Sonoma Scent Studio

Back in my Sniffapalooza Magazine days, I was fortunate enough to be able to interview perfumer Laurie Erickson as well as sample her wares. Laurie and I became friendly, and I tested variations of her newer scents and offered my opinion as to what notes she needed to add/turn up/tone down. That was great fun and as close to being a perfumer as I will ever get. 

Laurie sold Sonoma Scent Studio a few years back, but the delightful fragrances she created still live on and can be purchased on the SSS website.

Sonoma Scent Studio Interview with 

Perfumer Laurie Erickson

Perfumer Laurie Erickson lives in the beautiful rolling hills of California’s Sonoma County where she is surrounded by vineyards and gardens.  Lucky gal!  She took a few moments in between concocting luscious new fragrances to answer a few questions for Sniffapalooza Magazine.

KP: When you gardened as a little girl, did you imagine that someday you would be using these floral aromas to create your own fragrances?

LE: No, I really didn't.  When I was young I didn't have a perfume-making kit, though I did have chemistry and geology kits and worked through various experiments with them.  I didn't dream of making perfume though.  When I gardened as a child it was for fragrant cut flowers and for vegetables.  I didn't start to grow cottage-style landscape borders until I was older, and that's when the perfume and essential oil experiments began.

KP: What are your earliest fragrance memories, other than those of the natural scents of the garden?

LE: Besides the garden scents there are lots of other memorable outdoors scents from my childhood.  Since I was very young I’ve always loved a nearby park that has a mixture of oaks, redwoods, and bay trees.  I loved the smells of the trees, the dusty trail, the dried grass in the hot sun, and the moist earth by the creek.  You walk through a whole series of different plant assemblages in just a few minutes as you pass from the dry oak grasslands to the redwoods by the creek, and all the scents change as you walk. I still love that. 

My parents took us camping each summer, so I have lots of fond scent memories from those trips, especially the freshness of the mountain air.  My brother and I learned that the bark of Jeffrey pine trees smelled of vanilla, so we had to run around sniffing all the tree trunks to see which were scented.

I rode horses when I was a little older and have lots of scent memories from the barn: leather, oats, alfalfa, hay, cedar shavings, and pungent green grass in the early morning dew. Of course the holidays have lots of pleasant scent memories for kids, like Mom’s gingerbread cookies baking and the wonderful green smell of the Douglas fir Christmas tree we’d cut down at the tree farm each year. 

As for early perfume memories, my Mom didn't wear much perfume but my grandmother did and whenever we went out somewhere special her sillage of aldehydic floral scents intrigued me.  My own earliest perfumes were two miniatures: one of L'Air du Temps with the doves on top and one little painted porcelain bottle containing violet perfume.  I loved both but sniffed them more from the bottles instead of wearing

them, partly to make them last longer and partly because the L’Air du Temps seemed so sophisticated at that age.

KP:  Are you completely self-taught in perfumery?

LE:  I haven't taken any classes, so in that sense I am completely self taught.  I feel as though I’ve learned from others through their writing and their fragrance compositions though because I've read many journal articles and books and I’ve sampled thousands of perfumes that have taught me a great deal. Perfumery is part science and part art, and both parts build on past achievements of others and on new materials that become available.  Inspiration from past perfumes combines with your own vision, preferences, and style.   Studying the classics and learning the materials available is a similar process whether you do it on your own or in courses. The chance to study a whole library full of ingredients all at once would be a dream come true though, and that would have been especially helpful back when I was first starting.

Mainly I’ve learned through years of sampling ingredients and experimenting with them to discover the best ways to use them, and by researching online and in journal articles (I had a science background in college so I’m used to researching via journal articles. I've learned a lot about aroma chemicals from articles in the Perfumer and Flavorist journal (you can subscribe or buy individual articles or get a compendium they publish from time to time). I would have loved to have flown to France to perfumery school, but that's not an option for me.  The learning process has been fun though, and there's always more to learn.  The deeper you get into any subject the more you realize you have yet to learn, but that’s part of the fun.

KP: What is your personal favorite family of scent and why?

