KEELY'S FRAGRANCE SHELF

etat libre d'orange - eau de protection

oh, eldo. i love so many of their fragrances but that brand name is kind of inexcusable. this was my first big love from them, and this bottle was a christmas present from my parents a few years ago. it's an incense-y rose with an edge of something sharp - probably that blood note they play up in the fragrance description. it's wearable but just a little weird in the way that i find a lot of eldo compositions to be. i love to wear this one to ballet class and feel like a vaguely dangerous ballerina.

etat libre d'orange - the ghost in the shell

i first fell in love with this one from a scentbird sample (another problematic fav) and finally picked up a secondhand bottle off mercari a few months ago. it smells like fancy mothballs in a swanky hotel lobby, or like a skin scent for a robot. it's dusty but clean, citrusy and lactonic. it's surprisingly a crowd pleaser - i get a lot of compliments on this one.

elizabeth & james - nirvana black

i bought this and the also discontinued e&j nirvana rose in an insane facebook marketplace deal. with notes of sandalwood, violet and vanilla, this is billed as a dark, edgy alternative to the other cheap-ish celebrity perfumes on the market in the early 2010 – and there is something soooooo 2010s about it. this is the quintessential tumblr soft grunge "not like other girls" scent. she is wearing a big felt hat, oxblood lipstick and h&m skinny jeans tucket into her lace up jeffery campbell lita knockoffs.

violet and vanilla are notes that i tend to struggle with. a violet that's too dewy or a vanilla that's too syrupy will give me a headache. they play nicely together here, though, and the sandalwood balances them out well without being pickly the way it sometimes can be. for all its dark and mysterious branding, it isn't particularly heady or intense. it's more sheer, like a chiffon kimono you bought at tjmaxx. still, i have a soft spot for it.

ds & durga - grapefruit generation

this house is hit or miss for me - i find a lot of their fragrances too dry and their unaffected hipster-y branding obnoxious. this is one that i really love, though! it wasn't really on my radar to purchase, but a secondhand 100 ml bottle at an insane discount popped up in one of my facebook groups and i jumped at the chance. this reminds me of my favorite grapefruit oolong tea from my favorite asian bakery i used to frequent when i lived in orlando.

snif - crumb couture

love this fragrance, hate the longevity. this bottle is on its last legs because i have to absolutely hose myself down with it to smell anything. i'm not particulary impressed with snif's regular line, but the secret menu offerings i've tried are all pretty nice. this smells exactly as advertised - a buttery, slightly spicy croissant filled with berry jam.

glossier - you

she's popular for a reason! this was my gateway into synthetic musks - i actually couldn't smell it when i first tried it. now, i get powdery florals, zingy pink pepper and just a touch of pencil shavings. the designation "cool girl perfume" is overused but i think it really fits here. it never fails to make me feel a little more put together without taking myself too seriously. i'm nursing my last few drops of this one until i can find a good deal on a secondhand bottle.

glossier - you rêve

i was FERAL when i found out that glossier was dropping new fragrances. i sampled this one in sephora the day it dropped and wasn't particularly impressed with my first whiff, but the more i wore it, the more it grew on me. it's technically a gourmand, with a pretty prominent buttercream vibe, but a juicy plum note keeps it from being too sweetie for me.

something about it reminds me of what i remember my memaw smelling like when i was a kid. of the you flankers, this is the one that i feel is the biggest departure from the original. it's such a warm, easy reach for me in the cooler months.

glossier - you fleur

glossier devotee that i am, obviously i ran to sephora to try this the literal day it came out - and came back to buy it the next. to me, this one is in the family of rice-y floral minimalist indie perfumes, very similar to d'annam white rice and BTSO dirty rice. of the three, i think the BTSO is my favorite, but this is a nice (and not $200) alternative.

weirdly, this one has been feeling a little cloying to me lately. i'm not sure if it's the stickiness of the ylang ylang getting to me in the heat (i don't agree with, like, everyone else on earth that it's a summer flower!) or the salty notes throwing me off. sometimes savory perfumes nauseate me. tbd if i keep her - she might end up getting swapped, but i do really like the pale purple bottle and how it looks next to my other glossiers.

mugler - angel muse

my angel, my muse, my beloved. i have a healthy respect for the original angel, but she's never spoken to me personally. THIS flanker, on the other hand....

