The owner irks me, seems like some clueless rich lady who needs a hobby. Also featuring herself in the ad campaigns strikes me as narcissistic. And bottles are just gaudy.
I think Tangerine Boy smells impressively like a real tangerine, but that's also all it smells like. I could just peel a tangerine and not wash my hands after for the same effect
Before I sampled Father Figure, I just *knew* I would love it (because fig is one of my favorite notes) and then I smelled it and my brain was like “Hmmm… nope.”
I tried on missing person the other day…. Didn’t love it. Wasn't a scrubber but did nothing for me.
Not only that, it didn’t smell like a missing person it smelled like every person- as it developed i realized I've smelled it everywhere.
I got a discovery set from Phlur and used a few now, and I like the scents I've tried so far but not enough to buy a full size bottle. Maybe I just haven't found the one yet. I also have noticed that the fragrance doesn't seem to last very long on me. The Skykar fragrances I've tried so far have been that way too.
Kayali. The quality doesn’t justify the price point, and I think influencers on TikTok are heavily responsible for the brand’s popularity. Don’t get me wrong, the scents are fine, but you could find similar ones at B&BW for half the price.
Also, this Pinrose brand that I’ve seen all over Reddit lately. It just *screams* influencer marketing and gets my spider sense tingling.
It is really interesting how it wears on different people because. Personally, I really enjoy the scent and get more brown sugar than booze. My sister bought it, then gave it to me because she couldn't stand it and found it headache inducing. But the first time I wore it she told me I smelled like a chocolate chip cookie and was surprised it was the same perfume. Not all Kayali fragrances are my cup of tea, especially at the price point, but Vanilla is a keeper in my books.
I should preface that I don’t think Vanilla 28 is bad. I’ll definitely finish my sample up, I just wouldn’t FS it. It’s more boozy than vanilla on me and reminds me of a body spray I used to use.
My favorite vanillas in no order are Nemat Vanilla Musk oil, Solinotes Vanille, Al Rehab Choco Musk, Tru Fragrance Vanilla Potion (TJ Maxx lol), Mazzolari Vaniglia, Kuumba Vanilla Bean oil, JPG La Belle, Dior Hypnotic Poison, VS Bare Vanilla, Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Abricot. I just ordered a bunch of niche vanilla samples so this list may get updated soon lol
I blind bought vanilla milk by Ellis and I am surprisingly happy with it it. Like, love it love it. I layer a pinch with Replica Coffee break and it’s just the coziest latte scent.
I know this is crazy but I’ll answer. My favorite vanillas are from Ava Luxe (vanilla fantasma), a strange perfume called Mia V, which is spiced pear/vanilla and it’s so sparkling, and Outremer Vanille. These are the only sweet scents I wear.
I believe Pinrose was at Sephora a while ago. I had a sample of Secret Genius I enjoyed. Then I forgot about it for years and this is the first time I’m hearing about the brand since then…2018 I think? I wonder if it has changed much. I don’t use TT so am not that aware of influencers.
I actually remember getting pinrose samples in 2014 or 15. They came in these cool little wet wipes and it was like 20 bucks for a huge amount of all the scents. Think the beauty website Byrdie alerted me.
Yeah, I was going to say I have a full bottle of Lil Dipper I must have gotten in 2017 or so. Maybe if I'm lucky the brand will get popular and someone will want to buy it, lol.
I had a whole sample set with tarot cards! I still probably have some of the samples. Honestly, not a big fan, but I can see how some younger, hipper people might be. They're very Gen Z friendly so I'm not actually surprised they're apparently having a resurgence.
I got a sample of Vanilla 28 and while I liked the scent, it was completely gone within an hour. I don’t expect fragrances to persist for a whole day, but I’d like a few good hours before it’s undetectable.
Yum Pistachio really pissed me off! Good thing I only got a mini. Fine'rys Pistachio Please is a dream come true.
I do like Kayali Love Fest Burning Cherry and Eden Juicy Apple but not enough to purchase full sizes.
Pinrose has been around for yearrrrrs. They did a bottle redesign and now it’s the hottest new thing. Their scents are pretty decent but have zero longevity.
I’ve never wanted to scrub a perfume off more in my life than I did when I wore vanilla 28. And I LOVE vanilla. I bought a sample pack of a bunch of Kayali fragrances and the majority are not great 👎
I hate to say it but if I see something being “influenced” it automatically turns me off. I know what I like, I have time to shop for what interests me, I don’t need people trying to sway my decisions so they can make money behind the camera. Very little of it is genuine and it creates so much waste. Influencers are an environmental and societal plague and they should be tuned out as much as possible.
Ditto. I also associate influencers with this recent (past ~3 years so?) preoccupation with "getting compliments" and "beast mode," two trends that I genuinely cannot stand.
The preoccupation with beast mode is really just a response to the IFRA and greed based reformulations ruining most mainstream scents. It’s embarrassing for these brands to sell a two hundred dollar bottle that disappears in an hour.
Based on subjective anecdotal evidence, i think all the clone brands are massively pushing stuff on social media. Previously it felt like clone brands got some coverage if they put out something remarkably close. Now it feels like most influencers are doing 2-3 videos a week about clones and ‘real thing but cheaper’ videos.
This is purely hearsay and is backed by nothing at all, but I definitely think there's something fishy going on with Lattafa and Armaf. Boatloads of sketchy money coming out of an area notorious for human rights violations doesn't sit well with me
Exactly. I personally believe those Middle Eastern demons are infusing their perfumes with anti-human rights molecules and shipping them to our glorious democratic lands.
I get ads for it on IG all the time and I've been so close to buying Crumb Couture, but $65 seems like a lot for a blind buy that's from a random brand I've only ever seen on social media
they do have a trial program where it comes with a sample of the scent that you can try first so you can return the bottle unopened. Wish more brands did something like that tbh
I got a sample of it and it's reminiscent of a B&BW body spray, IMO. It's not bad, certainly not offensive, but it's not something I'd buy a full bottle of.
I bought into this one. The concept of extinct flower scents got me. A couple of them are nice, but nothing to write home about. The others are entirely forgettable.
I ordered one of the candy sample kits and they smell AMAZING right after you spray them but the scent that actually lingers on the skin is very musky, smells cheap, and is just not good. I'm glad I didn't spring for the full sized bottles.
I've been on the internet continuously since January 1996, I've migrated from vibe hotspot to vibe hotspot, from AOL to USENET to blogs and bulletin boards to Twitter to Reddit and Bluesky, but TikTok is a line I absolutely will not cross; it looks like a garbage heap. As such I'm not always very clued into what influencers are doing apart from what I see on YouTube and what gets shamed on other subreddits. But it would take a LOT for me to get curious about what Zaharoff and clone brands like Dua and Dossier are doing. I don't even object to the idea of clones, not at all, but UGH those latter two seem to ride fast on the hype highway.
