Sometimes you just wanna smell like a beautiful woman!

Smell Ya Later

The hosts debate the concept of seasonalizing fragrances, ultimately arguing that while fall offers more olfactory depth and variety, personal preference should dictate year-round

Key takeaways

• Forever Mood's Not Your Type balances white suede, oud, and vanilla orchid into a wearable, non-abrasive profile that avoids tokenizing heavy base notes.
• Athena Club launches three limited-edition holiday scents: Sweet Talk, Cherry Brandy Velvet Musk, and Bare Gold, deliberately avoiding traditional seasonal profiles.

Main topics

• Seasonalizing fragrances vs. year-round wear
• New fall and holiday fragrance releases

Notable quotes

"Sometimes you just want to smell like a beautiful woman."

Conclusion

The episode provides listeners with curated recommendations across luxury and drugstore

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) For many of us, going further isn't a choice. It's a feeling we can't ignore because ambition has a way of outgrowing where it began. Speaker 1 (0:11) Turning dreams into direction. Speaker 1 (0:17) Every journey brings us closer to the life we imagine. Speaker 1 (0:23) So, where will your journey take you? Etihad. Beyond Borders. Speaker 3 (0:47) Welcome Speaker 2 (0:47) back to Speaker 3 (0:48) the Speaker 2 (0:48) Home Shopping Network. Speaker 3 (0:52) I mean, not know it. Speaker 2 (0:54) We're back. Speaker 3 (0:54) Welcome back to Smell You Later. Your favorite weekly podcast about whatever we feel like saying this week. Speaker 2 (1:00) About fragrances and our relationship to them. There you go. There we are. Speaker 3 (1:05) One day we'll nail it. Is this it? No, it's not. Never mind. What? I was going to say this is our first official fall episode that I was like, no. It's still Speaker 2 (1:12) summer to me. I don't know what the rest of you are talking about. I Speaker 3 (1:14) think I Speaker 1 (1:15) saw a post from Hunter Harris that was just like. Speaker 2 (1:17) Yeah. Speaker 1 (1:19) People who claim Speaker 3 (1:19) summer is ending early are just like weak losers. Speaker 2 (1:25) Low vibrational. Yes. Yeah, she says that quite a bit. And I agree with her. Speaker 3 (1:30) No, I'm totally with it. Totally. I'm Speaker 2 (1:32) like, Speaker 3 (1:32) unless it's 45 degrees. Right. Speaker 2 (1:34) Because right now it does feel sort of like fall tease. But it's warm out with just a little chill in the air. Yeah. We're all going to be happy. Speaker 1 (1:42) All Speaker 2 (1:43) right. I need to issue another retraction. Well, not a retraction. An editor's note. I, Speaker 3 (1:48) last Speaker 2 (1:49) week you talked about forever mood, not your type. Speaker 3 (1:54) And I Speaker 2 (1:54) smelled it on the blotter and Speaker 3 (1:56) I Speaker 2 (1:56) was like, Oh damn on skin. It is such a, okay. Yes, obviously on skin. It is such a completely different experience. I really, really like it. And it was so different from the blotter because the blotter I was saying like, oh, it's giving me red berries. On skin, it wasn't. It was exactly what it sells itself in at. They say, I think, white suede, oud, and maybe vanilla orchid something. So, so, so lovely. I love it. Like maybe top 15 for me, top 20 there. Really? Okay. Like love, love. Did you Speaker 3 (2:26) get the leather leather? Like I got so much leather. It Speaker 2 (2:29) wasn't. I got leather, but it wasn't abrasively leather. You know, it wasn't Tom Ford hyper-masculine ball gag leather. It was just, I think, and I think the same thing can be said for the way that they use oud. And you know, I appreciate oud, but I'm like, I'll sit over here. The way that they used the oud is, like, you get it. You know, the fragrance appreciates the oud, but it's not oud forward. I feel