The Year in Perfume: 2025

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Looking back at 2025 through the fragrances I wore feels a little like reading a diary written in scent. I tracked every spray, sample, decant, and layering combination and was surprised to find which scents I reached for most often. Not surprisingly--as I tend to wear warmer scents in the winter and lighter ones in summer--some weeks were vanilla and warm, others bright, green, and a bit tomato-y. 

What was most interesting to me was that my most-grabbed scents were all purchased in 2025. Byredo Gypsy Water (15 wears) was my number one scent of the year, followed by 1907 Vanilla Dry and Liis Ethereal Wave (12 wears each), and Chanel Paris-Edimbourg and Escentric Molecules Molecule 01+Mandarin (8 wears each). These kept showing up, week after week, season after season. They were comforting, reliable companions, and both Paris-Edimbourg and Molecule 01+Mandarin layer fabulously. 

Amusingly, I didn't even like Vanilla Dry or Ethereal Wave when I first tried them. One sample test each and they were rejected. Months later, I gave them second tries and fell in love. Funny how that happens.

I also flirted a lot. Some perfumes I wore only a couple of times: Marissa Zappas Annabel’s Birthday Cake, Lush Turmeric Latte, Bond No.9 Andy Warhol Silver Factory. Not because I don't love them. I recently purchased the Zappas scent and plan to wear it more in the winter. I bought the Lush scent just before Spring and found it too rich to wear in warm weather. I tucked it away with my holiday-appropriate fragrances and realized in December that it will be perfect to wear in the upcoming months. As for the Bond scent, well, I fall in love with it every time I put it on. I just don't know why that doesn't happen particularly frequently. 

And then there was layering. The early months of the year were almost ridiculous, thanks to ChatGPT offering some surprisingly good (and occasionally disastrous) suggestions. Poivre Piquant over Trudon Revolution and Indult Rêve en Cuir? Definitely…a lot.

Seasonally, my rotation tells its own story. Winter was vanilla, amber, and gourmands, for that cozy and comforting feel. Spring brought florals, lighter musks, and a bit of freshness. Summer smelled of citrus, green, and light woody scents. Fall really marked the transition between the warmer temperatures of September and the chill of December. 

Looking at it all together, I realized that perfume doesn't just decorate life, it marks time, mood, and memory. Some weeks were vanilla and warm, some bright and citrusy, some layered beyond reason, but all of them were uniquely mine. Perfume didn’t tell the whole story of 2025, but it told a quieter, smellier one—and sometimes that’s the one I prefer.

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.

A Favorite: Chanel Les Exclusifs No. 18

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Chanel Les Exclusifs No. 18

Ambrette (Musk Mallow), Iris, Rose, Geranium, White Musk

I have to admit, Chanel No. 18 isn’t a fragrance that comes up in everyday conversation. It’s one of those Les Exclusifs gems that hides in plain sight. It's less famous than No. 5, Coco, or No. 19, but quietly brilliant. And after spending some serious time with it over the last several years, I can see why.

No. 18 is a musky, aromatic, slightly metallic fragrance that feels both classic and modern. It’s perfect for anyone who likes their perfume refined, intimate, and a little unexpected. This scent is built around ambrette seed, a musky, slightly carrot-y ingredient that smells clean, luminous, and very skin-like. Add iris, and you get this cool, slightly metallic shimmer that lifts the musk without softening it too much. The result is a fragrance that is cold, clean, entirely unisex, and never feels like it’s trying too hard. 

What’s most striking about No. 18 is its subtlety. It’s never loud or flashy. If it was a color, it would be a silvery grey. It’s the type of scent that rewards close attention, an intimate fragrance that you don’t notice across the room, but when you do, it lingers in your memory. Some people even call it “like freshly washed skin,” and I’d argue that’s not far off. But it’s also luminous, and just a little mysterious.

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks

Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.

2025 Purchases

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If you’re on TikTok, you’ve probably seen those end-of-month videos where fragrance lovers confess everything they bought in the last thirty days. I didn’t make that many perfume purchases in 2025, so instead of monthly reckonings, here’s one full accounting of the year.

All told, I added 29 fragrances to my collection. I’m not counting anything I bought for my husband, and I’m also excluding samples and travel sprays--this list is full bottles only. Paying full retail isn’t really my thing, so most of these came from discounters, coupon codes, or overseas vendors (at least before the de minimis exemption met its untimely demise). There were seven purchases made at a brick-and-mortar boutiques where retail prices were unavoidable, but the rest were bought at a discount.

