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Hallucinogenic Pearl 2018

7.1 / 10 57 Ratings
A perfume by What We Do Is Secret for women, released in 2018. The scent is leathery-powdery. The production was apparently discontinued.
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Main accords

Leathery
Powdery
Synthetic
Woody
Floral

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes Top Notes
Ambrette seedAmbrette seed Pink pepperPink pepper BergamotBergamot
Heart Notes Heart Notes
IrisIris Iriseine VioletViolet
Base Notes Base Notes
SuedeSuede MuskMusk Blond woodsBlond woods

Perfumer

Ratings
Scent
7.157 Ratings
Longevity
7.446 Ratings
Sillage
7.046 Ratings
Bottle
6.653 Ratings
Value for money
6.511 Ratings
Submitted by Michael, last update on 09/25/2025.
Interesting Facts
This fragrance was awarded the "Perfume Extraordinaire of the Year" prize by the Fragrance Foundation in 2019.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to
Galop d'Hermès by Hermès
Galop d'Hermès
Eternity Intense by Calvin Klein
Eternity Intense
Eau de Memo by Memo Paris
Eau de Memo

Reviews

3 in-depth fragrance descriptions
Amadea70

102 Reviews
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Amadea70
Amadea70
Very helpful Review 12  
This is not a tonic for the skin
When I swap with dear Ungenau, there are always exciting stories involved. In the last swap, there was a small package inside. At first, I thought it was something like Dr. Hauschka's facial tonic - I love that, one spray and I feel brand new, my face feels years younger. How good that I didn't spray Hallucinogenic Pearls directly on my face but first cautiously on my palm.

HP starts fresh with bergamot and a hint of pepper. And there it is right away - the insane leather note. It smells like a brand new leather handbag that you would want to bury your nose in. The leather note is almost identical to that of Hermes Galop - no sweetness, just pure leather. Iris and violet notes join in, giving a feeling of high-quality lipstick. The violet likely brings a slight sharpness that emphasizes this "NewLeatherBagNote" for me. I read here that some find the scent synthetic - I can understand that. It feels as if the leather is somehow impregnated or really brand new. For my collection, HP is the least sweet scent. Parfumax wrote in response to my statement that it layers well with tonka. That can certainly be tried if you want it a bit sweeter.
I like it unsweetened here and wear HP pure.

Names don't matter to me at first, and I initially thought what a silly name for a fragrance. I would have called it Addictive Pearls because I became addicted to it in no time. The sprayer of the fragrance is poorly made, it releases an insane spray, in my opinion way too much, as if there is too much propellant in it like in deodorant sprays. I just prefer sprayers that produce a fine mist. The sprayer of the original bottle was leagues better.
16 Comments
Zofi

20 Reviews
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Zofi
Zofi
1  
The Handbag from the South
I'll keep this short and sweet - I'm somehow in love, but I'm not sure if I want to be.

In my opinion, we can skip the top and heart notes, and we'll also leave out the bright woods and musk from the base note.
What remains? Leather.
Leather hits me with full force - sounds like something out of a dirty BDSM story, but that's not really how I mean it.

When I went on vacation with my boyfriend for the first time, it was late autumn and we flew south, he bought me a handbag - sounds cheesy, but it was mainly for practical reasons, as the handle of my bag broke.
The gift was a relatively expensive model, a beautiful reddish-brown, high-quality craftsmanship, and: it smelled so incredibly nice of leather.
Even though it sounds silly, I always associate this bag, which I still have today, with our first real vacation by the sea.

Last week, I received a sample of Hallucinogenic Pearl.
I sprayed it on, put my nose close: leather.
Definitely leather, and I was mentally transported back - to our first vacation. To the handbag.

I "unfortunately?" really only smell leather. But I find that wonderful, as I don't have much to do with bergamot and violet.
Will this be my new favorite scent? No. Because I associate the leather note with my romance. Someone else might think of a bondage party.

But nonetheless, a wonderful, long-lasting leather scent that, in my opinion, radiates something elegant and herbaceous.
0 Comments
Augusto

177 Reviews
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Augusto
Augusto
Top Review 8  
Pearls and Suede Fringe Jacket
What the heck is this for a start?
Woody, elegant, exalted explosion. A silvery-beige-purple shimmering pearl.
Iris? Flowers? Synthetics? Books?

Glue and printing inks explode in a floral wood mix, one is captivated, wanting to know more. The book page that presents itself to the nose here quickly becomes a fantasy, is only briefly its carrier.

