A Woman Followed Me To Ask About This Fragrance

I have been complimented every day for the last three months since I began wearing it.

Fragrance has had a great comeback story in the last few years — if you can call it that.

For decades, celebrities have pumped out fragrances because it’s one category where they truly don’t have to be experts — nobody thinks Ariana Grande or Paris Hilton are expert noses, assisting the likes of Alberto Morillas or Jean-Claude Ellena in formulating a commercial perfume. It takes the pressure off when commodifying yourself. Not only that, but they can create as many as they'd like, and their fanbase will continue to purchase them for the likeness and the bottle alone. (Hilton has an incredible 30 fragrances in 20 years under her hot pink belt.)

Fashion houses long offered fragrance as their first beauty offering so that the consumer can (potentially) indulge in their brands. If a Kelly bag is out of the question, perhaps saving up for an Hermès fragrance is more attainable.

But without a celebrity endorsement, one hurdle in the fragrance world has been getting people to buy it smell-unsmelled, if you will. Since we only get Smell-o-Vision at places like Disneyland and Too Faced’s Peach Party circa 2017 (IYKYK), it’s been notoriously difficult to get the new-age consumer to fall in love with a scent before experiencing it IRL, especially on social media.

Then, in 2022, Phlur launched Missing Person, Mikayla Noguiera made a video about it, and all hell broke loose. You couldn’t find this fragrance to save your life. Remember? I had to purchase a variety pack of tiny Phlur samples at Sephora — the last one in stock — just to smell it.

Frankly? It smelled like your grandma, or maybe your idea of what a grandma should smell like — sans rose. It doesn’t hold a candle to Phlur’s other offerings, but the marketing of it (founder Chriselle Lim shared they sprayed men’s T-shirts with it for the PR box to evoke the feeling of smelling a past lover) and Noguiera’s endorsement sent it over the edge.

And thus, a perfume boom began. Customers ditched the idea of a signature scent and opted for a fragrance wardrobe instead. Full-on fragrance influencers became popular. (Some of them can make or literally break a launch.)

The girlies are loading up on all SKUs of Sol de Janeiro’s body mists — remarkable for a brand whose hero product was the Brazilian Bum Bum Cream, a firming cream for your legs and ass and definitely not initially marketed to Gen Alpha. I’ve been in Beverly Hills Perfumery witnessing young boys, pre-puberty, buying $300 colognes to stand out amongst their classmates. At a Sephora in Orlando, Florida, the fragrance section was overrun with tween girls and guys spraying the wrong end of the mouillettes, while their moms suggested the Sol de Janeiro mists instead. (They’re cheaper.)

Ulta Beauty revealed in their 2024 Q3 report that men’s and unisex fragrance is on the rise. Needless to say, there’s good reason you’re seeing brands expand their product portfolios to enter the fragrance category — and why many niche brands are starting to proliferate.

But one thing I’ve discovered is that, unlike many of our lauded legacy fragrance brands, a lot of these new offerings don’t have staying power. Literally. They might as well be called “Ghosted” because there’s no trail of them on your person or your clothing after dousing yourself in them.

Blame it on the (lack of) al-al-al-al-al-alcohol in these newer formulations, but I prefer whatever ingredients can keep me smelling great for as long as possible. Cue The Cranberries’ “Linger,” please!

This newsletter was inspired by a post on Threads, where someone asked, “What perfume gets you the most compliments?” As I read through the replies, there were minimal mentions of new or niche brands. Based on my very unofficial analysis, old-school fragrance houses still are the popular choice — perhaps that’s because they’re available in more places, have better brand recognition, etc. But when the hurdle of needing to smell a perfume to purchase it has now been minimized through social media and you can buy products easily online, the fragrance industry has become more and more democratized. Basically, if you want a unique, “underground” or niche fragrance, there’s many opportunities to obtain one.

The top responses with the most likes and comments were:

• Viktor & Rolf (Flowerbomb)

• Chanel (Chance and Coco Mademoiselle over No. 5)

• Jo Malone (Wood Sage & Sea Salt)

• Tom Ford (Neroli Portofino — a tried-and-true favorite of mine)

• Juliette Has a Gun (Not a Perfume)

• Clinique (Happy)

• Parfums de Marly (Delina)

• Carolina Herrera (Good Girl)

• Le Labo (Santal 33)

• Louis Vuitton (Symphony)

• Mugler (Alien)

• Marc Jacobs (Daisy)

• Dolce & Gabbana (Light Blue)

• YSL (Black Opium)

• Giorgio Armani (My Way)

• Gucci (Bloom)

Notable newer or celeb brands mentioned: Kayali, Glossier, Ariana Grande, and Jessica Simpson.

I chimed in with my current go-to and elicited several responses in agreement:

Prada Paradoxe.

All it took was someone walking past me at an event to convert me. I stopped them and said, “You smell fucking incredible. What is your fragrance?”

She was thankfully not offended by my blunt inquisition and told me it was Prada. I ran home and immediately grabbed the fragrance that had been sitting in my beauty room unopened. Turns out, I had Paradoxe Virtual Flower, which I liked and got compliments on — but it wasn’t until I met with the Prada team a few weeks later that I was able to try the original. And I’ve been wearing it daily ever since.

I’m not some savant when it comes to describing perfume — I struggle with notes. All I know is I like things a little sweet, a little floral (but I cannot do gardenia!!!), and nothing musky.

Paradoxe, however, lives up to it’s name. I should not love it based on the fragrance profile, yet I do: it’s got notes of neroli bud (and since I’m a Neroli Portofino devotee, this is the only note that tracks), amber for warmth, and musk as the base. The latter two of which I actively avoid when picking perfumes.

The bottle is the signature designer Prada triangle, and I love how nicely it fits in my hand when spritzing. I don’t need a lot of it to make an impact — while I love Replica by Maison Margiela (specifically By the Fireplace), I had to drench myself in it and rarely had any remnants on my clothing.

Sometimes I’ll add a few spritzes of my newly acquired XOa, the apricot-vanilla fragrance from Allison Statter, which was inspired by a perfume she bought as a tween in a Beverly Hills beauty supply store.

But back to Prada. Paradoxe is sweet but elevated — it doesn’t itch the nose — and it gets me endless compliments. I’ve spent most of my adult life aiming to be like Rihanna: always being told I smell amazing, yet never quite finding my stride in that way. (Perhaps because my fragrances were wearing off before anyone had the chance to say so.)

Paradoxe changed that for me. Just last week, I walked past a woman on my way to LA’s newest nail sanctuary, Taro Bunny, and five minutes later, she cautiously approached me.

“You smell amazing, what are you wearing?” she said. “I just had to know!”

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What’s your favorite fragrance of the moment? Or your signature scent? What has staying power?