Perfume Review: Smell Bent One

By Unknown

Purchased

Smell Bent is an LA-based perfume company I first became aware of from random freebies thrown in with perfume swaps I had done. I would say it's aligned more with the niche fragonerd perfume world than with the indie perfume oil world, and has been written up in a number of high-profile mainstream fashion publications like Vogue, Lucky, and WWD. One is a perfume that was created for their first anniversary in 2010... and not to be confused with One or The One.

Price: The following sizes are available:

• 4 mL EDT spray for $6.50
• 5 mL perfume oil roll-on for $15
• 8 mL perfume oil for $20
• 50 mL EDT for $45

I own the 4 mL EDT travel spray.

Samples: Available for $3.75.
Shipping: Domestic shipping starts at $3.50 and international shipping starts at $5.50. Free domestic shipping on orders over $75.
Description from the website:
"aging paperbacks buried under cardamom, dark vanilla, dry wood and sweet musk"

My thoughts:
(Please read through this review, and then read through it again in the voice of the Queen of England.)

One goes onto the skin quite spicy, with a fairly dry cardamom and wood overtone, but quickly mellows out to something much sweeter, a creamy and ever-so-slightly fizzy-smelling vanilla bean note.

One smells pretty delicious when wafting by, but I get an interesting dusty-musty bitterness on the back of my tongue from the paper note if I smell One too closely.

One has a comforting wool-sweater and used-bookstore coziness; depending on which way I think about it, I get a warm, creamy, cardamom-infused chai latte; or a moldering old book with yellow, crumbling pages; or unlit cigars, redolent of moist, toasty tobacco; or drinking Calpico in a woodshop.

There is a certain fizzy brightness to the top notes and that dry, woodsy, papery bitterness I mentioned, and these take the edge off the vanilla-milkshake sweetness at the heart of the scent.

I always think of One as a book perfume when I'm mentally categorizing it in my collection, but every time I wear it, I'm reminded that it's actually much more of a milky vanilla chai tea scent than a straight-up paper scent. For me, One lacks the verisimilitude of BPAL's Burning Book, but captures a certain rainy-day nostalgia for afternoons spent reading in coffeeshops in the days before the constant, shiny distraction of smartphones: zeitgeist more than detail.

EauMG has a great review of this scent as well, as does Muse in Wooden Shoes.

Note: Smell Bent does not offer information on the site on the vegan status of all their perfumes, but they do offer to provide the information if you contact them.