Here’s the damage:

• 1907 Vanilla Dry — $136.89

• 4160 Tuesdays Rhubarb & Custard — $180

• Al-Rehab French Coffee — $7.99

• Buchart Colbert Faison D'Or — $148

• Byredo Gypsy Water — $174.99

• Calvin Klein Obsession — $19.19

• Chanel Paris-Edimbourg — $123

• Dolce & Gabbana The Only One EDP Intense — $62.99

• D.S. & Durga Wear at Maximum Volume — $250

• Diptyque L’Eau Papier — $102.66

• Gallagher Mists of Time — $115

• Heeley Palm — $156.60

• Hellenist Les Bras de Morphée — $48

• Henrik Vibskov L’Eau Rouge Nature — $127

• Hermès Barénia — $73.38

• J-Scent On a Cloud — $79.50

• Kerosene Winter of ’99 — $164

• Liis Ethereal Wave — $175

• Marissa Zappas Annabel’s Birthday Cake — $131.25

• Memo Eau de Memo — $99.70

• Miller et Bertaux Tulsivivah! — $124.20

• Nasomatto Absinth — $89.99

• Odin 01 Sundara — $165

• Oriza L. Legrand Empire des Indes — $178.50

• Escentric Molecules Molecule 01 + Mandarin — $129.19

• Perfumer H Rain Wood — $146.66

• Pineward Tome — $80

• Sarah Baker Peach’s Revenge — $265

• Trudon Bruma — $205.33

The total comes to approximately $3,759, assuming I didn’t fat-finger the calculator (entirely possible). That may sound like a lot, but I know people who spend that in a single month. I will not be naming names.

There’s another side to this ledger, though. In 2025, I sold 25 rare and discontinued fragrances on eBay, grossing just over $5,000. After taxes, shipping, and fees took their cut, the actual payout landed at $3,453. If I treat that resale income as my fragrance budget, then my out-of-pocket cost for all those new bottles was just $306.

By that math, I did pretty well in 2025.

Unfortunately, this particular trick won’t work again in 2026. I’ve already sold off just about every bottle in my collection that anyone might reasonably want to pay serious money for. Which means next year’s tally, if there is one, will look very different.

And probably much more painful. 

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.

Sorry and Sorry

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I want to apologize to my readers for neglecting this blog in the second half of 2025. 

One reason is that I've been very busy with my new side hustle as novelist. Since June of 2025, I have written nearly 140,000 words, which includes two complete novels and a novella. The first book, Killer Sillage, came out in September, and is available in both paperback and Kindle format. The second book, Savage Gourmand, is slated to be released in April, though I have not yet listed it for pre-order. The novella, Season's Greedy, was serialized on my author Substack, LaGue's Clues. I am also currently plotting book three in the Good Scents series of cozy mysteries. The hope is that A Murderous Accord will be published in September of 2026.

(You see what I did there with the titles, don't you? The protagonists in this series run a perfume shop in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. If you're into fragrance--and you might be if you're reading this blog--you might enjoy them.)

Another reason is less fun to talk about. The current political climate has caused me to withdraw from things like social media. I still participate in Instagram and Facebook, but not to the extent I once did. I’ve unfollowed everything that reliably pisses me off. (And yet, I joined TikTok. Apart from a couple of fellow perfume lovers, Angie and Lois, pretty much everything about that platform also pisses me off.)

As I get older, I’ve realized I don’t want to be angry all the time. I don’t want to argue with strangers or marinate in outrage. Avoiding potential triggers feels less like disengagement and more like self-preservation. While my blogs are fully under my control, and contentious comments are rare, I still found myself avoiding them.

Maybe it's not healthy that I've retreated into my own fictional world of perfume shop owners and dead bodies, but it sure beats the realization that I can no longer order perfumes from Nose or Jovoy in Paris and 50-ML in Milan, or supplies for my jewelry business from China, because of tariffs. 

So if Minxstinks went a little quiet, consider this my apology—and my explanation. I haven’t fallen out of love with perfume; I’ve just been hiding in it. Stepping back wasn’t about disengaging so much as choosing what deserves my attention. Perfume still does. Writing does too. And this blog, when I let it be a place of pleasure rather than pressure, does as well. Thank you for sticking around and for coming back when I do.

Here's to a happy 2026 (fingers crossed).

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.