In the major cities of Japan, we do indeed have a few Banana Republic (BR) fashion chains, but they’re not as prominent as Zara, H&M, or TipTop. I don’t frequent these stores because I don’t live in a large city, they only carry Japanese sizes, and because Japan is not a fragrance culture, it’s harder…
Category: Perfume Reviews (Short)

Smell Bent – First Impressions on a Fist Full of Samples
Smell Bent is a quirky, Indie brand based in Los Angeles that has produced over 100 fragrances, many of which are already out of production. They are quirky, fun, and inexpensive. The illustrations and perfume names are sometimes hilarious and can also be very appropriate. The brand started in 2009 and the nose behind all…

Suntan Oil Perfumes that Bring you Right to the Beach
Summer is now approaching, and it’s soon time to head out to the coast and cool off in the ocean. Time to embrace the feeling of play and freedom by enveloping your senses in beachy, suntan-oil-like fragrances! This post introduces some perfumes that relish memories or dreams of basking in oil on some tropical beach…

3 Perfume Houses that Underwhelmed Me
There are very few occasions when I well and truly dislike a perfume, but I do have what I’d call a scent profile. In general, I gravitate toward the woody orientals and away from fresh florals, and of course this fact will bias all my opinions of fragrances that I come across. These days the…

Samples from Rania J.
Rania J. (short for Rania Jouaneh) is the nose behind – as well as the name of – a beautiful line of natural perfumes from Paris that contained 5 fragrances at the time I sampled (now there are more).

Samples from Zoologist
The mix of cute and novel animal characters dressed like refined gentlemen with sophisticated, quality packaging make this fragrance house out of Toronto delightfully eclectic. One visit to the website after finding out the brand was Canadian (Go, Canada!) brought me quickly to the check out page to purchase a sample set that was waiting for me on a visit home to Canada from Japan.