Wendi I really do enjoy your videos. I love how articulate and honest your conversations on fragrances are. I sample what I can in stores. We don't get free samples here and I am not sure about the decant market. I blind buy fragrances only if the notes resonate on a heart level and I just know it will work. Otherwise I live vicariously through videos such as yours and other real women reviewing and discussing perfumes.
Wendi- I heavily rely on Lucky Scent. If I consistently like something after a couple samples, it goes on my “buy” list. And yes, if I pay $150 or more,I expect a rich experience. I expect the fragrance to last all day.
Agree with other comments and appreciate your eloquence. I try to sample anything over the $150 mark. There have been a couple that I was happy I sampled but didn't take the plunge on. I don't mind paying $50 for something that lacks in performance or longevity. Some days I want to use 2 or 3 different scents in a day. Always look forward to your videos.
Aww thank you so much you all are so nice especially since I'm so low budget lol. I also try to decant/sample the pricey bottles unless I love the house already and have established a good rapport with them.
I have pretty much stopped blindbuying, I never get it right. I also never buy discoverysets, I read a bit about each perfume I am interested in on Fragrantica, and then buy a sample. I keep it for a year, swap it,or just give it away. Sometimes I just know it right away that I want a full bottle, like Rose Cherie from Guerlain. To me that is a modern version of Flower by Kenzo, wich I love but do not wear. Other times I need to sample over and over before I truly understand the perfume and maybe end up getting a bottle or a larger decant. I really enjoy your content Wendi!
Thank you very much! Honestly I'm done with perfume sets too. For me they are a waste of money. I think in the future I'm going to decants only for the most part. Perfume is getting more disappointing as time goes on. I need to be disciplined like you are:)
Very much agree about OJ. I just knew I’d love Woman, because I love a green and traditional chypre. That amber accord- not for me. I always test. No blind buys for me, save the occasional cheap body mist.
You are so smart and controlled I need to follow your example!!! And yes I was expecting a forested chypre from OJ and it's absolutely nothing like that!
hey there, you are the other reviewer I love to watch. your videos made before this year. I watched your review on the arquiste perfume many times but since I cant test it in my country, I have not bought it . But every time I feel like blind buying dangerously, I chose to watch your videos again and imagine the perfume in my head and felt happy. I know it sounds silly but thank you for your reviews
TH-cam recommended your videos to me when I was searching for Annick Goutal fragrance reviews and yours was one of a handful available. Really enjoy your articulate reviews and your passion for fragrances. My FBW frag I spent more money than I ever would is on is Carnal Flower by Frederic Malle. It’s my favourite of all time and I don’t regret buying it at all ❤️. But I wouldn’t drop that much on something unless I felt so emotionally moved and compelled to posses it. It has to be a “I can’t live without you in my life” kind of thing. Lol.
Thank you! That FM is absolutely beautiful. It's worth the price to get those "I can't live without you" perfumes on your shelf! Thank God they tend to be few and far between:)
Hello Wendi, I think you have so many beautiful vintage and older formulations of perfumes that very little is going to match up to the quality of ingredients. The bar is set high. Modern perfumery seems to use aroma chemicals designed to imitate the naturals that were formerly used. The aroma chemicals often fall flat because they are less complex. I find current taste in general is tuned to be on the sweeter side. People seem to not actually want to smell like fragrance when they wear one. Also, food smells and soap smells seem to translate as non offensive? It seems like there is a move to bring in more clean laundry musk, iris, orris and leather into current releases. I wonder if it will catch on? Chypres and the oak moss and aldehyde notes seem to be out of fashion right now. Which is likely why they are likely beloved by serious collectors who want to smell different. It's interesting how one can perceive fragrances. I found Ormond Woman to be very earthy to my nose, I could pick out the smokey black hemlock, iris and oak moss but perhaps my sample was from a pre-reformulated bottle? Everything has been reformed and people bemoan the changes. Lots of beloved scents seem to be falling flat. It