Story of your Life Etat Libre d'Orange 2024

This scent was one of the most difficult for me in a long time. For example, even though I don't like traditional spicy citrus scents at all and they are downright awful to my nose, this scent felt unpleasant in a different way: it was harsh, screechy and shockingly gross, and every time I had to remove it from my skin with alcohol. Now that autumn has arrived, it clearly performs differently and I can tolerate it better, but I wouldn't be able to wear it until the dry down.

I don't think the scent is clearly gourmand. I definitely don't want to eat it, and it's also not as sweet as, for example, Pear Gelato and "Turmeric Latte (Perfume) | Lush / Cosmetics To Go" , which I just wrote statements about and which, despite their simplicity, work much better on the skin. The scent is still somehow repulsive and I think it's caused by the mix of Davana, orange blossom and a synthetic, poorly made Brioche note. Vanilla in the scent is neither clear nor pleasant - I usually love it in fragrances. It doesn't perform at all, as it usually does, and rum doesn't bring an irresistible boozyness with a subtle seductive sweetness. Overall, the concoction is poorly done.

I didn't like gourmands for years until I fell in love with Lost in Paris and Chou Chou and the quality of these two gourmand scents is really hard to beat. Almost all the others feel like poor attempts to imitate something delicious or are built on an overly sweet sugary texture and aroma and there seem to be countless of those scents. This scent is all about the first option and the end result is anything but deliciously edible. If there's anything good you're looking for here, it's that the scent is unique in all its disaster. Even many synthetic sugary designer or bad dupes with their aroma chemicals are more pleasant than Story of your life which is totally unisex tho.

In addition to the aforementioned Roja creations, some edible gourmands that are well made (not necessarily unique): Xanat , 1970: Tonka, Expansion, Glamour , "Yasat | Widian / AJ Arabia" , "Casamorati - Bouquet Ideale (Eau de Parfum) | Xerjoff" , Angels' Share Eau de Parfum and Symphonium . If I think of a perfume where bread is well executed, I think of L'Explicite (very unique one) and they have some well made sophisticatedly delicious scents as well like Keep Glazed and Bonbon Pop .

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Reminds me of the incense smoke that lingered in my aunts linen curtains she hung in her historic home in downtown that I house sat the first fall of my undergrad. I’d bake biscuits in her tiny kitchen while playing house, imagining what it would be like live on my own. I consumed classical theatre scripts and detective fiction. I fell in love with a boy who was very much still a boy but loved The Smiths and so I loved The Smiths too. I walked along the riverside in the middle of autumn and felt so nostalgic from the smell of rotting leaves. I devoured French Canadian film in her basement that was lined with wood paneling and twinkle lights. That’s what this fragrance conjures in me; book pages, incense, sweet baking, and artificial life. Upon first test, this fragrance leaned so heavy into benzoin which smelt heavily synthetic that I almost couldn’t sense anything else at all. But I let it linger on me for the rest of the day, slowly settling in my skin, to eventually turn into a sweet warm reminiscence of vanilla lattes and wood. I gave the fragrance a try the next day and found I could identify more of the notes like the cocoa and patchouli. I definitely prefer the dry down much more than the top notes, and the top notes seem to linger for quite some time. I also found this to not have much projection and had to really get close to my skin to sense the notes, only sometimes get a whisper of it when I moved my hair away from my neck. This is a really good test for me in trying fragrances more than once. I really thought I would be giving this a disappointed review but I find myself loving it the more and more that I think about it and wear it on my skin.

I can't see why people class this as a gourmand, I don't wanna eat it like I want to other gourmands. This to me is a dark woody scent with a bit of vanillic and subtly boozy hints throughout.

Imagine a dark, varnished desk with warm sourdough and roasted nuts on it with a bit of vanilla here and there, its a bit boozy too but I can't really say that I get the rum note. It's a very interesting scent worth trying to say the least, not a good idea to blind buy though. When I first tried it, it was off-putting and in your face, do NOT wear this in hot weather please.

Warm and cozy with its notes of resin and yeast and rum and vanilla. It evokes warm baking on a cool fall or winter night, or reading near the fireplace with a tray of cookies next to you. I can really appreciate this for how it brings comforting and domestic and homely feelings. It's not overly gourmand in the way some other gourmands feel, (like, for example, Frustration). It's woody and satisfying like a good aged rum with your loved one in a woody patio in your backyard.

Smelling this feels like being given a big, long hug. It is super comforting, cozy, and warm.

Right upon spraying, you get a smoky, resinous, woody base. This smokiness comes from what, to me, is roasted/burnt coffee. These dark notes give depth to the sweeter nuances, which I can only describe as milky vanilla.

In the drydown, I'm getting more chocolate bread than the brioche bread note it claims to have, but it's still delicious.

Performance seems to be on the weaker to average-ish side, although it does leave a beautiful, ephemeral trail.

Gorgeous scent, 9/10.