I haven’t had a cocktail since my birthday trip to New Orleans last June.
Mind you, I think I had enough of them at the time to last me through quite a few months. 🙂
(I only have to make it to early/mid March.)
I’m not a big drinker to start with anyway, so I don’t miss it much, but I do have to say…I kinda miss making friends with strangers at the bar. And, weirdly, I miss the smell of cocktails.
I know; weird. But I’ve always liked to do that — sniff drinks — because some of them smell really interesting, and I bet that my super-duper pregnancy nose, which is like my normally heightened sense of smell turned up, would pick up all kinds of complex cocktail fragrance layers.
Where am I going with this…?
Excellent question, LOL! Here we go: Commodity Fragrance. They’re a niche fragrance line, and my nose steered me toward their display recently at Sephora.
They have an interesting cocktail fragrance theme — but no, not literal cocktails, as in you’re walking to the mailbox smelling like a mojito. What you do is layer their individual scents together to create your own fragrance cocktails.
The layer-able scents are divided into two different fragrance families, which they call collections. There’s the Black Collection, which has the moodier, more intense fragrances (maybe a little more masculine), and the White Collection, which has the brighter, lighter, more airy and feminine fragrances, although both the Black and White Collections are marketed for women.
The name “Commodity Fragrances” refers to the individual scents and how they’re all named after everyday commodities, like rain and books and whiskey…although some of those aren’t actually commodities, so it’s more of an evocative, interpretive thing.
The scents don’t literally smell like the things for which they’re named, so you aren’t going to literally smell like whiskey or rain or a book (seriously, though, I wish the Book scent smelled like a book).
You can wear the scents “neat,” also known as “by themselves,” or you can layer them with one or more of the other scents to create your own cocktail, like the Elderflower cocktail, which is one part Book and one part Magnolia, or the Canopy cocktail, which is two parts Moss, one part Gold and one part Book.
Yeah, it’s gimmicky, but it’s kinda neat, yeah?
I’m particular about my fragrances, but I had a good time sniffing these. I like lots of different types of scents and perfumes, but I usually lean toward modern, clean scents that aren’t too fussy or stuffy. If you’ve worn any of the Byredo perfumes, I think they’re familiar to these, like vibe-wise. These have a similar sensibility.
They’re pretty pricey (the bottles are $99 each), and some of these cocktail ideas, like the ones with the three scents, I’m like, “Hmm… I like this combo, but I’m not about to spend $300 for three bottles in one swoop!” and so if you’re not about to do that either, they also sell smaller $24 travel sprays, so you can still mix your own fragrance cocktails.
I think the travel bottles are more cost effective (and they also have some better priced sampler kits). They are eau de parfums, so even the little bottles should last a while.
I didn’t bring any of them home from the store that day, but I’m contemplating going back… I like the idea and the individual scents. I combined Book and Magnolia on my wrists, and I kept smelling myself the rest of the afternoon. 🙂
Commodity Fragrance
The Black Collection
- Commodity Wool — Mandarin, Grapefruit, Apple, Basil, Ozone, Cedarwood, Lavandin, Armoise, Amber, Haitian Vetiver, Gray Musk and Bourbon Vanilla
- Commodity Moss — Ozone, Petitigrain, Italian Bergamot, Elemi, Eucalyptus, Oak Moss, Orange Blossom, Cashmere Woods, Cedarwood, Amber and White Musk
- Commodity Whiskey — Bergamot, Lemon, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Sage, Ivy, Dark Musk, Amber, Cinnamon, Mahogany and American Oak
- Commodity Gin — Bergamot, Watery Nuances, Eucalyptus, Jasmine, Blonde Woods, Leather, Patchouli, Sandalwood and Musk
- Commodity Book — Cucumber, Eucalyptus, Bergamot, Lavender, Amyris, Amber, Sandalwood, Haitian Vetiver, Balsa and Guaiac
The White Collection
- Commodity Magnolia — Water Lily, Dewy Greens, Pink Grapefruit, Eucalyptus, Magnolia, Ylang Ylang, White Violet, Rose Absolute, Caramel, Labdanum, Oak Moss and Musk
- Commodity Gold — Bergamot, Juniper Berries, Camphor, Amber, Haitian Vetiver, Benzoin, Sandalwood, Vanilla, Tonka Bean and Nubian Musk
- Commodity Mimosa — Blood Orange, Mandarin, Grapefruit, Black Pepper, Sheer Jasmine, Geranium, Tonka Bean, Heliotrope and Ylang Ylang
- Commodity Tea — Citrus Accord, Sicilian Lemon, Bergamot, Freesia, Muguet, Jasmine Sambac, Sandalwood and White Musk
- Commodity Rain — Italian Bergamot, Lemon Verbena, Jasmine, Freesia, Lotus Blossom, Water Musk, Sheer Woods and Vetiver
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
In a short week or so I will be able to test these out at a big Sephora, but until then I’ve been (not so patiently) waiting to sniff these since they launched! I’m a huge fragrance nut and this sort of creative layering and marketing is definitely speaking to me.