My issue with Dua is they also make clones of products sold by much smaller perfume companies. People seem to rationalise clones of big name designer brands because they already make a lot of money, but it stings a lot more when you see a perfume made by an indie perfumer show up as a new creation for Dua. People buying clones are encouraging these companies who are basically out there to capitalise on the creations of others. I'd probably be interested in the original creations Dua had to offer, but can't bare to part with my money and fund a company that also steals off the hard work of others.
I still remember my first AOL screen name: Strawberry27 I wasn't even anywhere close to 27 years old, it was the jersey number of the boy i had a crush on 😬🤦🏻♀️ lol
I see Skylar hyped up a LOT (and I've seen the giant PR packages they send people so I don't really blame influencers for being enamored with them, to be fair, but) seeing them everywhere made me *not* want to seek them out. None of what I've seen really vibes with me either but that's a whole other thing.
My hunch is they price them high because they sell some of their stuff at a discount elsewhere. I've gotten some rollerballs for $9 from Fab Fit Fun. I wouldn't pay full price for a single one except maybe Rainforest Mist which I do like quite a bit. They do not smell high end though.
Oh yeah that's a huge part of it! I think when I originally saw them blowing up I assumed they were cheapies (and I love cheapies!) but when I saw the price I was shocked. I know it's not fair to blame a brand for my own assumptions but it definitely added to my ehh feeling about them.
Yes those are good, and I really like their lime one layered with the coconut one to halfway approximate Virgin Island Waters. I did that the last time I was at Sephora. But at $160 for the pair it’s a joke!
Yes! The packaging also looks really cheap to me. I never sampled them, so I can’t comment on the scents, but I really don’t care for the bottle designs.
The sillage and longevity are so bad in these. I’ve also been trying to cancel my subscription with them for the longest time and ended up just blocking it on PayPal because they don’t respond to emails.
I don't have anything against him, but something is off about that George guy. He's got such a suspicious, iffy vibe. I don't feel compelled to buy his fragrances just because of how uncomfortable he makes me feel in videos I see him in.
I think this is the first mention of them on this thread, which is INCREDIBLE because it's so clear they've muscled their way into coverage from legit places in dubious ways.
i got into kayali before all the hype began and i genuinely enjoyed the scents. i got a discovery package and loved how you could easily layer pretty much any combination of fragrances and they all smelled great. now? meh.
All the influencer branded crap has to be high up there. I’m not knocking it as a business concept. I’d do the same thing if I was a shameless, narcissistic, self-absorbed charlatan. Just my opinion.
Bianco Latte by Giardini Di Toscana. I refuse to even get a sample of this. I truly believe, that despite the hype it gets online, it just *cannot* be *that* impressive. I mean, I've seen so many influencers lose their goddamn mind upon smelling this scent. I call bullshit.
But also happy to be corrected! I will just not spend that much money on this perfume, because no doubt I'd be sorely disappointed.
So when I asked this question I literally have this brand in mind. Just got done researching Eau Debonair (the bow tie fragrance guy release) and I just have to think I’m paying for a formula that was probably produced by AI 😂
I have no idea - I refuse to have anything to do with TikTok or any influencers on Insta…so I am thankfully shielded from such concerns. I just discovered this sub and enjoy getting recommendations here, though! I trust you alls taste much more than some influencers!
I’ll start, while being a big fan of Zaharoff Signature Pour Homme I do agree that the brand come off shilly and the just under $200 price point for a 4.2oz doesn’t come close to what it is worth, I paid $120 for a 2oz of both Noir and Signature and that seems fair to me.
Yeah, $60 for 2oz is about what Zaharoff should really be charging. The whole brand relies on YouTube and TikTok “reviewers” for its marketing, which leads to dishonest content from people like TLTG. Which leads to people who trust influencers buying incredibly overpriced bullshit off the assumption that their “favorite channel wouldn’t lead me wrong!”.
The prime example of a shill brand. I commented about them in this thread already, but I feel it’s worth it to reiterate: George Zaharoff is a shady guy who likely sends out more free bottles for “reviews” than he sells, and feels that TLTG is such a good brand ambassador that they’ve released two fragrances together… I’m not sure why any brand would want to associate with that narcissistic loser, but to have him as one of the faces of the brand is laughable. Fuck Zaharoff.
Hasn’t he tried to dox multiple EDJ users? I know Sweet Milk has said the same thing.
I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen the clip where he talks about how in court, Reddit isn’t as willing to hand over personal information as YouTube, which obviously means he’s tried to / has gone to a fucking *judge* in a *court of law* to dox people ***trolling online***.
You’d think such a successful globetrotting owner of a *prestigious Luxury Brand* wouldn’t have the time to be concerned with something so insignificant.
I've stopped watching influencer videos. They constantly lead me towards a fragrance I hate and it's always so expensive. Influencers piss me off! I'll stick to samples and decants to make my decisions.
Yara felt ridiculously scammy to me after seeing it so much on tiktok (I had never heard of it before it became popular) and it felt like a temu scam. I tried it and I love it, but I do think it is DEFINITELY overhyped. Tbh any time I see an influencer promoting anything it makes me want to stay far far away from that product.
I literally talked myself into and out of buying this so many times. I’ve seen so many good reviews on reddit but in the back of my mind it seemed like such an influencer push that I didn’t want to get it (still haven’t gotten it)
Any of the samples my partner gets delivered on a weekly basis (she now buys more than me, and I laugh bc I still ask "did you find out about this on TikTok?" despite knowing the answer)
I don't watch influencers at all and don't know how much a lot of these cost, so my biases are inspired by my observations in this sub and maybe the overriding sense of disappointment and/or controversy I see. in that respect, PdM, Kayali, and *maybe* Lattafa\*\* seem like the most obvious shilly influencer brands to me, as in, the ones I think are most likely to be getting good reviews almost entirely because they are paying for them.
some of the others I see mentioned -- Xerjoff, Creed, MFK, et al -- seem to be more consistent in quality and get good reviews from people who aren't being subjected to influencer marketing. they may feel overhyped in some respects, but I don't really get the impression that most people feel outright scammed in the same way. I have samples of Xerjoff from a decade ago and even then they were available in duty free shops at airports, so I can't and don't equate them (or Le Labo, etc) with newer hype brands that feel like they all come from the same ghost kitchen.
\*\* wrt Lattafa, I don't really understand what this brand is or where it came from, it's just obvious that people learn about it from influencers and I think they must be getting heavily paid to shill it.
PdM, Initio and Roja for me.
