Welcome to the perfume room.

My scent of the day today is from Universal Flowering, and it is seduction theory.

Now, I know I talked about this one on a substack paid subscriber episode, but I actually

don't think, or at least I can't remember, if I've talked about it here on perfume room.

And guess what you're going to hear about it all over again once I released my best of 2024 episode,

because for me, seduction theory is absolutely one of them. I think this perfume is brilliant.

Why?

Because if you smell this blindfolded without knowing anything about its name or its branding

or its inspiration, its smell is so evocative that it would take you exactly where you are

meant to be.

Courtney Refuse, the perfumer and past perfumerum guest,

generously gifted me a travel size, and it has easily become one of my most prized PR possessions

of 2024. And I think I'll likely end up splurging for a full-sized bottle because, honestly,

as good as the scent is, the branding is equally delightful. It's a ball cap in a perfect shade of Virginia Slim's Red

with two different fonts on the bottle, one that resembles what you would expect like the title

on a VHS case of like a 70s erotica film might be and the other what you'd probably imagine

the font of the title of some academic theory book cover. It's so on the nose and still somehow feels

so abstract. And that's what I love most. It assumes the audience is intelligence while still

giving us every guiding breadcrumb along the way. It's inspired by Sigmund Freud's

seduction theory. And to be honest, when I first smelled this, the first thing that I said out

loud was, oh my God, Mrs. Robinson. This perfume is the perfect dichotomy of maternal sweet

jasmine and feral ranch. I smell sweet blooming jasmine, both Grandiflora and Sambach,

...