like Western brands and, like, American brands, when they use oud, it's almost like... like in a tokenizing way. Yeah. Speaker 3 (3:02) You Speaker 2 (3:03) know, I Speaker 3 (3:03) don't Speaker 2 (3:04) know. You know what I mean? It's like, it does like crank it up so hard that it's like almost not unwearable, but it's just a lot. And, and Ood, I think is something at least to me, at least to me, I'm going to get whacked for saying this, that you can over index on it. Really easily. And this, it was just so nicely balanced. So I guess, yes, to answer your question, it was very suede-y specifically on me, but not overly leathery, not overly oud-y. And also, I think Vanilla Orchid, you hear and can think like, yep, it's Speaker 1 (3:30) a Speaker 2 (3:30) fortification. Not that either. I don't know. I just liked it a lot. I think I liked it as much. It sort of gave me the same experience of what we also talked about recently, Meow Meow. They're two completely different fragrances, but they're complex, round, magnetic, wearable. I loved it. I just like, shout out Jackie Aina. Speaker 3 (3:46) Yeah. I think Not Your Type is the biggest departure from the rest of the Forever Mood collection in a cool way. Yeah. It's giving you something, a different mood. Forever Mood. Hey. Speaker 2 (3:56) Yeah, no, I think I'm going to need a bottle of that. But they did send me two of the 10 ml, so maybe we'll start there. Speaker 3 (4:03) Yeah. Yeah. It's the perfect sampling scent. Speaker 2 (4:05) Anyway, I carried guilt about that all week. I had to set the record straight. I Speaker 3 (4:09) thought you liked it. I Speaker 2 (4:11) did Speaker 3 (4:11) like Speaker 2 (4:12) it, but just the fact of what I initially smelled. And what I smelled like when I actually put it on skit. Because you know I'm a completionist. I Speaker 3 (4:20) know. Speaker 2 (4:20) You're a Speaker 3 (4:21) fundamentalist. Speaker 2 (4:22) I'm a fundamentalist. Yes. Anyway, now we can all rest easy. Speaker 3 (4:28) I don't have any retractions. Everything I said was true at the time that I said it. Speaker 2 (4:32) That is true for really this whole podcast. I Speaker 3 (4:35) am surprised at how many enthusiastic responses we got to our vanilla, milky, mochi, musky matrix. How passionate people were about this. Speaker 2 (4:48) When you sent that to me, I was like, oh my God, Derek Dang is going to sue us. Speaker 3 (4:52) He did not invent matrices. I Speaker 2 (4:53) know, but he made them ownable to him. Speaker 3 (4:57) I don't even think that's true. I Speaker 2 (4:58) do think that's true. Speaker 3 (4:59) I think Celeb, what is it called? Celebrel did that first. I Speaker 2 (5:02) don't know what you're talking about. Speaker 3 (5:03) S-E-L-L-E-B. They're like a shopping thing. Speaker 2 (5:06) But in the fragrance world. No, I'm not giving that to Speaker 3 (5:09) anybody. I'm sorry. Speaker 2 (5:10) I'm Speaker 1 (5:11) just saying, Speaker 2 (5:11) before anyone else can say it, I'll say it first. No one's going to whack me. We Speaker 3 (5:15) are aware. The end. Speaker 2 (5:18) Listen, I am very online. You Speaker 3 (5:20) are, you are. I feel like we're online in very different ways. Speaker 2 (5:24) Yeah, because you're on the dark web and I'm on Instagram. I need to know what's Speaker 3 (5:28) coming, okay? All right, I need to be prepared. But one addition I will make is that we forgot to put Elysium birth on the chart. And I felt so bad. Oh, oops. I felt so bad about that. I was like, oh, I forgot Elysium. You know what Speaker 2 (5:40) I will say? What? All love to Courtney. It's really hard to find a PNG of Elysium birth. So I had to track that shit down. Fair. So, you know. Also, there was only so much room. Speaker 3 (5:50) I guess, I guess. But at first I was