I know, I know, it’s a juvenile joke, but I couldn’t help myself. I came across an ad for Mischief Academy perfumes on Instagram and decided to discuss their names and the concept with you.

Sunday Question #296:

Would You Like To Smell Like Poo[h]?

Perfumers Anh Ngo, Luis Hou and George Tedder created perfumes for “The Fairy Tales” collection:

• Winnie the Pooh (Honey, Beeswax, Bergamot, Lemon, Lavender, Clary Sage, Vanilla, Tonka Bean),
• The Little Mermaid (Pink Champagne, Lilac, Sea Salt, Ocean, Lemon Zest, Seaweed),
• The Mad Hatter (Cognac, Rum, Toffee, Condensed Milk, Butter, Leather, Black Tea, Saffron),
• The Cursed Apple (Red Apple, Poison (Bitter Accord), Rose, Violet, Lipstick, Wild Berries),
• Hansel & Gretel (Gingerbread Cookies, Hot Chocolate, Rum, Cinnamon, Clove, Tonka Bean, Vanilla),
• Pinocchio (Palo Santo, Sandalwood, Peach, Saffron, Vetiver, Cedarwood),
• The Jungle Book (Forest Foliage, Fig Fruit, Pear, Muguet, Amber, Sandalwood, Cedarwood).

Do any of these names or notes sound interesting to you? Would you want to wear one of those (provided you liked the scent)?

My Answer

The names aside, what caught my attention was the brand behind them.

Mischief Academy, a new brand created in 2025, is one of hundreds that appear every year. It positions itself as a US-based brand (with the main address in San Francisco), but its parent company is from Vietnam. The same parent company has another perfume brand, d’Annam, which is slightly “older” (from 2023), and its portfolio holds already 25 perfumes. Two out of the three noses who created The Fairy Tales collection authored most of d’Annam’s perfumes.

d’Annam started with a Vietnamese collection, positioning itself as a Vietnamese brand. Soon after their first collection, they shifted their focus to Japan, expanding the brand’s scope to “Asian cultures.” Now we have this new brand experimenting with well-known Western fairy tales, clearly appealing to our “inner child.” For me, it feels like a pure marketing experiment without any substance, history or inspiration behind it.

But beyond all these considerations, in my opinion, perfumes for grown-ups should not be called any of those names (and perfumes for kids, even if we were to agree that something like that should exist, should not cost $120 for a 50 ml bottle). Looking back on my life, I can’t imagine any age beyond 12 years old at which I could see myself in the following dialogue:

– Mmm, you smell wonderful. What is it?
– Oh, thank you! It’s Winnie the Pooh.

How about you?

Would You Like To Smell Like Poo[h]?

My living space is almost back to normal after the flooding accident a month ago, and I’m back with a Saturday Question.

Saturday Question #294:

What Is Your Favorite Amouage Perfume?

Have you tried their newer collections (The Odyssey or The Essences)? What do you think about the new bottles for The Essences collection? Do you follow the brand’s new releases?

My Answer

It has been several decades since I’ve done (or even closely witnessed) any home remodeling. Now I have validation of all my fears about that and reluctance to entertain any serious work where I live. It proved to be quite disruptive, even though all the crews that worked on addressing the consequences of the unfortunate fire sprinkler incident were very fast and professional. But as I said, it’s almost over, and I started feeling more inclined to get back to less serious undertakings, such as blogging or testing perfumes.

Historically, Amouage was one of my “Top 5 Favorite Brands”, and when answering the SQ question “An Ambassador of What Brand Would You Like to be?”, I chose that brand as my #1 contender, which says a lot about how I feel about their perfumes. It also wouldn’t be hard for me to name my most favorite Amouage perfume, since Ubar (sadly discontinued) is one of my top 3 all-time favorites. But I can easily name another 5 that I enjoy wearing.

All of my Amouage “loves” belong to their Main Collection. The only two perfumes from later-released collections that I wear are Love Mimosa (The Secret Garden Collection) and Guidance (The Odyssey Collection). I don’t think I’ll ever need more of the former once my decant is gone, but I would love to add the latter to my collection eventually (even though I don’t need any more FBs).

I haven’t seen a bottle from The Essence Collection in RL yet, but I like how they look online, and I’m waiting for a couple of samples from that collection in my recent Luckyscent order, hoping both to like and not to like those perfumes, since $475 still feels like an insane price for a single bottle (especially given the size of my collection).

How about you?

