perfume

When I think about woody fragrances…

…I think about so many different things. This topic came to me recently, when I asked a few friends what type of fragrances they like. The most frequent answer was “oh woody stuff!” (citrus came close second). So I thought I’d explore three very different woody fragrances I have in my collection, and share some thoughts on each.

🪵 Gucci Guilty Absolute for men (2017) by @guccibeauty is a very, and I mean veeery, dry woody fragrance. I see before me a person in a leather jacket, getting off their Harley Davidson, only to enter a forest that hasn’t seen rain for years… There’s leather, cypress, patchouli and vetiver, to make it as woody as possible. These notes also make the fragrance dark, a little dirty, slightly medicinal, and most of all – dry as fuck. And even though I don’t wear it that often, I have to say I love this scent. And basically each time I've sprayed it I’ve gotten compliments. But I really don’t like the shape of the bottle (I have the 150ml bottle and I’m always scared it will fall over and break). I am also firmly against “masculine” / “feminine” classifications of perfume. A scent is a scent, it does not have a gender and is always going to be unisex for me. Having said that, the price is great for this level of quality. What do you think of Gucci Guilty Absolute? I understand it’s quite a polarizing fragrance!

🪵 Gheorghe by @strangers.parfumerie is what I like to call a rustic wood fragrance, with elements of peat, hay, whiskey, tobacco and a certain sweetness you’d only find in the countryside. The tobacco makes it slightly medicinal somehow, but not in a cold way. It’s earthy without becoming humid or bitter. Perfumer @prinlomros took inspiration from the beautiful film “God’s Own Country” when creating this scent, making it part of the brand’s interesting “LGBTQI” series. In my opinion he did a wonderful job in matching the perfume with the film. This was a blind buy for me back in 2019 and before I had watched the film. I can only say it was a great decision! If you haven’t smelled it, try to find it somewhere, and do watch the film as well!

🪵 Gaiac 10 by @lelabofragrances is one of those scents that I personally couldn’t relate to at all when I first tried it. I couldn’t even smell it in the beginning. to be honest! I’ve had it in my collection for several years, but it’s just recently that I’m starting to understand the true power and beauty of it. I think this is mainly because of the musky feel that it has. I’m generally not a musk lover, and I rarely use scents that are categorized as close to skin. Apparently this is the top seller out of the Le Labo City Exclusives (this one belongs to Tokyo), and that makes sense, since it’s a very safe and crowd pleasing fragrance. In general I’m that type of perfume person who likes weird and crazy scents, so it’s natural that Gaiac 10 has never been a favorite of mine. but like I said, I’m starting to reconsider…

Have you tried any of these three? What do you think about them? Let me know in the comment section below, or head over to my Instagram and share your thoughts there.

If you work for a perfume brand and would like me to review your new fragrance (including photos), please write me an email. Looking forward to hearing from you soon :)

Christmas market in Malmö

Dear friends,
This weekend (1-2 December) I will be selling postcards and posters at the Christmas market at Mitt Möllan in Malmö. Most of them are plant themed. Some pictures are going out of print and I’ll be selling the last copies, these are limited edition and will not be printed again!

New for this market is that I’ll be bringing small surprise packages with different perfume samples, as well as bigger samples (5ml) that I’ll also be selling. Perfect and affordable Christmas gifts!

Come say hi, have a piece of chocolate and buy a print or two. See you there!

Facebook event

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Perfume week in Milano

Hi friends! I've been super busy lately, with commissioned freelance work, as well as traveling and having friends visiting from overseas. In the past couple of days, I've been in Milano for Esxence, a fantastic perfume fair. I encountered some really nice people, both professionals and perfume nerds, made new friends and eventually left with a bag full of samples and bottles (for a pre-flight visual, check my latest post on @scentrified!).

My favorites from the fair were: Regime des Fleurs (incredibly nice people and interesting scents, one of which was the biggest surprise of the fair to me, and they made me want to go to LA so bad!), Neela Vermeire Créations (Trayee and Bombay Bling are two new favorites that I might need to buy eventually), Nishane (their Pachúli-Kozha blew my mind, mostly because it was so damn potent! the house as a whole really peaked my interest, I'll need to sniff all of them soon) and last but definitely not least: Homoelegans, my favorite brand of all time. I ended up getting several of their bottles and now am only missing one (Ivre de Vie) from their collection. 

I was so high on all the fumes from the fair that I completely forgot to take any good photos, even though I was carrying around my camera four days in a row. But I did find this one shot of the entrance to the fair in my phone (they celebrated 10 years this year), something I must have taken before entering the scent haze.

esxence