I love to watch other people shopping for perfume. I can't usually do it for more than a minute or so without feeling invasive, but I'm always interested in the comments I overhear at fragrance counters. The main problem (aside from the risk that the person will suddenly realize I'm listening) is that I have to refrain from making suggestions. This is difficult, especially when a sales associate is relentlessly pushing the latest release rather than finding out what the person really wants, or worse yet, when the potential customer is standing alone and looking around anxiously for guidance.
Sometimes I wish I could recommend a fragrance line that's not sitting right there on the shelves at Sephora or the department stores at my local mall. There seem to be plenty of women who have a favorite perfume and are looking for something along the same lines — something fruity and tart, for example, or a soft floral blend with some vanilla in it. But they also want a slightly more sophisticated or less commonplace alternative, and they're not finding it at their usual retail destinations. I thought of those women when I smelled the two latest releases from the indie brand MCMC Fragrances. MCMC's perfumes are directed towards a relatively small audience, but they'd probably also be appreciated by the desperately-seeking-something shoppers that I've watched from the corner of my eye.
MCMC's Love, for example, blends "topnotes of Japaneze yuzu citrus, French sweet basil, and Chinese magnolia oil" with "the burning intensity of ancient templewood and gunpowder." Love holds my attention longer than most mainstream citrus scents, since its juicy, pulpy yuzu is paired with the slightly anisic note of freshly-crushed basil leaves. There's a light sandalwood in the base, but nothing as pungent or acrid as actual gunpowder. The green and woody notes must work well to prolong the citrus, since Love has good staying power for a fruit-based scent. It could easily be worn by men or women.
Phoenix, the other new release from MCMC, includes "top notes of peach and cherry blossom, gradually giving way to sturdy Tunisian neroli and a light, powdery vanilla." Something about the name is too dramatic for this fragrance; to me, it feels more like a butterfly or a songbird than a mythical creature that rises, reborn, from the flames. Phoenix begins as a creamy floral accord that reminds me of other perfumes featuring cherry blossom or sweet pea or magnolia, except that it's smoother and a little deeper. The peach note is velvety and edible, and it lasts well through the fragrance's heart and base, where it mixes and warms with the vanilla. This is definitely the sweetest fragrance yet created by MCMC. It's prettier and more rounded than any of the fruity florals regularly pumped out by operations like L'Occitane, and I prefer it to the gracious, but somewhat bland, Serge Lutens Nuit de Cellophane. Phoenix is also very long-lasting on my skin, persisting throughout the day.
My favorite fragrance from MCMC is probably still Maine, a serene evocation of sea air, driftwood, and beach roses, but I enjoyed testing Love and Phoenix. Niche fragrances don't need to be self-consciously weird, or to ramble on endlessly about "luxury" and exclusivity, to capture my attention, and I don't recommend them to others for those reasons. Instead, there's a lot to be said for simple beauty, especially when it's promoted and packaged as attractively as MCMC's fragrances. Don't be shy, shoppers; take a sniff.
MCMC Fragrances Love and Phoenix are both available as 40 ml ($95) Eau de Parfum and 9 ml perfume oil ($45). Samples are also available. To purchase, or to view a list of other stockists, visit MCMC Fragrances' website.
Jessica do you prefer Maine to Ecume de Rose? How does it differ?
Valkyrie, Hm, I like both. As I recall, Ecume has more salty amber and perhaps feels more feminine, while Maine is sheerer. I’m all out of Ecume (!), so I’d need to try them side by side!
Thank God! I’m not alone at being disturbed whan I see a person beside me looking for something I can perfectly indicate!! Sellers usually don’t know much of what they’re selling, specially at perfume shops and always shoot horrible wrong shots!! I usually don’t indicate what’s in my mind cause the sellers don’t like this and what I’ll indicate normally isn’t available there. Good theraphy, Jessica. thanks!!
Moore, I do manage to keep my mouth shut, so that I won’t tell someone how to do his/her job or frighten an innocent stranger; all we can do is hope that some of these shoppers will stumble across a blog or two, I suppose!
“Sellers usually don’t know much of what they’re selling, specially at perfume shops and always shoot horrible wrong shots!! ”
LOL! This reminds me of a time a couple years back when I strolled into Perfumania looking for a “rose” frag. The clerk starting paper spritzing a few samples (a couple of which have made it into my collection). She was rambling the usual, “This has white rose,” “There’s a subtle red rose in this one,” “I love the top notes of icing rose (btw… WTF is ICING ROSE? I swear she made that up on the fly).” But my favorite was when she grabbed a bottle of something I now forget and said, “and this has an awesome tubeROSE in it.”
