I like to relax in the evenings with some skincare / makeup / fashion YouTube, and if you spend much time on that kind of content, they’re often gushing about Phlur, which makes fragrance (plus the same scents in hair/body mist, lotion, deodorant, and I think candles). I was Phlur-curious, and we have a better-than-nothing Sephora outpost in our Kohl’s, so off Carolyn and I went for some retail therapy.
Phlur works with (and credits) respected perfumers including Clement Gavarry and Frank Voelkl on their website, so there’s hope, you know? Thoughts, in no particular order, on some of the fragrances we sampled from the line.
Missing Person is a skin musk. I don’t know that I would love it on its own, but it’s a wonderful layering scent. Carolyn has it in the body lotion. I’m greased up with Hawaiian Tropic this time of year, but I may revisit in the winter.
Vanilla Skin – I think this is one of their most popular scents? For what it is, it is perfect. It’s the sort of thing you can spritz on without too much thought and head out the door. It’s an aura scent – not overpowering but definitely radiating delicately around you (or me, at least) for most of a day. Clean skin musk and vanilla. Carolyn swears by the Vanilla Skin deodorant (also a popular product).
Father Figure is a fig, ostensibly (get it? Fig-ure?) but not figgy enough for me. Smells fine, more musk than anything, nothing I need.
Vanilla Smoke, Vanilla Nectar – variants of Vanilla Skin, I think they’re also sold in a small-bottle set on the Phlur website so like Pokemon you can collect them all. Yes, they’re different, in the way you’d expect (Vanilla Smoke is, you guessed it, smoky; Nectar has notes of papaya, apricot and pomelo if you like that sort of thing) but I’ve got other things I like better.
The Phlur website sells a wider array of options than regular Sephora, plus $39 sample sets which I think include most of the line, plus various other product combos in smaller sizes, which I appreciate. By fragrance standards they are fairly inexpensive, $99 for 50ml of fragrance, $32 for travel size, and only $25 for the body mist, plus their website does bundles. The packaging is simple, with clean lines, and the bottles are nice in the hand and don’t feel cheap. Their vibe is nothing too complex, wearable, user-friendly without being insipid, and hey — there are worse concepts in the market.
Sometimes I just want to smell nice, and I liked these enough to buy two of them (Vanilla Skin plus one I’ll likely talk about in another post.) Have you tried any in the line?
cover image: Angela Roma via Pexels, bottle images from Phlur website
I have the Vanilla Smoke body spray. It hits the spot, not too sweet vanilla with just enough smoke for interest. Smelling like a bbq or bonfire is not my thing.
I didn’t know Missing Person came in a body lotion! I have the travel size perfume and its nice enough, but there are woody, musky scents I like better. But a lotion would be great for layering – so thank you!
I like the idea of a pleasant smelling, more affordable line of scents that appeals to the masses. Vanilla, however, is not my thing. (This summer I bought a Pacifica hairspray that smelled like vanilla cupcakes so strongly — into the trash it went! I couldn’t stomach it.) The Father Figure one might be good. Love fig scents.
I love fig scents too! So, Vanilla Skin might not be for you AT ALL but next time you’re in Sephora you might give them a sniff if so inclined, I think the notes are listed on the bottles. I didn’t smell any of them and think “wow, that’s terrible / insipid.”
The only Phlur I DON’T like is Caramel Skin – there’s a… rancid (?) note that gets in my soft palate and lingers… ew.
All the others I absolutely love because they are exactly as you’ve described
Except Figgy… which I haven’t tried
https://www.nylon.com/fashion/jeremy-scott-making-the-cut-season-2-moschino-nyfw-2021-met-gala
( hoping it’s the right link – doing this on my phone so….)
Well isn’t he fabulous!
My future husband!
Oh that caramel! Also gets stuck in my throat. Forgot about that one hahahaha. But caramel in fragrance in GENERAL reads that way to/on me.
Caramel in fragrance does the same to me. Gak!
I tried a sample set from them when they first came out and came in opaque square bottles, prior to the rebrand. I think the fog scent is a Cary over from their original line up. I had a bottle of it but actually have a Body Shop fig scent that I prefer so ended up letting it go some time ago. I’ve smelled the rebrand but nothing quite caught my attention.
I hadn’t smelled them previously, totally off my radar. I do notice they’ve discontinued a couple of scents (presumably the poor sellers) and replaced them. But overall I was happy to have tried the line.
No Sephora nearby. We have a spaceNK for fancy and offbeat brands. And its perfume corner (quite literally the back corner) is slowly expanding.
Ah, influencers. My favourite YouTube videos are by a woman whose blog is named Grown. She’s in Japan, has wonderful taste, travels a lot, and is just so much fun to watch.
Oooh, I will check her out — I love videos like that. YouTube is my short form entertainment, not the chaotic Tik Tok energy.
Funny, I was just in Sephora killing time and kind of looked at some of these. They were nice but didn’t do anything much for me. I think I like Vanilla to be a bit more pronounced than these. Subtlety and I aren’t pals,
Oh, c’mon!!! You are QUING of subtle
( at least compared to the Moschino CD on Making the Cut – I don’t think I could’ve loved him more than when he came out in a bepearled white suit for Bridal Week)
hehehehe
I think your cheap n cheerful tends to be more in the cologne direction — and/or something bigger. These don’t seem like you at all, do they?
Phlur sounded familiar. Then when you said Vanilla Skin was it’s popular one, I remembered. That’s the one I heard about and was curious about. Now speaking about influenced, I really do want to try it. I love nice and easy spritz and go fragrances. I’ll wait until you talk about the other one though.
I think the line is definitely worth sniffing, even if you don’t loooooove any of them. And I’m a huge fan of their decision to make travel sizes / body mist.