Welcome to the perfume room and happy Valentine's Day.

My send of the day today is a bit controversial in these parts, and definitely not what I will be wearing on the day this episode comes out, Valentine's Day, because my boyfriend is like perturbed by it, but I love it. So let me tell you more. Okay, so I am wearing Umemma, which if you recall in episode 70, is the fragrance that the perfumer Hugo Charent created for Emma Dancourt, a French journalist and podcaster living with an osmia. Now, if you haven't listened to that episode, you must. It's one of the most interesting episodes to date. Anyway, I finally got my hands on a long-awaited sample, director Mugo himself, and honestly, it kind of felt like a drug deal to get it. Like, I met him on a street corner for the handoff. We'd been DMing about this sample back and forth for months.

But you know what? That journey makes it all the more rewarding to wear. And here are my thoughts.

To me, it smells like first impressions, like ambergris, like ambergris. It's skin like gauzy,

salty ambergris way, but it feels full and warm at the same time. And dewy, but not like peddily or raindrop dewy. Doi like, as I mentioned, like honeydew do I just call honey-dew-dew because it's called honey-dew and that's just like me making that inference in my head. I don't know, but you know what I mean? It's like round and full, but melon-like. And I remember in the conversation that Emma had mentioned that one of the few tastes that she could discern was umami. And so in this fragrance, she really wanted that element of a savory umami profile, hence the name. And I think that that's what the seaweed note in here. And I assume ambergris. I think there's ambergris in this fragrance does in this scent.

It adds a sort of saltiness to otherwise soothing notes of musk and oris and matte and bergamot.

And there's this subtle sweetness too, as if somebody had dusted the final product with cocoa powder.

So I will describe this fragrance in the context of other fragrances,

and you know my disclaimer, which is that I am in no way accusing, or not necessarily,

not in this instance at least, accusing a fragrance of copying another fragrance, it just

helps me describe it better and it helps me remember specific smells when I compare them to

different aspects of other scents.

Okay.

So if you've tried loss caused from Fleur, which I've talked about numerous times on this

podcast, imagine that sort of warm enveloping but musky aspect of that scent, which

actually shares many notes in common with this one.

And then, okay, mix it.

And I know it's going to be controversial what I'm about to say.

Mix it with the salty seaweed situation that you get in secretion magnific.

Yes, I said what I said. And I say it while giving Umemma the highest praise. Okay, because

in secretion magnific, that saltiness to my nose goes like nauseating seminal fluids. In Numema,

it goes like alluring salty sweat. You get what I'm saying? Like, oh, if you like Mugler,

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