• About
  • Login to comment
    • Bluesky
    • RSS
    • Twitter

Now Smell This

a blog about perfume

Menu ▼
  • Perfume Reviews
  • New Perfumes
  • Archives
Browsing by author: Jessica

Vacation Grand Cuvee & Thomas de Monaco Sol Salgado ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Jessica on 27 June 2025 9 Comments

As I’m writing this review, a “heat dome” is gathering over my part of the world. What better time to test and review two summer-themed fragrance samples that have been waiting patiently on my desk for weeks? Every year, of course, I emphasize that I’m a heat-hater and sun-avoider who craves salt-air scents and suntan oil-inspired fragrances. These two seemed to fit the bill, but I had more luck with one than the other. Just like a long holiday weekend, a fragrance often lives up to expectations but can fall short in other instances.

Thomas de Monaco is what I think of as a “nouveau niche” brand — I tend to confuse it with a few other companies that have men’s names, vaguely similar backstories, and/or packaging that looks like a love child of Byredo and Nasomatto. However, several people recommended this particular brand to me over the past year or two, so I finally focused on it during a visit to an indie fragrance boutique. I sniffed a few ceramic discs that had been pre-spritzed with de Monaco scents, and the one that captured my interest was Sol Salgado (developed by perfumer Maurus Bachmann, 2023). My initial reaction was, “Ooh, beach-y doll-head!” I don’t recall ever thinking before that a beach-y doll-head perfume was something I needed, but inhaling the scent off that tester disc, I had to refrain from purchasing a bottle on the spot…

Read the rest of this article »

Eau de Jane, Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream & Andrea Maack Flux ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Jessica on 21 March 2025 8 Comments

The author and cultural critic Fran Lebowitz once said, “To put it rather bluntly, I am not the type who wants to go back to the land; I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel.” I share this preference (and many others) with Ms. Lebowitz, and yet every now and then, I do enjoy a walk in the woods…as long as I can easily stroll back to the subway or the bed-and-breakfast when I’m done communing with nature. And if that mood strikes when I’m home in my city dwelling, I can always pick up a perfume that evokes the wild wonder of the forest for a quick hit of arboreal fantasy.

Eau de Jane was released in 2019 and was developed by perfumer Roger Howell…

Read the rest of this article »

Anna Sui Thorn of a Rose, Utopia Mist & Mystic Luna ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Jessica on 7 February 2025 13 Comments

If you were to travel back in time twenty years or so and see what I was doing on a random weekday afternoon, you might find me browsing at Parfumerie Douglas in West Philadelphia. I might have been buying a nail file or a sparkly hair clip, and I was certainly sniffing my way through the perfume section, especially a shelf holding Sui Dreams, Sui Love and, best of all, Anna Sui’s eponymous debut fragrance from 1999. That powdery rose scent in its black-and-purple, rose-embellished bottle is still a favorite of mine.

Anna Sui recently celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of her brand’s foray into fine fragrance by launching a quintet of new scents: the Wild Wonder collection. All five were developed by perfumer Jérôme Épinette, who has worked on Sui’s fragrances since 2017’s Fantasia, and the face of the collection is Scarlett White, the daughter of model and singer-songwriter Karen Elson. Elson herself is a longtime Sui “muse,” and there’s a feeling of generational continuity with the packaging for Wild Wonder, as well: the gilt rosebud cap is shaped just like the black rosebud cap of the original Anna Sui perfume (now known as Anna Sui Classic)…

Read the rest of this article »

Cra-yon Art Life, Snif Natural Talent & Maison Millais New York Nostalgia ~ short fragrance reviews

Posted by Jessica on 12 December 2024 4 Comments

Way back in January 2021, Kevin wrote that 2020 had been the year of overpriced, overhyped scents: “Never have I smelled so many $250, $350, $450 perfumes that reminded me of $10 scented candles.” Based on various online “gift guides” that have scrolled past my eyes lately, I can’t say that late 2024 is looking any different. I’m less and less impressed by arbitrarily high prices. Here at NST we’ve been saying “under $100 is the new ‘free'” since 2009; in that spirit, here are three fragrances I’ve encountered over the past year or so that live up to their descriptions, feel accessible to scent-curious shoppers and sell for less than $100 for a full-sized bottle. 