wouldn't have been what you were anticipating with high expectations for what you thought it should have been. To me, forest notes are balsams, wood and resins. To other people forests can be oak moss and orris. It's all perspective I guess? You should try Papillon Artisan Dryad. It uses a high amount of naturals for being a modern indie fragrance. You should also check out more natural perfumers and indie brands that are less concerned about the ifra regulations. Teone Reinthal also called TRNP (Australian perfumer but sold at Lucky Scent). Hiram Green, Dusita and Tauer seem to have a style that appeals to people who like vintage, earthy and green fragrances. I think testing those sample sets has saved you a lot of potential disappointments with the three brands you have shown us. I agree with you about the higher the price of a fragrance, the higher my expectations become. If it's over $150 American or $200 Canadian dollars it has to be amazing, not just 'nice' or wearable. What people set as limits and expectations are going to be different for everyone. It's quite interesting learning about what this is for different people. I will say the pricing on fragrance is genuinely out of hand, especially because most of what is in a bottles are now manufactured aroma chemicals and very little absolutes seem to go into things these days. Sigh... We may have left the best days of perfumery behind in the past 5 years. I have felt the same as you about buying sample sets over a whole bottle because sometimes it's half the price of a bottle. But... I have made some disappointing purchases after being influenced and I wish I would have tested some of those perfumes out first. It's not always possible. Like you, there are no boutiques to walk in and try niche perfumes where I live. I am learning to tread with caution. 😅I wear my mistakes and it helps me remember to slow down and be more careful. Just my thoughts on your thoughts. I enjoy hearing your perspective on this unique hobby, interest, obsession? 😆 Thanks for your video! Have a super day and take care! ~ Jenn
I’ve been sampling via a subscription service and it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been able to expand my taste without buying expensive bottles. Sampling in person in a department store or cosmetics store never works for me unless the perfume is an instant love. On the other hand, I just ordered a decant .27oz of Prada Infusion d’Iris and I would like my money back 😂 LOVE your videos!
Thank you Doreen! You know I've never done a subscription service but I've ordered decants from FragranceNet which I believe are the same size. Do a lot of them turn into FBs or do you move on? Lol Infusion d'Iris is one of my faves! Love it! Amazing how tastes are so different 😊
I am so with you on Ormonde Jayne! Some of their perfumes are much sweeter than I would like. Especially Ormonde Woman. It was like you said an ambery gourmand. I was so excited to smell that infamous black hemlock. I expected a resinous deep dark green potion of a scent and it was so not that. I got Ormonde Elixir and Ormonde Man but they were very oud-y, and Ormonde Man once again was a bit too sweet. I am very curious about their new scent Sakura. I really like the note breakdown. However it is getting compared to their other scent Osmanthus which I didn’t like.
I know I felt like I was faked out with OJ that's what I was looking for too. So disappointing! I love the Sakura aesthetic, I love spring floral Cherry Blossoms, something I'd like to sample but I'm not springing for that one. Maybe one day I'll cross paths with it. I got a small vial of Dior Sakura to try anyway in the meantime.
There are times that when I sampled some perfumes, I ended up not buying them. My blindbuy experience is not as good as yours . There was one time I bought the Stephane humber lucas perfume, and then i dislike it. Now , it is still stuck in my closet, can't even get someone to buy it from me.
Blind buying is so risky. It's one thing when it's an affordable scent but the pricey bottles are somehow more crushing when they don't work out. I'm really trying not to pull the trigger as much as I used to, while I've had great luck in the past, my successes are fewer lately.
Sampling is a good approach to avoid disappointing blind buys. I confess I did many blind buys, most of which didn't go as expected. I love vintages too. Since you love "dark forest" scents and don't mind wearing men targeted fragrances, let me recommend these three safe blind buys: Duc de Vervins l'Extreme, Encre Noire and Jaguar Classic (green bottle). Houbigant will cost around 80 bucks; the others are cheap. Should you buy one of them, please let me know your impression. Happy sniffing.