LE:   I don't have a single favorite scent family; I love many different types of scents, and that's partly why I got into perfumery.  I love florals, woods, incense, and orientals.  I love a few chypres but am fussy about them (I do love oakmoss though).  The only notes I rarely like are marine, melon, and strong lemon.  I don’t have as many favorites in the green family as in the floral and woods families, but I do love a few greens and quite a few musks too. 

KP:  How do you go about creating a fragrance?  How long does it usually take?

LE:  I usually start with the heart of the scent, the primary theme notes.  I build an accord that I like for that, and then I experiment with other notes that complement that theme accord.  I go through a lot of trials that usually take 3-12 months, sometimes putting the scent down for a month while I search for an ingredient that I need.  Some scents take more time than others and most average about 4 months or so, but often I complete two at once during that time.

KP: Your site mentions a To Do list.  How many scent ideas are you kicking around to eventually produce?

LE: I almost always have about five or six scents in progress.  Right now I have Ambre Noir, Lieu de Reves, and Gardenia Musk all nearing completion and I have Fete de Fleur and Zen Musk half-done waiting in the wings.  I rotate working on different scents so I don't smell the same ingredients more than 2 days in a row.  There's never enough time to finish all the ideas I have in progress.  Between filling orders, answering emails, website work, sourcing ingredients, and paperwork, only a portion of my day is left for blending.

KP: Are you happy to stay small as an indie perfumer, or do you hope to increase your market by selling your wares in shops and boutiques?

LE:  I've split my fragrances into two groups, one that will be available to boutiques and one that will be sold only online and here at the studio.  I have a little list of things to accomplish before I sell to boutiques, and I've nearly completed the list.  I just recently had some pretty custom boxes made for my bottles so they would be ready for retail.  Now I want to finish a few more of those scents on my To Do list (Ambre Noir and Lieu de Reves) and then finalize which scents to wholesale and which to keep as online only. Even when I wholesale I want to stay small and continue to offer hand made products with personal customer service.  I don't dream of becoming huge; I really like the positives I can offer as a small indie perfumer.  I think I still have plenty of growing I can do and stay with those goals though.

KP:  What is your all-time favorite smell?  

LE:  That's a very hard question because I don’t have one favorite smell above all others.   As a whole, floral smells probably make me smile the most.  I love rose, jasmine, sweet pea, and orange blossom.  But I also love the smells of green trees, dried grass in the sun, incense, and woods.  For sniffing straight natural ingredients, rose, jasmine, frankincense, labdanum, and oakmoss are all extremely beautiful.  In the food category I love the scents of warm spices, tea, coffee, oats, apricot, and mandarin.  It's hard to imagine life without the roses in my garden though, so they are certainly very high on my list of all-time favorite smells and may be my best answer. 

Sonoma Scent Studios Reviews

By Kathy Patterson

Laurie Erickson is a woman who is not afraid of musk (only 4 of her 14 current offerings do not include musk of some type).  I’m a big fan of the note myself, as is my husband, so I was thrilled to be able to try a handful of her fragrances.

Champagne de Bois

Notes: aldehydes, jasmine, clove, sandalwood, labdanum absolute, vetiver, amber, musk

Champagne de Bois is an aldehydic delight, happily effervescent, yet grounded by spice and woods. Aldehydes + clove is really an astoundingly wonderful combination that turns a wintery, warmly spicy note into something less dark and more exhilarating. I feel happy wearing this scent, reveling in the juxtaposition of bright and dark and especially in the bold muskiness of it all.

The aldehydes Laurie uses have a tangy sweet quality that’s not unlike ginger juice, or ginger ale, although without a gingery bite.  And they last forever, keeping the drydown just as pleasantly sparkling as the opening.

Vintage Rose

Notes: Rose, plum, amber, labdanum absolute, sandalwood, cedar, vetiver, tonka bean, musk

Vintage Rose is like a glass of strong sweet wine flavored heavily with crushed rose petals.  It’s not a powdery, or watery rose, but one that is rich and heady. The plum note not only gives the impression of wine, but also of a dark, unsweetened chocolate.  It’s completely delicious and very nearly gourmand.

As the scent dries down, the amber and sandalwood come in to make the scent a little powdery, but no less rich.  The scent also becomes quite musky, but only as an enhancement to the dusky rose/plum combo which does fade a bit as the basenotes make their way forward.  Hours into the drydown, sandalwood predominates, creating a sexy woody rose aura.  Gorgeous stuff.

