Gee, was I surprised when I opened up my mailbox and saw a shiny black quilted mailing envelope from Scentbird in there. I thought I had suspended my subscription till November, but I guess I hadn’t.
Inside the envelope was a black fabric pouch with a red atomizer inside. No information, no card. Just the atomizer.
So what the heck was this fragrance that they sent? I opened the atomizer and discovered on the bottom of the 30 day-size bottle inside that it was La Mia Perla, a new scent launched this year from La Perla, a brand that I am more familiar with as the maker of lingerie than fragrance. I have since learned that they have quite a few fragrances.
To be honest, it’s been a long time since I got any fragrances from Scentbird. I like the idea of Scentbird ($14.95 a month/$13 if you use Paypal for a 30 day supply of fragrance in a pretty atomizer), but getting a new fragrance every month is too much for me. Over the past year or so, Scentbird has changed the way they operate, and you can get a short-term subscription for a few months or an every other month subscription rather than the “forever” month-to-month subscription that I have. You can also buy “a la carte”, meaning just one time, for $16.95. But I have been suspending my subscription till I feel like getting a new scent. If you feel like purchasing, I’d be grateful if you would use my affiliate link or go through the Scentbird ad in my sidebar. xoxo
Scentbird puts together a list of personalized fragrance suggestions based on the upfront survey that one takes upon joining as well as based on fragrances that one has bought in the past. For me, some of their recommendations have been right on, and others have been misses.
La Mia Perla Details
I had no idea that La Mia Perla was in my fragrance “queue”, so it was a total surprise when I got it. I wasn’t expecting anything from Scentbird, and I certainly wasn’t expecting this particular scent.
But wouldn’t you know, I ended up really loving it! As you may know if you follow my blog, I’m a big fan of oriental fragrances. Over time, I have discovered that I don’t love all oriental scents, and I do like some scents that are florientals (floral orientals). La Mia Perla is described by the fragrance website, Fragrantica.com, as a SolarOriental! What is that? Here’s what Fragrantica.com has to say about La Mia Perla, its background and composition:
“La Mia Perla is the new “pillar” of La Perla collections, the first SOLARORIENTAL composition signed by perfumer Honorine Blanc. She did an amazing job in collaboration with Julia Haart, creative director of La Perla, bringing to life a fragrance full of joy with sophisticated gourmand notes and solar flowers which is exciting, vibrant and extremely seductive.”
Fragrantica.com goes on to describe the perfume composition as a “round” concept. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but they explain that rather than the classic pyramid structure of Top Notes/Middle Notes/Base Notes that most fragrances are built on, this scent is “a circular, pear-shaped composition”. As a SolarOriental, it is characterized by “luminosity and creaminess” that create “movement”. Hmm, not sure what that actually means. One thing I can say is because of the round composition, it doesn’t have the dry down and change of scent that classic pyramidally constructed perfumes have; i.e. it smells more or less the same as time goes on, and I like that.
The scent itself is characterized by floral, spice and musk notes. It contains specific notes of mandarin orange, sandalwood, peony, white pepper, orris, suede, ambroxan, jasmine sambac, and musk. Even though I am not usually a fan of jasmine, this scent works for me big time because it doesn’t have a traditional jasmine scent.
Fragrantica describes the scent as highly erotic and tempting. I would describe the scent as powdery, deep, sweet, gourmand, and spicy. On me, it wears close to the skin, and it’s fairly long-lasting, but we’ll see if that changes over time. I find that if I wear a scent repeatedly over days or weeks, it begins to take hold more, last longer and broadcast more.
Though I wear the same fragrances throughout the year and at any time of day, the few raters of this new scent on Fragrantica.com tended to rate it as more of a daytime scent (though I don’t agree), and more of a spring and fall fragrance. The vast majority of raters on Fragrantica loved the scent, but among reviewers on Scentbird, there were some who disliked La Mia Perla because they thought it was old ladyish, perhaps because of the powderiness. Plus it doesn’t smell like the popular fruity scents that young women are wearing these days that to me all smell more or less the same.
La Mia Perla comes in three sizes: 30, 50 and 100 ml. Here’s what the bottle looks like (below). The rose gold tones of the bottle seem to suit the scent IMHO. Right now, full size bottles of La Mia Perla seem a little hard to find in stores. It’s on the LaPerla website with the price listed in euros, but I was able to find it on eBay. I know when I finish my Scentbird sample, I’ll want more of this one.
What do you think? Does La Mia Perla appeal to you? What scent are you loving these days?
Good morning………☕️☕️🍩🍩 My go to scent is Paradise by Nest. The scent of Mediterranean blood orange and white ginger, balanced with base of cedarwood and watery nuances Their fragrances are all so so nice. When I wear them I always get asked “What are you wearing, you smell so nice.” They are available at Nordstrom or better yet QVC. Chilly and cloudy here in California. 🍃🍁🍂 (Prayers 🙏🏻🙏🏻 for everyone in Mexico) ❤️
I am always attracted by Nest because their bottles are so beautiful! I’ll take a sniff of Paradise next time I go to Sephora. Have a great weekend, DiEtta!
I am one of them who is not a fan of any perfumes that have powderiness to the scent but I also don’t like anything that is too sweet. Perfumes are very tricky and is one of those things that I will always try beforehand.
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Fragrance is something that has to be tried beforehand because it is so personal. That’s why I love Scentbird’s subscription service. Their survey coupled with adding in perfumes I’ve liked in the past really has created a list of scents to try that definitely has had more hits than misses.
What a pleasant surprise! I had no idea that La Perla was now making perfume!
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I didn’t know La Perla did fragrance either. Quite a surprise!
I had no idea that La Perla made a fragrance!
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I didn’t either!
These notes wouldn’t work for me but it sounds like it’s nice for you!
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As you know I don’t do fragrance but if I did Scentbird would be a great way to do it since you aren’t locking yourself into a full bottle. I like this pretty red atomizer.
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Scentbird has turned me on to a number of fragrances I never would have discovered on my own. It’s a great concept for fragrance lovers.
I usually don’t like oriental scents but the notes in this sound beautiful!
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This one isn’t a real oriental scent. If you like florals, you may very well like this one. Unfortunately, it is so new that it is hard to find in stores.
It I used fragrance, I’d totally be all over this subscription
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This sounds interesting (in a good way) but sounds like one of those scents that I’d need to smell to understand. Reading it just isn’t getting me anywhere! I do love the look of the bottle too. So stylish, yet simple.
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