like, oh, dang. Whatever, Speaker 2 (5:53) they won an award. That's true. They won the most coveted award in fragrance. I Speaker 3 (5:56) just wanted to say, I didn't overlook it. No. It was unintentional. Speaker 2 (5:59) Did you see the truly funniest thing I've ever seen? I whipped open my phone yesterday. The Fragrance Foundation posted a reel of an interview with Linda Levy and Khloe Kardashian. And their dynamic is hilarious. No, Speaker 3 (6:14) I didn't see that. Linda's Speaker 2 (6:15) funny. And also Khloe's funny. And it was serious. It was a cute... talk but they made a couple little winks to each other that just made it so fun to watch i don't know i loved it it was crazy that Speaker 1 (6:26) that first chloe fragrance i Speaker 3 (6:27) know you love that one was it the chocolate one no no Speaker 2 (6:30) no well okay wait yeah the very chloe and lamar unbreakable yes i mean oh an all-timer for me but the first new chloe fragrance oh so so good what Speaker 3 (6:39) is it called like xo xo okay xo you yeah The Kardashian fragrances are very good. Speaker 2 (6:45) It must be sad. Speaker 3 (6:46) Yeah. They're crowd pleasing. Speaker 2 (6:48) Kim Kardashian, come on the show. I recognize Speaker 3 (6:50) that they are good scents. And if I smell them on other people, I'm like, wow, you smell so good. When I wear them, it's not, I don't feel like this represents me. But sometimes you just want to be... Speaker 2 (6:59) A girl. Speaker 3 (7:01) Does she have a talk show now? I Speaker 2 (7:03) think they're all doing like the podcast circuit right now. I got a podcast for you. Khloe Kardashian, come on. Speaker 3 (7:09) Are people like, I don't know, like I say this as someone who's done a podcast for six years, but like, do people really listen to podcasts? Speaker 2 (7:15) They listen to us. Yeah. And thank you for listening. Speaking of celebrities that need to come on Smell You Later, this is an open invitation for Tate McRae. Oh, gosh. Tate, I love you. Your album's so close to what? Best pop album of 2015. Oops, 2025. 2015? Whatever. And you have a new fragrance out with Scent Beauty, and I know it's coming to my doorstep, but you need to come on the show. Speaker 3 (7:41) I would genuinely be surprised if they allowed that to happen. I Speaker 2 (7:44) don't know why. Speaker 3 (7:45) I'm gay. They never release the celebrity. They never offer up the celebrity unless it's like maybe Los Angeles. They Speaker 2 (7:55) really do never. Speaker 3 (7:55) They never do. Not never. Speaker 2 (7:57) Never. I Speaker 3 (7:58) wouldn't be surprised if Alex Rock comes out with a fragrance very soon. Speaker 2 (8:01) I feel Speaker 3 (8:03) like it's in the works. No, Speaker 2 (8:04) no. She wouldn't do fragrance. She'd do like an AI platform. Everyone would do fragrance. I think she's very much in big tech's pockets. I don't think fragrance is lucrative enough even for her. Speaker 3 (8:15) She's a beauty girl. Speaker 2 (8:17) She's a pretty girl. Speaker 3 (8:18) Wow. Does it make her a beauty girl? Like those are two different things. That was her whole thing, wasn't it? Speaker 2 (8:22) Alex who? Speaker 3 (8:23) Alex Earl. Oh, Speaker 2 (8:24) Alex Earl. I thought you were talking about the call her daddy Speaker 3 (8:26) girl. No, I know. Very Speaker 2 (8:26) confusing. Speaker 3 (8:27) Alex Earl, the TikToker. Speaker 2 (8:28) I actually don't think she was a beauty girl. I think beauty was a conduit to fame for her. I Speaker 3 (8:35) mean, sure. She's not a real Speaker 2 (8:36) bitch Speaker 1 (8:36) like us. I Speaker 3 (8:39) don't have TikTok, so. Yeah. I'm out of the loop. Speaker 2 (8:42) You're in your Athena Club era heavily right now. You're in your Athena Club era. I'm in my EOS era. So like we are queens of the drugstore. Speaker 3 (8:50) Two