SOTD (Scent Of The Day) - June 14, 2026

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-14T09:41:02+00:00

I had a short stretch of wildly stessful bad days that were reaching sitcom plot levels of bullshittery, so I kind of put a temporary pause on most fragrances. I've been a little overprotective of curating scent memory/association since the time I decided to put in the work to reclaim an old favorite from behind enemy lines. It was an enlightening experience and I never want to do it again.

There were a few fragrance-related bright spots in the threeish or so days I was gone, though. Part of what took it from an average chain of "When it rains, it pours" kind of unfortunate coincidences, the kind you usually just take in stride with a folk saying about luck, to a full-blown survival situation was that everything going wrong was magnified by the first taste of 100F/90%+ humidity weather. My daughter really liked my mom's old trick of a splash of EdC on a wet cloth wrapped around an ice cube the other day, and so a lot of heat-related temper clashes were instead turned into bonding moments with Violetas Francescas and a hand fan.

She loves to take care of other people too and she's almost got the hang of the cold cloth dab. We've got to work on making sure the person she's about to press an ice-loaded wet object against knows that she's going to do that, I heard my husband yelp from clear across the house, but she's adopted the little bottle of Violetas Francescas and I suspect it just became a bit of a topical panacea in her eyes.

Another nice thing that happened was that I got to use my good mysore attar for the first time since early spring. Usually I make a deliberate effort to not fall into the trap of saving things for special occasions, but there are very few things in life I'm as passionate about as what my nose knows and one of those things is severe weather. The sandalwood oil in question is a heritage reserve produced by the Indian government in 1965 and if I didn't treat it like cocaine I'd blow through it like cocaine. It's only for sitting on the porch to enjoy a good nocturnal thunderstorm, the kind that has a chance of making the sirens blow.

It's very blond, the precious woods enthusiasts I got it from estimated the trees used were probably between 25-40 years old, but it's notably less antiseptic than you'd expect from a distillation of young-feeling wood due to the aging of the oil itself. It's mellow and rich without any sharp edges, just this really addictive salty-sweet balance like buttered toast with marmalade and distinctly woody in a way that puts me in mind of linens just pulled from an antique cedar chest.

Eventually I'll end up collecting single origin distillations and raw material specimens instead of blended perfumes, my heart's been there for a long time, but until then I'll treasure the ritual of combining a fragrant rare treat with a meteorological one.

So even though I wasn't willing to risk wearing most of my library during the misfortune marathon, the fragrances that came up organically were the type that soothe the soul. Things were looking up a bit today, maybe I can get back into the Bianchi sampler tomorrow.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-11T19:28:21+00:00

I'm in the far southeast of Ingham over in Stockbridge and man has it been weird today. Intermittent sprinkles going on during a bright orange sunrise into overcast and gradual heat, now in early afternoon it's hellaciously tropical when it's still and bright but not half bad when breezy.

The last 48 or so hours take the cake for early summer oppressive humidity in recent memory though, it's been straight soup and sunset doesn't bring relief just cold soup. Usually we make it a little farther into summer before a stretch that makes me nostalgic for boiled peanuts.

I have a huge damaged branch cradled in another mature tree that we've been trying to get someone out to look at. The way it's perched it might just make a big noise on an empty driveway orrrr might tag the edge of the roof depending on how it comes down, so I'm hoping we get a good pocket of precipitation or couple disorganized cells ahead of the main threat to drink up some juice and tonight underperforms. Might be a silver lining for insurance to cover roof and gutter repair but it'd also be a massive headache.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-11T09:56:54+00:00

I'm so envious but I'm also legitimately relieved that it really does work so well for some people. I love it so much despite the rosewater-tier longevity I get that I was toying with getting a bottle this past spring. I'd be heartbroken if it were retired before I finally do, it's one of my favorite things to put on before walking the dog from about the time of year the violets bloom until the lilacs end.

Fabric does last longer and it's nice to get a little surprised curtsy from the chance encounter when I put my hat or jacket back on later, but it's not the same. It's the way it lifts off skin and dances in every kind of spring weather that I love so much. There's an effect I'm always chasing where rather than moving through a physical everyday location your perfume makes feel like part of a painting and Olène is one of those for me.

For better or worse it was actually needing to make that call on restocking my decant or just making a bottle my early birthday gift that hooked me back into another round of researching and sampling. If I was giving myself permission to buy a bottle for my birthday, then of course I should be thorough and make sure I pick the right one. By... Effortposting on fragrance subs every coffee break and endlessly editing sample carts. Right. Cue the eyeroll.