What Is Your Favorite Amouage Perfume?

Stressful situations are an unavoidable part of life – whether they come from work, travel, health issues or everyday logistics. While perfume obviously can’t fix any of those problems, many of us still reach for certain scents when we want a bit of comfort, distraction or a small boost of confidence.

Saturday Question #293:

What Perfumes Do You Reach for When Dealing With a Stressful Situation?

Do you have some particular perfumes? Or is it a type of scents that you choose? Or does it not affect your choice?

My Answer

It’s not a theoretical question for me: because of a recent mishap with the fire sprinklers in a neighboring condo, we ended up with water damage in ours. Since that happened, I’ve been dealing with insurance adjusters, contractors and estimates, and preparing for the upcoming demolition (they constantly use that word!) of some of the walls and flooring.

None of this is dramatic in the grand scheme of things (at least yet), but it does involve a lot of phone calls, paperwork, waiting and generally feeling that things are a little out of your control. Plus, extremely loud fans running for 14+ hours per day.

So when my morning starts, I ask myself: “What do you feel like wearing?” And, surprisingly, after a couple of days, I realized that I was craving lavender. My “go-to” perfumes recently have been Serge Lutens Gris Clair, Guerlain Jicky (both EdP and extrait) and Parfums de Marly Darley – but I suspect I’ll go through more lavender-heavy perfumes before this ordeal is behind us.

How about you?

What Perfumes Do You Reach for When Dealing With a Stressful Situation?

With shelves already full of niche bottles and cherished vintages (and with the market constantly flooded by new releases that often feel more prolific than original), it’s easy to lose interest in what’s happening in mainstream perfumery… Until one day you walk through a department store, pass a duty-free counter, or receive a sample with a purchase – and you just have to try it!

Saturday Question #291:

What Was the Last Mainstream Perfume You Tried?

Was it something you sought out intentionally, or did you just happen to come across it? Did you like it? Would you consider wearing it?

My Answer

I received a sample of Burberry Her Elixir de Parfum with a Sephora order. I didn’t request that sample, they just sent it instead of some beauty packet I chose during the checkout. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have probably even notice it in the store. But since it was already there, I tested it. Twice. I didn’t like it. It’s cloyingly sweet in the opening, plasticky-fruity, quite artificial and not particularly tenacious… though that might not be a bad thing in this case. I wouldn’t want to wear it, but as a skin scent, it becomes tolerable about 90 minutes into its development. I wouldn’t mind a shower gel with that faint residual vanilla+sandalwood combo.

How about you?

What Was the Last Mainstream Perfume You Tried?

I missed you all. I hope you had great holidays and are successfully fighting off post-holiday blues. Holidays went by too quickly! We’re in denial and not ready to let our Christmas trees go. Historically, both back in my native country and later when we moved to the U.S., we would keep decorations until January 14, the Old New Year (aka Orthodox New Year). So, on the January 15 evening, for the first time since December, I didn’t turn on the lights on the tree in the living room, thinking that I would remove decorations over the weekend, … looked for a while at the unusually dark space where I used to see those festive lights… and turned them back on. And later that evening, I also turned on the lights on my small tree in the bedroom. And then I remembered coming across an interesting post on Instagram that explained why we should keep our decorations until February 2, Candlemas. It’s decided now! I’ll keep them up until Groundhog Day!

But now back to regular programming. A Saturday Question.

Saturday Question #288:

Have You Ever Sold Any Perfumes?

If yes, where and how successfully? MUA? eBay? Craigslist? Poshmark? FB? Have you ever had any issues with that? Do you plan to sell anything in the future?

My Answer

I have absolutely no talent when it comes to selling. As I usually tell people when the topic comes up: “I wouldn’t have been able to sell anything if my life depended on it.” I’ll tell you more: I wasn’t able to sell anything when my life kind of depended on that. It was a lifetime ago, but at some point, in a bad economic situation of post-Soviet times, my vSO’s friend suggested that we pull together some funds, buy Indian Instant Coffee in bulk and sell it on our version of a flea market. Times were tough, and we needed money. It was a good plan. That coffee was quite popular back then. You could say that it was “the” coffee. Our price was the same as (if not better than) other sellers’ prices for identical items… (sigh) Luckily for us, we liked that coffee.

Moving continents and several decades, I did fine running a couple of splits; I barely managed several swaps; but nah, I still can’t sell anything for profit.

How about you?

Have You Ever Sold Any Perfumes?