10 Perfumes I'm Currently Obsessed With

I’ve loved collecting fragrances since I was 14 years old, but I’ve recently gotten even more into artisanal perfumes and oils, and now when I travel in Europe, I always make sure to check out the perfume counters first thing! Perfume is a incredibly individual and subjective thing that’s tied to specific memories and sensory experiences, but there’s something universal about the power of smell and how a warm, refreshing scent can speak volumes about a person before you’ve even met! Here’s a list of my ten most recent perfume obsessions, in no particular order.

1. Byredo Slow Dance

This is one of the newest perfumes by Byredo. It came out in 2019 and was created by Jerome Epinette, a wonderful perfumer whom I was lucky enough to meet at a fragrance event in Manhattan last year. I first tried it at Galeries Lafayette in Paris, and I immediately loved the vanilla and balsamic notes. After a while on the skin, this matures into a patchouli and incense combination, which is just staggering. It’s elegant and hippie, feminine and masculine, green and smokey, and all around one of the best byredos out there. Top notes are cognac and oppoponax, heart notes are geranium and violet, and the base notes are patchouli, vanilla and incense.

2. Byredo Bal d’Afrique

I learned about this perfume from my mother, who’s a big fan of Byredo fragrances – this perfume is also created by Jerome Epinette and was inspired by the African contributions to art, music and culture in Paris in the 1920s. It has fresh top notes of bergamot, lemon and neroli, with heart notes of violet and jasmine, and base notes of black amber, musk and vetiver. Just delicious and perfect for the spring or summer months!

With Jerome Epinette at the Museum of Art and Design

3. Frederic Malle The Moon

Fly me to the moon: this scent is seductive and opulent, and I loved it from the first spray! It is warm, woody, leathery and sweet! I first learned about the Frederic Malle line from a wonderfully knowledgeable salesperson at the Tom Ford fragrance counter in Macy’s, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with their offerings ever since, particularly The Moon, which was released for the Middle East market in 2019. The Frederic Malle line is unique in that individual perfumers create their own formulations and attach their names to the bottle – this particular one was created by Julien Rasquinet. The top notes are raspberry, lychee, and saffron with heart notes of turkish rose, redcurrant, violet, and base notes of oud, leather, sandalwood, amber and patchouli. Just an extraordinary fragrance!

4. Le Labo Vanille 44

Le Labo Vanille is a unisex fragrance that was launched in 2007 by perfumer Alberto Morillas. It was launched exclusively in Paris in the famous Colette department store, which sadly closed two years ago – it can’t be bought online to my knowledge and your best bet for picking one up is still just in Europe, unfortunately. The notes are bergamot, incense, gaiac wood, mandarin, vanilla, muscenone, pipol and hedione. Le Labo described it in the following way: "Vanille 44 doesn't smell like vanilla... It is a complex association of amber and woody incense that will unveil after its first taste of musk, a profound smell of vanilla. This fragrance is just a poem." I couldn’t agree more, and this is wonderful daily fragrance.

5. TOM FORD Fucking Fabulous

“Explicit, exclusive, Fucking Fabulous”, as Tom Ford says. Putting the name aside, Tom Ford’s Private Blend series is probably my favorite collection overall, and Fucking Fabulous is his undisputed masterpiece in the lineup. It was launched in 2017 to much fanfare, and it has since gone on to win Fragrance of the Year in 2018 at the FiFi Awards, among other awards. It has top notes of clary sage and lavender, heart notes of bitter almond, vanilla, leather and orris, as well as base notes of tonka bean, leather, cashmeran, amber and white woods. Playful, mysterious and sweet – it’s literal perfection in a bottle!

6. D.S. & DURGA Rose Atlantic

D.S. & Durga is a small, cottage brand from Bushwick, Brooklyn that’s run by David and Kavi Moltz. They’ve taken an unorthodox approach to perfume making, starting from imaginary landscapes and weaving in fantasy and narratives into each new perfume – they have a perfume called “Burning Barbershop” that’s meant to smell like an incinerated barbershop in Wastlake NY in 1891 where all of the spearmint, lime, and lavender tonics were consumed by the flames, and that’s just the beginning!The results are wonderfully inventive and I’d hazard to say that no other team has been as creative and forward-thinking in quite some time. I particularly love their scent Rose Atlantic, which is meant to evoke long summers on Long Island. Top notes are bergamot, rose petals and lemon; heart notes are lime (linden) blossom, salt, rose and grass; base notes are musk, sea water and oakmoss.