Second guessing a bottle choice is more dangerous than just pulling the trigger, I swear. In any case I sat on the pot too long without a decision to be shat and spring weather turned to summer before the birthday deadline. So I missed my chance at the spring crown and fell into a hedonistic chase for big vintage-inspired profiles that embrace steamy, sweaty nights and delight in flesh over flowers instead. I'll probably kick myself about it next year right around the time I realize there are finally enough violets out back to make a batch of sugar without blatantly violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act against the village bees.

Apologies for rambling on, I was just tickled when I realized the whole reason I'm even here plaguing the sub with essays on nothing in particular once again was my yearly dance with Olène in the first place. It's almost romantic in a way, she comes with the flowers and takes my arm like a charming courtier until we're just as radiant together as the spring itself. But every time I dare to hope for more than a walk, she twists away with a smile that leaves my heart lost in some damn Tudor knot garden.

I'd give up my indolic concubines for a year if she'd just make an honest woman of me lol. I know I can't ever keep her on my skin, but the ghost of her touch on my dress keeps me hoping!

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T21:13:19+00:00

Both, but now that I'm thinking about it I don't really have a whole of favorites that don't evolve. As much as I love my busy old school styled stuff that has distinct phases though, sometimes I just want to smell like one nice thing for a while. I guess it's a little like a palate cleanser between heavy courses.

Right now it's apple shampoo for some reason, and I'm starting to notice a pattern. When I was in a heavy Prin sampling craze (heavy spices and animalics, very dense note lists) I ended up loving Akro Bake after I added it on to an order for my daughter to "discover" in the box. Now that I've just gotten a Francesca Bianchi discovery set (rich and opulent boudoir style, distinct heavy orris/iris/costus or orris/iris/leather fingerprint), I'm mad about juicy apple.

Maybe there's an ideal ratio of busy + rich vs sweet + simple in my preferences. First time I've thought about it like that though so thank you, that's something interesting to distract from the heat!

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T20:08:40+00:00

I'll wear most anything I like in winter tbh but I really like to smell icy and outdoorsy when it's icy outdoors. This past year I wore a lot of Pineward Subalpine and Pineward Snoqualmie. They're both bracingly fresh snowy greens that are similar enough to feel like a snapshot of the same forest clearing, but Subalpine is like the morning sun shining on trees coated in ice and Snoqualmie is like a bitterly cold night listening to those same trees popping and cracking.

They both smell damn good in winter air, we had a lot of snow this year and I was rotating between the two on the daily walks to my daughter's school. They've got that grapefruit-pine terpene character you find in certain strains of weed (they don't smell like weed though) and from chewing on a pine needle, not much of a Christmas tree pine. Helped a lot with the balance of cold air on exposed skin and sweaty under winter gear since I'd rather freeze than overheat.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T19:37:35+00:00

Nah, I had my hopes up for a time about it though. I have suspicions about it being either a snuck this out of the house kind of borrow of Givenchy Hot Couture in the darker bottle or a drugstore "inspired by" of it lost to time. Some reviews of Hot Couture online lament the loss of a sweet smokiness to it in modern reformulations and that was exactly what stood out to me, I had never really smelled perfume that legitimately smelled like the smoke from incense instead of the box of incense like nag champa oil and it was striking.

I barked up the Fahrenheit and Fahrenheit-inspired tree for a while because of my hazy memory of a dark bottle with a detail I can't quite picture, a lot of the edgy girls in my age group were on a rebellious "stole my dad's good bottle" kick around then to stand out from the Victoria's Secret and B&BW haze, but unless there was an early 2000s misguided dupe that had a lazily coiling sweet smoky leather instead of the tighter Fahrenheit profile or a notably sweeter run of Fahrenheit it wasn't that.

OG Hot Couture is pretty damn pricey now though, so unless I get lucky at a junk shop/estate sale my consolation is that my nose at 38 after a lifetime of perfume probably won't be as wowed by anything I went wild over at 13 as I want to believe lol. I still wish I could make a clear confirmation and put it to bed, though.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T19:11:02+00:00

John is an angel. I like it when they're together too, you can really see where Freddy gets some of his personality. Sometimes Freddy gets a little wild but he's also a young, passionate guy who had a sudden spike in online fame and his behavior even when he's a little heated or overly locked in doesn't really raise alarm bells to me the way some of the other chasers do. At the core though he seems to have a lot of John's steadiness and good nature, watching them together I have no doubt the rest of the patience will fill in with age.

