for 2025, i started keeping a notebook of written notes for all of the perfumes i sample/try, so here's the collection of perfumes i tried in january. i've either worn these once or twice, for a full day on skin. usually i can get a third weartest out of a sample, but after one wear i can decide if it's for me or not, and after two i can decide whether i'd buy a full bottle or not. so without further ado.
first, a couple i tried before keeping the notebook but were notable enough that i brought/want to buy a full bottle.
Fève Gourmande, Guerlain - 10/10
i don't think i even sat on my thought of buying this for a day after wearing it; it's completely delicious, and exactly what i wanted and expected from the notes. this is a rich, smooth fragrance that reminds me of turkish delight - cocoa & rose that dries down to a very soft, sweet woodsy smell. it's very elegant and i wouldn't say it's edible like many of the gourmands released in the last couple of years; it's very sophisticated and just so... quality, but i expect that now of the L'Art et La Matiêre line from Guerlain.
Ex Vetiver, Juliette Has A Gun - 8.5/10
this awakened me into realising that i really, really like 'green' scents; i was completely surprised by how nice this is, it's bright and citrussy on the opening and dries down into a floral woody vetiver. such a starkly different vetiver to that i love in ELDO's Fat Electrician and Frustration, and is definitely more universally appealing. just a really, good, fresh springtime vetiver, that i never thought i'd love, or even like.
and now for the january samples
HITS
Angélique Noire, Guerlain - 9/10
so, so interesting, and so, so beautiful. musky, sugary vanilla with bitter, fresh angelica on top - it comes together to make a very 'cold' vanilla, which is so different to any vanilla i've smelled before. the angelica is so green and dewy, kinda of peppery, and it's once where i just can't stop smelling my wrists. i will buy a full bottle of this when i can work up the courage to drop £295 at guerlain again.
Solo Ella EDP, Loewe - 8/10
this is beautiful. Loewe make beautiful clothing and bags, but i didn't expect them to make beautiful perfume, too. it's bright, fresh and clean, and very nice in the cold weather. the top notes are so juicy - i get a green apple rind with peach and pear juice - and the dry down is equally as pretty, but clean and woodsy. great longevity for such a fresh fragrance. most likely will buy.
Cuir Beluga, Guerlain - 8/10
soft and comforting, and very vanilla forward on me. it's the beautiful guerlain vanilla that can do no wrong in my eyes. it surrounds me in a cloud of fragrance but it's so hard to describe and i don't know why. i get a very slight, smooth leather and creaminess from... somewhere. on my second wear i realised that this smells like an amplified, 'perfume-ified' version of my dog's skin and fur; she's a whippet so tends to pick up the smell of the bedlinen and blankets, and mixed with her skin it's this soft, musky... honestly lovely smell. looking at the notes i think this smell/effect is from the heliotrope. really pretty and quite... oddly emotive. i'm not sure if i'd pick up a full bottle though - it's fucking expensive, and guerlain has so many fantastic fragrances.
MIDS
Agua Drop, Loewe - 7.5/10
sharp, fresh ans fizzy; it reminds me of lemon sherbet sweets, but without being too sugary or immature. a very good citrus, as it doesn't lean into the cleaning products category, but it also lasts and projects really well, even the citrus notes themselves. i like it, but i don't think i'd buy a full bottle, because... it's just not 'me' enough, i don't think. and for the price it's asking i need to love it a bit more.
Pur Muguet, Cartier - 7.5/10
pure lily; very fresh and uplifting, but also with the green dewiness and sweet, heady nectar of the flower. cartier have captured the lily really well - including the part where if you sniff too deeply, it's almost sickly and migraine-inducing. when not huffing it though, it is serene, delicate and beautiful. i love the smell of lilies but don't buy them because i have a very curious dog, so it's nice to have it in perfume form. it isn't anything more, less or beyond a lily; the pricepoint is very steep for a soliflore though.
Nomade Nuit d'Egypte, Chloe - 7/10
very opulent and kinda creamy. it's (softly) spicy, floral and oriental - the myrrh stands out for me, it has an incense-like quality, but the sticks rather than the burning of the incense, if that makes a lick of sense. it's pretty linear throughout and not particularly long-lasting, but it is nice.
Athalia, Parfums De Marly - 7/10
clean, soapy, powdery floral. the orange blossom is instantly recognisable and it compliments the iris really well by adding a citrussy creaminess. it really does smell beautiful, refined, and classy... until about 2 hours into the drydown, where everything has faded except for the sweaty, pissy smell of amber. the first couple of hours are a solid 9, 9.5 for me, but i can't justify ever buying a full bottle that eventually leaves me smelling of piss.
