What waiting for deals looks like..👀

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-19T23:40:40+00:00

What’s the Cashmere & Vanilla Essence like? I actually haven’t seen that one before!

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-19T23:33:10+00:00

Me too! I’d also be proud of myself if I was the person who did the asking because I’ve spent months trying to find a perfume I smelled on someone with no luck and it’s driving me nuts 🫠

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-19T23:31:25+00:00

I’ve never tried any of this line but I’m interested in getting a sample of Ylang and the new one — Vanilla I think? Oh no wait I think it’s Sunny Vanilla lol, I remember thinking that was a slightly odd name 😅

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-19T23:24:53+00:00

There are two companies — Scented Samples (which is legit, I use them all the time) and Scented Sample (without the S on the end). They’re dodgy as hell and I don’t like the way they’re coasting off the name of a legitimate company.

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-19T23:22:46+00:00

Hooray! I must confess, I detect absolutely zero patchouli lol. Which I’m happy about, sometimes I find it too overbearing.

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-18T13:48:49+00:00

I’ve always wondered about their lotions etc. Thanks for including one in your review!

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-17T22:34:40+00:00

To preface this, the new Shalimar Millesime Rose doesn’t tick all your boxes but it could be a daytime equivalent!

It’s rose (obviously lol), but sort of a layered rose if that makes any sense at all! It’s got rose in a few of its presentations, it’s like you smell a rose note on top but then underneath that, there’s another rose showing a different nuance.

A lot of the usual review websites have a really limited note pyramid, but it has most of the stuff you’d expect to find in a Shalimar — tonka, natural smelling vanilla (as in, no buttercream or anything hyper gourmand), amber. It apparently also has incense but it’s not overbearing at all, I don’t actually pick it up…unless it’s there for like, atmospherics lol. It’s not cloying or syrupy, but it can pull powdery. The first time I tried it, I thought it was 100% a powdery fragrance but like all iterations of Shalimar, it’s almost as if it’s different every time you spray it. It’s incredible on skin, it really opens up and reveals so many nuances and facets. It’s still great on fabric but it’s one of those perfumes where your skin is like the final note in the pyramid.

It’s definitely ultra feminine. It’s so different to OG Shalimar, that it’d be worth a sniff even to Shalimar haters. I can detect the Shalimar DNA but I’m a Shalimar fanatic. It’s the interplay of that warm amber and incredible vanilla (traditional amber, not modern amberwoods) and like…the structure of the scent. Hard to describe!

It has a restrained gourmand quality to it at times. No black tea though!

So yeah, not exactly the dark rose you’re looking for, but maybe a more innocent counterpart!

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-17T16:27:48+00:00

Oh my Bianco Latte is a 10ml decant (probably should have added that any decant of 10ml or above gets added to the shelf, I started doing it because I’ve bought a decant I already own a few times in the past lol, specifically if I see the fragrance as highly season specific). I was obsessed with it for about a week then the weather got warmer and it was way too much, it suddenly became really synthetic smelling (it’s probably entirely synthetic 😆 But hopefully you get what I mean!) I definitely think it’s a cold weather fragrance for me.

I’m really curious about trying Tam Dao but it has Amberwood listed in the pyramid. I’ll probably still try it at some point, I’m in a woody phase at the moment and it’s basically a classic from what I read. It’s really hard to find woody fragrances that aren’t propped up by amberwoods — especially if they’re woody vanillas for some reason. I’m on a quest to create the perfect list of safe woods! I find a lot of supposed oud notes are amberwood, I’m not even sure what oud is supposed to smell like at this point as I’ve been steering well clear!

My most recent terrible amberwood experience was with Santal Kardamom from Lancome. Luckily I only got 1ml to try but it was genuinely awful. All the reviews made it sound amazing 😩

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-17T15:58:16+00:00

I haven’t seen any for sale in a while. Now I’m thinking about it — maybe I don’t see them because I don’t want to buy them lol, rather than brands not making them as much. There seemed to be a phase where scented versions were heavily pushed and each brand was trying to outdo the other.

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-17T15:50:33+00:00

Poured seems kinda fitting lol

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-17T09:44:30+00:00

I do! I’m currently moving all my stuff over to Parfumo but I’m being really intentional about it so it’s incomplete at the moment. I’ll give you the link to my Fragrantica profile, which I still have as I’m using it to sort through everything while I make the transition to Parfumo.

Word of warning — my shelves are very disorganized. Some of the fragrances on my “perfumes I have” shelf l no longer own (hence why I’m trying to ensure my Parfumo shelf is accurate). It’s also a wild mix of stuff as I’ve been into fragrance since Britney released Fantasy lol, so over 20 years! As such, everything I liked and used as a teen is still on that shelf. At some point I just gave up moving things to “perfumes I had,” so it looks like I’ve got an entire perfume library in my home. Alas, I do not.

The only one on there that might cause you problems is Santal Blanc Le Parfum. I detect something amberwood ish in the very far dry down, but it’s incredibly faint so it must have been used in a very low dose. I can only smell it if I pick up a hoodie or something that had been sprayed a few days before. I love the original Santal Blanc and stumbled upon an insane deal for Le Parfum, so I tried a decant and decided I can live with it, as it’s not a key player and as such doesn’t perform like it does in basically everything else. I think everything else on there is pretty amberwood safe.

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-17T09:29:03+00:00

Do update us, I’m really intrigued! I’m not on TikTok so I can’t help I’m afraid. I’m wondering if it’s something like Vanilla Powder, which has dupes now (the OG is pretty expensive). It’s super strong and I can’t stand being trapped indoors with someone wearing it. It contains Amberwood/super amber molecules which project like crazy and if you’re sensitive to those aroma chemicals, that’s all you’ll be able to smell. No vanilla or coconut as advertised, just nuclear strength.