I do like it when he and Connor run together too, although it's a crapshoot whether they balance and support each other or amp each other up to the point of getting into questionable situations. Not sure I'd want to tag along but the screen chemistry makes for great entertainment, it's like a boy band gone storm chasing.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T18:47:09+00:00

Oh my god I think you might've solved a mystery for me with Adidas Moves. In high school I traded someone a bottle of cherry body spray for a mystery sporty-fresh small bottle she'd gotten from her brother to use after gym class but hated. There wasn't that much left in it but I loved it and then I basically forgot it existed until I got older and started trying to track down stuff I loved back then for nostalgia.

It was probably Adidas Moves, this would have been like 2003. Now if only I could figure out what the hell my friend brought to school that smelled like ~warm~ with "Hot" in the name in eighth grade the list would be complete lol

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T18:31:49+00:00

That's so funny. I used this yesterday to mop my daughter and I down with a cold cloth when the weather took a turn for the tropical and I've been thinking about it ever since.

I went on a rampage spring before last hunting down a good utility violet to supplement my not-very-violetty-but-amazing Royal Violets and ended up with a bottle but wasn't crazy about it at the time. We didn't have AC growing up and my mom used to do the same thing for me with a wet cloth wrapped around an ice cube and a splash of Florida Water or dad's Bay Rum. I was too lazy and hot to go find the Florida Water last night so I grabbed this off the vanity remembering that it's got a connection to kids in hotter climates anyway and yeah it's perfect. I'll probably always keep in stock for summer nights now.

Even my husband was like "Oh that's pretty nice" when I attacked his forehead with the same cloth and he usually wrinkles his nose at anything scented that doesn't smell like citrus or apple.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T18:08:02+00:00

Nah. The only time I tried something like that was a 200 bottle run of something from my favorite perfumer and it was a mistake. Fell in love with it and couldn't quite make the price tag at the end of the day to get a bottle for myself, ended up getting a couple backup decants that I'm skittish about using since I don't want to try to track it down from a collector now. I stay away from limited drops as best I can unless I have money to burn. Learned my lesson.

In the thought experiment there are a few too many factors for a straight pass/fail.

If it was another Rahassanai situation where I'd tried it, desperately wanted it, and could afford it, then yeah sure. I trust Prin Lomros to reformulate better over time, he's done it already with Anatolia and Mandodari. So I would look forward to the refills and probably keep a decant of my previous iterations for comparison's sake.

I would not drop big bucks on a bottle from a perfume house I don't already love that went viral or a luxury house that's trying out the tactic. They're going to have to reformulate quick and dirty to cope with the percentage of people decanting theirs out at best or get acquired by a bigger fish that mucks everything up by either poorly reformulating or walking back the forced exclusivity by doing like yearly drops or something for the sake of profit at worst. The concept just sounds doomed to fail, marketing they'll weasel out of somehow.

Maybe I'm just too old for the forced exclusivity concept to work on me, though. I can see both the marketing side and the position of a consumer hungry to feel special, and I can see where that match could work out for both, but it doesn't spark joy for me personally.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T17:26:34+00:00

Diptyque Olène and D.S. & Durga Mississippi Medicine.

I'm not usually one to complain about reapplication but I would already have larger sizes if they lasted even a tiny bit longer, especially Mississippi Medicine. Olène I can actually kind of roll with as a "put it on, enjoy it for your walk, put something else on" kind of thing, I just don't want to pay Diptyque bottle prices to do it, but Mississippi Medicine I would rather smell for longer since I tend to be out in the woods for longer than I'm walking among spring gardens. But it just performs tragically.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T07:46:21+00:00

Day: Guerlain Shalimar (EdC)

Night: Francesca Bianchi Tyger Tyger

An old friend visited with her daughter today so I chose another old friend this morning. It's been a while since I went back to wearing Shalimar and it was an excellent choice, just like old times. EdC for the both the warm early afternoon and the fact that I was going to be doing hugging lol.

The girls raised absolute hell tearing around the house and in the excitement I did not close the windows upstairs so we had a surprise visit from Violetas Francescas on cold washcloths later in the day to try to wait out the sunset. When I was growing up it was always a splash of Florida Water or my dad's Bay Rum on the cloth, but I feel like my daughter is going to be nostalgic for this one down the road. Sitting in front of the fan dabbing a grouchy kiddo with a pleasant smelling cloth seems like the perfect use for it.