Although the scent is called Vintage Rose, don’t let that scare you with olfactory visions of dusty, forgotten corsages or anything even remotely “old ladyfish.”  Vintage Rose may reminisce a bit, but it is a gorgeous modern scent that is a must-try for rose aficionados.

http://www.sonomascentstudio.com/FragranceShop.shtml

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks

Hunting Down an Old Favorite

In 1983, my Dad allowed me to accompany him on a trip to London. He had business to attend to; I wanted to play tourist. While Dad sat through boring meetings with British Telecom (though I suppose he didn't consider them boring), I wandered along Carnaby Street--gawping at the mohawked and safety-pinned punks--and in and out of high street shops. I was just getting into exploring fragrances beyond the youthful scents I wore in high school, and was intrigued by ambers and spice. I was also pretty sure I didn't like perfumes that were too heavily flowery. Imagine my surprise when I fell for a floral fragrance called Camellia that I sniffed at Boots. It had a lovely light apricot quality to it, not unlike osmanthus, and was not even close to the Germaine Monteil Bakir that I had recently started wearing. 

A few years later, I went to London on my own and found that while Boots no longer carried that line of fragrances, Marks & Spencer had a camellia scent that, to my nose, was exactly the same. On both trips, I purchased the body powder and lotion, and perhaps the EDT at M&S, but honestly I don't remember. It's been 35 years at this point! 

Today, a whole lifetime later, that lovely camellia scent came to mind when I saw that Monotheme Venezia has a camellia fragrance. Alas, it is not the same at all. I posted my reminiscences to the On the Scent podcast group on Facebook in hopes that someone remembered the M&S scent, or even the line to which it belonged. Suzy Nightingale suggested that I contact the Marks & Spencer archive, which might be able tell me more about the scent, perhaps give me a list of notes so I can better hunt for something similar. Within a few hours, I heard back from someone at the archive. While she couldn't help me with the notes in Camellia, she was able to provide an image of a gift guide from 2001 that included the fragrance line. Had I been able to get to the UK in the decade after my last trip, I could have stocked up! 

photo credit: eBay
newyorkcityboys

The archivist also supplied a link to eBay search results, and after poking around a bit, I found an image of a can I recognized. It is, of course, not the same scent at all, but the packaging is the same though Camellia's can was a peachy color. I thought it would be helpful to know that the brand behind the fragrance line was called St Michael, but I was not able to find anything substantive about it. Only that they also made clothing and that they were planning to go back into production in 2021. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but I am only interested in their fragrances, so I didn't look any further.

I also found a half-full bottle of St Michael for Marks & Spencer Camellia eau de toilette on eBay, from a seller in the US. Though the seller assures me that the scent still smells fine and that she doesn't believe that it has "gone off," I think $39.99 is a steep price to pay for something that might end up going directly into the garbage can, so I am going to pass. I did create an eBay search alert, however, just in case a full bottle, ideally in original packaging for less $, comes on the market. We can dream.

We all have favorite scents that have been discontinued. Leave a comment and tell me about yours.

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks

Some of My Older Reviews, Part 2

I wrote for Sniffapalooza Magazine back in the '00s, which I enjoyed immensely. Apart from blogging, I hadn't done any professional writing, and this was a lovely way to practice the craft. One of the perks of being a fragrance journalist is receiving free samples, both full bottles and samples. I miss that the most. 

Both posts originally appeared on Sniffapalooza Magazine, which can still be read online at the address linked above.

Parfums MDCI is still around, still making fancy flaçons, but they also sell their fragrances in somewhat plain bottles. The price of these unembellished containers is still high at $250 for 75ml. The bust-topped bottles are 375€ ($408-ish), which is somewhat reasonable compared to the original price of $600. Clearly the tops are no longer crystal or Limoges, but a more pedestrian material. To be perfectly honest, as a perfume fan, I am just that--a fan of the juice. Though a pretty bottle is nice, I refuse to pay for something so non-essential to the fragrance experience. By Kilian fragrances originally came in fancy boxes that I suppose one could put jewelry in, or cigars, or whatever. But if I want a box, I'll buy one elsewhere. I don't need another piece of packaging to take up room in my house--and money out of my wallet. Likewise I don't want to shell out good money for a fancy doo-dad on top of the bottle. I won't even smell Floraiku scents. Their bottles are topped with a gorgeous purse spray and come in a fancy box, but also cost $350 for 50ml. I don't need to lust after anything that spendy. But I digress.