First: I initially came across the Cra-yon fragrance line at the Liberty department store in London and made a mental note to find out more later. Cray-on started showing up in the United States soon after that trip, and I picked up a bottle of Art Life at a perfume swap event in New York. (Swap meet-ups are the Gen Z version of the early-2000s message-board swaps!) Cra-yon was “founded  by Christine and Niclas Lydeen, French/Swedish fragrance pioneers” and comes across as a welcoming, upbeat brand that doesn’t take its own cool-kid vibes too seriously…

Read the rest of this article »

Regime des Fleurs Fleur Eclair, Arquiste Almond Suede & Isabelle Larignon Milky Dragon ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Jessica on 22 November 2024 12 Comments

Good evening, Now Smell This: it has recently come to my attention (to paraphrase actor Drew Droege playing “Chloé Sevigny”) that I crave gourmand perfumes. At least, that’s what a dozen “trend pieces” have recently told me. The trend cycle goes around and around, of course: people have liked wearing vanilla-accented and/or sweet-smelling fragrances for a long time, whether you look back a century to Guerlain Shalimar or just twenty-odd years to Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar, Aquolina Pink Sugar and Britney Spears Fantasy (with its then-novel “cupcake accord”). Where to begin, if you’re curious about some of the latest gourmand scents? New releases are spawning at an unprecedented rate these days, and I can’t even pretend to be fully up-to-date, but here are two freshly “baked” fragrances that I’m enjoying, plus one from 2021 that has also captured my imagination. 

I’ve been trying for a while to make the term “fleurmand” catch on, but it hasn’t, which is a shame because I’d love to use it here to describe Régime des Fleurs Fleur Éclair…

Read the rest of this article »

Older articles »

Advertisement

Search

Recent reviews

Atelier Cologne Love Osmanthus
Moschino Toy Boy
Arquiste Misfit
Diptyque Eau Capitale
Zoologist Bee
Parfum d’Empire Immortelle Corse
Comme des Garcons Series 10 Clash
Frédéric Malle Rose & Cuir
L’Artisan Parfumeur Le Chant de Camargue
Yves Saint Laurent Grain de Poudre
Régime des Fleurs Chloë Sevigny Little Flower
Chanel 1957
Gallivant Los Angeles
Amouage Portrayal Woman

Blogroll

Bois de Jasmin
Grain de Musc
Perfume Posse
The Non-Blonde
More blogs...

Perfumista lists

100 fragrances every perfumista should try
And 25 more fragrances every perfumista should smell
50 masculine fragrances every perfumista should try
26 vintage fragrances every perfumista should try
25 rose fragrances every perfumista should try
11 Cheap Perfumes Beauty Outsiders Love

Favorite posts

The Great Perfume Reduction Plan
Why I Love Old School Chypres
New to perfume and want to learn more?
How to make fragrance last through the day
Fragrance concentrations: sorting it all out
On reformulations, or why your favorite perfume doesn’t smell like it used to
How to get fragrance samples
Perfume for Life: How Long Will Your Fragrance Collection Last?

Upcoming

List of upcoming Friday projects

3 July ~ damage poll
12 July ~ summer reading poll

Back to Top

Home
Archives
About Now Smell This :: Privacy Policy
Perfume Reviews
New Perfumes
General Perfume Articles
The Monday Mail

Glossary of Perfume Terms
Perfume FAQ
Perfume Books

Noses ~ Perfumers A-E :: F-K :: L-S :: T-Z

Perfume Houses A-B :: C :: D-E :: F-G
H-J :: K-L :: M :: N-O :: P :: Q-R :: S
T :: U-Z

Copyright © 2005-2025 Now Smell This. All rights reserved.