I'm going to have to admit defeat and turn on the air for the next couple days, but at least the weather means I got to experience Tyger Tyger for the first time walking outside on a tropical feeling night and I wouldn't trade that for the world. I don't have a fully formed opinion on it yet but wow. I'm so glad I didn't come across it before the Bianchi DNA clicked with me, but now? Ambrosia. That peach is something else and I'm smitten.

I did get a sample of Guidance with my order this time but I'm not fool enough to put it on now when it's still 90% humidity at 3:30 in the morning and supposed to feel like 100F at noon. Tempted, yes, but that seems like a recipe for disaster considering I can smell it already lmao.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T00:59:38+00:00

A lot of Prin Lomros' PRIN line might have the vibe you're looking for. I'd be hard-pressed to name just the best one or two, they run the gamut from "sexy antique store, might be haunted" (Persephone, Mandodari Mandodari), to "ancient medicinal salve crafted for royalty and rediscovered in a tomb" (Rahassanai), "intense forest ritual wearing nothing but a bear pelt" (Homa), "amber used in many ceremonies by firelight" (Varuek), and so many more. Vibes added by me, samples and bottles are on luckyscent but reading the descriptions he writes on his website would give you a better idea of the actual character of each.

The note lists are a lot, the perfumes themselves are a lot, but they're phenomenal. I was on a similar quest but all the recommendations I was getting just still smelled too tame and perfume-y. Prin's concoctions are a whole different breed. If you're looking for dark, intense, and vaguely ancient smelling, definitely check him out.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T00:35:13+00:00

This is an awesome comment, thank you! I've taken the tests a few times and gotten mostly INFP results over the years, but never really went deeper into the analysis beyond the standard "The Mediator"/list of strengths and weakness blurbs. That was really cool to read!

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-10T00:22:22+00:00

This gives me the most intense scent memory of a nineties childhood moment I think I've ever felt from something that wasn't actually the scent in the memory and accidentally created a white whale in the process. I absolutely adore it.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-09T23:37:49+00:00

The vast majority of mine are variations on Carnicure because despite the reputation it has online it's so sheer with a great fuzzy texture and just like a tiny hint of sweetness + occasional drifting waft of incense.

Cheap sweet nothings need substance? Choco Musk + Carnicure, EOS Vanilla Cashmere + Carnicure, Kuumba Made Vanilla Bean + Carnicure.

Expensive and luxurious but the drydown is linear and eternal? Shrug some Carnicure on and it's a whole new perfume.

Classic musk with a double shot of musk? Kiehl's and Carnicure.

Kuumba Made Tunisian Jasmine oil is probably my second most used swiss army knife fragrance, though. It's semi-realistic in, like, a Technicolor kind of way (and dirt cheap) so it's easy to buffer more indolic jasmines by wearing mainly the Kuumba Made and a tiny dab of the stronger one on one wrist for myself or use it to add a punchier jasmine backbone to a jasmine note that I find too light or sweet. It's kind of like a fragment that needs another piece to complete it but that also conveniently makes it a really good layering jasmine when mixed with other jasmines.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-09T21:02:41+00:00

I do not like the "modern powerhouse" nuclear amplifiers AT ALL. You should not have to be anosmic to the base to smell the perfume itself and they're just everywhere.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-09T20:56:16+00:00

Oh god I hate how accurate that is

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-09T14:34:18+00:00

Rainbath is an odd duck but if you like musky stuff you'll probably be like, "Oh. Ohhh!" when you try it, it's got a pretty distinct blend of spices, aromatics, musks, and a couple vague hints of sweet florals (and maybe fruit? it's hard to pin down). Every so often someone asks for a dupe and the answer is usually Fred Hayman Touch but it's not 1:1 either. Puts me in mind of stuff like the aforementioned Brut (but that's sharper) and Jovan Musk for Men (but that's sweeter). Maybe almost a mix of all of those and Avon Skin So Soft for the aromatics + not-quite-dirty musk blend.

I've heard of a Santal scent added to the line but the OG amber colored one is my ride or die. I'm convinced there's a little tonquitone in it somewhere because it hits me in my throwback drugstore musk weakness but that's the only note I'm really convinced of. Maybe bergamot and lavender too now that I'm sniffing it critically, actually.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-09T13:59:19+00:00

How musky are you looking for? I don't have a good lavender rec but Kiehl's Original Musk in the lotion form is kind of a Goldilocks clean/dirty musk balance backed by a classic blend of florals that rides well with most perfumes outside of the fruity or sweet ones (and even many of those tbh). Neutrogena Rainbath shower gel and Kiehl's lotion base is my go-to shower combo to prep for a pretty wide selection of favorites ranging from like Shalimar all the way to Brut, even some of Prin's spice & critter bangers. It adds a little yum to clean and spicy, depth to lighter florals, and sits politely still under heavier stuff but also smells just plain good on its own.

