hortus conclusus

Love perfume and want to start a collection of well-composed scents but get sticker shock when you look at the niche prices? Never fear, I am here to provide you with a list of really beautiful fragrances you can find for under 15 dollars a bottle. You can build your collection and still stay within budget. Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel —one of the weirdest men’s fougeres out there. Bitter, harsh, and gorgeous. anything by Pacifica —I love this company, and think almost all of their fragrances are well-done, if a bit short-lived at times, The solid perfumes (usually $8-9 a pop) are great for a base layer to make a sprayed fragrance stick around a bit longer. Priscilla Presley roses and more --   a much more delicate rosy-floral. Ultrafeminine.   jovan musk-- If you like musk, this is for you. A straightforward musk. G reat for layering experiments as well   The Perfumer’s Workshop Tea Rose —I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it now. One o...

This week, I am focusing on rose-centered fragrances in an attempt to get you excited for my Rose decant giveaway. Roses and more is a surprising scent in many ways. The first is price—it appears to still be in production, yet it can be easily found on the interwebs for 3.99! Now, if you’re like me, you may sneer and sniff at anything with a price tag that low—it has to be crap, I hear you saying in my mind’s ear, dear reader. But sniff again—this time, sniff the fragrance—and I guarantee what you smell won’t say ‘thlree dollah…!’ This smells expensive, like good natural materials went into it--and decently priced synthetics. Second, yes, it’s a c-list celebrity scent, (I checked the official website and it didn’t even seem to have a full list of Presley’s fragrance line-she’s got at least five other perfumes besides Roses and More— clearly, boosting her brand’s returns is not the first thing on Presley’s mind in the morning) but one with a heart and a genuineness to it, and...

As those of you who have been keeping an eye on this blog over time may know, this is a relatively new blog. I have been obsessed with fragrance for many years now, and keeping notes for myself, but it has only been a few months since I began making my thoughts and feelings on the subject public in this forum. I thank you for staying with me as my husband and I tweaked the format of the blog pages, and tried to get all the feeds, searches, etc. running properly. I am still feeling my way around the blogosphere, learning what works and what doesn’t and trying to figure out exactly how to tailor my own blog.   There are a LOT of really great fragrance blogs out there, and I follow and admire the work of many writers who know way more about the fragrance industry and the art of perfumery that I do. I admire them and am not trying to complete with their expertise and knowledge. I simply add another voice to the chorus of fragrance enthusiasts, and offer a focus on integrating fra...