I dont sample much because of time, cost and availability. Majority of perfumes in my collection are under $150. Like you majority of the time my blind buys have been successful. I've even grown to like/love some perfumes that initially I didn't care for. I will sample if possible if it is something super expensive and not on gray market. For example the new amouage. Otherwise I just take the risk and if I really don't care for it I will sell it or repurpose. It may be wasteful to some but works for me
Good morning from British Columbia :) Wendi, you have THE BEST vocabulary! Do you like to read? Are you a writer!? Anyhow, it's much appreciated because "baroque mosaic, capricious," etc, peppers your videos with such interest!! I'm always excited to see a new video come up. I would probably be considered to be at the beginning of my perfume journey, but so far, I like to curate bottles based on the quality of the juice. I could care less about the price point and marketing (when judging the juice) because it's all just smoke and mirrors. I do admit, that I have recognized there is an element of a "dopamine hit" that I experience in blind buying, so I don't want that to get out of hand! The second I know that I love a decant, I will start researching / hunting for a full bottle (usually try to get discounts on the grey market). I don't mind having less used scents around, but I don't like having bottles around that I don't like- it sours my experience when I even look at them (weird, I know), so I'm trying to be pretty cutthroat and decisive with the losers!
Wow thank you! And yes I do like to read a lot:) Keep that impulse and stay away from blind buying because frankly it can become like gambling. That chase is very addictive. You are being so wise and I wish I was less irrational sometimes when it comes to perfume.
I blind bought Ormonde Jayne Woman, thinking it would be THE perfume of nature and dark forest. Alas, the opening was natural and nice but soon became a horrible synth sweet mess. Returned it. Too bad.
Ah so I wasn't the only one! I was under the same enthrall I was convinced it would be the perfect dark forest scent and it was a sweet amber! What a trick!
Wendi I really do enjoy your videos. I love how articulate and honest your conversations on fragrances are. I sample what I can in stores. We don't get free samples here and I am not sure about the decant market. I blind buy fragrances only if the notes resonate on a heart level and I just know it will work. Otherwise I live vicariously through videos such as yours and other real women reviewing and discussing perfumes.
You are so kind to say that, thank you and I'm glad we can chat here:) I understand what you mean about notes resonating on a heart level, too.
Well said
Thank you:)
Wendi-
I heavily rely on Lucky Scent. If I consistently like something after a couple samples, it goes on my “buy” list. And yes, if I pay $150 or more,I expect a rich experience. I expect the fragrance to last all day.
Agree with other comments and appreciate your eloquence. I try to sample anything over the $150 mark. There have been a couple that I was happy I sampled but didn't take the plunge on. I don't mind paying $50 for something that lacks in performance or longevity. Some days I want to use 2 or 3 different scents in a day. Always look forward to your videos.
Aww thank you so much you all are so nice especially since I'm so low budget lol.
I also try to decant/sample the pricey bottles unless I love the house already and have established a good rapport with them.
Same, I'm finding myself nowadays wanting to us multiple scents throughout the day and dont mind if some scents are not long lasting
I have pretty much stopped blindbuying, I never get it right. I also never buy discoverysets, I read a bit about each perfume I am interested in on Fragrantica, and then buy a sample. I keep it for a year, swap it,or just give it away. Sometimes I just know it right away that I want a full bottle, like Rose Cherie from Guerlain. To me that is a modern version of Flower by Kenzo, wich I love but do not wear. Other times I need to sample over and over before I truly understand the perfume and maybe end up getting a bottle or a larger decant. I really enjoy your content Wendi!
Thank you very much!
Honestly I'm done with perfume sets too. For me they are a waste of money.
I think in the future I'm going to decants only for the most part. Perfume is getting more disappointing as time goes on. I need to be disciplined like you are:)
Very much agree about OJ. I just knew I’d love Woman, because I love a green and traditional chypre. That amber accord- not for me.
I always test. No blind buys for me, save the occasional cheap body mist.
You are so smart and controlled I need to follow your example!!!
And yes I was expecting a forested chypre from OJ and it's absolutely nothing like that!
hey there, you are the other reviewer I love to watch. your videos made before this year.
