If you're shopping for new perfume this season, you're probably encountering all kinds of high-concept, OTT, unorthodox concoctions. Have you heard about the perfume that smells of instant film and ink? How about the one that smells like milk and blood?
Yeah, perfume marketing is as effin' loony as ever. But not all the new perfumes are so crazily complex.
Consider the new crop of minimalist perfumes that are in vogue. Sometimes called skin scents, these perfumes contain relatively few notes (typically warm or animalistic ones such as musk, jasmine and amber) and have little or no alcohol, creating low sillage.
These new perfumes don't radically change your natural scent, they simply enhance it, and they're noticeable to others only up-close. Think of them as the tinted lip balms of fragrance: They make you smell like you, but prettier.
Click ahead to see our nine favorite your-scent-but-better perfumes right now.
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Riddle Scented Oil Original, $19.95-$85
Riddle's line of subtle perfume oils includes 11 different blends, but this is the brand's best-selling scent, a cocktail of musks and amber resins. Because it's composed of only base notes, Original smells as warm and clean when you put it on as it does at the end of the day; in other words, what you smell is what you get.
Like Riddle's Original, Glossier's first perfume doesn't have any middle notes. It's a mix of three base notes -- ambrette, ambrox and musk -- with a spicy sprinkle of top notes (iris root and pink pepper, specifically). The result is sexy but not overpowering, fresh but also familiar.
This exotic blend of jasmine, sandalwood and cardamom is a little beachy and spicy; because it's an oil, it easily sinks into skin, melding with your own fragrance. Anyone who gets a whiff of you will think you're just one of those supernatural creatures who always smell good.
Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb Twist Layering Oils, $69 each
Viktor & Rolf's new layering perfume oils -- which include Jasmine, Musk and Rose -- were designed to be paired with the house's Flowerbomb perfume. TBH, we love wearing these one-note oils by themselves or cocktailed together. (Jasmine and musk are a classic, low-key pair.)