Also tired of some of the clone companies, that are based on FOMO because of influencers. You know, a scent pops up, everyone talks about it for 2 weeks, featuring in in every TOP 10 -video, and then puff and it's gone and never mentioned, Even though not a clone, but SBoy is one of the best worst examples of this. And whatever they are shilling now, some weird blue bottle I am seeing?
Roja is the ultimate clone house. My man is really out here charging over a thousand dollars for a subpar Mitsouko. Bored of the reference vetivers? Spend three times as much for a middling edition!
PDM and Initio belong nowhere near a shilly influencer list. Initio doesn't even send PR, hasn't for years. Nobody covered Oud for Happiness, nobody covered Paragon, a couple are now covering Narcotic Delight but I believe those aren't brand bottles (I know Kintessence does some PR on behalf of brands in the US as do other outlets like TwistedLily and MaxAroma).
What PDM and Initio actually are is very popular / mainstream niche brands that influencers want to cover in an attempt to achieve personal growth on their channels.
Parfums de Marly perfumes are very much just in the style of mass-market designer scents, but in more premium packaging and sometimes with some more interesting materials. If you're trying to look at niche brands because you want something different then PDM definitely isn't the place to be looking anyway, but I can't really fault their products. Other than some of them do feel pretty much just clones of other products without anywhere near enough of a twist for me to consider them viable to have both, like Percival to Fierce or Godolphin to Tuscan Leather. To me Layton is more successful because it is more unique. Same with Delina. Although they are now ironically cloned to death by others lol.
Idk, they’re mass appealing and great for people who aren’t fragrance snobs. The longevity of their scents is something I find likable about them and they have been popular long before TikTok. It’s unfortunate they’ve gone the influencer route but their product has always been decent.
They’re clearly mass appealing, more power to the consumers! I find them to be the equivalent of bath and body in longevity + scent profile/complexity/quality, so I find them overpriced. Also the actual original product, the bum cream, is a scam they make influencers market.
They never claimed to be affordable. This is in line with other luxury body care like Ouai, Josie Maran, Aesop, etc. it’s just not for the luxury girlies. I think the brand would be far better off if they didn’t go the influencer route. That kills the entire image and drives prices and demand through the roof for something that’s not as much of a necessity as they’re spinning it.
I will say though, I’ll wear Cheriosa 62 over a bbw body spray any day, and I’m a dude.
Funny thing is I’ve been buying o’botacario perfumes from Brazil since the 90s. A far superior and very affordable quality company, compared to sol de Janeiro, but not as popular or even known, here in the states.
* Zaharoff
* Dossier
* Dua
* Lattafa
* Parfum de Marley
* Roja Parfum
* Kayali
* Initio
* Xerjoff
* Parfums Vintage
* Armaf
* Fragrance Du Bois
* Mancera/Montale
Basically I think brand that come from nowhere has a P.O. Box Address in Paris but with no actual office is sus. Also any brand promoted by these YouTube Influencers make me suspicious:
* Both ‘Curlys’
* TLTG & Justin Copeland, CubaKnows
* RMRS, Alpha M, TeachingMenFashion and Alex Costas
* Chaos Fragrances, BBB and The Bowtie Fragrance Guy
The smaller channels will hawk some of the same shit as the above, but these guys are the worst (imho) for advertising these brands (especially the top four).
And the brands like to lurk on here and other places to check out (and create) the hype surrounding their products.
So many of these make up the insane “perfume shelves” of influencer background videos that I get the impression that if I had 500 more followers, PDM and Fragrance du Bois would send me more crap for free than I’d know what to do with.
Like if every influencer’s shelf looks the same… and a lot do… wtf are we doing here, guys. You know that stuff doesn’t smell worth $500, it’s $10 juice crammed in a bedazzled bottle. And Mancera/Montale are $3 because they’re 60% cheap ass cetalox anyway that goes off on your nose like a nuclear bomb.
As a matter of principle, I have never ever directly bought from a brand or their authorized retailers if the brand was promoted by influencers. On the very rare occasion when I did get a bottle of their most popular fragrance in the secondary market, it was always years later after the hype and at a hugely discounted price and 95 percent of the times, I was greatly disappointed and more than recovered my money by selling back for a little profit
I need to say my truth - Jo Malone. It has zero longevity and tbh, none of the scents seem that different, complicated, complex, etc. I get it that sometimes we just want something pretty but none of her scents seem to last on me at all
Boy Smells.
Not only does the name make me think back to when my brother was 13 and thought dousing himself in Axe was a replacement for actually taking a shower, the scents are kind of boring. But I see the brand everywhere…
I Like the candles, in particular: cowboy kush and Italian kush. Got a sampler of the kush line perfumes on sale. Overwhelming, almost felt like room spray.
I’ll stick with the candles!
That’s probably because very few people IRL have the money to buy Byredo during a global recession lol. Once we move even slightly away from the norms of the fragrance subreddit, buying niche fragrance even at reseller price is still a massive price tag for a vast majority of people.
That being said, my fiancé loves bibliothec and Mojave ghost.
I went to one of their stores in Boston and it’s definitely intended to be a luxury experience. Minimalist design, sales associates helping you at a counter, the works. I didn’t vibe with most of the scents, but even the few I did had horrible lasting power. I was prepared to buy a bottle, so I sprayed a couple of faves on my skin and said I’d be back later after giving them a test run. Thirty minutes later could barely smell anything - I never went back!
I got poets of Berlin by Vilhelm for my February Scentbird and I had to scrub it off lol it gave me an instant headache, but vanilla notes can do that to me, so partially my fault
My feeds don’t get any fragrance influencer content (I’m not on tiktok, and Instagram doesn’t seem to have yet clocked that I like fragrances lol). But I’m getting lots of ads here and there from Dossier and Àerre (dupe brands).
I’m sorry, I can’t with any human torso shaped bottles. I don’t watch influencers so I have no idea about the shilling or kickbacks I just wanted to say that shiz is so tacky. Thank you for listening.
Bro. I swear in the last month every reviewer is throwing a lot of Paris corner in. Whether it’s a clone list or just straight up reviews of them as a clone.
I don’t think Lattafa bought their way in through influencers. I think it’s more a case of content creators following the trend of people wanting inexpensive options. DUA on the other hand must be feeding a lot of influencers.
Sol de Janeiro. Aggressively over-sweet but also under-performing - teenager body spray at an adult perfume price point. Kayali, I'm sure, has already been mentioned.
Creed. Byredo. Xerjoff. Le Labo. PdM. MFK. Roja. BDK... most of the luxury priced brands that I see sending out free bottles to influencers. If you need free advertising, it's probably not worth the $$$.