I watched your review on the arquiste perfume many times but since I cant test it in my country, I have not bought it . But every time I feel like blind buying dangerously, I chose to watch your videos again and imagine the perfume in my head and felt happy. I know it sounds silly but thank you for your reviews
@@wendysperfumediary280
Thank you. That just gave me the warmest fuzzies. 🙂
TH-cam recommended your videos to me when I was searching for Annick Goutal fragrance reviews and yours was one of a handful available. Really enjoy your articulate reviews and your passion for fragrances. My FBW frag I spent more money than I ever would is on is Carnal Flower by Frederic Malle. It’s my favourite of all time and I don’t regret buying it at all ❤️. But I wouldn’t drop that much on something unless I felt so emotionally moved and compelled to posses it. It has to be a “I can’t live without you in my life” kind of thing. Lol.
Thank you!
That FM is absolutely beautiful. It's worth the price to get those "I can't live without you" perfumes on your shelf! Thank God they tend to be few and far between:)
@@wendisparadeofperfumes5034 ❤️
I know I repeat myself but, thank you for another wonderful video 💕🙏
And honestly I appreciate it so much thank you♥️
Oud Nude is amazing!
Oud Nude is everything I wanted it to be. Just gorgeous and so wonderful to wear.
Hello Wendi,
I think you have so many beautiful vintage and older formulations of perfumes that very little is going to match up to the quality of ingredients. The bar is set high. Modern perfumery seems to use aroma chemicals designed to imitate the naturals that were formerly used. The aroma chemicals often fall flat because they are less complex. I find current taste in general is tuned to be on the sweeter side. People seem to not actually want to smell like fragrance when they wear one. Also, food smells and soap smells seem to translate as non offensive?
It seems like there is a move to bring in more clean laundry musk, iris, orris and leather into current releases. I wonder if it will catch on? Chypres and the oak moss and aldehyde notes seem to be out of fashion right now. Which is likely why they are likely beloved by serious collectors who want to smell different.
It's interesting how one can perceive fragrances. I found Ormond Woman to be very earthy to my nose, I could pick out the smokey black hemlock, iris and oak moss but perhaps my sample was from a pre-reformulated bottle? Everything has been reformed and people bemoan the changes. Lots of beloved scents seem to be falling flat. It wouldn't have been what you were anticipating with high expectations for what you thought it should have been. To me, forest notes are balsams, wood and resins. To other people forests can be oak moss and orris. It's all perspective I guess?
You should try Papillon Artisan Dryad. It uses a high amount of naturals for being a modern indie fragrance. You should also check out more natural perfumers and indie brands that are less concerned about the ifra regulations. Teone Reinthal also called TRNP (Australian perfumer but sold at Lucky Scent). Hiram Green, Dusita and Tauer seem to have a style that appeals to people who like vintage, earthy and green fragrances.
I think testing those sample sets has saved you a lot of potential disappointments with the three brands you have shown us. I agree with you about the higher the price of a fragrance, the higher my expectations become. If it's over $150 American or $200 Canadian dollars it has to be amazing, not just 'nice' or wearable. What people set as limits and expectations are going to be different for everyone. It's quite interesting learning about what this is for different people. I will say the pricing on fragrance is genuinely out of hand, especially because most of what is in a bottles are now manufactured aroma chemicals and very little absolutes seem to go into things these days. Sigh... We may have left the best days of perfumery behind in the past 5 years.
I have felt the same as you about buying sample sets over a whole bottle because sometimes it's half the price of a bottle. But... I have made some disappointing purchases after being influenced and I wish I would have tested some of those perfumes out first. It's not always possible. Like you, there are no boutiques to walk in and try niche perfumes where I live. I am learning to tread with caution. 😅I wear my mistakes and it helps me remember to slow down and be more careful.
Just my thoughts on your thoughts. I enjoy hearing your perspective on this unique hobby, interest, obsession? 😆
Thanks for your video! Have a super day and take care! ~ Jenn
Baroque mosaic! 😂
Sometimes you Laundry Detergent Sometimes you Baroque Mosaic!!
I’ve been sampling via a subscription service and it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been able to expand my taste without buying expensive bottles. Sampling in person in a department store or cosmetics store never works for me unless the perfume is an instant love. On the other hand, I just ordered a decant .27oz of Prada Infusion d’Iris and I would like my money back 😂
LOVE your videos!