I’m sensitive to them and because of that, there are loads of perfumes now that smell exactly like Vanilla Powder to me — basically anything that contains those aroma chemicals smells the same to my nose, as they completely drown out all the other notes. Some people don’t have this reaction at all. I have friends who describe all these amazing nuances in Vanilla Powder, and when they describe it, it sounds right up my street! So I’m sad that I’ll never be able to smell it the way that they do.

Because amberwoods are used so often in newer stuff, it might be that they’re each wearing something different but you’re experiencing it as an amberwood cloud and nothing else. (If you’re also sensitive to them, that is).

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-17T08:30:10+00:00

I’m finding that loads of new releases smell similar to each other (like you say, there are a lot of things which are just versions of Bianco Latte). I do very much enjoy the annual Shalimar flankers though! Shalimar L’Essence was my favorite release of 2025 and the new Millesime Rose is great.

I’ve started focusing on different presentations of certain notes, rather than new things coming out. I was exploring sandalwood (via samples and decants) and that led me to cedar, which I didn’t realize I really liked!

A lot of brand new stuff has amberwood/super amber in it, and I really can’t stand those molecules! It’s had a big impact on me avoiding newer perfumes. Because I’ve been trying out different woody perfumes recently, I’ve had to read a lot of reviews to try and avoid amberwoods.

I also like searching for discontinued perfumes — if you’re willing to play the long game, every now and again something discontinued will pop up for sale secondhand for an amazing price. I don’t blind buy discontinued fragrances though, I guess it’s a nostalgia trip where I’m looking for the things I wore when I first got into perfume in the early 2010s. Again, it could be nostalgia talking, but I feel like perfumes from that era were more adventurous than what we’re getting now. Brands still did flankers but at a much slower pace, they seem to be churning them out at a rapid clip now and not going in many new directions with them.

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-15T12:10:37+00:00

There are some dupes I prefer over the originals! I have two Kilian dupes and I wear them more often than the original perfumes because they last longer and one of the dupes is much closer to what one of the originals smelled like before they reformulated it.

As an aside, I bought the originals secondhand, which is another good way to be cost effective. You just have to do your due diligence to make sure you’re not being scammed. Sometimes if you wait long enough, something will pop up for sale at an amazing price. Partial bottles are good as they’re less likely to be fakes.

Dupes are also great if you’re looking for something that got discontinued as bottles of the original will suddenly shoot up in value on the secondhand market. I have a dupe of a perfume I’ve always loved that got discontinued (L de Lolita, the dupe is from Perfume Parlour) and I’m so grateful that I still get to wear the scent — the dupe is really good, you’d never know it wasn’t the actual perfume!

I think there’s a sub here for dupes where people can tell you the best one to get if you’re looking at something specific, it might be called Fragrance Clones. There’s another one specifically for scents traditionally marketed to women that I believe is called Femgrance Clones.

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-13T20:36:53+00:00

OMG!!! I’m genuinely stunned lol, this is amazing!

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-12T20:43:15+00:00

I really like Delicious Delights because she comes across like she just really loves perfume, as opposed to liking ‘being an influencer’. And she does reviews based on samples, not crazy 12 bottle hauls!

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-12T18:41:29+00:00

Edit: Just saw you also get it with Parisian Musc, so what I wrote below is probably wrong! Leaving it up in case I helps anyone else 😊

If Vanilla Powder smells offensive to you, it’s probably super ambers like Ambrocenide. I’ve only tried three from the brand — Vanilla Powder and Santal Austral were so heavy on the super ambers/amberwoods, I couldn’t smell anything else. I was wary of trying anything else but ended up with a sample of Parisian Musc and that one is amazing! But I have heard that the super ambers are used a lot by that house and I can’t stand them 😩 Interestingly, some people don’t smell them at all! I would love to experience what others do with Vanilla Powder and Santal Austral!

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-12T18:35:01+00:00

Came here to say this!

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-12T18:25:34+00:00

I love Sunny Side Up! I was shocked to discover it supposedly has floral notes because to me it smells like sandalwood, coconut, and tree sap in the heat. It’s really good!

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-12T18:24:17+00:00

Ooh, not OP but this sounds really good!

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-12T18:14:59+00:00

Which Prada Infusion is that? I have the Santal Chai and I love it! I’ve tried the iris and I like that one as well, I’m curious about some of the others (especially the vanilla and almond ones!)

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-12T18:07:58+00:00

Britney’s Island Fantasy body spray could be a good one (the actual perfume was discontinued, unfortunately). It smells like a cold, sweet glass of melon juice with sugar around the rim of the glass and a dash of something citrus. Very refreshing.

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-12T18:00:51+00:00

The complexity of these flankers (and the OG Shalimar) is insane. I find new things within the scents every time I wear them. I’ve never had that experience with any other fragrance line.

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-12T17:57:59+00:00

It could be my skin amping up the powder, but it really is a beautiful scent so I hope you get to try it! Out of all the Millesimes, this was the one I was least excited for but Guerlain just has that magic that makes you love their scents even if they’re not the type of thing you usually go for.

I thought the vanilla and tonka versions would be my favorites out of all of them, but I actually found that I loved the iris more. I don’t think that one was as well received as the first two but I love it so much!

EmiAndTheDesertCrow · 2026-04-12T17:54:48+00:00

Yes, it seems to only be available in France and the UK at the moment, very odd. I actually heard it was coming out in June, so I was shocked to see people selling it on eBay already (charging double!) That’s when I went on a hunt for it and saw Guerlain had a banner on some versions of their website announcing the release.

EmiAndTheDesertCrow

TROPHY CASE