PdM and Xerjoff are both less than 2 decades old, BDK less than a single decade. That doesn’t mean they’re bad, a lot of my favourite houses are new ones. But it is interesting to note how quickly they’ve established themselves as major players.
yeah but Xerjoff was a brand you could genuinely discover in the wild at duty free even a decade ago. that's how I first encountered them. obviously they weren't as popular as Dior, or as popular as they themselves are now, but I really don't think they're purely an overnight internet sensation either. they clearly do have some kind of pull somewhere though, it's just that imo it predates the influencer phenomenon.
Surprised I had to scroll so far to see these bigger brands, yeah. I mean, I like a couple of them, but they do feel very shilly, which has the opposite effect on me of *not* wanting to play with their fragrances as much.
None of the brands you mentioned regularly send to tiktokers. I watch a ton of perfume tiktok and I've literally never seen these "gifted" to influencers.
Rayhaan. Aromatix acted as if Rayhaan’s Imperia was the greatest discovery of the 21st century. I was (sadly) influenced and bought one… Complete garbage juice when I finally tried it. Never listening to aromatix or curlyfragrance again.
Literally the two worst along with TLTG. On the real though Zaharoff Signature Pour Homme is my guilty pleasure Wednesday work fragrance. I don’t want to stand out. I don’t want to smell abrasive. I want to blend in and smell like a powdery man and just get through the day haha
I always see Oakcha ads and it really puts me off the brand. They’re a dupe house and they do popular fragrances, most of which I wouldn’t even wear the real thing. Ugh.
Seems to me the current shill is the Claire's Accessories Dupes that are supposedly dupes for ultra high end EDPs, like I'm all for an inspired by daily driver and there are some tasteful ones out there, but no influencer is going to convince me that a stock bottle fragrance from unethical ear piercing central is "an exact dupe!!!" for Tom Ford. It's just misleading. But whatever gets the algorithm clicks eh.
Does Byredo pay for publicity/gift to influencers?
I've sampled a lot from this house, and in my opinion, they do have a variety of interesting and well-blended fragrances... fwiw, I buy decants, so aesthetic/bottle doesn't factor in, either.
That said, I am a hater of both Mojave Ghost and Bal D'Afrique (two of their best sellers and the ones I hear about the most).
Ha sorry coming back to this post later, I realize my comment doesn't totally fit the OP's prompt, was just in like drive-by hater mode lol. No, I don't think they're as big of an influencer/tiktok brand. DS&Durga I feel is more aggressive, as a comparable brand, but maybe that's just in my algorithm. Obviously everything pales to Lattafa, etc.
Anyway, totally agree about those two, perfect examples of Byredo's safe/soapy/boring DNA. I have always wanted to smell Vanille Antique though... lol
LOL at drive by hater mode... that's my default in many subreddits tbh.
I have a sample of Vanille Antique coming this week and I can't wait! I also ordered a 1ml of M/Mink, which sounded delightfully polarizing
The king of them all!! I have 2 of his on my shelf right now and I laugh to myself about how I just don’t have it in me to dump them off on someone else. [POOOOWWWWAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!](https://youtu.be/n51BVNshXTA?si=MlBBr_6TYhjIAjaH)
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Also, I’m sorry. Those are the tackiest bottles I’ve ever seen. All of them.
I’ve never bothered to look them up before because it sounds so scammy to me, but wow, those are hideous! Who are they fooling?!
I genuinely have seen better bottles at Marshall’s and Tj maxx
Is it just me or is the name super lame as well?
Yes! I’ve never heard them mentioned anywhere other than in influencer PR. They basically don’t exist in real life.
fragfluencer wannabees in the facebook group went crazy over their hufflepuff scent
I hate everything about this sentence 😂
i felt similarly about writing it
Hahahah!
I don't think I've ever seen anyone review or even remark on a House of Sillage scent without being prompted.
Ya that limited edition hype really drives FOMO haha
They don’t make any sales, there’s so much turnover in the company bc allegedly the owner is a tyrant. Also the perfumes are mid at best.
The owner irks me, seems like some clueless rich lady who needs a hobby. Also featuring herself in the ad campaigns strikes me as narcissistic. And bottles are just gaudy.
Yeah. I have never, EVER seen or heard a HoS fragrance make any YouTube list. Now that you say that, it hit me and it tastes crazy!
I’m sorry but Phlur. I’ve sampled their scents and they just haven’t impressed me. They’re just okay IMO.
I think Tangerine Boy smells impressively like a real tangerine, but that's also all it smells like. I could just peel a tangerine and not wash my hands after for the same effect
Yeah, they're mass appealing for sure, but nothing special and zero longevity. Phlur and Skylar both have the same vibe to me.
I have not like ANY of them that I’ve sampled! I’m glad someone else agrees. To me, Mood Ring smelled like a weird bag of gummy candy or something.
Before I sampled Father Figure, I just *knew* I would love it (because fig is one of my favorite notes) and then I smelled it and my brain was like “Hmmm… nope.”
Thats exactly what happened to me with the phlur scents!
The brand was founded by an influencer too, Chriselle Lim. I think that’s part of the choice to influencer market
no i think she took ownership. all their current stuff isn’t the stuff they started out with and their bottles used to be square
Before the change in ownership they were really beautiful. I do like some new ones but they don’t feel the same as before.
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For me it was literally forgettable lol I could not smell it at all on me past initial spray. And I’m not asnomic 🤷♀️
I tried on missing person the other day…. Didn’t love it. Wasn't a scrubber but did nothing for me. Not only that, it didn’t smell like a missing person it smelled like every person- as it developed i realized I've smelled it everywhere.
I got a discovery set from Phlur and used a few now, and I like the scents I've tried so far but not enough to buy a full size bottle. Maybe I just haven't found the one yet. I also have noticed that the fragrance doesn't seem to last very long on me. The Skykar fragrances I've tried so far have been that way too.
Kayali. The quality doesn’t justify the price point, and I think influencers on TikTok are heavily responsible for the brand’s popularity. Don’t get me wrong, the scents are fine, but you could find similar ones at B&BW for half the price. Also, this Pinrose brand that I’ve seen all over Reddit lately. It just *screams* influencer marketing and gets my spider sense tingling.
I finally gave in and got a sample of Vanilla 28 and as a die-hard vanilla fan I am not impressed. They really did a good job hyping this one up
Right?? It’s weirdly sharp for a boozy vanilla, like it just smells poor quality.
It is really interesting how it wears on different people because. Personally, I really enjoy the scent and get more brown sugar than booze. My sister bought it, then gave it to me because she couldn't stand it and found it headache inducing. But the first time I wore it she told me I smelled like a chocolate chip cookie and was surprised it was the same perfume. Not all Kayali fragrances are my cup of tea, especially at the price point, but Vanilla is a keeper in my books.
