Some Perfume Myths

Marketing frustrates me. In college, I spent a large portion of my time learning how to market a product through visual mediums. I found myself growing steadily more and more frustrated with marketing gimmicks and tactics. Perfume ads, perfume commercials, perfume aesthetics, and most of the perfume industry itself is often steeped in over-the-top gimmicks and outrageous claims. For a lark, let’s take a look at some of the myths of perfume that were somehow perpetuated and continue to exist today.

The notes list on a perfume is the ingredients list.
Probably the most common misconception about perfume is that the notes list is some sort of indicator of what you’re actually getting in a fragrance. It doesn’t help that no one comes out and tells people not to rely on it as a list of ingredients either. The notes list on a fragrance’s ad is just a list of scents that you should smell when you spray the stuff on. The actual ingredients list could be hundreds of components long and most of them might be near impossible to pronounce. Notes lists are notorious for being inaccurate and often incomplete, they list notes that aren’t even there, they use overly flowery language, and sometimes they have made up ingredients that don’t exist. If you want to refer to a notes list, use it as a guide to what you’re smelling, but don’t cite it as an ingredients list because it is not.

Perfumes that last longer are higher quality.
Not necessarily true. Perfumes that stick around forever are often composed of robust fragrant ingredients that allow them to stick around for a long time. A stick of Secret deodorant will usually give off a scent for at least 9 hours. Does that mean the fragrant ingredients in your stick of deodorant is of a higher quality than the ingredients in your Amouage perfume? Not necessarily. It just means the fragrant ingredients in the deodorant are more robust and are made to be resilient. Resilience is not always an indication of quality.

You have to wear perfume on your pulse points in order for it to work properly.
While most people like to wear their fragrances on the pulse points such as the wrists and neck, no one is stopping you from wearing perfume elsewhere and so long as the fragrance is on your skin, it won’t react too differently. Also nothing bad will happen to you if you want to dab some perfume somewhere else on your body. Provided that ‘somewhere else’ is not in your eyes, nose, mouth, or in and around any other orifice. Use your common sense, obviously.

Eau de parfum concentrations will last longer than eau de toilette concentrations.
Concentrations do not necessarily denote the longevity or the quality of the fragrance. Just because you opt for the EDP of a perfume, does not mean you will get better wear from it. EDP and EDT concentrations of a perfume with the same name can often vary in ingredients. Sometimes the fragrance houses vary the amount of certain ingredients as opposed to just using more fragrant oils. So a lot of the time, you may get an EDT that smells completely differently from an EDP of the “same perfume”. If you want higher concentration = longer lasting perfume, you will have to graduate from the EDPs and EDTs to Parfum. Even then, ingredients can vary and scents can be drastically different. The bottom line is, you cannot base a judgement on how long a fragrance will last simply by assuming that EDT will always be weaker than EDP.

 


Creed Royal Oud

Oud has always been popular amongst perfumistas. It took me a while to get used to it myself. But how could I delay it? People love oud. Companies have entire lines of fragrances dedicated to oud.  So how does Royal Oud stack up to the competition? Eh.

Royal Oud

Royal Oud

In Bottle: It’s oud all right. Dense and warm oud with a flowery bit of woodsiness and a major spice going on.

Applied: Okay, so here’s the problem with Royal Oud on me. It opens with a big spicy kick. Like the spices are a bit strong and overpowering at first and that makes it hard for my nose to adjust and get to the rest of the fragrance. As the spices settle down a bit, I get a warm, dense, slightly dirty oud and woodsy fragrance. The woods are a little distracting because I swear I smell a cedar note that’s threatening to take over and pull me away from the smooth richness of the oud fragrance. Royal Oud is a strange but rather boring creature. It’s strange in that it uses oud throughout its progression but the other notes in the fragrance seem to always be stronger and trying to overpower the oud. It’s boring because it smells like a spicy woodsy men’s fragrance with a little hint of dirtiness.

Extra: Oud has this dirty, dense, very resinous quality to my nose. But to describe oud is nearly impossible because there are so many ouds and so many different ways that oud can smell. It can be dirty, dense, deep, warm, sweet, and sticky. It also all depends on what type of oud you’re smelling and whether it’s a synthetic or a natural oud. It’s a talented ingredient that takes a good perfume to the next level if used right.

