Olfactif is a monthly perfume sampling subscription. Every month, you’ll receive a curated collection of three niche fragrances (2.25 mL for most, occasionally 1.75 mL) by perfume artists from around the world. You will also receive an $18 credit towards a full-sized purchase of one of the month’s featured fragrances. Olfactif offers a unisex collection and recently began offering a men’s collection as well.
My Subscription Addiction paid for this subscription box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
This review is of the Unisex Collection, $18 a month, box.
The Subscription Box: Olfactif
The Cost: $18 a month
COUPON: Receive 15% off your first collection by joining their mailing list (it was a pop-up when I went to the site).
The Products: Three 2.25 mL sample spray bottles from three fragrance artists from around the world.
Ships to: U.S.
Check out all of our Olfactif reviews and other great fragrance boxes in the Perfume Subscription Box Directory.
Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
Each Olfactif collection comes with a card detailing the month’s theme. This time, there was a little envelope with individual cards about the fragrances (you’ll see those below).
This month, for the first time, there were also little test strips for you to spray the fragrances on. This is useful (and way better than the ripped-up Post-It notes I was using before).
It’s important to note that fragrances may smell different when you wear them than when you spray them on a card or piece of paper. They may also smell different on different people due to individual body chemistries.
Also, the fragrances develop and change over time, with different notes becoming prominent. “Top” notes form your initial impression but evaporate within a few minutes, so you may still love a fragrance even if you are not fond of the top notes. “Middle” or “heart” notes emerge after you’ve been wearing the fragrance for a few minutes up to an hour. “Base” notes are large, heavy molecules that persist for a long time. They are often richer than the top or middle notes, although they may contribute to how you perceive the top and middle notes due to their interactions with the other fragrance components.
The collection also included an information card about this month’s theme and the notes in the individual fragrances that were sent. This month’s theme was “’Purple.”
All right, $400 a bottle for the full size. OF COURSE this would be my favorite one for the month. The top notes are not really my thing but after they wear off, this develops into something wonderful. In addition to lilac (which you can definitely detect), this has jasmine, rose, gardenia, peony, heliotrope, orris, cocoa bean, tonka, sandalwood, patchouli, and vanilla. I think what makes this work for me is all the notes I love (sandalwood, vanilla, etc.) in combination with the floral.
This one doesn’t make me think of the color mauve at all. To me, it is kind of masculine and a little musky (and makes me think of orange and teal, but that is just me, I guess…). Anyway, the notes are pretty simple here: tea leaves, fresh lavender, and oak. (To me, this isn’t a traditional lavender scent so it might work for people who don’t like plain lavender.)
I’m having a hard time putting into words what this reminds me of. It has a lot of notes I like and some florals I’m less fond of but that work in the overall blend. Notes include “coconut orchid” (coconut is not an orchid, but I digress), rose, jasmine, patchouli, rockrose, vanilla, tobacco, frankincense, and labdanum. I love tobacco in fragrance for some reason – it is nothing like actual cigarettes – and although frankincense is weird on its own, it works quite nicely in the blend here.
Verdict: This was a pretty good month from Olfactif. I really liked Lilac Love (now where am I going to get $400 for a bottle of that?) and enjoyed the complexity of the other two. This is a difficult time of year to come up with seasonal fragrances as there’s not much plant life thriving at the moment, but I think the “purple” theme is new and different. I wouldn’t mind seeing some other colors for themes in future collections.
What do you think of the January 2017 Olfactif collection? What was your favorite fragrance this month?
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