Perfume Pen Pals: Byredo Pulp


Katie,

Hey, have you tried Byredo Pulp? You liked a couple of things from that line, but I don't remember you ever mentioning Pulp. And now that you're going a little fruity, I'm curious about your take. I seem to remember Chandler Burr calling it genius or some such thing.

Dan


Dan,

I just dabbed on a bit of my Pulp samp to address your query. It's a bright, zesty affair, a cross between strawberry jam and vetiver. Not candy sweet like most fruit fragrances. Certainly not like Nez à Nez Bouche Baie! Still, as fruity as I comfortably go is By Kilian Liaisons Dangereuses.

Okay, I don't know where I got "strawberry and vetiver" for Pulp -- none of that is in the listed notes I just Googled: bergamot, black currant, cardamom, fig, red apple, tiare flower, cedar, praline and peach blossom.

But the jam smell made me think "strawberry", and the grassy/herbaceousness made me think "vetiver". And half an hour in, the grassy jam has moved on, and all I can think is "yuck!" Because now Pulp smells exactly like drugstore shampoo. Unspecified fruity hell.

Katie


Katie,

Thanks for the Pulp feedback. Though, ouch. Because I bought a bottle, unsmelled. For whatever reason, the German Basenoters have been offering up some fine stuff for cheap lately, and this one woman had Pulp for half-price (only a few sprays missing). I read the Pulp reviews and most were good. Plus, CB loves the stuff. Plus, does it even matter when the price is that good? (Don't answer that.) So now, for a hundred bucks, I'm gonna smell like a fruity hell. Hell.

Dan


Dan,

You bought Pulp? That is not KP-approved, Dan. Pulp is my idea of "gross". The drydown, at least. Chandler probably just had a quickie with it (fnarr fnarr...), and liked the lively fruitiness. Well, at least Pulp's a vertical buy.

Katie


Katie,

I bought Pulp for half-price, KP! That's not the same as buying something. It's right in between buying something and not buying something. And CB says it's "indescribably strange and original". Right after he called Fat Electrician "one of the best vetivers in years." And you know how I feel about that one. Oops. You think I made a mistake? Or rather a half-mistake?

I've probably tried it. I've sprayed a few Byredos during my last two trips to Barneys. They're right next to the Lutens, where the SA's are always giving me the hard sell. Inevitably, I'll look to Byredo for a break. Though I don't remember liking any of them. Still, half-price. Did I mention that part?

Dan


Dan,

I do enjoy your logic on how you didn't actually buy Pulp. I can see those years on the college debate team really paid off. Well, I look forward to your fulminating -- or gushing -- over Pulp when it arrives. Or maybe half of each. But one thing is certain: you will end up smelling like the shampoo of a 14-year-old girl.

If you’re desperate to smell like Frankenberry, and want to execute this maneuver with maximum class and minimum shampoo, I’d go for Cartier X L'Heure Folle. But I know how you feel about that one.

Katie


Katie,

There was a time when smelling like a 14-year-old girl's shampoo would've made me a little excited. Unfortunately, that time was 30 years ago.

Dan

14 comments:

  1. I retried Pulp unexpectedly the other day, because I was in the company of two Euro perfumistas who waved strips under my nose - forcing me to reassess my prejudices. I have to concede that the uberjuicy opening is not representative of the milder fruity/vetivery phase that follows.

    Indeed I don't think a single bottle of Pulp would ever sell according to the traditional "spray and pray" method which accounts for most high street sales.

    No, this was really quite tolerable after the first half an hour or so. And anyway, as Dan points out, this wasn't a purchase as such in any conventional sense of the term.

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  2. Katie doesn't hate the opening and flittersniffer doesn't hate the drydown. Between the two of you, that's a quasi-endorsement for my quasi-purchase!

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  3. Or, reverse which end of the dog we're sniffing, and that's a strike!

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  4. Oh, stop! I came to the comments expecting a breather from the chuckling. ;)

    Thanks for the fruity fun...I think I'm grateful for the lack of olfactory input on this one. Though that could be a unique form of agony...the smell experience being pumped in through my computer as I read.

    BTW, have fun at Sniffa, Katie. I hear they pack quite a crowd. I know a few faces to be found in it...fine company, all.

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  5. I got fig and nothing but fig from this. (Although I misidentified that smell as "guava" for the longest time, so there you go.) If you like fig, Dan--and I have no idea if you do--you'll probably do fine with this.

    I feel the need to share that I actually don't like fig.

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  6. I'm with ScentScelf - hoped to get a break from laughing by reading the comments...

    Angi - Does your dislike of fig scents extend to candles? Just curious as that's the only kind of fig scent I actually like.

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  7. Dan

    Pulp singed my nose hairs. Indescribably strange and original? Sorta like snorting black currant, fig and cedar drugstore shampoo. I gave my decant away within a week of procuring it.

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  8. Wow, melisand61, it looks like my quasi-endorsement has turned into outright disapproval. Now the only good resolution is Pulp getting stuck in customs. (Though customs has a knack for holding up things we want most, not least.) I'm with amber_j, the sweet earthiness that's so agreeable in fig candles often seems monotonous and almost oppressive in fig perfumes. Still, it's half-price oppression, which almost qualifies as freedom, right? Right?

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  9. In my experience your Homeland Security guys are on the lookout for Granny Smith apples, jars of Marmite and anyone displaying the smallest signs of moral turpitude. I also had trouble with a pillow once. Pulp will go through on the nod, I fear.

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  10. Pillows are inherently suspicious, flittersniffer, every American knows that. They're teaching it in schools now. (It's replaced sex education.)

    Alas, my Pulp wasn't wrapped in a pillow and so it arrived from Germany in record time. And black currant and fig are definitely what I get. Loud and clear. I don't dislike it, though I haven't come to Katie's and melisand61's shampoo stage. So far it smells better than that, which perhaps only speak poorly for the kind of shampoo I use.

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  11. Okay, it seems the consensus for Pulp is fig, here, so consider my "fruity hell" officially specified.

    And Dan, freedom's just another word for fig shampoo. I think Janis once sang about that....

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  12. Has anyone yet sampled the new Byredo release, La Tulipe?

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  13. emilie, I've tried La Tulipe, and all I can come up with so far is that it's "flowery". It's not very inspiring or complex, and smells like sweet shampoo florals. Maybe that's the freesia talkin'.

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  14. Okay, I don't want to completely dismiss La Tulipe, because plenty of people's flavor of fun is "flowery". But to my nose, a much cooler floral is Cacharel Anais Anais, and that's a fraction of what the Byredo costs.

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