Lipstick Scents,Perfume Cubby, & July Pop-Ups
+ grumpy perfume stores and vampire vibes
Hello, friends! My apologies for disappearing for a moment, I hope you all had a lovely weekend celebrating America’s 248th birthday :)
q of the day: what would a vampire smell like?
SOTD: Scentbird delivered another fragrance that I kind of fell in love with. Christian Siriano’s Ooh La Rouge is sexy and delicious AF. One spray, and all of sudden, I felt like THAT chick. This scent is creamy praline, grapefruit, floral, and extra sensual. It’s definitely for a flowerhead as its quite a flower bomb, but of white florals—with a dry-down of woody, sharp saffron notes.
It reminds me of Arab perfumery, and maybe that’s why my mom stole it from me. It smells expensive, but to my surprise, it’s $98, which is still in the double digits. I don’t get the BR540 vibes, but there is something waxy about it that feels like matte red lipstick on your skin.
However, Agnes and a couple others on Fragrantica thought it didn’t smell as delicious as I thought:
”Just when I thought nothing could stink more than ET's Diamonds and Sapphires, I encountered this pukey perfume, a vomit puddle of burnt peanuts, brine and motor oil. Am I really smelling the same fragrance as those who detect "fresh flowers" further down in the reviews? Maybe I got a vial (vile!) of decades old machine grease packed in denatured alcohol?? Super yuck! Ooh the Retch!“
‘FUME NEWS & JULY EVENTS:
There’s going to be a super hott panel hosted by one of my favorite scent writers,
with beauty writer, and podcast host on her recent book launch, Die Hot With A Vengeance,on July 9th, at 7PM.(SORRY! this is being rescheduled to another date!)I cannot wait to get my stubby little fingers on the book, WHICH NOW HAS A MATCHING EDP (!!!) in collaboration with Hoax Parfum. I feel like books should start doing this, lol. The notes/description on the website are making me cackle: smeared lipstick, red wine spilled in a Birkin bag, neon lights, milky vinyl… who doesn’t want to smell like a disgraced heiress whose villain origin story starts this summer?
I’m planning to be at this Perfume History Class at the Fragrance Alliance Network this Thursday, July 11 taught by
. I’m super excited; they have some really interesting classes every month.I recently joined
’s Perfumed Pages, a 9-week creative online container based on all things scent! It’s going to be a month of self-paced soul discovery (through perfume, of course), scent writing prompts, workshopping and getting feedback with like-minded fragrance freaks, and appearances from perfumers. It’s an English major’s dream.Concept store/art gallery Maison 10 is celebrating their 8th anniversary on
July 10th from 6-9pm.(SORRY! SOLD OUT). If you go, let me know what you sniffed.NEST New York is having a fun “grapefruit squeeze” pop-up celebrating their #1 citrus scent this weekend July 12-13th in SoHo.
West Elm x Lustoic Home Fragrances are still popping up throughout NYC.
Catch Boy Smells at the 260 Sample Sale on Lafayette July 17-21.
Sue Phillips Boutique is hosting ‘Scentini,’ an evening where you can blend your own signature scent, and pair it with blended martinis at their Upper East Side Boutique on July 17.
Maxaroma is having a ‘Night at the Opera,’ event unveiling Merchant of Venice’s newest juice dedicated to renowned opera singer, Maria Callas on July 19.
DSW is having a perfume pop-up Shop in Brooklyn on July 20th unveiling their newest fragrance, Lust VII. I never got around to smelling Lust 5 or 6… #sarcasm.
I was recently reading about Bond No. 9 x Harrod’s 175th Anniversary EDP, when I went down a rabbit hole of Bond No. 9’s NY Forever EDP Fountain with a price tag of $6,771, which then brought me to Thameen’s Amber Extrait priced at $6,704. Cute.
Speaking of fragrance I can’t afford, I want to visit Amaffi Perfume House on East 57th. Who wants to come with so we can die a little inside, but be surrounded by Swarovski crystals. :’)
It kind of makes scents that Miley and the Flowers she can buy herself would be the new face of Gucci Flora. (haha lol so punny) Honestly, I’m here for Miley’s floral era.