7. Hermès Elixir Des Merveilles

Hermès is an independent powerhouse when it comes to niche fragrances, and they’ve been producing niche, artisanal scents long before they became mainstream. I love a few different Hermès scents including Un Jardin Sur Le Nile, Un Jardin Sur La Lagoon, Jour D’Hermès, and Eau du Rhubarb, among others, and they have always been as forward-thinking in their scents as they are in their fashion! In particular, Elixir Des Merveilles was my go-to scent for many years and I still absolutely adore it. During this time, I had countless people ask me what I was wearing, and many of my friends bought their own bottles as a result. I always want to keep this one in stock, and this article has reminded me that I’m out, so I’m buying another as I write this article! The top notes are peru balsam, vanilla sugar, amber, sandalwood, tonka bean, patchouli, siam resin, caramel, oak, incense, orange peel and cedar.

8. Arquiste Misfit

I recently visited the Arquiste Boutique in Soho to sample some of their fragrances, and I immediately took a liking to Misfit, which is the newest addition to their lineup. Created by Rodrigo Flores-Roux, who’s been responsible for many of the Tom Ford fragrances that I own (including Neroli Portofino and Sahara Noir), Misfit’s top notes are calabrian bergamot, carrot seeds, angelica and lavender; its middle notes are bulgarian rose, musk, wood and styrax, and base notes are patchouli, labdanum, tonka bean and balsam. In particular, I think the description that they use on the back of the box captures the fragrance quite nicely, so I’m including it below. A big thank you to ScentBeauty and Octoly for sending me this wonderful fragrance!

September 1877, Port of Marseille, France. In a bedroom in the City of Flesh, a Kashmiri shawl drapes decadently over the bed. Once extremely coveted, the shawls are now out of fashion with the bourgeois, their distinctive patchouli scent a victim of their downfall. Adopted by bohemians and courtesans, the fragrance mixes with French lavender, musky ambers and exotic balsams. With a new edge, and in the hands of misfits with style, the ‘undesirable’ becomes desired again.

9. Tom Ford Black Orchid

This fragrance is an Oriental chypre, one of my longstanding favorites, and a go-to during the winter months when its spicy, dark, floral and woodsy notes perform well! It’s definitely more of an evening fragrance and it’s quite a concentrated eau de parfum, so just a few sprays are sufficient. Tom Ford said of this fragrance: “This is not about an ordinary orchid, it’s about something a little more strange and rare. I wanted the blackest orchid, and those aren’t easy to find.” The top notes are French jasmine, black truffle, ylang-ylang, black currant, and effervescent citrus. The heart notes are orchid, spice, fruit and Lotus, and the base combines woodsy notes (patchouli and sandalwood), dark chocolate, incense, amber, vetiver, vanilla, and balsam. It’s truly lovely as it matures on the skin. Go check it out if you haven’t already!

10. Gucci Mémoire d'une Odeur / Gucci Guilty Love Pour Femme / Gucci Guilty

I own all three of these Gucci perfumes, and the are my more casual, daily use fragrances. I received a bottle of Gucci Guilty from RE|BL Scents, and it’s sexy and glamorous with notes of mandarin, pink pepper, peach, lilac, geranium, amber and patchouli. The Love Edition is the newer version that launched for Valentine’s Day 2020 under Alessandro Michele’s supervision, and I absolutely love the trailer that they shot for this with Jared Leto and Lana Del Rey, so I had to try it and I eventually purchased it!

I first tried Mémoire d’une Odeur at the Malibu Country Mart in Los Angeles, and while it first struck me as being pleasantly light, crisp and refreshing, I didn’t immediately fall in love with it. Fast forward 30 minutes after we went swimming near Zuma Beach, and I was asking myself where the pleasant scent I was smelling was coming from (I assumed it had washed off) and it turned out to be Mémoire d’une Odeur! The top notes had faded slightly, and the perfume opened up to revel a gorgeous combination of jasmine, sandalwood and chamomile with herbal undertones and a hint of musk. Top notes are Roman chamomile and bitter almonds, heart notes are Indian coral jasmine, jasmine petals and musk, followed by bottom notes of noble woods from sandalwood and cedar with a touch of vanilla. I didn’t know that Alessandro Michele had such a nose, but apparently he’s multi-talented and now I’m a convert. Well done, Gucci!