C'EST NE PAS A REVIEW: Why we can't review fragrances, a quick Mea Culpa and how we'll be presenting fragrances on the Blog

pic collage made by us featuring Simpsons' Critic, Sanchez and Turin's Guide, Chapman's book Perfume, 4711 cologne, Chanel n.5 and Polo Green

Let us start with a quick necessary mea culpa: we had a section called "Reviews" with one article out, and it has now changed in "C'est ne pas Un Review". Explenations on the name change below.

WHY? Because we don't feel comfortable with the term in our particular circumstances. Neither of us two has an adjacent training to review objectively fragrances. Didi completed some studies in phytochemistry and worked for the industry in the field of raw materials cultivation, and Reggie has an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences (for people interested in perfumery this degree title might be misleading, but it's a four year bachelor in physics, chemistry, biology and philosophy of science), but we are still not trained to break down a fragrance composition or describe it without biased or personal inflations.

...SO, WHAT NOW? It's been lovely to hear that our opinions on fragrances are valuable and enjoyed from our readers. Fragrances are not the first interest to shape our friendship, but they clearly weighted on the creation of the blog. We would love to still provide some personal insights of our experiences with singular fragrances, and plan to write about them and draught an alphabetical list of the ones we own or tested properly. But please, keep in mind this is rather a useful exercise for us than actually helpful for the readers: fragrances are subjective only to a certain level, and for this reason we recommend checking for accurate and objective reviews only trained professionals like Bois de Jasmin (we are working to add more useful resources also on the terms of professional/trained reviewers, so if you know any, please contact us and we'll add their blog/contact info and links!).

On the matter of Tania Sanchez and Luca Turin's work we'd like to spend few words too and will soon add an article on the importance of their guides (and if they're still useful) in 2021.

We hope this can add more clarifications on how we'll be operating in regards to featuring frangrances. We are also going to add soon some useful resources on perfumery  education and tips. You can find below in more details how we'll write about singular fragrances, but we also want to clarify that if you find a youtuber or influencer self-proclaiming themselves as "fragrance reviewers", while you might have some mixed emotions on such entitlements, their possible lack of education or training does not authorize you to bully or being rude to them. We encourage to approach fragrance reviewing always with some disclaimers on the education/training one has (amateur, trained nose/chemist/dermatologist/writer/editor etc.), not because we believe titles are important, but they allow the reader or spectator to engage more honestly with the content.

WHAT TYPE OF FRAGRANCES WILL BE FEATURED IN THE OUTLINE?  We mostly focus on artistic fragrances. This does not mean we do not use or feature commercial and mainstream products too. When possible, we also try to offer an insight on indipedent perfumery. Our list is in costant expansion, so it might happen we forgot to add a brand when you are checking, but some are deliberately left out because we do not support them (please check our code of ethics in order to understand how we select the brands to support economically).

OUR PROCESS OF SELECTING FRAGRANCES, TESTING AND WRITING: It's important we are aware as possible of brands' ethics and transparencies first. We tend to highlight and review products we enjoy, but occasionally it might happen that we add some more inconclusive or disappointed considerations to a review. Our aim is to be not exaggeratedly harsh; what we often as consumer or amateur reviewer don't realize is that usually, original products in order to appear on the market, must pass different testings and evaluations. Those processes take months and many different professional figures behind the final product. This clearly means that there is a reason if a scent has a certain persistency or olfactive pyramid. We always state the nose behind the scent, the officially stated olfactive pyramid on the brands' websites, and if the notes are not officially listed, we try to avoid any "guess who". In order to have some conclusive opinions on a juice, it usually take us at least a month to write down some more accurate feelings on the particular scent in question. We usually sample first and than consider if the product is worth a full bottle purchase.

RATING SYSTEM YES OR NO?: We decided to not use a rating system as we find it too generalizable, inconclusive and limitative. A lot of fragrance influencers or reviewers use the 5 star system, but we prefer focusing on the peculiarities of the singular frangrance. Some fragrances will undoubtviously be compared, and if they have extreme similarities and are made by the same nose, they will be compared in our column "On The Ring".

OUR LIST: Is 1. intentionally not gendered and 2. in alphabetical order by brands. If a fragrance was already covered, it will be easily accesible by clicking on its name. Some fragrance outlines will be more intimate and personal as they carry a special meaning for us. 

NOTA BENE: We are currently writing down our fragrance archives and collections so the list will be out soon.