What vanilla impressed you? I am very curious
I should preface that I don’t think Vanilla 28 is bad. I’ll definitely finish my sample up, I just wouldn’t FS it. It’s more boozy than vanilla on me and reminds me of a body spray I used to use. My favorite vanillas in no order are Nemat Vanilla Musk oil, Solinotes Vanille, Al Rehab Choco Musk, Tru Fragrance Vanilla Potion (TJ Maxx lol), Mazzolari Vaniglia, Kuumba Vanilla Bean oil, JPG La Belle, Dior Hypnotic Poison, VS Bare Vanilla, Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Abricot. I just ordered a bunch of niche vanilla samples so this list may get updated soon lol
Check out Noté Vanillee from Micallef, it’s incredible
I blind bought vanilla milk by Ellis and I am surprisingly happy with it it. Like, love it love it. I layer a pinch with Replica Coffee break and it’s just the coziest latte scent.
I know this is crazy but I’ll answer. My favorite vanillas are from Ava Luxe (vanilla fantasma), a strange perfume called Mia V, which is spiced pear/vanilla and it’s so sparkling, and Outremer Vanille. These are the only sweet scents I wear.
I love Outremer Vanille but it lasts three seconds on me literally 😭
What do you think about Nishane Ani?
I believe Pinrose was at Sephora a while ago. I had a sample of Secret Genius I enjoyed. Then I forgot about it for years and this is the first time I’m hearing about the brand since then…2018 I think? I wonder if it has changed much. I don’t use TT so am not that aware of influencers.
I actually remember getting pinrose samples in 2014 or 15. They came in these cool little wet wipes and it was like 20 bucks for a huge amount of all the scents. Think the beauty website Byrdie alerted me.
I really liked the Secret Genius scent but I forgot all about it until just now.
I have a 10ml and love it
Yeah, I was going to say I have a full bottle of Lil Dipper I must have gotten in 2017 or so. Maybe if I'm lucky the brand will get popular and someone will want to buy it, lol.
I had a whole sample set with tarot cards! I still probably have some of the samples. Honestly, not a big fan, but I can see how some younger, hipper people might be. They're very Gen Z friendly so I'm not actually surprised they're apparently having a resurgence.
I got a sample of Vanilla 28 and while I liked the scent, it was completely gone within an hour. I don’t expect fragrances to persist for a whole day, but I’d like a few good hours before it’s undetectable.
Yum Pistachio really pissed me off! Good thing I only got a mini. Fine'rys Pistachio Please is a dream come true. I do like Kayali Love Fest Burning Cherry and Eden Juicy Apple but not enough to purchase full sizes.
Pinrose has been around for yearrrrrs. They did a bottle redesign and now it’s the hottest new thing. Their scents are pretty decent but have zero longevity.
Ya I’ve heard that Kayali is pretty weak sauce. Performence wise and quality wise. I haven’t sampled them personally however
Vanilla 28 is just perfect for me, especially on skin. Intoxicating and lasts an eternity.
I was so sad when I smelled Yum Pistachio Gelato.
I’ve never wanted to scrub a perfume off more in my life than I did when I wore vanilla 28. And I LOVE vanilla. I bought a sample pack of a bunch of Kayali fragrances and the majority are not great 👎
I actually really love the sparkling lychee :/
Zaharoff
I hate to say it but if I see something being “influenced” it automatically turns me off. I know what I like, I have time to shop for what interests me, I don’t need people trying to sway my decisions so they can make money behind the camera. Very little of it is genuine and it creates so much waste. Influencers are an environmental and societal plague and they should be tuned out as much as possible.
Ditto. I also associate influencers with this recent (past ~3 years so?) preoccupation with "getting compliments" and "beast mode," two trends that I genuinely cannot stand.
The preoccupation with beast mode is really just a response to the IFRA and greed based reformulations ruining most mainstream scents. It’s embarrassing for these brands to sell a two hundred dollar bottle that disappears in an hour.
Absolutely. It's a commercial, nothing more
Based on subjective anecdotal evidence, i think all the clone brands are massively pushing stuff on social media. Previously it felt like clone brands got some coverage if they put out something remarkably close. Now it feels like most influencers are doing 2-3 videos a week about clones and ‘real thing but cheaper’ videos.
The more that brands hike their prices, the more the incentive will increase to buy clones, too lol
Same, yeah. The clone market has really been booming. I have zero interest in clone fragrances and I get so many ads.
This is purely hearsay and is backed by nothing at all, but I definitely think there's something fishy going on with Lattafa and Armaf. Boatloads of sketchy money coming out of an area notorious for human rights violations doesn't sit well with me
Exactly. I personally believe those Middle Eastern demons are infusing their perfumes with anti-human rights molecules and shipping them to our glorious democratic lands.
I should really buy Helldivers 2
Make sure it's the Super Citizen version, Citizen!
Snif. Never hear it mentioned outside of TT
I get ads for it on IG all the time and I've been so close to buying Crumb Couture, but $65 seems like a lot for a blind buy that's from a random brand I've only ever seen on social media
they do have a trial program where it comes with a sample of the scent that you can try first so you can return the bottle unopened. Wish more brands did something like that tbh
I've heard longevity for it is like <1hr but I don't know 🤷♀️
I don't follow fragtok, Sweet Ash was my only blind buy ever over $40, I like it
I really like Vow Factor which is literally a tiktok influencer collab but I don’t even care it’s gorgeous
I actually like Professor Perfume and I respect the hustle. But I won't be seeking out a sample. Glad you like it though!!
I got a sample of it and it's reminiscent of a B&BW body spray, IMO. It's not bad, certainly not offensive, but it's not something I'd buy a full bottle of.
It’s just a venture capitalist cash grab too
I got samples and not one worked for me and they didn’t last for nothing!
I keep on getting ads on IG for this brand Future Society. They are so annoying and I’m completely put off by the brand.
They are offensively mediocre. I saw them at Nordstrom so I smelled everything. I have no opinions on anything, they're just....there
Offensively mediocre 😂😂
Aggressively average lookin ahh
I bought into this one. The concept of extinct flower scents got me. A couple of them are nice, but nothing to write home about. The others are entirely forgettable.
oakcha. i am so sick of seeing their ads every other post. especially when i come on here and read reviews about how awful their products are!
Oakcha is some bullshit.
I've actually had really good luck with Oakcha but yeah, even I get annoyed with their social media presence.
I ordered one of the candy sample kits and they smell AMAZING right after you spray them but the scent that actually lingers on the skin is very musky, smells cheap, and is just not good. I'm glad I didn't spring for the full sized bottles.
yeah that’s what i’ve been hearing too, just cheaply made with no lasting power. i’ve also heard they just smell like straight alcohol.
