What's this, you say? A real, honest-to-God Fragrance Friday? 'Tis true! I'm making a concerted effort to get through my massive pile of samples, so this may be the start of a trend (maybe. Don't hold me to it).
I ordered several Dawn Spencer Horowitz (DSH) perfumes during a sale, before I realized just how many perfume samples I already had lying around, but I don't regret it! Every single one I've tried has been awesome. The 0.5 ml edp samples (which, from my order, seem to really range from 0.5-0.7) are $5 each; I transfer pretty much everything into spray vials from Lotioncrafter, as dabbers annoy me, but the DSH scents have excellent throw and dabbing is actually perfectly sufficient to be able to smell them, so these don't strictly need to be decanted. The catalogue is enormous, and I had a devil of a time getting it down to 8 choices (6 paid, 2 free samples for spending $25). Being me, I chose lots of woodsy/incensey/mossy scents, with a couple of florals for good measure, but there's certainly many more types to choose from. Here are the first two!
DSH Passport à Paris (Oriental Fougere: lemon, bergamot, lavender, rosewood, mandarin orange, jasmine, bulgarian rose, orris root, clover, Australian sandalwood, amber, vanilla, coumarin, ambergris, Indian patchouli, civet): This reminds me of Guerlain Jicky, one of my favorites (though it's been nearly a year since my sample ran out, sob). It opens citrusy, then shifts into an herbal vanilla. The coumarin is quite dominant on my skin, but it's not what I'd call a gourmand or even sweet perfume, thanks to the civet, ambergris, patchouli, and abundance of woods. I can't really smell the jasmine and rose, but I do get a slight floral/planty haze that softens and lightens the perfume. It's a wonderful spring perfume, actually; the blend of woods, flowers, green herbs, citrus, and musk is a nice reflection of the unpredictable weather and vibrant fertility of the season.
DSH Inner Sanctum (Oriental: amber, bergamot, Bulgarian rose, frankincense, myrrh, oud, patchouli, sandalwood): This is billed as an incense-oud chypre, but on me, it's pretty much straight, slightly soft, incense. It's really lovely and well-rounded, even more so than Comme de Garçons Avignon, which makes it more of a perfume and less of a...spiritual experience, I guess? It feels like something that can be worn any day, not just for more somber or emotional experiences, which makes it more versatile but less meaningful (for me, at least). It's definitely more of a cool weather perfume, but I find it's fine on cooler spring days, too––we seem to alternate between glorious sunshine and warmth, and dreary rainy chill, which is confusing as hell but does let me test a wide variety of perfumes!
And one non-DSH perfume:
Tocca Simone (Fruity Floral: apple, watermelon, lemon, calypsone, frangipani, ylang- ylang, rose petals, freesia, creamy lactones, blonde woods, musk, amber, nirvanolide): This is supposed to evoke "waves cresting along the white sand of Sydney’s Bondi Beach, as the sea fills with surfers and swimmers alike" and a "young beauty" with "sunkissed hair and bronzed skin". I can't relate to that kind of person, like, at all––I like my beaches blustery and never leave home without copious sunscreen––and I'm not a huge fan of aquatic perfumes, which this most definitely is. Despite the note list, I find Simone is dominated by calone (which helps account for the claimed watermelon as well as oceanic notes) with rather generic fruity florals woven in and negligible woods/musks. I don't hate it, unlike others of its oeuvre, which can be sweet and really cloyingly artificial, but it's not my kind of summer perfume (I prefer the bracing citrus-woods of Dior Eau Sauvage or the lush florals of, say, Arquiste Flor y Canto). For those that do like the fruity-floral-beachy genre, though, it may be worth checking out!
Have you tried any of these?
I ordered several Dawn Spencer Horowitz (DSH) perfumes during a sale, before I realized just how many perfume samples I already had lying around, but I don't regret it! Every single one I've tried has been awesome. The 0.5 ml edp samples (which, from my order, seem to really range from 0.5-0.7) are $5 each; I transfer pretty much everything into spray vials from Lotioncrafter, as dabbers annoy me, but the DSH scents have excellent throw and dabbing is actually perfectly sufficient to be able to smell them, so these don't strictly need to be decanted. The catalogue is enormous, and I had a devil of a time getting it down to 8 choices (6 paid, 2 free samples for spending $25). Being me, I chose lots of woodsy/incensey/mossy scents, with a couple of florals for good measure, but there's certainly many more types to choose from. Here are the first two!
DSH Passport à Paris (Oriental Fougere: lemon, bergamot, lavender, rosewood, mandarin orange, jasmine, bulgarian rose, orris root, clover, Australian sandalwood, amber, vanilla, coumarin, ambergris, Indian patchouli, civet): This reminds me of Guerlain Jicky, one of my favorites (though it's been nearly a year since my sample ran out, sob). It opens citrusy, then shifts into an herbal vanilla. The coumarin is quite dominant on my skin, but it's not what I'd call a gourmand or even sweet perfume, thanks to the civet, ambergris, patchouli, and abundance of woods. I can't really smell the jasmine and rose, but I do get a slight floral/planty haze that softens and lightens the perfume. It's a wonderful spring perfume, actually; the blend of woods, flowers, green herbs, citrus, and musk is a nice reflection of the unpredictable weather and vibrant fertility of the season.
DSH Inner Sanctum (Oriental: amber, bergamot, Bulgarian rose, frankincense, myrrh, oud, patchouli, sandalwood): This is billed as an incense-oud chypre, but on me, it's pretty much straight, slightly soft, incense. It's really lovely and well-rounded, even more so than Comme de Garçons Avignon, which makes it more of a perfume and less of a...spiritual experience, I guess? It feels like something that can be worn any day, not just for more somber or emotional experiences, which makes it more versatile but less meaningful (for me, at least). It's definitely more of a cool weather perfume, but I find it's fine on cooler spring days, too––we seem to alternate between glorious sunshine and warmth, and dreary rainy chill, which is confusing as hell but does let me test a wide variety of perfumes!
And one non-DSH perfume:
Tocca Simone (Fruity Floral: apple, watermelon, lemon, calypsone, frangipani, ylang- ylang, rose petals, freesia, creamy lactones, blonde woods, musk, amber, nirvanolide): This is supposed to evoke "waves cresting along the white sand of Sydney’s Bondi Beach, as the sea fills with surfers and swimmers alike" and a "young beauty" with "sunkissed hair and bronzed skin". I can't relate to that kind of person, like, at all––I like my beaches blustery and never leave home without copious sunscreen––and I'm not a huge fan of aquatic perfumes, which this most definitely is. Despite the note list, I find Simone is dominated by calone (which helps account for the claimed watermelon as well as oceanic notes) with rather generic fruity florals woven in and negligible woods/musks. I don't hate it, unlike others of its oeuvre, which can be sweet and really cloyingly artificial, but it's not my kind of summer perfume (I prefer the bracing citrus-woods of Dior Eau Sauvage or the lush florals of, say, Arquiste Flor y Canto). For those that do like the fruity-floral-beachy genre, though, it may be worth checking out!
Have you tried any of these?
