2024 was the year of the extrait de parfum. The fragbros have won and brands are listening and offering perfumes in the strongest possible variations. This explains why my favourite perfume discovery of the year hasn’t resulted in me buying a full bottle – it’s so potent that I can’t wear more than a spray of my sample at a time.
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I’m talking about Perfumehead – yes, I’ve entered the Osmocosm, and it smells fine.
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The brand gives us scents inspired by the romantic heady vibe of Hollywood, and every single perfume takes you on a ride. All the scents are offered as extraits, and now there are perfumeoils as well. Because the juice is so concentrated, even with one spray, there’s the feeling of being plunged to the depths of the perfume head-first. You get the base notes immediately, and then experience the rest of the scent as you come back up for air.
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Today I wore La La Love, the latest one in the line, and the one that has become my favourite. Immediately, I got the warm smoked balsamic labdanum-heavy base, and then hints of the tea, vanilla, saffron, vanilla as the day wore on. Perfumehead calls this a gourmand but it doesn’t smell like anything I want to eat, and it just happens to have the notes that are from the kitchen. La La Love and Canadian Tuxedo are my favourite from the line, and I’d recommend them to anyone who likes rich and jammy perfumes.
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But, these aren’t perfumes that you should gift – they are so unique that they need to be chosen not given as a burden.
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If you want to get a fraghead something they won’t come across at their regular mall then a discovery set from Perfumehead would be at the top of my list. This is a new brand doing something interesting – I can’t wait to see what’s next.
The Best Perfume I Tried in 2024: Perfumehead
Tom Ford L’Eau d’Ombre Leather Perfume Review
This is my favourite Tom Ford to come out in the last little bit, even though it does smell a lot like other perfumes that were released not too long ago. Truly, if you approach this looking for a heavy leather perfume, you will be disappointed. This is a vanilla scent with a smoky rubber leather hidden within. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Actually, the leather accord is surrounded by the vanilla and spices, almost like a thin hard candy shell that lets you see a smoky leather through it. You experience the leather with the sugar which actually makes it more palatable, especially if, like me, you’re not a fan of leather. The cardamom and ginger are smooth top notes, suspended in the vanilla. Ok, so it’s not the most original perfume around, but it’s the most captivating version of this kind of scent that I’ve smelled and I can’t stop reaching for my sample. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Fenty Butta Drop Duo
If you want to smell like delicious buttery gingerbread, this is the body butter to layer any perfume with – or skip the perfume all together, because this is so strongly scented that when I use it as hand cream, it’s all I can smell all day long. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I had this body butter on my desk this past week (as my hand cream) and everyone who tried it was shocked at the texture. Yes, it’s thick but then it melts into a creamy liquid in your hands, rich and satisfying for the middle of winter. The formula has oils in it – sunflower, rice bran, jojoba, and coconut – so the richness is due to it actually being an excellent formula. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
It’s the Fenty Butta Drop – my favourite body butter, and this came as part of the Shimmer N Spice duo, which includes a hydrating lip mask too. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
It’s the perfect little gift for a teenager in your life or anyone who loves sweet scents. And it’s on sale right now. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Chocolatey Winter Treats from Smells to Makeup
Bon Parfumeur 502 Iris Cartagena. Rum and cocoa are whipped together to create a light-as-air concoction. It won’t be sweet enough for some and and the final effect isn’t enough for it to be a gourmand because this doesn’t smell like anything you’d eat, even though there are sugary notes. The iris is this is subdued and of the powder variety. There’s also a woodsiness in the base and the dry cedar blends with the dryness of the other notes. This is a Bon Parfumeur extrait and it does have impressive longevity, almost sticking to your skin even if there’s no big scent-bubble. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
If you want your home to smell sweet, then the Diptyque Friandise candle is for you. It’s kind of a sugar cookie sweetness, without any spice or other notes, but that means that it won’t clash with anything else cooking in your kitchen. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
NYX Cosmetics Buttermelt Bronzers thankfully come in all kinds of chocolate colours. Check them out if you’ve found that you have a hard time finding your perfect shade. I find that they all wear on the pink side but I don’t mind that on my cheeks. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Biosculpture nail polish in Berry Bush is the colour that everyone is wearing this season. Yes, some of us still wear regular nail polish. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Dior Homme Parfum
There was news that a new version of Dior Homme is coming to North America – this version was made by Francis Kurkdjian and doesn’t list Iris as a note, so I’m thinking it will be a new version of Dior Homme. For now, if you want Dior Homme Intense or the Parfum, you can only pick it up at duty-free or discounters. This makes it easy to find but mostly just for those in the know. I’ve had Dior Homme Parfum on my wishlist for a while now, and I can now check it off. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I’m now down a Dior Homme rabbit hole and interested in smelling more iterations of this scent. Having smelled all the Dior Homme versions available at the counter, and owning bottles of DHI and DHP, I’ll say that my favourite version is still the Intense. It’s lighter and more powdery, the iris more prominent and lipstick-like. The Parfum version has more leather and feels heavier. It opens with a warm cozy rounded cardamom and is stripped of menthol. The leather is brown, soft and supple, sticking close to the skin, mixing with ambery woods as it settles. If you are a fan of amber woods and leather, then this would be one to try in cooler weather. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The Intense version offers a better diffusion of notes, while the Parfum seems to be weighed down by the base. There’s not as much powder, but that’s ok. If you don’t like powder then this version might work better for you. It works so well on cooler days, maybe because of the bit of vanilla in the drydown that keeps things sweeter but not gourmand. I’ll enjoy both this winter. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Katy Perry Indi
Celebrity scents are not as trendy as they used to be (at least from what I see), but I love the simple woodiness in Katy Perry’s Indi. It kind of reminds me of SJP Stash too, because of the dry cedar in the base. Such an easy scent to wear, especially in autumn. A few years ago, if you found a bottle of this for $20 or $30 (like I did) it felt like such a find, but now that there are so many dupe affordable Middle Eastern fragrance houses doing interesting things, finding a $22 wearable perfume doesn’t seem so exciting, when for $10 you can get a pretty good scent and one that everyone else seems to be talking about. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Anyway, that’s my scent of the day. I pulled out something vault and liked it. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
OG Mugler Alien
Can you believe that this is the first time I tried it on skin? I got it in a swap, and I thought why not. I had never tried it before, but I’m loving Mugler Alien now. This is the start of a beautiful friendship.
Warm ambery jasmine in an ultra-cool bottle that appeals to anyone from gen-x to gen-z.
Guerlain Nahema
I’m drawn to the quiet luxury of Nahema today, although it opens with a brilliance that fills the room and then fades to a skin-like warmth. This rose perfume stands up to any other rose perfume, a classic in every way. This bottle reminds me of summer – any summer before and every summer after – because it gives a fresh dewiness with the rose, a lightness in feeling that only exists when the days are long and my mind is at ease. Whenever I want to remember those days, I’ll reach for Nahema. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Amouage Fate Woman
It’s impossible to make sense of life, but sometimes you just have to let go and accept things for what they are. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Like the magic of your favourite perfume, which you can try to put into words, provide images and songs, but know that in the end, it’s not enough and the magic can’t be captured. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
That’s Fate. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Written off for being a powder bomb, this is indeed powdery, but it also has the most intense frankincense, tons of spices and a luminosity that’s almost blinding. Wearing it is like being encased in a magical white light. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Dior Homme Intense
A fall perfume that swerves away from anything sweet and syrupy. This is dry, powdery lavender, a lipstick-like Iris, and woods. I reach for it in the fall but it’s actually an easy reach at any time of year. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