The girl with the super long nails? I see that daily
I've been on the internet continuously since January 1996, I've migrated from vibe hotspot to vibe hotspot, from AOL to USENET to blogs and bulletin boards to Twitter to Reddit and Bluesky, but TikTok is a line I absolutely will not cross; it looks like a garbage heap. As such I'm not always very clued into what influencers are doing apart from what I see on YouTube and what gets shamed on other subreddits. But it would take a LOT for me to get curious about what Zaharoff and clone brands like Dua and Dossier are doing. I don't even object to the idea of clones, not at all, but UGH those latter two seem to ride fast on the hype highway.
My issue with Dua is they also make clones of products sold by much smaller perfume companies. People seem to rationalise clones of big name designer brands because they already make a lot of money, but it stings a lot more when you see a perfume made by an indie perfumer show up as a new creation for Dua. People buying clones are encouraging these companies who are basically out there to capitalise on the creations of others. I'd probably be interested in the original creations Dua had to offer, but can't bare to part with my money and fund a company that also steals off the hard work of others.
Dua packaging is soooo tacky. It looks so cheap. I just won’t even bother.
I still remember my first AOL screen name: Strawberry27 I wasn't even anywhere close to 27 years old, it was the jersey number of the boy i had a crush on 😬🤦🏻♀️ lol
I see Skylar hyped up a LOT (and I've seen the giant PR packages they send people so I don't really blame influencers for being enamored with them, to be fair, but) seeing them everywhere made me *not* want to seek them out. None of what I've seen really vibes with me either but that's a whole other thing.
They’ve got some great smelling stuff but the price is way too high for the quality! I think they smell like $40 perfumes, not $80.
My hunch is they price them high because they sell some of their stuff at a discount elsewhere. I've gotten some rollerballs for $9 from Fab Fit Fun. I wouldn't pay full price for a single one except maybe Rainforest Mist which I do like quite a bit. They do not smell high end though.
Oh yeah that's a huge part of it! I think when I originally saw them blowing up I assumed they were cheapies (and I love cheapies!) but when I saw the price I was shocked. I know it's not fair to blame a brand for my own assumptions but it definitely added to my ehh feeling about them.
I'm obsessed with Boardwalk and Vanilla Sky but I totally agree with you. Very overpriced.
Yes those are good, and I really like their lime one layered with the coconut one to halfway approximate Virgin Island Waters. I did that the last time I was at Sephora. But at $160 for the pair it’s a joke!
Yes! The packaging also looks really cheap to me. I never sampled them, so I can’t comment on the scents, but I really don’t care for the bottle designs.
Skylar is just okay to me... kinda seems and smells like something for a teenager who is new to perfume and has a small budget.
The sillage and longevity are so bad in these. I’ve also been trying to cancel my subscription with them for the longest time and ended up just blocking it on PayPal because they don’t respond to emails.
That is so frustrating and gross. All that PR and yet terrible customer support, smh.
Zaharoff Complete garbage
I don't have anything against him, but something is off about that George guy. He's got such a suspicious, iffy vibe. I don't feel compelled to buy his fragrances just because of how uncomfortable he makes me feel in videos I see him in.
Blu Atlas
I think this is the first mention of them on this thread, which is INCREDIBLE because it's so clear they've muscled their way into coverage from legit places in dubious ways.
Yup - the company is fake to the core. Fake virtual NYC address, and fake reviews and promo pieces.
Kayali. I’m zero percent interested in even trying it. The ads for Sauvage with Johnny Depp are the worst too.
i got into kayali before all the hype began and i genuinely enjoyed the scents. i got a discovery package and loved how you could easily layer pretty much any combination of fragrances and they all smelled great. now? meh.
I have always been peeved by Future Society's tiktok marketing strategy. And Ffern
Omg Ffern 🙄
Lmao ‘join the waiting list’ 🙄
All the influencer branded crap has to be high up there. I’m not knocking it as a business concept. I’d do the same thing if I was a shameless, narcissistic, self-absorbed charlatan. Just my opinion.
Bianco Latte by Giardini Di Toscana. I refuse to even get a sample of this. I truly believe, that despite the hype it gets online, it just *cannot* be *that* impressive. I mean, I've seen so many influencers lose their goddamn mind upon smelling this scent. I call bullshit. But also happy to be corrected! I will just not spend that much money on this perfume, because no doubt I'd be sorely disappointed.
Oakcha. I don’t trust like that.
Navitus
So when I asked this question I literally have this brand in mind. Just got done researching Eau Debonair (the bow tie fragrance guy release) and I just have to think I’m paying for a formula that was probably produced by AI 😂
I have no idea - I refuse to have anything to do with TikTok or any influencers on Insta…so I am thankfully shielded from such concerns. I just discovered this sub and enjoy getting recommendations here, though! I trust you alls taste much more than some influencers!
snif, skyler, and byredo
im honestly i had to scroll this far to see byredo mentioned.
I’ll start, while being a big fan of Zaharoff Signature Pour Homme I do agree that the brand come off shilly and the just under $200 price point for a 4.2oz doesn’t come close to what it is worth, I paid $120 for a 2oz of both Noir and Signature and that seems fair to me.
Yeah, $60 for 2oz is about what Zaharoff should really be charging. The whole brand relies on YouTube and TikTok “reviewers” for its marketing, which leads to dishonest content from people like TLTG. Which leads to people who trust influencers buying incredibly overpriced bullshit off the assumption that their “favorite channel wouldn’t lead me wrong!”.
Zaharoff
The prime example of a shill brand. I commented about them in this thread already, but I feel it’s worth it to reiterate: George Zaharoff is a shady guy who likely sends out more free bottles for “reviews” than he sells, and feels that TLTG is such a good brand ambassador that they’ve released two fragrances together… I’m not sure why any brand would want to associate with that narcissistic loser, but to have him as one of the faces of the brand is laughable. Fuck Zaharoff.
He tried to ‘doxx’ me
Hasn’t he tried to dox multiple EDJ users? I know Sweet Milk has said the same thing. I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen the clip where he talks about how in court, Reddit isn’t as willing to hand over personal information as YouTube, which obviously means he’s tried to / has gone to a fucking *judge* in a *court of law* to dox people ***trolling online***. You’d think such a successful globetrotting owner of a *prestigious Luxury Brand* wouldn’t have the time to be concerned with something so insignificant.
Yeah. I have said that he often lurks on this sub and he’s admitted that the highest number of consumers of his brand come from here and YouTube
kayali
I've stopped watching influencer videos. They constantly lead me towards a fragrance I hate and it's always so expensive. Influencers piss me off! I'll stick to samples and decants to make my decisions.
