MissBiscuits

First smelled it off a magazine fold over or a peel off.

In the past, such samples in between pages of glossy ads always struck me as identical. With Love, Chloe, however, I experienced a moment of “just hold on, gotta take this name down.”

It does exactly what I look for in a perfume - which is to make you smell good rather than like a “perfume.” Soft and fresh, vaguely floral, and powdery but not like a baby, as if that is just how your skin smells naturally.

I was going to buy it but then got distracted . Fast forward several years - Chloe discontinued it!

I kept my eagle eyes peeled in the secondary market. I paid a mild fortune for a mini, but the scent is worth every penny.

Bought this "blind" after reading reviews and seeing that a bottle of 3.4oz was available for just $30. Some noted its similarity to Chanel No. 5 - I agree, except Arpege is smoother and softer and without the sting in the first spritz. I prefer Arpege! I have no idea what all the flowers are, but there is definitely the creaminess of vanilla.

A dear friend got it for me as a present with a birthday message. The year was 2017, and I was probably the only person not to have heard of Le Labo. It smelled amazing on me - not too sweet, not too spicy, not too woodsy, not too green, not too "anything," but a little bit of everything and somehow just glorious. While wearing it, I felt feminine, powerful, and mysterious all at the same time. When I told those who asked what I was wearing, they would often nod in recognition but add that it worked especially well for me. I should confess that most perfumes turn sweet on me, which is why I gravitate away from perfumes that smell sweet straight out of the bottle. The same thing happened here; my body chemistry elicited the sweet notes from Santal 33 that are otherwise not detectible from the bottle. I began storing the bottle in my fridge because I had read somewhere that cold temperature makes the perfumes last years longer. Every morning before leaving for work, I would grab the bottle from the condiment compartment of the fridge and spritz twice on my neck. One such morning, my less-than-a-month old bottle slipped off my fingers. The shards went everywhere as did the liquid. I have yet to recover from the tragic waste that was Santal-33 all over my kitchen floor. One day we will reunite.