Hi Ashleigh,
Oh nice! Are you headed on vacation somewhere?
Hi Karen,
I’m spending the holidays in Minneapolis with my family. Our tradition is to go shopping at the Mall of America shortly before Christmas 🙂 That Sephora is the only one I’ve been to with a “full stock” of all the high end brands and niche perfumes they hold in their stores!
Have a great Friday!
Just fyi, I think that Demeter does make a book fragrance that smells pretty booky.
I’m just getting into higher end perfumes, so I don’t think I’m there, but these are cool
LOL, yeah, I smelled that one. I like the idea of it but don’t want to wear it, ya know?
If you’re interested in higher end scents also check out Byredo. They make some amazing fragrances, and not a lot of people wear them, which I think is cool.
While the idea sounds fun, but I wonder if you can really mix any scent with any other one. Each one already looks fairly complex with many different notes. Do they really all work together?
The combos I tried worked. I didn’t venture outside of the recommended recipes, though.
I’m totally drawn to gimmicky stuff like this, but then, like with Jo Malone fragrances, I always think that the whole concept of ‘layering scents’ is such a clever marketing ploy of making me spend money on two fragrances than on one alone. So I’ll likely proceed like I do with Jo Malone – I’ll buy an individual scent if I like it and leave it there. I’m also totally lazy and don’t want to do the perfumer’s work lol! 😉
You could also do a smaller rollerball for the days when you’re feeling like layering. That way you don’t have to invest in another bottle.
That’s a good idea! Thank you Karen! Do you use rollerballs often? I had one a long time ago and I always felt like the scent wasn’t as strong as when I used a spray bottle.
I like the thought of mixing my own fragrance, but I am very loyal to the ones I already own, so I rarely buy new ones.
I’m loyal to certain scents, too, but still fun to experiment. Who knows, you might find something you like even more!
Oh yeah, very neat indeed! I love how they came up with so many ‘recipes’! 🙂
SO neat!
I saw that display and wondered about it…. very interesting, I will check it out!
Yay!
I love the Moss scent, but I didn’t want to pay for the full size either so I just got the purse spray. I’ve been really curious about the Gold since it seems to be rated pretty high on Sephora’ s site.
This is an interesting idea. I haven’t seen it at my local Sephora, so I guess I’ll need to drive to either the one in Santana Row or to one in The City to try these. My favorite book/library scent is the original Bottega Veneta scent. It reminds me of libraries filled with books and light leather with the window open and a lovely freshness wafting in on the breeze. http://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Bottega-Veneta/Bottega-Veneta-12863.html
I was 100% sure that you and I would have the same reaction about Book (which was OMG! and then darn!, after finding out it didn’t actually smell like a book). Sounds like a fun idea, though, agreed on the pricey party. 🙂
It would be fun to play with all the scents at the store, but yeah…that’s a lot of money to plunk down in one go. Still, if one were a fragrance collector/afficianado, it would be appealing.
I tried the book one and loved it! So appropriate as I work with books.
I’ll have to test the Tea one too.