Bond No. 9 is also still around, and their prices have gone through the roof. Get this: when I asked a SA at the flagship 9 Bond Street boutique why their scents were so bloody expensive, she shrugged and said, "to create an air of exclusivity." Ah. Thank goodness for perfume discounters, though I haven't bought a Bond scent in 15 years. 

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Parfums MDCI

by Kathy Patterson

According to the Parfums MDCI Web site, they are a small team of passionate perfumers who work by the concept that fine fragrance should be treated as art, not as a commodity. It is clear to see that the opulence of the Renaissance, with its tradition of incredible sculptural works, is the inspiration for their line. The magnificent flaçons in which their perfumes are sold are essentially glass columns, or pillars, as in classical architecture, that are topped with either a crystal or Limoges porcelain bust.  They are in themselves works of art (hence the high price). But what of the scents housed within?

When I first dabbed on each of these fragrances, I thought, "these are not worth $600! There is absolutely nothing special about any of these." After sniffing them again, I still had that thought... but I did notice that the scents had changed almost dramatically into something far more special than my first perception led me to believe.

Ambre Topkapi (PB1)

Notes: bergamot, grapefruit, pineapple, melon, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, basil, thyme, lavender, oak moss, vetiver, sandalwood, rosewood, leather, Darjeeling tea, amber, musk, vanilla, jasmine, violet

"Ick, a typical men's fragrance with citrus and lavender," was my first thought on this one. True, that's what it smells like at first, an anonymous drugstore aftershave. Then bam! Tangy pineapple! I sniffed again and detected herbs, then a floral quality, something a little powdery, a cross between sandalwood and violets. The barest hint of leather. And then the amber arrives along with a bit of musky vanilla.  In the drydown, there is still a bit of a bright tangy note, the tea most likely, and a dash of the lavender, that keeps things lively.  And then much further along, the amber takes center stage. 

Although intended to be a masculine fragrance, I find this to be extremely unisex, and it is my favorite of the line.

Invasion Barbare (SB1)

Notes: grapefruit, bergamot, violet leaves, white thyme, cardamom, lavender, ginger, cedarwood, vanilla, musk

At first sniff, this one was the most interesting of the bunch. The opening is a bit of bergamot garnished with a healthy dose of cardamom. The scent is soft, almost powdery, and nearly gourmand in quality. Plenty of vanilla blends with lavender in the drydown, with a barely detectable woodsy base. Invasion Barbare is oddly named, as it is far from barbaric, nor is it invasive. It is in fact a very comforting scent, with a cuddly masculinity.

Promesse de l'Aube (FK1)

Notes: mandarin, lemon, ylang-ylang, jasmine, sandalwood, tonka bean, vanilla

This starts out with a burst of citrus and the hint of white flowers.  There's also a very perceptible vanillaic sweetness, that makes the composition start off much like a very sophisticated lemon meringue pie. The ylang and jasmine are very subtle, which I appreciate, and the sandalwood lends a powderyness to the drydown. 

Rose de Siwa (FK2)

Notes: lychee, peony, hawthorn, Moroccan and Turkish roses, violet, cedar, musk, vetiver

An almost boozy opening, heavy on the peony, with a slight tropical sweetness, transforming into a very dry rose with a little of the "cold cream" quality of YSL Paris. There's a wee bit of powdery violet adding a bit of sweetness to the end, with the cedar and vetiver playing very minor roles. This is a delightful rose scent, almost happy, yet with a grown-up seriousness.

Enlevement au Serail (FK3)

Notes: bergamot, mandarin, ylang-ylang, jasmine sambac, tuberose, rose, wallflower, patchouli, sandalwood, vanilla, vetiver

Perhaps one should wear this while listening to my favorite opera, Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio although I do not think of ylang-ylang and tuberose when I think of a Turkish harem (which I will admit, is very seldom, if ever). Very much an elegant chypre fragrance (oakmoss or not) Enlevement opens up with lots of white flowers and a little bit of citrus. Soon the white flowers fade to allow a bit of rose to peek through with the sweetness of vanilla and a powdery sandalwood note.  The slightly humid note of the tuberose persists through the drydown.

