Being fragheads ourselves, we couldn’t resist another fragrance haul—especially when faced with scents so unique, inspiring, and truly a curious scent story to fall in love with at first spritz. We share the new covetable bottles that have made it to our stash.
Pulp by Byredo. This is unlike any other. It’s true to its description: an unruly, sweet juice; a shapeless mass of ripe fruits. It opens juicy with sweet addicting notes. So well blended that it’s hard to tell its notes apart but it has black currant, bergamot, fig, red apple, cardamom, praline, cedar… The type you can’t just put your finger on, much like Byredo’s Bal D’Afrique. With Pulp, you get some tart and pungent punch of overripe fruit but in a pleasant way. The drydown is a fruit bomb that has such an impact and impressive staying power. While we absolutely love this, it could also be an acquired taste.
Morning Chess by Vilhelm Parfumerie. This has a sweet juicy opening like Pulp, but with a nice green drydown. We love how it evolves throughout its wear. It’s almost a different perfume after the first spritz–a leather fragrance as the brand describes with bergamot; leather and galbanum; and patchouli and black amber.
Intense Cafe by Montale. We’ve tried over 20 perfumes by Montale and if there is one brand we could say would define our taste in fragrance at the moment, it would be this. Intense Cafe is sweet and it flourishes with rose, coffee, and vanilla without being cloying. We find this has more depth and character than other niche, sweet rose perfumes. The drydown will have amber and coffee lingering throughout the day with an impressive wear of over 8 hours. We wish we wrote this review on Fragrantica ourselves because it’s exactly how we feel: “I love Intense Cafe with every ounce of my being.”
Sweet Diamond Pink Pepper & Utopia Vanilla Coco Eau de Parfum Rollerball By Kayali. Spicy or sweet? Here’s a 2-in-1 pick for the undecided. This fragrance line by Huda Beauty is very rooted in the founders’ Middle Eastern heritage. We’d consider these quite warm and rounded, and so we’d pick these for colder evenings.
Finally, a bright pick especially for Manila’s weather: Hesperides Grapefruit by Fresh. For something that’s all citrus–pink grapefruit, lemon, bergamot, tangerine, orange—this actually has depth. This is our first Fresh perfume, and we’re happy that it delivered especially coming from a brand known for skincare.
