About My Fragrance Reviews
I used to collect fragrances in my teenage years to early 20s.
I couldn’t afford anything expensive then, so most of things I bought were the tiny mini bottles.
I’d only buy the bigger bottles if I was really in love with the scent. But “bigger bottles” doesn’t mean 100 ml bottles necessarily; my go-to sizes were usually 30 or 50 ml. 100 ml was just a little too big for me that I wouldn’t be able to use it up fast enough. (Plus, I like the look of the 30 ml bottle sizes!)
My favourite in my teenage years was the Les Belles de Ricci 1 by Nina Ricci (which is sadly now discontinued.)
I loved the twisted green bottle with frosted glass. It was a fruity floral scent with a hint of tomato and basil—sweet, fresh, and unique.
I had been away from fragrances after my mid-20s, but somehow my interest has come back lately! The said Nina Ricci reminds me of youth just because I used to wear it a lot when I was young. While I still love the scent, it feels little too young for me to wear now.
I’ve posted about this on Instagram in June.
I’ve been sampling some new-to-me fragrances since spring/early summer and it’s been a lot of fun!
Whenever I try the new scents, I’ve been taking some notes. I thought I might as well share them here, so that you can read it too!
But before we get into that, I want to explain what I like and what I’m looking for.
My favourite scent family: Floral and/or fruity.
Obviously I like fragrances, but I’m pretty sensitive to scents at the same time. I could get headaches or feel sick if the scent is too strong which makes my taste for scents somewhat narrow.
I usually avoid something too heavy, too sharp, too powdery, marine accord, gourmand accord, and strong woody/earthy tones.
I tend to like light floral/fruity that’s not overpowering and feels soft yet fresh. I enjoy good soapy scents as well (not cleaning detergent smelling ones though!)
Strength/Sillage: Soft and weak
I think most of people wear fragrances for themselves, but sometimes you might want to make a certain impression towards others. And that’s perfectly fine, of course!
But I personally don’t really care about making a statement with fragrances, rather, I don’t want others to be able to smell my fragrance in the air so much (or almost at all.)
I just want to wear perfumes because I enjoy the scent itself; I feel energized by it, or feel relaxed because of it. As long as I can enjoy it, that’s enough for me, therefore I don’t go for strong powerful scents.
When it comes to “perfume sillage”, I prefer very little trace. (This might be an unpopular opinion as lots of people seem to care about good projection/sillage.)
I like something that doesn’t leave a lot of trace, because then I don’t have to worry about potentially making other people feel sick.
I myself can get a headache from a strong scent, so I like scents that don’t easily offend others. Depending on the occasion, I choose not to wear perfume to be appropriate. “Not offending others” is very important to me!
What I’m looking for:
I don’t have anything particular in mind (yet).
I’ve been trying things outside of my comfort zone every now and then, if it looks and sounds interesting.
It’s been a while since I last picked out a fragrance, so I don’t want to limit things too much. I have an idea of what I normally like, but I still like to remain open minded.
There are tons and tons of options out there though—which can be pretty overwhelming. So I’m more leaning towards niche brands or perfume houses instead of designers’ fragrances to narrow things down.
One isn’t better than another; it’s just what I’m interested in at the moment.
Lastly:
Fragrances, like any other beauty products, are heavily depend on one’s preference.
What I like may easily be what you don’t like and vice versa. Something might just not agree with your skin or your body condition.
So my reviews are my opinion.
It’s not so much about what’s “good or bad”, but simply, what I think about the product, how I feel about it, whether I liked it or not.
Please don’t get offended if I don’t like something you like :)
But also, please give a product try if it interests you, even when it doesn’t work for me.
Perfumes are something you just need to try on your own skin.
They smell different on paper vs skin. They smell different on each person because of the body smell, body temperature, and so on. The conditions such as weather, humidity, mood of the day can affect how you interpret the scent too.
I like getting samples so that I can wear it more than just one day, before committing to buying the big bottle.
You could get a pretty good idea by spraying on a store tester, but I don’t think you can truly smell the perfume well enough at the store—the space is large and it’s filled with other products’ scents.
I believe the best way to really experience the scent is trying it on you at home, and wear it for at least few hours, and then try it again on a different day.
If you find anything interesting out of my reviews, I highly recommend go check it out yourself if you can, and trust your own judgement. After all, fragrances are extremely personal.
In case you’re interested…
Here’s the list of fragrances I used to use in my teenage years to 20s (I was born in 1987 to give you a context because some of them were super popular in the 90s - early 2000s.) I’ve linked them to Fragrantica pages so you can see the pictures!
Seeing this list take me waaay back… The online shopping wasn’t as widely available as it is now, so I only bought what I could find at local shops. They were all pretty popular in 1990-2000s, I’m sure some of you can recognized them!
Nov 1, 2022