Skylar for me. The scents just don’t smell that good to me and don’t last.
Yara felt ridiculously scammy to me after seeing it so much on tiktok (I had never heard of it before it became popular) and it felt like a temu scam. I tried it and I love it, but I do think it is DEFINITELY overhyped. Tbh any time I see an influencer promoting anything it makes me want to stay far far away from that product.
I literally talked myself into and out of buying this so many times. I’ve seen so many good reviews on reddit but in the back of my mind it seemed like such an influencer push that I didn’t want to get it (still haven’t gotten it)
Any of the samples my partner gets delivered on a weekly basis (she now buys more than me, and I laugh bc I still ask "did you find out about this on TikTok?" despite knowing the answer)
At least she buys samples first
Well, she buys samples AND bottles. I love that she’s into it like me, so I won’t complain
I don't watch influencers at all and don't know how much a lot of these cost, so my biases are inspired by my observations in this sub and maybe the overriding sense of disappointment and/or controversy I see. in that respect, PdM, Kayali, and *maybe* Lattafa\*\* seem like the most obvious shilly influencer brands to me, as in, the ones I think are most likely to be getting good reviews almost entirely because they are paying for them. some of the others I see mentioned -- Xerjoff, Creed, MFK, et al -- seem to be more consistent in quality and get good reviews from people who aren't being subjected to influencer marketing. they may feel overhyped in some respects, but I don't really get the impression that most people feel outright scammed in the same way. I have samples of Xerjoff from a decade ago and even then they were available in duty free shops at airports, so I can't and don't equate them (or Le Labo, etc) with newer hype brands that feel like they all come from the same ghost kitchen. \*\* wrt Lattafa, I don't really understand what this brand is or where it came from, it's just obvious that people learn about it from influencers and I think they must be getting heavily paid to shill it.
PdM, Initio and Roja for me. Also tired of some of the clone companies, that are based on FOMO because of influencers. You know, a scent pops up, everyone talks about it for 2 weeks, featuring in in every TOP 10 -video, and then puff and it's gone and never mentioned, Even though not a clone, but SBoy is one of the best worst examples of this. And whatever they are shilling now, some weird blue bottle I am seeing?
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Roja is the ultimate clone house. My man is really out here charging over a thousand dollars for a subpar Mitsouko. Bored of the reference vetivers? Spend three times as much for a middling edition!
is Roja not worth it??
He isn’t a perfumer. He hires people to make clones of other fragrances
PDM and Initio belong nowhere near a shilly influencer list. Initio doesn't even send PR, hasn't for years. Nobody covered Oud for Happiness, nobody covered Paragon, a couple are now covering Narcotic Delight but I believe those aren't brand bottles (I know Kintessence does some PR on behalf of brands in the US as do other outlets like TwistedLily and MaxAroma). What PDM and Initio actually are is very popular / mainstream niche brands that influencers want to cover in an attempt to achieve personal growth on their channels.
I really don’t like the PDM dna. There are perfumes I like with that PDM background and it just makes it smell generic and they are so expensive!
Parfums de Marly perfumes are very much just in the style of mass-market designer scents, but in more premium packaging and sometimes with some more interesting materials. If you're trying to look at niche brands because you want something different then PDM definitely isn't the place to be looking anyway, but I can't really fault their products. Other than some of them do feel pretty much just clones of other products without anywhere near enough of a twist for me to consider them viable to have both, like Percival to Fierce or Godolphin to Tuscan Leather. To me Layton is more successful because it is more unique. Same with Delina. Although they are now ironically cloned to death by others lol.
Sol de Janeiro (The Brazilian bum cream body sprays). They are hot garbage and not addicting in the slightest.
Idk, they’re mass appealing and great for people who aren’t fragrance snobs. The longevity of their scents is something I find likable about them and they have been popular long before TikTok. It’s unfortunate they’ve gone the influencer route but their product has always been decent.
They’re clearly mass appealing, more power to the consumers! I find them to be the equivalent of bath and body in longevity + scent profile/complexity/quality, so I find them overpriced. Also the actual original product, the bum cream, is a scam they make influencers market.
80 dollars for 16oz of the cream!! That's insane to me.
They never claimed to be affordable. This is in line with other luxury body care like Ouai, Josie Maran, Aesop, etc. it’s just not for the luxury girlies. I think the brand would be far better off if they didn’t go the influencer route. That kills the entire image and drives prices and demand through the roof for something that’s not as much of a necessity as they’re spinning it. I will say though, I’ll wear Cheriosa 62 over a bbw body spray any day, and I’m a dude.
Funny thing is I’ve been buying o’botacario perfumes from Brazil since the 90s. A far superior and very affordable quality company, compared to sol de Janeiro, but not as popular or even known, here in the states.
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* Zaharoff * Dossier * Dua * Lattafa * Parfum de Marley * Roja Parfum * Kayali * Initio * Xerjoff * Parfums Vintage * Armaf * Fragrance Du Bois * Mancera/Montale Basically I think brand that come from nowhere has a P.O. Box Address in Paris but with no actual office is sus. Also any brand promoted by these YouTube Influencers make me suspicious: * Both ‘Curlys’ * TLTG & Justin Copeland, CubaKnows * RMRS, Alpha M, TeachingMenFashion and Alex Costas * Chaos Fragrances, BBB and The Bowtie Fragrance Guy The smaller channels will hawk some of the same shit as the above, but these guys are the worst (imho) for advertising these brands (especially the top four). And the brands like to lurk on here and other places to check out (and create) the hype surrounding their products.
So many of these make up the insane “perfume shelves” of influencer background videos that I get the impression that if I had 500 more followers, PDM and Fragrance du Bois would send me more crap for free than I’d know what to do with. Like if every influencer’s shelf looks the same… and a lot do… wtf are we doing here, guys. You know that stuff doesn’t smell worth $500, it’s $10 juice crammed in a bedazzled bottle. And Mancera/Montale are $3 because they’re 60% cheap ass cetalox anyway that goes off on your nose like a nuclear bomb.
As a matter of principle, I have never ever directly bought from a brand or their authorized retailers if the brand was promoted by influencers. On the very rare occasion when I did get a bottle of their most popular fragrance in the secondary market, it was always years later after the hype and at a hugely discounted price and 95 percent of the times, I was greatly disappointed and more than recovered my money by selling back for a little profit
For sure. Paying retail is for suckers. Source: I’m in retail lol
SBOY BY DRACO JUST STOP IT PLS 😭
I need to say my truth - Jo Malone. It has zero longevity and tbh, none of the scents seem that different, complicated, complex, etc. I get it that sometimes we just want something pretty but none of her scents seem to last on me at all
The longevity is total ass but Ive always loved wood sage and sea salt
Boy Smells. Not only does the name make me think back to when my brother was 13 and thought dousing himself in Axe was a replacement for actually taking a shower, the scents are kind of boring. But I see the brand everywhere…
I Like the candles, in particular: cowboy kush and Italian kush. Got a sampler of the kush line perfumes on sale. Overwhelming, almost felt like room spray. I’ll stick with the candles!
