When rotting my brain away on the internet, I like to pop on over to Fragrantica and read reviews for perfumes I’m considering, primarily niche scents I won’t find at my local perfume counter. If you’ve ever been on Fragrantica, you know that these reviews go beyond your basic star or numerical ranking system, beyond a simple yay or nay. The fragrance community is full of poets, historians, novelists, artists and potential fashion writers. They attach music, clothes, seasons, memories, locales and characters to scent profiles with preternatural and evocative accuracy- as you will see.
Below, I’ve collected scraps and fragments of reviews for several perfumes by Marissa Zappas and Courtney Rafuse- darlings of the indie perfume scene. Partially because I research them the most and partially because the response from the fragrance community took on such a lyrical angle when it came to their collective work.
Annabel’s Birthday Cake by Marissa Zappas
Venus in Tuberose by Universal Flowering
Holy Hell by Universal Flowering
Odette by Gumamina
Odile by Gumamina