Mulberry Fig, Floris - 6/10
not exactly what i wanted for a fig perfume - the violet leaf overpowers a lot of the other notes, and it's not a note i particularly enjoy. it is very green, fresh and uplifting, and once the violet leaf fades, the dry down is really nice where the vetiver, cedar, orris, and even the coconut, come through. longevity is kind of... lacking. i have a whole 10ml of this to play with though, so maybe wearing it in warmer weather will make it work better. but a great fig perfume? this is not.
Vetiver Extraordinaire, Frederic Malle - 5/10
very fresh and earthy - i get soil and mint, though the notes don't suggest either. the vetiver is very much overpowered by everything else, and i was wanting it to be vetiver heavy. very masculine as well - i don't pay much attention to whether fragrances are listed as being masculine or feminine, but some things do just really Smell Like A Man (albeit nice). the drydown however is very nice and brings it back into something more unisex. performance is lacking for the pricepoint though - you can probably get something that smells and performs the same, for a lot less; it's not an uncommon or special scent profile.
SHITS
Perfect Intense, Marc Jacobs - 3/10
a pretty standard designer floral, but green. it's leafy and herbaceous in the top but it doesn't really mesh well with what is a standard designer perfume counter floral underneath, which dries down to a very plain sandalwood anyway. the notes state there's a roasted almond note, but i just get no nuttiness atall. despite being labelled 'intense' it doesn't last for shit - the second time i wore it i forgot i was even wearing it. MJ's Daisy line is one of my guilty pleasures, Perfect is not the same.
Babycat, YSL - 2/10
every single harsh note listed comes through - pink pepper, black pepper and saffron - and stay. forever. it's an overly spicy suede. this is a highly revered fragrance and really it's not it - i don't get any of this sexy vanilla, it just stinks. it smooths out a bit when it dries down but then... it's just suede. lasts forever which would be great... if i liked it
Pur Magnolia, Cartier - 2/10
very dewy, slightly waxy, and citrussy if you get really close. otherwise, deeply unpleasant. it has that horrible, sickly sweet smell of a baby wipe (used), particularly from a distance. i'm guessing that that's just what magnolias actually smell like. it's what i imagine the colour magnolia to smell like anyway.
Oud & Ambre, Cartier - 2/10
initially very spicy, sweaty and sickly - very antiquated and smells like the saliva of someone with bad dental hygiene. a nice smokiness develops, for which it gets points, but jesus christ what i'm pinning on the amber is pretty nasty. i'm beginning to think that amber-heavy perfumes are not my thing; halitosis and sweat is all i get. i do have Oud & Santal from this same line to try, so i should be able to pinpoint the source of the stink i got. lasts for ages too - all of the fragrances that fucking stink to me seem to.
Cherry Blossom, Floris - 1/10
this is somehow the faintest, fruity floral that somehow still nearly took my eyebrows off on the opening blast. very, very generic and basic floral; i think rubbing some fabric softener into my skin would be a much cheaper way to smell like this. good longevity in fragrance is a bonus but it isn't what makes a fragrance 'good' to me - but this actually takes the piss, farts linger for longer than this. linear.
Divine Le Parfum, Jean Paul Gaultier - 1/10
basic, consumer friendly designer perfume. i genuinely cannot pick out any of the notes, even stinky amber, because it's blended into a mess. on paper it sounds so interesting - lily, solar notes, frangipani and sea salt - but it's so fucking BORING and basic. i don't understand how those notes are supposed to translate into this smell. it's also horrendously strong in the beginning to the point that i was worried i'd choke someone out, but then just completely vanishes a couple hours into the wear. this pissed me off rather than smelling awful.
fin.
order more samples today since it's been a couple months and my list of fragrances to try was piling up;
L'Orchestre Parfum - Discovery Set. Like the sound of a lot of their fragrances so said fuck it and brought the set, there's enough i want to try that it's cheaper to buy samples that way.
Guerlain - Iris Torréfié
Guerlain - Pêche Mirage
Maison Crivelli - Iris Malikhân
Regime Des Fleurs - Fleur Eclair
Kerosene - Promises, Promises
Kerosene - Unknown Pleasures
Kerosene - Sweetly Known
Diptyque - Philosykos EDP
Zoologist - Cow
Serge Lutens - Santal Majuscule
Serge Lutens - Vetiver Oriental
+ Orto Parisi's Brutus, Stercus and Boccanera for the other half (to complete his set)
really wanted to get Serge Lutens - Iris Silver Mist too but i cannot find a sample in the UK for love nor money
