What I smelled, bought, and loved in LA
Or the story of how I ended up with yet another white floral in my collection.
I love that anytime there is an article about perfume in a major publication several friends send it to me. That’s what happened when this piece about teen boys spending big money on fragrances and throwing around perfume terms like connoisseurs came out in the NYT this weekend. I had heard about this trend. I like it for some reasons—boys should feel no shame for smelling good, and I like that these kids are embracing fragrance. But these scents they’re buying are crazy expensive, a stretch for most adults to afford. What I don’t get is how/why their parents are letting them drop hundreds on a bottle of perfume and why they want to? Go play outside, wear Bath & Body Works or Axe Body Spray, be a kid for a little bit longer. 👵🏼
I was in LA for work recently and took one day to roam around the city and play with my friend Jennifer. This was a quick trip and highest on my to do list was going to Luna Luna before it closed on May 12th. Luna Luna was an amusement park created by artists in the summer of 1987 in Hamburg, Germany. Curated by André Heller who invited over thirty artists—including Salvador Dalí, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Sonia Delaunay—to design rides, games, and attractions.
The rides were all packed away and forgotten, then rediscovered and reassembled for the show, Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy. It was a total delight. It sounds like they’ll be taking the show on the road so watch their site to see where they end up next.
With just one full day off I was only planning on visiting Scent Bar so I was thrilled to find The Scent Room just a few doors down from a coffee shop where I had a work meeting on Larchmont. The nicest dude spent time walking me around the store. I was originally on the hunt for a good fig but strayed pretty far. Scents I liked were Eris’s Delta of Venus and Nishane’s Tuberoza — try as I might to find something new I just always get pulled back to those white florals. I also really liked Cèdre Figalia by Atelier Materi. This was the fig we started with and I kept coming back to this one on my wrist. I would happily add it to my collection. I knew we were going to Scent Bar the next day so I held back.
Scent Bar in Hollywood did not disappoint. I knew they organized their fragrances by scent families and I wasn’t sure I would like it, but it made for a much different and easier shopping experience. I can see how this is helpful for people who may not know where to start. Of course the staff were super knowledgable and helpful. I love talking to people who work at perfume stores. If I had any spare time, I would work part-time in a perfume shop — to get to talk to people about fragrances all day, increase my own knowledge, and to match make people with perfumes.
Again, I came close to buying a bottle but something held me back. I ended up getting two discovery sets instead, Penhaligon’s Portrait Scent Library was one, the box was just so pretty. I have been searching for a place where I can smell Penhaligon’s Cairo but no stores in SF carry it and neither did Scent Bar. I asked the woman working there which discovery set she recommended - they had so many - and she pulled down Etat Libre d'Orange a brand I have been curious about. She said she liked how many scents came in the discovery set. So far I like this one much better than the Penhaligon set, which feels more traditional. Maybe I am just projecting as it’s the British brand responsible for creating fragrances for the Royal family. I like the weird surprising smells I’m finding in the Etat Libre d'Orange set better. Will do reviews here eventually.
You know when things just happen a certain way and all the past events of the day make sense? That’s how I felt when we stumbled upon the Frederic Malle pop-up at the Grove. It was a big promo for their new collab with Acne Studios, which is a nice clean scent that smells like clothes hanging on a line outside on a breezy summer day. But they were also selling some of the classics. I had never smelled any Frederic Malle scents before and Jennifer had just been telling me about one of her favorites that morning, L’eau d’Hiver.
After educating me on the history of Frederic Malle the very friendly woman working there sprayed some scents for us. My jaw dropped when she gave me a card with a fresh spray of Carnal Flower. She had told us that this perfume contained the highest concentration of tuberose in any perfume ever made - I think she said there were 800 tuberoses in each bottle. So here I was again enchanted with a white floral but this one so different than anything I own. It has a sharp green edge to it that makes it a little vegetal, floral but earthy with a little spice. I bought it almost immediately. It had been a good trip and I’d be reminded of it every time I put it on, that lovely day spent with JJ wandering around LA after a really fun work week with Helen.
The nose behind Carnal Flower is Dominique Ropion and it was created in 2005. Frederic Malle was at the forefront of what we now know as niche perfumes. He was making unexpected fragrances before anyone else. And he let the perfumers really go wild, also putting their names on the bottles and giving them credit in a way other brands hadn’t before. I heard Frederic Malle say recently in an interview that it took two years to get Carnal Flower right.
We also stumbled into this vintage shop that was so well curated, Ige Design. As I was buying a vintage book I saw these amazing pins on the wall. I bought an eye and a raven, and JJ bought a sweet little mouse. They’re like little works of art. The maker is Trovelore. I realize I am feeling and sounding a lot like an old lady in this post, I think I’m OK with that though. 👵🏼
I finally ate at Gjelina and it did not disappoint. Forgot to take photos of the food before we ate except for this 2 second video (?!) of a prawn dish which was probably my favorite thing we had.
Reminder that I now have an IG account for DDD, I’m sharing more from my collection there, short little posts and fun stuff in stories. Follow along here if you’re interested.
xo.
loled! "Go play outside, wear Bath & Body Works or Axe Body Spray like we did"
I loved Luna Luna so much!