ELdO Like This by Tilda Swinton

Patty reviewed this one back in the day and had perhaps the best opening line in the history of blogging: “Tilda Swinton and the people who brought you sperm perfume – together at long last.” I actually went to the reception for this at ScentBar and met Ms. Swinton who is lovely and charming, and I received a small bottle of the scent, which I very much enjoyed. but for some reason never replaced when I emptied it. It showed up in my feed at one of the discounters, well, discounted so I thought “perfect for fall” and, well, fell. Looking back I can’t find that ever reviewed it, either, which shows a lack of industry on my part but in no way a lack of interest. I remember honestly really liking the scent and the time and have been wearing it rather heavily in this “fall” weather, even if that fall is only happening in my air-conditioned office.

The ELdO website describes it as “A cozy, tender and comfortable fragrance that has a ‘home’ feel to it. Spicy with notes of ginger, acidic with the yellow tangerine and sweet with the very unusual note of candied pumpkin” which is in a way a little misleading. You would think reading that this is some sort of pumpkin-spiced stunt, or something that would be sold at Yankee Candle or in the gift shop of some Southern-Fried restaurant. Not to say that it’s not cozy, tender, or homey, it’s just that there’s enough else going on with the spikey ginger, vetiver, and musk to balance any Starbucks resemblance. And the sweetness is from immortelle, which here doesn’t quite do the maple-syrup sweetness so much as it does the slightly threatening aura that the original AG Sables had in spades (and which I loved.)

in 2011 at the ScentBar reception. Miss Swinton is on the left.

Have you tried this one? Are there any other scents out there with pumpkin as a note? Discus in the comments.

Luckyscent sell this one only in the 100ML bottle for $170. Other online retailers have the smaller bottle for under $60. Surrender to Chance has samples. I purchased my bottle from one of those online retailer.

Images: My iPhone, and Pexels.

  • March says:

    Oh SO JEALOUS you got to meet her! I bet she’s as lovely in person as she is onscreen. Huge fan. Unfortunately, Like This just didn’t work on me somehow. It SHOULD work on me, and I wanted to love it. But as it dried down there was an odd … meatiness? to it that I couldn’t get past. Remember Kolnisch Juchten? Like This was like that 😀 just a tad.

    • Tom says:

      Yeah, it does have a touch of that fatty quality that KJ had (and how I wish I could score another bottle of that!)

      I picked that one up at the infamous Jaqueline Parfumerie in SF. And the owner (who was supposed to be an ogre) was so nice! Showed me others in the line, which I wish I had had the money for..

      And FU@$ wordpress for telling me my comments are spam! I wonder how many people would like to comment but just give up. I can at least log in as an admin..

  • Dina C. says:

    I still have an Itty bitty manufacturer sample of Like This from when it was first released. It’s an October scent to me if I remember to dig it out and dab it on each year. Thanks for the reminder, Tom!

  • Neva says:

    Great picture! Lucky you to have met this lovely lady.
    I really can’t think of the smell of pumpkin so to me this is a very abstract note. Usually they make it more like pumpkin pie, too sugary, as in the candles that you mention. But Like This is one of a kind. It’s not too sweet and kind of a mature scent, the perfect fall scent. I had a bottle, used it up some years ago and did not repurchase it. Maybe this is the sign I should go for it again. The price is okay for such a good perfume.

    • Tom says:

      It is hard to parse pumpkin. We’re so used to it paired with spices (like in pies or the now ubiquitous latte) that I don’t think we ever smell it on it’s own.

      But, I agree that is a great fall scent.

  • cinnamon says:

    Well, when I went looking (on Fragrantica) for perfumes with a pumpkin note etc there is a long list. Including something with the name Pumpkin Spice Latte. So, I guess it’s not as unusual as I (at least) would have expected.

    Love Tilda Swinton. She is such a strange bird in the best possible ways. Alas, I have not smelled this ELDO. But it goes on the list for when I’m next some place which stocks it.

    Happy October! I might do a Pumpkin spiced latte soon 🙂

    • Tom says:

      I have to admit that I don’t like pumpkin spiced lattes. At least the ones we get in the US are just sugar bombs. I do love a good pumpkin pie, or a pumpkin muffin though.

      TS is a phenomenal actor. She’s brilliant in most everything she does. She tore your heart out in “We Need To Talk About Kevin”

      • March says:

        oh lord that’s the only drink I ever returned to the Starbux counter. I ordered one to see what the fuss was about, and went back up and shamefacedly asked if I could have a regular coffee instead. Like drinking a Yankee Candle. (barista was kind and made me a regular latte instead)

        • Tom says:

          They are particularly awful. I don’t care for Starbuck’s usual triple half caf caf caf extra no foam lattes with vanilla and caramel drizzle nonsense. I no longer drink coffee, but if I did it would be a normal, New York-style regular.

  • Maya says:

    HA! Are you sure Miss Swinton is on the left? 🙂
    You make the perfume sound good, but at the same time pumpkin in perfume does not sound good to me. It doesn’t interest me enough to try it, though if I had a similar backstory to yours, I would definitely have tried it.