Now I looked it up - aah - so Ambrette, Bergamot, and Pepper at the beginning. That explains quite a bit. Yes, I’m into Ambrette, gladly very prominent when embedded correctly. Like with Wood Sage & Sea Salt, the Ambrette note and the combination remind me of that. But here it is much more radiant with the pepper and even affects the airways a bit due to the slight sharpness. Sharp combo.
Then something strongly iris-like comes in, completely freeing this initial note from its naturalness. It lifts above it. Becomes airy, heavenly, dreamy, and distances itself from the ground of reality.

Tasting tip: Goes well with new and old synth music. Or a fantastic or otherwise reality-remote narrative from a book comes vividly towards you and pulls you in. You can choose for yourself.

With pearls, the association with shimmer comes naturally, also with this flickering effect known from Iso E Super. Iris-silvery, moon, so basically all lighting effects. Dance scenes, disco ball, club lights on-off, strobe lights?
The fragrance has all of that, but also something of 20s pearl necklaces that dangle long from slender necks.

Now violets, green, fresh, gentle. Like the radiance of fragrant white skin in flickering light.

On this lies the pearl from the top note in the nape, shimmering because the skin warms it. Pearls that are not worn lose their shine. There is thus a direct connection to the skin, to flesh, to the body; the pearl is indeed expelled from the flesh of a living being, a mollusk. And is salty like the sea and tears. Not as a metaphor, but very sensually, this connection with the physical, its origin, its excretions, the living movement and change.

This one turns back and forth on the collarbone. Those who look too long can lose themselves in it. And the fragrance carries one away in waves.

So here was the key to the name - hallucinogenic, creating a pull, dreamland not far away. Whether club or head cinema. The fragrance really ramps up in this direction in the heart note, and that already after half an hour.

It is certainly safe once you recognize the notes, and it settles a bit, not even that extraordinary anymore; the notes are compellingly iris-close, thus woody and earth-remote at the same time, a hint of powder wafts by and spicy silver. It draws the sniffer into a completely and utterly silvery shining scent atmosphere, warm and cool at the same time, like the heated skin over which the wind brushes in the moonlight.

Not to be confused: This is not a skin scent in the strict sense, even if the description might be somewhat misleading. It is a dream fragrance, a dream in which skin and its texture, its radiance, its warmth, play a role. Reflected by an olfactory pearl.

The pearl eventually disappears into a suede bag and takes the skin scent, the bright musk, completely without laundry, with it. Or it slips into the pocket of one of those suede fringe jackets that conjure up the hallucinogenic highs in us, in which the wearer of this fragrance could also lose themselves.

For AugustA, thoroughly beautiful. This perfumer really knows how to interpret familiar scent sensations. Mostly in the warm-soft direction, no loud roars, but skillful plays with scent combinations and inventions that turn the familiar so far upside down that you don’t even notice it at first and then become completely fascinated by how enlightening and beautiful a supposedly familiar fragrance can be used and worn.
5 Comments

Statements

28 short views on the fragrance
2 years ago
2
The softest suede soaked in butter sprinkled with Parma violets.
0 Comments
5 months ago
This opens with the most disturbing human accord. Immortelle, musk, leather. Full barnyard. Makes me uncomfortable. I get zero violet-iris.
0 Comments
35
33
Thanks to spray adhesive
Iris hallucinates
From the craft table
To the executive floor
With the pressed board tables
And faux leather bags
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33 Comments
21
29
A lightly zesty start
....... and then arriving in leather bag heaven....... and someone forgot the finest lipstick in there.
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29 Comments
15
11
February, powdery snow,
the dry cold won't budge.
Violets bloom only synthetically,
ice blue sparkling on faux leather.
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11 Comments
16
9
I mostly smell leather ...
Dusty-powdery - Iris is really nicer!
It's interesting ...
but it won't be sexy on me.
Too bad :(
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9 Comments
13
7
Leather & wood club [rough/hard/dry/dull/bitter]
Pearls are cold [Iris]
Mother-of-pearl shimmering cotton clouds illusory
Ash remains gray/dusty
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7 Comments
11
4
catapults me straight to hot chocolate: heaven is in the backseat of my Cadillac - I find it very sexy :)
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4 Comments
11
4
Powdery, slightly sweet, suede and creamy synthetic. I like it, but it doesn't really expand my consciousness.
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4 Comments
11
4
I only smell a synthetic leather note, iris, musk, and a lot of plastic packaging here: I'm looking for the eroticism between the plastic.
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4 Comments
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