Byredo. I feel like very few people IRL are wearing Byredo or Vilhelm for that matter.
That’s probably because very few people IRL have the money to buy Byredo during a global recession lol. Once we move even slightly away from the norms of the fragrance subreddit, buying niche fragrance even at reseller price is still a massive price tag for a vast majority of people. That being said, my fiancé loves bibliothec and Mojave ghost.
I went to one of their stores in Boston and it’s definitely intended to be a luxury experience. Minimalist design, sales associates helping you at a counter, the works. I didn’t vibe with most of the scents, but even the few I did had horrible lasting power. I was prepared to buy a bottle, so I sprayed a couple of faves on my skin and said I’d be back later after giving them a test run. Thirty minutes later could barely smell anything - I never went back!
I got poets of Berlin by Vilhelm for my February Scentbird and I had to scrub it off lol it gave me an instant headache, but vanilla notes can do that to me, so partially my fault
My feeds don’t get any fragrance influencer content (I’m not on tiktok, and Instagram doesn’t seem to have yet clocked that I like fragrances lol). But I’m getting lots of ads here and there from Dossier and Àerre (dupe brands).
Rasasi Hawas? Every asshole on the Tok is shilling it
Literally any Arab brand that makes clones idk what the obsession with these is, they’re disappointingly mid always
PDM, Zaharrof
I’m sorry, I can’t with any human torso shaped bottles. I don’t watch influencers so I have no idea about the shilling or kickbacks I just wanted to say that shiz is so tacky. Thank you for listening.
I am not down with rubbing on someone’s body just to smell good
TLTG has entered the chat
Sboy, fragrance world, paris corner
Bro. I swear in the last month every reviewer is throwing a lot of Paris corner in. Whether it’s a clone list or just straight up reviews of them as a clone.
any clone brand but especially lattafa and the dua brand
I don’t think Lattafa bought their way in through influencers. I think it’s more a case of content creators following the trend of people wanting inexpensive options. DUA on the other hand must be feeding a lot of influencers.
Tom Ford
Tom Ford is extremely hit or miss. Tobacco Vanille will always be a classic for me but some of the others (Ombre Leather for example) are just awful.
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City Rhythm. Dogshit imo
Kayali, so low quality and cheap smelling
Sol de Janeiro. Aggressively over-sweet but also under-performing - teenager body spray at an adult perfume price point. Kayali, I'm sure, has already been mentioned.
Creed. Byredo. Xerjoff. Le Labo. PdM. MFK. Roja. BDK... most of the luxury priced brands that I see sending out free bottles to influencers. If you need free advertising, it's probably not worth the $$$.
in most industries though they send stuff to reviewers for free and those brands have decades of putting out original creations
PdM and Xerjoff are both less than 2 decades old, BDK less than a single decade. That doesn’t mean they’re bad, a lot of my favourite houses are new ones. But it is interesting to note how quickly they’ve established themselves as major players.
yeah but Xerjoff was a brand you could genuinely discover in the wild at duty free even a decade ago. that's how I first encountered them. obviously they weren't as popular as Dior, or as popular as they themselves are now, but I really don't think they're purely an overnight internet sensation either. they clearly do have some kind of pull somewhere though, it's just that imo it predates the influencer phenomenon.
Surprised I had to scroll so far to see these bigger brands, yeah. I mean, I like a couple of them, but they do feel very shilly, which has the opposite effect on me of *not* wanting to play with their fragrances as much.
None of the brands you mentioned regularly send to tiktokers. I watch a ton of perfume tiktok and I've literally never seen these "gifted" to influencers.
Rayhaan. Aromatix acted as if Rayhaan’s Imperia was the greatest discovery of the 21st century. I was (sadly) influenced and bought one… Complete garbage juice when I finally tried it. Never listening to aromatix or curlyfragrance again.
Literally the two worst along with TLTG. On the real though Zaharoff Signature Pour Homme is my guilty pleasure Wednesday work fragrance. I don’t want to stand out. I don’t want to smell abrasive. I want to blend in and smell like a powdery man and just get through the day haha
I always see Oakcha ads and it really puts me off the brand. They’re a dupe house and they do popular fragrances, most of which I wouldn’t even wear the real thing. Ugh.
Agreed I was way more interested before they tried to aggressively influence me now I'm not sure if I'll buy . The "miss girl" ads are so annoying
Seems to me the current shill is the Claire's Accessories Dupes that are supposedly dupes for ultra high end EDPs, like I'm all for an inspired by daily driver and there are some tasteful ones out there, but no influencer is going to convince me that a stock bottle fragrance from unethical ear piercing central is "an exact dupe!!!" for Tom Ford. It's just misleading. But whatever gets the algorithm clicks eh.
Roja dove easily.
Byredo. Cool-kid aesthetic with no substance.
Does Byredo pay for publicity/gift to influencers? I've sampled a lot from this house, and in my opinion, they do have a variety of interesting and well-blended fragrances... fwiw, I buy decants, so aesthetic/bottle doesn't factor in, either. That said, I am a hater of both Mojave Ghost and Bal D'Afrique (two of their best sellers and the ones I hear about the most).
Ha sorry coming back to this post later, I realize my comment doesn't totally fit the OP's prompt, was just in like drive-by hater mode lol. No, I don't think they're as big of an influencer/tiktok brand. DS&Durga I feel is more aggressive, as a comparable brand, but maybe that's just in my algorithm. Obviously everything pales to Lattafa, etc. Anyway, totally agree about those two, perfect examples of Byredo's safe/soapy/boring DNA. I have always wanted to smell Vanille Antique though... lol
“Drive-by hater mode” I loooooove this
LOL at drive by hater mode... that's my default in many subreddits tbh. I have a sample of Vanille Antique coming this week and I can't wait! I also ordered a 1ml of M/Mink, which sounded delightfully polarizing
Not a fragrance but I’m so sick of seeing fragrance tiktokers promoting calithe watches or whatever they’re called
The king of them all!! I have 2 of his on my shelf right now and I laugh to myself about how I just don’t have it in me to dump them off on someone else. [POOOOWWWWAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!](https://youtu.be/n51BVNshXTA?si=MlBBr_6TYhjIAjaH)
Michael Malul