I'm making an effort to try new things and one of those ongoing new things is trying different scents.

This is more of a challenge than it might seem to most people because I am utterly repulsed by some very common scents, and also some very common scents are major migraine triggers. A lot of it is "chemicals" like room spray, especially bathroom spray, and cheap aerosol perfumes but some natural stuff like stargazer lilies also trigger them. It's fun! It's a fun time! (It's not a fun time.)

Perfume oils don't tend to have the same effect, maybe because I'm so rarely exposed to them. They cling close to the skin, an intimate secret. That intimacy is another reason I like perfume oils - I don't want to make other people smell me, whether it's a scent I think is pleasant (perfume) or one I don't (body odor, garlic sweat, etc.).

I've been getting subscription bags from Sucreabeille (no, that's not a referral link or anything) which means I've been getting fun little surprises. It's a nice thing to look forward to and so far I've had at least one perfume I've really liked out of each batch. And since each subscription bag costs about the price of one perfume, and has more than one perfume... it's good odds. Also I am a sucker for gacha pulls.

It's early spring, but one of the scents I got is Wake The Dead: Spanish coffee, bitter caramel, lavender syrup, soft amber, spice .

It doesn't quite smell like autumn, but it smells autumn adjacent if that makes sense. It's a warm heavy scent, soft, almost snuggly but with a bit of an edge to it. It's a scent I could sink in to; it's the olfactory equivalent of a comfortable sweater.

I don't pick up the coffee scent at all, unless "Spanish coffee" is something I'm not familiar with that's different from drip coffee/espresso. The bitter sweet absolutely comes through. I don't pick up on the lavender syrup much, unless it's adding to the sweetness - if there's anything floral here it's lurking in the background. The spice is nice and mellow.

I'm looking forward to wearing this when it's cold again, but right now I'm more in the mood for light smells. Not so much florals perhaps, but petrichor and green things and maybe honey.



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