My Current Favourite Fragrances: Acne Studios by Frédéric Malle and Merit Retrospect

Hello everyone! I've always got several bottles of perfume open at the same time. I can be two centimetres away from finishing a bottle and open another one because it better matches my outfit, the weather or simply my mood. It's a great system if the goal is never to finish anything.

At the moment, I'm mainly going back to two fragrances that have almost nothing in common: Acne Studios by Frédéric Malle and Merit Retrospect. The first is more enveloping and makes me want to go out in the evening. The second is fresher, easier to grab in the morning and already closely tied to my summer.

Acne Studios by Frédéric Malle, the one I wear in the evening

I discovered the perfume in the Acne Studios boutique on rue Froissart in Paris. I loved it straight away. It is very present, quite intoxicating and has something comforting about it that makes me want to smell my wrist all over again. Then once more, just to check, obviously.

I wear it mostly when I go out or when I want my perfume to really be part of my outfit. It’s not the one I automatically put on before going down to get a coffee. It almost requires the rest to match.

I can wear it during a summer evening, but I picture it even better with a coat, late-afternoon light and the first chill. It has that dense quality that makes more sense when I'm not already too warm.

Then came the shower gel and body lotion

I was then invited to rue Froissart for the launch of the scented skincare range. I recounted this evening at Acne Studios in a separate article, with the photos taken on site and my vintage Notting Hill Kodak.

The treatments make it possible to rediscover the scent more discreetly. The lotion has become the one I use most often; the shower gel remains reserved for those times when I feel like turning my getting-ready routine into a much too serious little ceremony. My comprehensive review of both products is also on the blog, price included.

Merit's Retrospect, the one I wear without a second thought

Retrospect is much fresher. I find it feminine and luminous, but neither well-behaved nor completely transparent. It smells lovely without giving the impression that my perfume entered the room five minutes before I did.

It's the one I grab in the morning with a white shirt, my hair tied back and a whole day ahead of me. It works just as well for lunch on a terrace as it does for rushing from one appointment to another in Paris.

My only problem is that as soon as I can no longer smell it on me, I want to reapply. I know perfectly well that my nose has simply got used to it and that other people can still smell it. This rational information does absolutely nothing to stop me from picking up the bottle again.

The Retrospect bottle deserves to remain on display

I also really like its bottle. It's different from classic perfume bottles and looks more like an object I want to leave out on a shelf. Let's not pretend: the scent comes first above all, but a beautiful product still adds something to the pleasure of using it.

It is the same reason that makes me spend far too much time in front of a well-designed book cover or piece of packaging. In my work with Minuit d’Orsay, I am just looking at how an identity can make an object recognisable without having to explain everything around it.

Two perfumes, but not for the same Tamara

I couldn't really choose between the two because I don't ask them for the same thing. Acne Studios by Frédéric Malle goes with a night out, an outfit and the colder seasons. Retrospect by Merit fits much more easily into a summer's day.

Acne takes me straight back to rue Froissart and that evening in the boutique. Retrospect is already associated with warm days in Paris. That is probably what I love most about perfumes: they end up preserving moments for us, even when we had no intention of entrusting them with anything.