competitive, the two top competitors of the drugstore. That's true. Speaker 2 (8:54) I mean, I love Athena Club too, actually. I've definitely, I'm there. Speaker 3 (8:57) Yeah. I was a quick convert. It didn't take long. It was literally just an introduction to the brand. I was like, oh, I like this. Speaker 2 (9:05) They Speaker 3 (9:06) just released three limited edition holiday scents. And by just, I believe this will be coming out November. But Speaker 2 (9:13) these aren't holiday in terms of like scent profile, really. No, no, no, no, no, no. They're just limited edition Speaker 3 (9:21) releases. Speaker 2 (9:22) It Speaker 3 (9:22) goes live on athenaclub.com October 27th and then debuts at Target November 1st. So you get like four days. But it's an interesting take on holiday because it's not at all what most people associate with holiday scents. In a good way. In Speaker 2 (9:38) a good way, yeah. Well, I mean, I'm sure they're just using these as road tests for CORE next year. Oh, definitely. It's an easy way to do it. Speaker 3 (9:45) Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's Sweet Talk, which is like a sparkly berry kind of champagne scent. It's very pink lilac coated. It's cute. Speaker 2 (9:55) I can't smell it, like at all. Speaker 3 (9:57) Really? Speaker 2 (9:57) It's giving me nothing. Really? I'm serious. Speaker 3 (10:00) I'm Speaker 2 (10:00) unscrewing the cap. No. I Speaker 3 (10:02) smelled like the atomizer and it smelled like a beer. Is that one Speaker 2 (10:04) broke? Wait, I'm scared now. I'm Speaker 3 (10:06) getting Speaker 2 (10:06) absolutely nothing off this. Speaker 3 (10:07) Wait. I wonder. No. Like, is this like a, what do they call it? A fact tease. A fact Speaker 2 (10:12) tease. I mean, I'm getting, okay, now I'm getting like a little. Speaker 1 (10:16) Oh, you're right. Speaker 3 (10:16) I'm getting something. Sweet Talk calls out sparkling berries, vanilla bean, fresh fig, velvet iris, frosted florals, crushed cardamom. What? Golden amber, white musk, and soft cashmere. Well, Speaker 2 (10:27) that's a no for me. It's really Speaker 1 (10:28) soft, but there is a scent. Speaker 2 (10:30) Up close, it's so pretty. It starts off smelling like fruit punch, and then it dries down into something, or is drying down into something really deep. Speaker 3 (10:39) Yeah, very golden and amber. Speaker 2 (10:41) I'm thinking like, this is pretty, it's getting black to me. What Speaker 3 (10:45) are the notes? Speaker 2 (10:46) Black cherry, crushed violet, powdered sugar, ripe plum, cotton candy, vanilla cream, smoked amber. Cherry Brandy Velvet Musk. This one is like deep, dark, sexy. And it's not obnoxiously cherry either. Oh, that's nice. Speaker 3 (11:02) Okay, and the third one is called Bare Gold. B-A-R-E. This is a nice marshmallow-y, plush, musky, sweet musky. They Speaker 2 (11:10) got, Speaker 3 (11:11) what do they got? We got Spun Sugar, Marshmallow Fluff, Soft Vanilla, Whipped Cream, Vanilla Chiffon, White Chocolate, Sugared Musks, Benzoin. and sandalwood. That's pretty. That's pretty, but I feel like I've smelled that before, you know? Speaker 2 (11:25) This is kind of giving like Luberderm. Speaker 3 (11:27) Like lotion? Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm like so confused by the Sweet Talk. I know, it's very odd. Speaker 2 (11:32) One Speaker 3 (11:32) not smelling like anything. I feel like... Speaker 2 (11:33) Where you at, girl? Eos just dropped their holiday scents too, so I really want to get my hands on them. They sound delicious. Are Speaker 3 (11:39) there like 12 of them? All over Speaker 2 (11:40) the center. There's three. And they do body lotions and body sprays. That lotion, scent aside, so good. Speaker 3 (11:46) Is it like a specific formula? Because you know how lotions