if you've ever wondered, this is your chance to find out
ugh, ELDO. i have such a hard time with this house because i love so many of their creations, but the name is really inexcusable. i own a few ELDO bottles, all purchased secondhand because they don't need my money to act crazy. i finished up a years-old scentbird travel - because apparently it is problematic brand day. and this is for sure a problematic fave of mine. it's soapy and old fashioned and ever so slightly masculine, more rose shaving soap than fresh roses. it's surprisingly sophisticated given the rabble-rousing name. unfortunately (for the reasons mentioned above) the scent dna of this brand just hits every time for me.
an easy reach for a slow day lounging around the house. this has been a favorite for a while, ever since i ran through a travel size of this a few years ago and then bought a secondhand partial for under $40 on mercari. at one point in the last year or so it had gotten pretty popular on perfumetok, so the market might look a little different now.
this is her! is musky and lactonic, with notes of sandalwood and cashmere. although it's not officially named by the perfumer, there's a fig vibe to her. maybe it's the fruity/milky combo of the pink pepper and whipped cream. the first time i smelled phlur father figure it reminded me of this is her!, and i still find them to be pretty closely related. where father figure is soapy and clean, this is her! is sweeter and more lived-in. maybe they're cousins.
one time i wore it to a bar and a girl almost jumped into my skin to tell me i smelled good, so i think it works pretty well in just about any setting.
i'm going out tonight and wanted something boozy and a little bit masculine. i usually find initio a little fussy and overpriced as a house, but i've been enjoying a few free samples i got from a facebook ad.
side effect is dark and sensual, with notes of rum, tobacco and cinnamon. it's hard for me to accurately judge performance as i only had a little under half of a 1ml sample left. for the amount i had to apply, i feel it projected pretty well initially but wore off pretty quickly.
i really have a thing for these "artsy uncle who smokes cuban cigars and probably plays upright bass" fragrances. replica jazz club was my gateway drug (and still a favorite, as trendy as it's become in the last few years), but i would also rank killian angel's share, creed centaurus and chris colins sweet taboo as others i've tried and liked in that category.
i feel a little bit like i'm wearing a costume when i put them on. i don't think the profile totally fits me - as one fragrantica user put it, it might best be suited for you "if your an alchoholic that likes to get layed" - but it's one i find myself coming back to, and i find side effect to be a really standout example of the style.
full disclosure: i bought this in a sample lot on mercari with the hope that it would smell like cowboy's toes. hairless cats get this earthy mushroom and potatoes kind of smell when they haven't had a bath in a while. unfortunately, this is not the hairless cat perfume i dreamed about, but it's still pretty nice.
like you might expect from the name, it's overwhelmingly earthy with an edge of wet dirt. i don't smell mushrooms so much as the idea of a rotting log with a bouquet of cordyceps peeking out of its innards. the cypress note is the most immediately noticable to me, casting a sharp presence over the otherwise mellow composition. in a lot of ways i'm surprised i like it as much as i do. cannabis notes are a hard sell for me (i think my city is the us capital of smoking skunky ass weed outside the gas station) but here it plays nicely and just kind of adds to the forest floor vibe.
i will not be purchasing a full bottle. for one, the whole thing leans a little masculine for me, even with my unisex-of-center tastes. also bohoboco's marketing weirds me out. literally WHO thought it would be a good idea to put out a new perfume with "oriental" in the title in the big 24? they don't need my money if they're gonna do that.
before today, i had kind of written this one off unfairly. fellow fumeheads online recommend this as a better version of liis' ethereal wave, which is probably in my top three perfumes of all time. ethereal wave she is not - i get the comparison, since both feature a pretty bright blast of citrus. the opening of wulong cha is bitter, like a slightly oversteeped green tea, but as i wear it more, it morphs into a floral oolong. i'm not quite sure where i'm picking up the floral notes from, since none are listed in the official fragrance description, but they are really prominent to my nose.
it actually reminds me a lot of elizabeth arden green tea, which you can find at any tj maxx for under $20. that's not a dig at wulong cha. ms. arden punches way above her weight on that one. but it's hard for me to justify the price tag of the nishane when the scent is barely more complex and the longevity is only slightly longer than the most marshall's perfume of all time.