Scents and Selkie

I had been hearing whispers about indie perfume house Fantôme for a while, and recently I decided to order a few samples and try for myself. Y’all, Fantôme is absolutely incredible and absolutely lives up to the hype. The way they tell stories with scents, I cannot get over the photorealism of some of these highly specific smells and the way they are crafted in order to immediately transport you to a specific moment or location. Plus, aren’t these bottles absolutely divine??

I ordered three samples:

Ectoplasm — “Spooky, goopy marshmallow over bone-chilling white musk, sweet amber, a gossamer sugar glaze, dark myrrh, and creeping greenery.”

The Fox Sisters — “Spiced cardamom cake with orange zest and candied red currants, caramel cream, dragon’s blood resin, and flecks of vanilla bean.”

Kensington — “Earl Grey tea, cashmere, dark vanilla bean, smooth cedar, dried rose petals, mandarin zest, pink peppercorn, and a burst of fresh bergamot.”

I admit, I was skeptical about all of these when I ordered them. I’m usually disappointed when I read scent descriptions and then smell the actual thing, they never smell like how I picture they will. However, these all smell exactly as described. I loved them all, they are so beautiful, unique, and complex. But unfortunately for me, while I love lots of scents I am incredibly picky about the scents that I like to wear. None of these are quite right for me for wearing all the time, but I am absolutely going to order a few more samples soon.

I’m so fascinated by the psychology of scent, in another life I would have loved to pursue a career like Azzi Glasser, who creates custom scents for actors to help them get in the proper headspace to portray a specific character. I also know a lot of writers use scents as well to help them lock into their writing. As I was smelling these Fantôme samples, I 100% could see writers, artists, and other creatives especially gravitate to these to inspire and connect them with their work because of how creative and realistic these scent profiles are.

Selkie recently teased some pieces from their upcoming Fall 2025 collection and I am absolutely SCREAMING over this black and white striped Katrina van Tassel inspired gown of my dreams. The bows and the ruffles are so scrumptious, but my absolute favorite part, naturally, is the giant bustles.

I already own a Katrina dress that I LOVE and wear whenever I get the chance, but I also feel like every goth babe needs both a regular and a ✨fancy✨ black and white striped dress.

Because Hideo Kojima never sleeps I guess, he’s coming out with yet another game, and I’m a big fan of whatever this is.

I’ve mentioned this one before, but if you recently canceled Hulu and or Disney+ consider sending that money to your local PBS station instead. If you donate at least $5 a month, you get access to the PBS streaming service PBS Passport.