Bond No. 9 Reviews Brooklyn and Boca 

Bond No. 9 Brooklyn

Notes: grapefruit, cardamom, cypress wood, geranium leaves, juniper berries, cedarwood, leather, guaiacwood

Brooklyn is the latest scent from New York’s Bond No. 9.  Clean and rather light for a Bond creation, Brooklyn leans toward the masculine, but I would wear it in a heartbeat.  It’s a dry scent that would be lovely in the heat of summer, starting off with a very nice fresh grapefruit note on a woodsy background.  Moments after application, there’s an interesting greenness that reminds me of the tomato plants I grow on my back porch in the summer, with an added hint of spice from the juniper berries that somehow manage not to make me think of gin (and for which I am thankful!). But on my husband, the gin comes out right away as an accompaniment to the grapefruit.

For most of the early stages of Brooklyn, the dominant woodsy note is cedar; later it becomes the softer and sexier guaiacwood. Also later in the development of the scent we get a leather note that’s so light it’s practically transparent. The sweet spice of cardamom should be in the opening, though I detect it more in the drydown.  However, that may be a trick of the basenotes, since they are less-dry and slightly sweeter than the opening. 

Overall, Brooklyn is a welcome and refreshing addition to the Bond No. 9 stable and I look forward to wearing it in the warmer months.

Bond No. 9 Boca

Notes: lily of the valley, black currant, gardenia, freesia, hedione, amber, cedarwood, cardamom, musk

Bond ventures out of New York completely with its new limited edition scent Boca. There’s no mistaking it for anything but girly: it’s a rich fruity floral, starting out with a ton of black currant fruit on a background of floral-flavored candyfloss. The predominant floral note is gardenia, making for a heady jolt of white flowers that add their own sweetness to the blend. The currant is tenacious and lingers into the drydown where it is joined by musk and a bit of sweet spice that mellows the scent out a bit.

Boca isn’t a scent for wallflowers--it’s not shy in the least and I would bet it blooms wonderfully in the hot weather of Florida, where it is available exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue stores in Boca Raton.

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks

Scentcraft.ai - Real or Rip-off?

Call me dumb, but I fell for a Facebook ad. Not for the first time, so you'd think I'd know better.

I've been heavily into scent recently, so most of the ads I see on both Facebook and Instagram are for various fragrance products, mostly indie and niche brands. One in particular, for a company called Scentcraft, intrigued me. It claimed to offer bespoke fragrances created by professional perfumers, which at the reasonable prices they charge, sounded too good to be true. And, of course, it was. 

This post is long, so, a synopsis: Scentcraft is not quite a scam. They do sell quality scents created by professional perfumers. However, they are not bespoke in any way, apart from the name and AI-created imagery you choose for your bottle and packaging. If you opt for the 50ml or 100ml bottles for the scent you are led to believe is being created for you, you are essentially making an expensive and completely blind buy.

sample chat with Arty

Arty is the chatbot and navigator for the process that begins at scentcraft.ai. First Arty asks for a name or nickname, then the preference for a male or female fragrance. Favorite fragrance brands are then requested; the first time I played, I was asked for three favorites, and on subsequent times, only one. Arty then suggests a fragrance family based on brand preference, and three note pairings from that family. On my first attempt, it was determined that I liked "amber woody" fragrances (true) and was offered a choice between: Tonka Bean, Patchouli, and Jasmine Absolute; Orange Flower, Sweet Orange Oil, Amber; and Ylang Ylang, Cinnamon, and Gold Amber. I chose the orange flower/orange oil/and amber style, at which point Arty wanted to rush me into payment and production. But I wanted more ingredients, like vanilla, iris, patchouli, lactonic notes, and musk. I wanted to smell like a sexy creamsicle. Arty agreed that I could add more notes and said that my fragrance was shaping up to be "unique and enchanting." After I was happy with my selection of ingredients, we then moved on to naming the scent ("Orange You Glad"), and creating an AI-generated label for the bottle. I then chose the least-expensive option, three 5ml minis for $39.95, and prepared to wait a few weeks for my delicious bespoke fragrance variants. 

