dried down base, to me smells very much like Juliette Has a Gun “Anyway” and “Not a Perfume”, if you’ve ever tried them before. 

I get a solid 6 hours of wear, which is pretty good for an eau de toilette. And though the projection is relatively low, staying close to the skin, the sillage is incredibly beautiful. I would love to have the candle version of this!

Lazy Sunday Morning is very easy to wear and completely non-offensive so it would work well as an office friendly/close quarters type fragrance. It’s squeaky clean and oh so cozy. A fragrance for when you don’t want to wear a fragrance as it wears as if it were a second skin or a better smelling version of yourself lol. If you love soapy clean fragrances without the super synthetic detergent vibe, this is a beautiful one to check out! 

Season: Spring/Summer

Top: Aldehydes, Pear, Lily of the Valley

Heart: Rose, Iris, Orange Blossom

Base: White Musk, Patchouli, Ambrette

Perfume Layering Tips and Techniques

If you own several fragrances already and like experimenting with new things, you can actually play around with mixing them to create your very own personalized “bespoke” fragrance!

And if you didn’t know, layering perfumes is actually a “thing”. There are multipage forum discussions all about it online. Some perfumistas are adamently against it whose objections usually stem from the view of perfumes being works of art and tampering with that being sacriligious.

I’m a bit more in the middle ground here. While I DO believe perfumes are works of art, they are still toiletry items. And just as I would have no objection to blending 2 different shades of lipstick to get the perfect color, I don’t object to perfumes being blended together to create custom fragrance cocktails. There are even a few sellers online that specialize in blending perfumes for others.

My mother always said not to mix perfumes because they would “clash” but she was wrong. She was wrong about a lot of things I’ve discovered as an adult lol. While some blends are definitely better than others, anything can be blended together. Are they not made from “perfume ingredients” afterall? Somewhere out there is every combination imaginable I’m sure.
 
There are two ways to layer perfumes; mixing them into a vial or container before application or by spraying multiple perfumes directly on. And there are two different techniques when spraying directly on; either by applying multiple perfumes in the same locations so they mix on the body or applying multiple perfumes on different parts of the body so you smell the individual perfumes sometimes simultaniously and sometimes individually.

Personally I don’t layer my perfumes to really create completely new fragrances (although I did once create a mix from combining one spray from every perfume I own, well over 100 bottles) but mostly to enhance certain notes within them, especially in my classics like Mitsouko and Vol de Nuit, which have been greatly altered since the IFRA regulation compliance reformulations that have affected so many other perfumes as well.

For example, I love the oakmoss in Mitsouko and sometimes want the peach to have a greater presence so I will layer Liaisons Dangereueses with my “Mitsy”. They are  both fruity chypres afterall and share a few similar notes of oakmoss and peach. So layering them gives the LD a deeper chypre feel while giving the Mitsy a grander, sweeter peach. I LOVE this combo so much!

And while I really love Vol de Nuit as is, sometimes I like to amp up that iris note and also give it a bit of sweetness by layering it with either Iris Poudre or Khol de Bahrein. It’s gorgeous! 😍

I’ve also found a love in Dames Chocolate Man Chocolate perfume that layers well with almost all of my orientals and gives Shalimar a little gourmand kick.

If you are interested in trying out layering your own fragrances, you can totally dive right in and start spraying away but to avoid too much waste, I recommend knowing what notes are in your fragrances first and also knowing what fragrance familes your perfumes fall into. Examples of fragramce families per Fragrantica:

You are more likely to hit a winning combo by layering frags within the same family. A few examples of frag families are florals, aquatics, herbals a.k.a fougeres, vanilla orientals, and woods like cedars and ouds. The above chart is from Fragrantica.com under groups if you want to learn further about frag families.  While you can definitely mix fougeres into some potent woody oud perfumes, it may be really over the top. But adding an oriental vanilla into a smokey oud can be divine!

I love referring to the note pyramids on Fragrantica.com that are found listed under almost every perfume you can imagine. The site is easy to use, just type the name of the frag into their search bar. I’ve found them sooo very helpful in matching up possible layering combinations. Here is an example pyramid of FlowerBombs notes:

For the real layering enthusiasts, there are perfume kits on the market now created just for layering, like the Clean Reserve kit at Sephora, the Mixologie Kit at the Grommet, or basically the entire Demeter library at Walgreens.

And while not every layering attempt will be a winner, it’s still fun to play around with and experiment with fragrances. And who knows, you may just stumble onto the best thing you’ve ever smelled! ❤