Jo Malone just released an Orange Marmalade perfume in collab with Paddington Bear — it’s the most British thing ever and I really love it. It makes me think of tea and crumpets, and makes me forget all about bad teeth and gloomy weather. Paddington Bear made me so happy and cozy when I watched him (and can’t forget my girl Madeline) on TV, and I really want to smell this and hope it takes me back to the time in my life when I was not considered an adult. I’m also one of those weirdos that really loves marmalade. Might be because my father took me to London way too many times against my will, or maybe because Britain ruled over India for 89 years.. but I digress.
Saks Fifth Avenue has bought Neiman Marcus for $2.65 Billion, and *apparently* companies like Amazon, Salesforce have some stakes in it. What—if anything—does this mean for perfume? I don’t know, but keep Jeff Bezos’s glistening bald head away from it.
Can I vent a little? I love exploring perfume stores in NYC, especially in East and West Village. I’ve had a great experience in almost all of them, except for one in particular. It’s something about the individual who runs the store—they just doesn’t believe in smiling. The store is gorgeous, they have some really high-end houses that you can’t smell everywhere, and hosts some quite exclusive events, but they just make me feel like I don’t belong there. It’s one of those things that’s always existed in fragrance—the (Eurocentric) snobbery. It might just be my experience of feeling intimidated. But, this past year, I have been visiting A LOT of perfume stores and talking to staff, and everyone has been so kind. That’s another reason we started Perfumeverse NYC — to keep the barrier of entry into fragrance a little easier. On that note, don’t forget to add our NYC Shopping Guide to your Google Maps.
Speaking of kind staff at perfume stores (D.S. & Durga are one of them), I’m happy to see Debaser by D.S. & Durga on this list as the best overall summer fragrance. It’s one of my favorite fig scents.
I went to the Mes Bisous event by Maxaroma for their ‘Wondrous Flight’ launch a few weeks ago and it was so fun meeting the Founder, Turkish-born Suge Koseoglu. Their perfumes are all made in Turkey, from scent formulation to packaging; I only wish they were able to highlight some the independent perfumers. All of Mes Bisous’ scents are “lead characters,” in their own novels, each bottle packaged in its own book. My favorite was Balle Rouge — based on a deadly, sexy assassinator who wears perfectly vintage red lipstick scent. The iris and rose bring out the familiar waxy scent that you smelled from your mom’s makeup bag, and eventually tasted on your lips. It says it has vanilla, but I really smelled a deep, dark chocolate cherry at the dry down. My second favorite was the oud-heavy, Oud Hypnotique, a balanced, bold woody scent topped off with rosy saffron. One Night Only, a violet leather was a crowd favorite, but it was too reminiscent of Santal 33. Ain’t nobody got time for that. They were kind enough to give everyone The Book of Discovery, a discovery kit of all their scents! Overall, I have been trying wearing their Balle Rouge in combination with other lipstick scents and I’m addicted to smelling my wrist!
Do we have any Interview With The Vampire fans here? Season 2 of AMC’s TV series (based on Anne Rice’s novels) just wrapped, and oh my god—incredible. It got me thinking, I wish gorgeous, emotional, gothic shows like this would do a collab with someone on perfumes based on the characters. I was recently talking with a friend on what would Lestat, Louie, and other vampires would smell like. There’s so much: French luxury, New Orleans’ voodoo, boozy history, and pure, bloody velvet. Imagine being a vampire with immortality and watching some of your favorite perfumes being discontinued one by one . . . what a life.
SPEAKING OF GOTHIC VIBES, I got this cubby from Michael’s little goth collection a couple months ago, thinking I would put this on my wall and start adding my perfumes there. I’m also working on a bookshelf that will display perfumes for guests to try, but this cubby is just for me. I ended up keeping it on my dresser and omg—in love. I may not have a very impressive collection, but it sure looks impressive in this little cubby set up and adorned with just the best bottles ever. Ugh. I love perfume. If you have any scented corners in your spaces, please share… would love to see them.
perfume cubby + bookshelf That’s it for today!
xo
Nadia
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My book event is being pushed to the fall! So hopefully you can make it then 🩷