Design: The bottle itself is shaped and designed in a similar fashion to other Creed fragrances. Nice, heavy glass. Simple exterior with no unnecessary flourishes. The colors work well, the focus is on the fragrance and not the crazy gimmick bottle (here’s looking at you, Agonist. Even though I love Agonist bottles). It’s just a classic-looking Creed bottle that combines form and function very well.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Agarwood, woods, spices.

I don’t know how I should feel about Royal Oud except to say that Amouage did it better. Get yourself an attar if you want something that focuses a bit more on oud. Get yourself Royal Oud if you’re not sure you like the stuff yet but you want a confident fragrance that features oud but won’t overwhelm you with it.

Reviewed in This Post: Royal Oud, 2011, Eau de Parfum.


Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady

Portrait of a Lady was the talk of Niche Town when it was first released. It took me a while to get my sample of this fragrance but I’m glad that I did.

Portrait of a Lady

Portrait of a Lady

In Bottle: Sour to my nose thanks to the currants with a spicy kick from the cinnamon and clove.

Applied: Sour currants that give way to spicy cinnamon and clove that mixes in with the incense in the midstage. I get mostly smoke from Portrait of a Lady until she keeps aging on my skin and there’s a bit of earthiness that comes up from the patchouli as the scent keeps aging the amber and its warmness rushes up to mingle with the smoke and spice. The rose in this scent doesn’t come up until later in the fragrance where the spicy notes settle down a bit to leave us with a soft, warmed, rose with a hint of spice.

Extra: Portrait of a Lady was created by Dominique Ropion who also created fragrances such as Burberry The Beat, Cacharel Amor Amor, and Armani Code for Women.

Design: Bottled in much the same way as other Frederic Malle scents, in a cylindrical glass bottle. It has a nice weight to it and the simple design makes you focus more on the scent inside the bottle than the flashy exterior. It’s simple and functional for what it is.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Raspberry, blackcurrant, clove, cinnamon, rose, sandalwood, patchouli, incense, musk, amber, benzoin.

Portrait of a Lady is a really well done oriental, it smells a bit like an oriental powerhouse but also has elements of a sophisticated modern scent. I especially like the spicy rose present in this fragrance.

Reviewed in This Post: Portrait of a Lady, 2011, Eau de Parfum.


Tauer L’Air du Desert Marocain

L’Air du Desert Marocain has been described as a dry, beautiful oriental that’s reminiscent of a desert breeze. Come on, with a description like that, I had to give her a try.

L'Air du Desert Marocain

L'Air du Desert Marocain

In Bottle: Dry incense with a bit of earthiness and a beautiful hint of woodsiness that comes through this beautifully blended spicy accord.

Applied: Spiciness is up right away with a bit of an incense kick. This isn’t off-putting, too strong and a little bit weird incense. L’Air du Desert Marocain employs a beautiful, clear incense fragrance that’s smoky and classic. It smells like incense should. Delicate but strong at the same time. There’s a bit of floral sweetness that’s balanced out by a smoky bitterness. Sounds like a strange combination but the two, when combined, makes something very pretty. The florals in this help perfume the backdrop to the incense, as well as the woodsy notes and the spices. Everything is so well blended that it’s hard for me to pick out a specific player and I like it that way. The only thing I know is that the incense fragrance in this is awesome.

Extra: Tauer is a niche luxury fragrance house headed by Andy Tauer who not only has his name on these beautiful fragrances, he also composes them. It’s always awesome to see a perfumer heading their own fragrance line.

Design: Bottled in a pentagon-shaped blue glass bottle, L’Air du Desert Marocain looks very luxurious and feels equally luxurious. It has a bit of a lapis lazuli look to it as well. Tauer, however, uses relatively the same bottle design principles for all of their fragrances. Regardless, the bottles are functional and look great.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Coriander, petitgrain, lemon, bergamot, jasmine, cistus, bourbon, geranium, cedarwood, vetiver, vanilla, patchouli, ambergris.

Well, L’Air du Desert Marocain lived up to the hype. I really enjoyed this one. As for it making me picture a desert wind–well, I’m not sure about that. It’s definitely dry, it definitely smells good, and it’s definitely got this beautiful classical vibe to it. When you have a perfume that smells so awesome already, I’m not that worried about it living up to its name.

Reviewed in This Post: L’Air du Desert Marocain, 2010, Eau de Toilette.