Scentcraft claims that their fragrances are created by perfumers at IFF at their labs in NY and Singapore, so imagine my surprise when I received a shipping notice from Landover, MD, roughly a week after placing my order. I was not able to find a IFF location in either Landover or in Washington, DC, so that seemed a little suspicious. However, I was excited when I received my new "bespoke" fragrance just a few days later; I couldn't wait to try it!

There was nothing fancy about the packaging. My fragrances were bundled in black tissue paper sealed with a sticker adorned with an AI-generated image of oranges and the words "thank you." This was crammed into a 5 x 7 black padded mailing envelope with a larger version of the orange sticker on one side, and another sticker on the back with QR codes and the statement "check your email for a digital version of this!" (I never received any such email.) There was an external mailing envelope as well.

Each of three tiny roller bottles was labeled with a number and a QR code matching the one on the outside of the inner envelope. When scanned, the codes sent me to web pages that described each particular scent and revealed the name of the perfumer. I was excited to see that the variations on my theme were created by Juliette Karagueuzoglou (creator of YSL Tuxedo, YSL Vinyle, Penhaligon's Savoy Steam), Bruno Jovanovic (Amouage Opus XII, CK Endless Euphoria, Essential Perfumes Mon Vetiver), and Nicolas Beaulieu (Chopard Musk Malaki, Clinique Aromatics in White, CdG Mirror by KAWS). Excitement was soon replaced by disappointment, when I realized that their creations utilized few of the notes that I had requested.

the notes for version "KP60" by Juliette Karagueuzoglou 

For example, the "orange blossom, orange oil, amber" fragrance created by Juliette Karagueuzoglou, contained the requested patchouli, vanilla, iris, and amber, but not orange blossom or orange oil. This particular fragrance was quite sweet, but not bad, though I didn't like its rather dusty drydown. Notice how this scent includes "tonka bean, patchouli, and jasmine absolute," like one of Arty's suggested fragrances.

notes for "KP65" by Bruno Jovanovic

Bruno Jovanovic's scent had neroli and amber, but nothing else I requested. Another pleasant scent, again quite sweet, and not even close to what I requested. Again, note that this fragrance includes "ylang ylang, cinnamon, and gold amber," which was another of the options Arty offered at the start of the process. 

notes for "KP39" by Nicholas Beaulieu

Finally, Nicholas Beaulieu's variant contained notes of neroli, vanilla, and musk. It is also sweet, and quite overpoweringly jasmine-y.  It seems so unlike the other two, with its strong floralcy, that I have to wonder if this one was included by mistake. Which begs the question, if Scentcraft was going to send me the variations on a theme that they suggested at the beginning, why on earth didn't they include the orange-dominant one I chose?

I tried each scent on my skin and was not excited by any of them. Scentcraft claims, "love it, or it's free." After trying the scents again the next day, I sent an email stating that I was not happy with them, also that they were missing most of my requested notes. Four days later, someone finally read my email and sent a response. 

Hi Kathy

Please allow us to share how we work with our perfumers. We recommend pairings of notes which we know work well together and share your individual input but the perfumer has final say on his composition as all artists he knows what he wants to achieve for each custom fragrance he designed so it very well be that not all the notes that you are choosing will be present in his creation.  We sent 3 bottles/iteration of your custom scents so that most of the ingredients chosen actually are present in all of the fragrances combined and since we actually blend a very high concentration of natural ingredients, each of our creation can be worn alone or/and combined!

Let me offer to send you another set of 3 custom scents (for free) based specifically on the orange oil, the musk, the orange blossom and the amber ok?

 I dont think you will be disappointed.

Thank you for your confidence and wishing you a good day

Vame

Sorry, Vame, I kinda know how perfumers work. If they're working for someone else, they follow a brief, which is a blueprint of the final product. It contains a description of the scent, materials budget, packaging info, etc. The brief of my bespoke scent would have, at the very minimum, described it as a scent made with orange blossom, orange oil, and amber, from which the perfumer should realize that the client is looking for a very orange-scented fragrance. I understand how a perfumer's artistic sensibilities might be offended by my suggesting additional notes, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't blatantly disregard the overarching theme of orange. 

