brown leatherbound Book of Shadows with triple moon and pentagram and Alkemia Book of Shadows Perfume spray
Fragrance Review, Indie Fragrance, U.S. Fragrance

Book of Shadows from Alkemia Perfumes – Fragrance Review

Book of Shadows is a very inky scent, but it doesn’t smell like your typical “ink” perfume. It’s not the sludgy, sooty scent of India ink, and it’s not just some murky, mothbally cypriol to suggest inkiness. It’s the crisp, flowy, and purple-black scent of iron gall ink. Bitter and fruity-nutty like gum arabic, with a metallic sheen (that just flirts with being reminiscent of heme), I can imagine thick, dense downstrokes, hairlike upstrokes, and dainty flourishes. The “throw,” when I get a random sniff from arm’s length, sometimes reminds me of the sweet, rubbery-tinged smell of a good print shop ink

Fragrance Review, Limited Release Fragrance, U.S. Fragrance

Jurassic Flower from Fūm Fragrances – Fragrance Review

It’s been a while since I was moved by a fragrance description. But when I saw the photos on Instagram of magnolia flowers with their waxy leaves and curly carpels and a caption that promised “a unique twist on magnolia,” it grabbed me by the heartstrings and I pretty much had to try Jurassic Flower by Fūm Fragrances. Maybe it’s the inability to travel right now, or even be outside really, that filled me with a longing for this magnolia from the sea.

Fragrance Review, U.S. Fragrance

Youth Dew Amber Nude – Tom Ford x Estée Lauder – Fragrance Review (and Beauty History!)

Amber Nude comes in the sleek, iconic ribbed and cinched Youth Dew bottle. For me, that’s pretty much where the true similarities end. The fragrance does pay homage to its roots in the deep, dark drydown, but any family resemblance between the two is generations apart. Like, Amber Nude is a swank young socialite, and original Youth Dew is her great-great aunt in regency clothing over on the settee kind of separation.

Fragrance Review, U.S. Fragrance

Ariana Grande Cloud Fragrance Review (and comparison to Baccarat Rouge 540)

I don’t always get excited about celebrity fragrances, but for some reason this one caught my attention early. Some of the first press releases speculated that it would smell like marshmallows, and later it was rumored to smell like whipped cream. Yum! Plus, the bottle is adorable. I’m a little bit old to be the target demographic for this fragrance, but I’ve expanded my horizons to include gourmand fragrances, and the deeper I go down the gourmand rabbit-hole, the more I can tolerate, and even enjoy, sweet scents.

I try not to pay attention to early reviews and opinions when I’m considering writing about something, but it was impossible to escape the controversy that emerged about Cloud — with people swearing that it smells “exactly like” Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Baccarat Rouge 540. This was actually a bit of a disappointment for me, because that’s not a fragrance that smells like marshmallows or whipped cream, and I’m not particularly fond of it. But, I decided to check out both head-to-head, and I didn’t read or listen to any of the “formal” reviews that support or deny this claim. I wanted to evaluate it for myself first.