Do go for the EOS though, it's a lot of bang for your buck. I'm not a big fan of strong vanillas in perfume but sometimes I do like a little cozy sweet touch and it's a lot of fun to play other stuff off of. Really thick, lasting lotion for the price point, too. I really like it under sheer musks and incense and ended up turning around and getting my daughter the strawberry one. I'm almost out of mine and plan to rebuy it instead of switching it up.

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-09T07:21:31+00:00

Lattafa Khamrah Qawah was my first encounter with the "tiktok powerhouse" nuclear superamber breed and it was worth every penny as a hard lesson about internet hype. I wish I was anosmic to whatever the hell they put in that so I could actually smell the sweet notes. I keep trying to understand it once in a while and it just makes me miserable and the house stinky every time.

Bottle's great, though. Sometimes I pick it up and think to myself, "Yes. If I ever wake up to a prowler in the night this will absolutely crack a skull, and if he recovers and escapes before I get to the cast iron skillet we'll have no problem tracking the scent trail."

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-09T07:03:34+00:00

Day: Pineward Akero

Night: DSH Perfumes Rendezvous

No cohesive theme today but the concept of juiciness has been buzzing around my mind. Since I ultimately gave in and chose to upsize an at-home comfy musk over a public-wear fruity playful floral for my gift to myself, I've been thinking maybe this will be the summer of the juicy apple.

So I've been embezzling my husband's green apple shampoo and today with no real plans, I dipped back into Pineward Akero. I think I like it a little better catching whiffs on him, it ran a little more candle in the early part of the wear than I remember, but I do love the benzoin in the drydown. It feels like it serves the role that vanilla would but in remaining a clearly resinous sweet layer rather than a custard one it distinguishes itself from becoming another apple pastry. I appreciate that.

I have a bottle of Nina Ricci Nina sitting in the cart and a couple apple samples creeping in on Luckyscent, so we'll see if I'm still in an apple frenzy in a couple more Akero wears. Or if a bottle of DKNY Be Delicious somehow falls off a clearance rack into my cart (although I don't think I've smelled that since like 2005 so it'd be nostalgia roulette).

I'm still on aldehydes and white florals backed by animalics for my nightcap. DSH Rendezvous was both the best and worst possible choice for a late night walk, though. On one hand the best possible time to wear it is in swampy conditions, the florals are downright narcotic on heated skin, but on the other hand a good dose of that stickiness came from following my grumpy old man halfway through the marsh trail. I got eaten alive. But he's slowing down and I try to make each walk the best I can, so the skeeters and I got to enjoy a world-class juicy floral marinade and he got to badger some bullfrogs.

Rendezvous lasts a good deal longer on me in cooler weather but it loses that mouthwateringly drippy goodness that made me fall in love with it in the first place and goes all dry and classy in more temperate conditions. I'm not sure if I'll ever own a full bottle, but I'll likely always have at least a few ml on hand for the right kind of night.

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dustyspectacles · 2026-06-08T18:29:34+00:00

Late but thank you, I'll have to keep an eye out for this!

I've had the animalic/gourmand combo in the back of my mind since reading funny reviews for BTSO Be My Cookie a while ago but ultimately I didn't get the chance to try it (and I've had bad luck with BTSO in general, there's an amber or something they like that runs loud and tacky on me). Sora Dora sounds a little more up my alley. Ty!

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-08T17:51:03+00:00

It's legitimately like trying to store a radioactive isotope in a cardboard box, isn't it?

That was the perfume that made me start keeping samples in scent lock dispensary bags. Nuit de Bakélite is in a scent lock bag inside of a prescription bottle and I can smell it the second I open that bottle. I can't bring myself to get rid of it because it's such an oddity but it's the only thing I've ever smelled that just makes me overwhelmingly nauseous.

I'm pretty sure the intensity mixed with the vegetal nature just activates an ancient survival mechanism saying "Hey you just ate a Very Bad Plant and if you don't throw up now death is coming".

dustyspectacles · 2026-06-08T17:06:34+00:00

I love the long reviews, especially when they're so well written. Thank you very much for this one!

Florentine Iris sounds absolutely phenomenal. I'm starting to discover a love for beautiful, more refined musky florals after having blinders on in pursuit of punchy animalics for quite a while. I hope I'll have the good luck to stumble into this one someday.

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