I couldn’t help it. I started laughing at the fact that she thought Tuberose, was a form of rose simply because the word was in the name. I never had the heart to tell her, I just said I’d keep them in mind and left the store.
:). Very fun!! Things like this happens to me frequently: I deal with lots of people doing some mix of words and some confusion with them, trying to say things they don’t know what they are or wow to spell. It makes me laugh a lot although sometimes I can’t… but I always laugh even if intimately.
Hi Jessica. I have Maine and while the topnotes were interesting, it quickly dried down to a generic rose scent on me. Parfum Rosines’ Ecume des Rose shocked me with its true salty beach rose scent, immediately evoking my childhood oceanfront home on Long Island. Parfum Rosine got it right for me!
Oh, that’s a beauty, and I love most of the Parfums de Rosine line… another line I wish I could recommend to total strangers!
Love Ecume de Rose. Never heard of Maine! Will have to try.
I think we can, though, offer advice to people shopping the men’s scents at places like TJMaxx or Marshalls… It may, in fact, be our civic duty as perfunista/os…
I think different rules may apply at TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, etc.
Just went to the website, any idea if samples are available anywhere? I don’t know why these small companies, like their other Brooklyn small batch counterpart, DS & Durga, are so stingy with samples. Don’t they know that their sales would increase if they made a sampler available? I usually try to remember to sniff lines without samples at some store or other, but then I cant mull over the one I want and return to buy it or buy it online after receiving a sampler, so that I just forget about the whole line in the mad rush of new things to smell! And I am actually super loyal to companies with samplers, like I made sure I bought my Ineke Field Notes From Paris with the coupon that came with the sampler I purchased from them. (Another brilliant idea, encourage full bottle purchases by recouping the cost of the sampler, love it, practically makes me want to buy one regardless of if I like one!) Its like unless you have the resources to make many impulse purchases you’re not going to end up a customer of theirs, and you would think start up companies would want to reach people. Especially perfume fanatics. Humph. There that’s my word from the Sunday afternoon Complaint Department!
OK THEY DO HAVE SAMPLES meekly says: I was looking under the collections tab, opps. Well anyway aside from them, my above diatribe still stands fro those *other companies*
(Feels like idiot, slowly backs out of the room to purchase samples……)
And then you back into me, who’s just walking in and drop all the samples, LOL!
Maybe the shops are different here but I often just start talking to people looking for some or other perfume. The SAs usually look amused!
lol! I was just about to type, I think MCMC does offer little sample sets. And DS & Durga used to have a sample option; or perhaps it was mainly mentioned on their Facebook page? I always appreciate samples, too.
Amanda, in addition, Indie Scents is a good source of samples of many niche perfumes, including MCMC. I believe it was started by LuckyScent, and, just like at LuckyScent, one can buy sample vials. I tire of trying to figure out the individual websites (which can be tricky!) and love this kind of one-stop shopping option.
You needn’t feel so bad about not noticing the samples because they are four 1 ml vials per $20 set. $5 for a 1 ml sample? As far as I’m concerned they might as well not exist. Totally out of line with their bottle prices. I understand the vials cost money and take time, and I don’t mind paying those prices occasionally for all natural indie perfumes, but geez.
Coming back to add–of course I went to check them out because I enjoyed your review, J. Will keep an eye out for them in stores.
And btw–I’ve offered many a tip to clueless shoppers, usually out of earshot of the SA–and people are usually grateful.
The samples aren’t exactly cheap, but then again, Luckyscent et al. charge $4 or so, and I know I’ve paid even more for samples of (non-discontinued, non-vintage) scents through some sampling services! There’s no easy way around it, I guess.
Thanks for the reviews, Jessica. You didn’t sell me on either Love or Phoenix, but you (and the others) have definitely made me want to try both Maine and Ecume de Rose!
Rappleyea, I’m so fond of the Rosine line. I always want other people to know about it! As for MCMC, some of its fragrances will appeal to certain tastes, and other ones to other tastes. These two seem to be the most…commercial?… of the line, so far, in that they’re a fruity fragrance and a sweet floral fragrance, but they’re nicely done and still manage to feel “niche.”
I was curious how Maine and Ecume de Rose compare to Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Beach Roses, which is a favorite of mine. Can anyone comment? i’d like to try some more beachy roses.
I remember liking Beach Roses very much! I don’t think I have any left. In my memory, Beach Roses is more like Maine than Ecume de Roses, although Beach Roses was possibly a little more rose-y than Maine.
Thanks, I really must seek those two out! Rosine is a line I really think I’d like.