Also, if I do what I believe Vame suggests and combine the three fragrances, I get a sugar-sweet concoction that is still not even close to the sexy creamsicle I wanted. It's neither sexy nor creamsicle. Had any of the three samples actually contained the promised orange oil, or a higher concentration of neroli, perhaps I would admit they had tried at least a little bit to give me what I asked for. But that was not the case. And why, if these are three "iteration of [my] custom scent," were they created by three perfumers? Why wouldn't I have been sent three variants by the same perfumer? 

Not that the fragrances I received are bad. Far from it. Each was pleasant in its own right, and not anything I've smelled before. But they smelled finished, which is not something I would have expected from a process that took just over a week from start to finish. I suspected that while the scents mailed to me were indeed created by professional perfumers, none of them were created for me. Check out the Scentcraft FAQ (it's not linked on the AI page, but can be googled), which offers a description of the perfume-making process and admits that the perfume oil needs a week or two of maturation before the alcohol is added, then more weeks of maceration before it is bottled. Certainly those things happened to the samples I received, but possibly weeks, months, or even years before I even discovered Scentcraft.

All of this dawned on me too late. In my excitement, I had created and ordered another scent, this time unisex. I wanted a dry and incense-y fragrance with a hint of orange blossom (I'm a little obsessed with orange blossom right now). Even after the disappointment of my first set, I had hopes that my second perfume would be more on the money. Instead, I received two samples of strongly masculine fragrances, and another 5ml of  Juliette K's "KP60." Annoyed, I sent another email off to Scentcraft.

I just received my second order of a supposedly "bespoke" fragrance from you (order C5603). I had asked for an incense scent with orange blossom, frankincense, myrrh, musk, patchouli, cedar, and vetiver. I received two scents that at least have "incense" notes, one also containing vetiver and musk, and the other with patchouli. The third scent, however, while it has myrrh and neroli, is exactly the same "KP60" scent that I received the first time I placed an order and requested a primarily orange blossom scent. Which kind of proves my theory that you have a bunch of fragrances pre-designed by professional perfumers and you pick three that you feel somewhat fit the desires of the customer, even if only vaguely. There's no other explanation for receiving an order so quickly, when blending perfume and getting it right takes a long time, and receiving something that already feels "finished," as it has had time to mature. In no way are these fragrances "bespoke." These scents are perfectly pleasant and designed by professional noses. Why not bottle them, give them names, and sell them like any other niche perfume house, rather than pretending to be something you are not? While some of your customers might fall for it, most of us are not fools.

I am so disappointed.

Kathy

The response I received had me shaking my head. It's as if all Vame saw was the word "niche." 

Hi Kathy,

Thank you for taking the time to write your thoughts on our business and we did indeed mistakenly resent you one of the scent we curated for you KP60. I will be happy to send you a replacement for this 5ml tailored to the set of preferences you shared with us.  

It is heartwarming to read your appreciation of the quality of the composition that we create. They are all 20% Extrait de Parfum formulation with a high concentration of naturals ingredients. We always send 3 iterations of a set of preferences , that is 3 different custom scents and combined these 3 custom scents are unique to you These signature bottles are of exceptional quality (niche as you identified them) so they should not disappoint you Kathy. 

Thank you and sending you my warm regards, Vame

What the everloving fuck?  

Currently, I am waiting for my replacement set of the orange blossom/orange oil/amber fragrance, and the replacement for the "mistakenly resent" KP60. I am not sure what to expect, but I will keep you posted. 

While I am sure some folks will be absolutely thrilled with whatever Scentcraft sends them, wholeheartedly believing that these fragrances were custom blended, those folks are not perfume people. Scentcraft advertises on Instagram that they will work with influencers to create their own fragrance brand (these posts also tout that their fragrances are "100% natural," which I doubt) but fellow perfumistas will not be fooled. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when one of these influencer clients realizes that their "bespoke" fragrance smells exactly like a fragrance being sold by another influencer. But will scentcraft.ai last that long? 

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks

Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with Scentcraft or any other company.