Thank you Doreen! You know I've never done a subscription service but I've ordered decants from FragranceNet which I believe are the same size. Do a lot of them turn into FBs or do you move on?
Lol Infusion d'Iris is one of my faves! Love it! Amazing how tastes are so different 😊
I am so with you on Ormonde Jayne! Some of their perfumes are much sweeter than I would like. Especially Ormonde Woman. It was like you said an ambery gourmand. I was so excited to smell that infamous black hemlock. I expected a resinous deep dark green potion of a scent and it was so not that. I got Ormonde Elixir and Ormonde Man but they were very oud-y, and Ormonde Man once again was a bit too sweet.
I am very curious about their new scent Sakura. I really like the note breakdown. However it is getting compared to their other scent Osmanthus which I didn’t like.
I know I felt like I was faked out with OJ that's what I was looking for too. So disappointing!
I love the Sakura aesthetic, I love spring floral Cherry Blossoms, something I'd like to sample but I'm not springing for that one. Maybe one day I'll cross paths with it. I got a small vial of Dior Sakura to try anyway in the meantime.
There are times that when I sampled some perfumes, I ended up not buying them. My blindbuy experience is not as good as yours . There was one time I bought the Stephane humber lucas perfume, and then i dislike it. Now , it is still stuck in my closet, can't even get someone to buy it from me.
Blind buying is so risky. It's one thing when it's an affordable scent but the pricey bottles are somehow more crushing when they don't work out. I'm really trying not to pull the trigger as much as I used to, while I've had great luck in the past, my successes are fewer lately.
Sampling is a good approach to avoid disappointing blind buys.
I confess I did many blind buys, most of which didn't go as expected.
I love vintages too.
Since you love "dark forest" scents and don't mind wearing men targeted fragrances, let me recommend these three safe blind buys: Duc de Vervins l'Extreme, Encre Noire and Jaguar Classic (green bottle). Houbigant will cost around 80 bucks; the others are cheap.
Should you buy one of them, please let me know your impression.
Happy sniffing.
I took a screen shot, thank you for your suggestions especially from another vintage perspective:)
I dont sample much because of time, cost and availability. Majority of perfumes in my collection are under $150. Like you majority of the time my blind buys have been successful. I've even grown to like/love some perfumes that initially I didn't care for. I will sample if possible if it is something super expensive and not on gray market. For example the new amouage. Otherwise I just take the risk and if I really don't care for it I will sell it or repurpose. It may be wasteful to some but works for me
I do that to I sell off a bit, and I've had quite a few bottles grow on me as well. I've gotten very lucky with blind buying for sure.
Good morning from British Columbia :) Wendi, you have THE BEST vocabulary! Do you like to read? Are you a writer!? Anyhow, it's much appreciated because "baroque mosaic, capricious," etc, peppers your videos with such interest!! I'm always excited to see a new video come up. I would probably be considered to be at the beginning of my perfume journey, but so far, I like to curate bottles based on the quality of the juice. I could care less about the price point and marketing (when judging the juice) because it's all just smoke and mirrors. I do admit, that I have recognized there is an element of a "dopamine hit" that I experience in blind buying, so I don't want that to get out of hand! The second I know that I love a decant, I will start researching / hunting for a full bottle (usually try to get discounts on the grey market). I don't mind having less used scents around, but I don't like having bottles around that I don't like- it sours my experience when I even look at them (weird, I know), so I'm trying to be pretty cutthroat and decisive with the losers!
Wow thank you! And yes I do like to read a lot:)
Keep that impulse and stay away from blind buying because frankly it can become like gambling. That chase is very addictive. You are being so wise and I wish I was less irrational sometimes when it comes to perfume.
I don't like sampling either. Instead of paying for 5/ml of everything, I pay for one full bottle, even blind.
The cost of samples and decants is getting crazy too. It's almost not worth it.
I blind bought Ormonde Jayne Woman, thinking it would be THE perfume of nature and dark forest. Alas, the opening was natural and nice but soon became a horrible synth sweet mess. Returned it. Too bad.
Ah so I wasn't the only one! I was under the same enthrall I was convinced it would be the perfect dark forest scent and it was a sweet amber! What a trick!