Bohoboco's stunning scents
And an evening out with a bunch of perfume nerds (my favorite type of nerd).
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For someone obsessed with perfume, someone who has a collection of scents and considers which fragrance to spray as part of their outfit and mood every day, there is no better compliment than being stopped and asked what you’re wearing. We’re begging for it to be honest. Justify this money spent, these hours poured over reading books, watching videos, and listening to podcasts where we nerd out on all things perfume. I can appreciate a skin scent that stays close to me but I gravitate towards bigger bolder scents that get noticed because I want to get noticed for how good I smell. I crave that brief interruption in the day when someone asks what scent I’m wearing and I can geek out with a stranger or a friend about what the fragrance reminds them of, the name of it, and all the notes it contains.
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I say all this because I have never been stopped so many times in one afternoon over a fragrance I’m wearing as I was this past Sunday when I wore my newest scent, Dark Vinyl Musk. I was already in love with it from the moment I put it on my skin. I did a heavy spray that morning before we left the house, I wanted to smell this all day and I wanted my sillage to stop people in their tracks. It did.
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I found this fantastic new addition to my collection at Ministry of Scent this past Saturday. They hosted Michal Gilbert Lach, the creative director and visionary behind Bohoboco Perfume, to share his story and his newest release, Magic Mushroom. We spent the evening sniffing and learning about the inspiration behind Michal’s creations. Michal grew up in Warsaw obsessed at an early age with fragrance and design. He spent much of his career as a stylist and fashion designer which comes through in the well-designed bottles with velvet tops, each fragrance a beautiful color unlike any collection I have seen before. His scents are rooted deeply in memory and all represent contrasts and duality. He shared that the inspiration for Dark Vinyl Musk came from his memories of being a child and watching his mother play jazz records. As soon as she would leave the room he would put his matchbox cars on the record player and watch them spin, of course scratching the vinyl in the process. You can smell the deep leather and vinyl in this one but you also get an unexpected sweet note. There’s incense and sandalwood and amber in there too and it’s got this cloud of musk that sticks around but doesn’t overpower any of the notes. These are all extrait de parfum which means they contain a higher percentage of perfume oil and should last a bit longer on your skin. Given that, the price of these bottles is reasonable to me. Not only are they truly unique compositions but the smell is a bit stronger and stays with you throughout the day. Far more interesting than some popular brands that sell for $300+ a bottle!
Michal was open and honest about why he tends to gravitate towards combining contrasts in his fragrances, like Vanilla Black Pepper, they represent the conflict he feels internally. He may appear calm externally but like all of us, he’s often struggling with a storm of emotions inside his head.
His fragrances are sold in more than 20 countries worldwide and he strives to make scents that will appeal to people everywhere, he has no one person in mind when he’s developing a fragrance. All of his scents are deeply personal, like Wet Cherry, which derives from feelings and memories around his sexual awakening (and smells divine), and Magic Mushroom which was born of his own psychedelic experience that pushed him to a new stage of his life, represented by his recent move to Florida and what he called an exciting new chapter. Magic Mushroom is the most gorgeous color of perfume I have ever seen— the juice seems to change from pink to purple with shades of greeny-yellow depending on how the light hits it, a true trip in a bottle.
I was torn between walking away with the Dark Vinyl Musk or Jasmine White Leather. I’m loving leather notes lately and both of these deliver big time there. In the end I decided on the Vinyl, Antonia said it was more of an every day scent, and I have so many white florals in my collection. I have a sample of Jasmine White Leather and I’m excited to see how it wears on my skin. Wild Carrot Oud was also a stand-out for me, it’s unlike anything I have smelled before— spicy and earthy and dank. Andre and I kept revisiting this one on his wrist as it changed from sweet to spicy to leather over several hours.
This was the kind of event that left my heart happy. To be packed in a room with a bunch of other fragheads listening to a creative soul talk about his collection and the inspiration behind each bottle was so special. I can not recommend Bohoboco enough — it’s sold in very few places in the US so if you’re in the Bay Area be sure to make a trip to Ministry of Scent and huff them all.
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Also!
created a space for here and I am so thrilled about it. Emma is one of my favorite perfume podcasters and experts and listening to her and joining her smell clubs have been the best perfume education. So many things I know about perfume I learned from listening to her. So subscribe and welcome her to Substack! If you like perfume at all you’ll love what she gets up to.And just a reminder if you want more daily recs from me or to see what I’m getting up to in real time fragrance-wise be sure to follow my Dry Down Diaries IG account!
Smell you later friends.
xo
All the colors are so insanely beautiful! Very curious about the wild carrot oud smell, sounds like a mystery.