i blind bought her during the mugler black friday sale in 2020 and waited what felt like forever for her to arrive. this was before i was super fluent in perfume – today, i would probably steer clear of something described as smelling like patchouli, hazelnut, chocolate and grapefruit. but wow am i glad i took a chance on this bottle. it's so stamped with the markers of that time in my life, inextricable from playing through breath of the wild and listening to taylor swift's evermore over and over, flying home to see my family for christmas at the end of a stressful year.

because i smelled this so early in my perfume journey, and because i have such an emotional connection to her, i can't really describe the scent to you. it's complex and warm and heavy, but i've been playing around with wearing it on warmer days and i think it works just fine. this is discontinued, so i'll be cherishing this beautiful, sleek bottle as long as i can.

zadig & voltaire - this is her

an easy reach for me. 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.

ds & durga - debaser

i love how i made fun of ds & durga yet i have two of their bottles on my shelf. debaser is such a good pick for those swelteringly hot days where you want to feel cool without too much effort. the fig is sharp and green, but it's balanced so well by creamy coconut milk and woody notes.

it smells like throwing on a vintage t shirt and a perfect pair of jeans to go dig through the bins at the record store. it's slightly masculine leaning, but i think anyone can pull it off as long as their music taste is cool enough.

liis - ethereal wave

this might very well be my favorite perfume of all time. it's so incredibly bright, uplifting and friendly. it smells like a big glass of iced tea with a lemon wedge on a day with the clearest blue sky you've ever seen. recently (maybe thanks to the ever so slightly cooler weather), i've been able to pick up the listed notes of cardamom and woods more than i ever have before.

i've never introduced anyone to this fragrance without them falling in love with it immediately. i've just about run through my bottle, partly because the sillage is so gentle and you have to absolutely hose yourself down with it to get any longevity out of it. it's so gorgeous i don't mind, though. i hope it's never discontinued because i think i want to be buried in this perfume.

liis - in this world

this is one of the few bottles i bought brand new at retail price, from arielle shosanna on my annual trip to d.c. in 2024. eucalyptus is the star here, with lavender and sage adding to the aromatic vibe. sage is a note i can struggle with when it's too dry, but blood orange and fig add enough juice to keep the herbs from being cloying. it's so hard to explain what this one smells like, because i had never before (and have never since) experienced anything quite like it. it doesn't change much over its wear time, and the sillage is very gentle, as with everything from liis that i've tried.

i wore this to some friends' wedding last year, more than a little influenced by the fact that the shade of my bridesmaid dress was called eucalyptus. it's a soft, minimalist reminder to slow down and enjoy sights, smells and sensations, and it centers me every time i wear it. i don't ever want to be without it!

etat libre d'orange - jasmin et cigarette

another secondhand eldo bottle has hit keely's fragrance collection. i do think the description is apt, but there's something about this that smells like tangy lemonade to me. it's such a fun, edgy take on a floral. i love wearing this out at night and on days where i feel like wearing my chainmail choker.

marissa zappas - annabel's birthday cake

like the memory of a childhood birthday party. the vanilla cake is fresh out of the oven and covered in a lemon-y icing. there are latex ballons in the corner and you've just unwrapped a new barbie doll. it's super special and nostalgic, like most of marissa zappas' work, but i don't find myself reaching for it as much as i expected (i am truly not a gourmand girlie). i might be looking to trade this one soon.

d.grayi - black

i've become maybe the world's most outspoken d.grayi evangelist since i finally picked up some samples from them back in december 2024. this was the free gift with purchase that month, but it was definitely a factor in me deciding to eventually pull the trigger on some samples. i can't find the listing on their website with the exact notes, but i remember mulled red wine being among them.

perfumer james nguyen makes a lot the tinctures for his fragrances out of natural materials, so they all have this kind of herbal quality to them. this one opens with a huge blast of green that reminds me of walking into a lush. the drydown does smell like warm spices on a cold day. i find this one really comforting, incense-y and a little bit witchy

d.grayi - ca phe by night

my perfect tomato leaf, combined with bitter black coffee and animalics. it has the same herbal vibe as the rest of d.grayi's catalog, but there's nothing quite like this one to me. it's astringent and powerful in a way that feels no-nonsense and honest. i waited months for this to come back in stock and it was so worth it.