TT's Top Three: Current Fragrances (Winter)

My perfume collection + what else I'm loving

If you’ve been following along over on Instagram, you’ll know I’ve been on a quest to expand my fragrance collection. I’ve said it a thousands times before, but what’s one more time: I truly believe every person has a category of goods (or two) that gets them out of bed in the morning. Mine is, without a doubt, fragrance. Little makes me happier than when a random stranger stops me in the tortilla aisle at the grocery store because they have to know what perfume I’m wearing. True story.

Lately I’ve been down a #FragranceTok rabbit hole. And because the selection in Nashville is lackluster (I mean…our Nordstrom just got the entire Byredo and Maison Francis Kurkdijan lines), I’ve been sniffing my way through copious samples from Lucky Scent. When I shared a snapshot of this online, my friend Jessie, had the great idea to bring you along for the ride! So I figured I’d do a little round-up of what’s currently in my collection that I love and what I’m adding to my wishlist this season, in case you were in the market for something new too! Fragrance is so personal, so I’ve provided a little fragrance snapshot to see if there’s overlap in our preferences and I’ll try to leave a video, TikTok, or any other resource where someone with far more experience than I have can talk about things like scent notes and descriptors. Lastly, I’m adding a category of my favorite fragrance accounts, so if you’re a scent-head like me, you can find endless pools of fragrance entertainment. Let’s sniff!

My Scent Profile

• Loves: Anything woody, green, and likely unisex! Can’t live without a skin scent or something enticing at the base (think: Molecule 01 or 02, Dedcool Xtra Milk, D.S. & Durga’s I Don’t Know What, Le Labo Another 13, et al.) Can definitely lean into florals if they’ve got something slightly interesting going on. Also loves a fragrance that packs a punch for a night out. Think a slutty rose, sensual patchouli, smoky incense, or the like.

• Doesn’t Love: Gourmands or anything too sweet. And I typically don’t gravitate toward anything too dry.

My Current Collection (By House):

• Boy Smells Violet Ends (Scent notes found here)

• Byredo

  • Super Cedar, Mojave Ghost, Open Sky, Eleventh Hour (Hair Perfume)

  • 📽️: The Perfume Guy and his Top 13 Byredo Fragrances ranked.

• Chanel

  • Coco Mademoiselle, Chance

  • 📽️: I feel like these need no introduction! These have been with me since high school.

• Dedcool

  • Milk, Xtra Milk, Spring, Madonna Lilly, & Taunt (admittedly Taunt isn’t my favorite)

  • 📽️: Olivia Olfactory breaks down the entire line here.

• Diptyque

  • El Capitale, Do Son (Hair Perfume)

  • 📽️: The Perfume Guy’s Top 20 Diptyque Ranked

• Escentric Molecules

  • Molecule 01, Molecule 02, Molecule 04, Molecule 01 + Iris, Molecule 01 + Ginger, Molecule 01 + Guaiac Wood (Sam also owns Escentric 03, which I’ll use from time to time)

  • 📽️: The Perfume Guy has a great deep dive into Molecule 01 - 05 on his YouTube channel.

• Etat Libre D’Orange Ghost in the Shell (scent notes found here; this fragrance is so strange and hard to pin down, but it is *so* good)

• Frederic Malle

  • Portrait of a Lady, Musc Ravageur, Carnal Flower, Outrageous, Rose & Cuir

  • 📽️: This video on ranked Frederic Malle perfumes made me fall in love with the line.

• Glossier You (the old one! Here’s a quick lil’ summary)

• Jo Malone Wood Sage & Sea Salt (Scent notes found here, going to be honest I don’t reach for this one much!)

• Le Labo

  • Another 13, Baie Rose 26 (Chicago City Scent, only available in September or. in the Chicago stores), Gaiac 10 (Tokyo City Scent, only available in September or in Tokyo stores), and Santal 33.

  • 📽️: What can I say? I love The Perfume Guy! Here are his Top 20 Le Labo fragrances ranked.

• Maison Marie Louis Bois de Balincourt (Scent notes found here; this is basically a Le Labo Santal 33 dupe and I love it)

• Ranger Station Jordan’s Perfume (I actually can’t find a resource on this, but I love it so much. It’s a local brand and I put it in the category of base skin scents I gravitate toward although it could absolutely be worn on its own.)

• Vilhem Parfumerie Dear Polly (scent notes found here; I never thought I’d love this as much as I do)

• Vyrao Free 00 (scent notes here, you can also watch a video I made about this here)

• Xinu

  • Aguamadera (No.1), Ummo (No.3)

  • 📽️: This TikTok perfectly describes how I felt at the Xinu store in Mexico City

On My Wish List

1. BDK Gris Charnel (Notes breakdown here): This feels like exactly what I’m missing in my collection, something warm and inviting for the winter, but so incredibly alluring. I couldn’t stop sniffing this sample.

2. Stora Skuggan Fantôme De Maules (Notes breakdown here): This is exactly what I want in a green fragrance, and although there are a lot of listed ingredients, it’s actually a quite simple fragrance. I have added this to my wish list and will likely pick it up in the spring for warmer months.

3. D’Orsay Je suis le plus grand. M.A. (Notes breakdown here): This is the most sparkly, lovely skin scent. It truly smells like fairy dust, but in the most clean and inviting way. I would love to add this to my collection of base fragrances.

4. D’Orsay Nous sommes amants. M.D. (Notes breakdown here): What can I say? Your girl loves a woody scent. This one, however, feels a bit more bright and special.

Fragrance Accounts I Love

1. Scout Dixon West (TikTok)

2. The Perfume Guy (YouTube)

3. Emelia, a.k.a Professor Perfume (TikTok)

4. Lucky Scent (TikTok)

You can shop my entire collection in my ShopMy store. I’ll continue updating and adding to this as the seasons change, but until then, happy fragrance hunting!