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Powdery fragrances

A powder-like character, often associated with iris, violet or musk notes.

Scentorian assigns these categories for browsing. Fragrances can belong to several families; the house may describe them differently.

52 fragrances

5th Avenue Eau de Parfum

Elizabeth Arden — Lilac, lily of the valley and linden blossom, clean as a fresh white shirt: a polished 1990s floral that one owner kept for a conservative office and another traced, on a dog walk, to a woman of 84.

A Drop d'Issey Eau de Parfum

Issey Miyake Parfums — Soft in projection, wearers often find, and anywhere from short to long in duration: creamy almond milk, lilac and rose on a powdery vanilla..

Alien Eau de Parfum

Mugler — Current bottles project strongly and persist, by many wearers' accounts, with jasmine sambac in the lead and warm cashmeran and amber behind it..

Amazing Grace Eau de Toilette

Philosophy — Clean laundry and soap in a bottle: a soft, powdery floral that reads as freshly showered, quiet enough for a library and unlikely to offend anyone.

Arabie Eau de Parfum

Serge Lutens — Dense dried fruit and cumin, with a dark, sticky sweetness and savoury spice.

Beautiful Eau de Parfum

Estée Lauder — One owner, given it as a high-school Christmas present in the mid-1980s, now wears nothing else, and for many it has been a signature since the 1980s: a lush bouquet of rose, lily, tuberose and lily of the valley on creamy sandalwood.

Concrete

Comme des Garçons — Its mineral side divides reviewers, chalk or cement dust for some and a sherbet or bubblegum sweetness for others, set among cumin, clove and a metallic rose on creamy, powdery wood..

Daisy Eau de Toilette

Marc Jacobs — Staying close and lasting a few hours, by reviewers' general account, this is light wild berries and white violet on soft sandalwood..

Dune

Dior — Dry mineral air, sea breeze and a faint hay-like sweetness, likened by reviewers to pebbles, driftwood and dust.

En Passant

Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle — Wet lilac and cucumber with a warm, dough-like accent.

Encelade

Marc-Antoine Barrois — Sour rhubarb, damp earth and leather with a strong green character, which some wearers liken to tomato leaf, compost or burnt matches.

Flower by Kenzo

Kenzo — Lipstick and face powder are the comparisons that come up for this powdery violet and rose on vanilla.

Flowerbomb Eau de Parfum

Viktor&Rolf — Dense and sweet, this floral sits on an earthy, patchouli-like background, and most reports describe substantial projection and long wear..

Glow Eau de Toilette

Jennifer Lopez — Just-showered skin is the brief, and wearers say it delivers: clean soap, cold cream and body lotion over a soft, musky powder.

Good Girl Blush Eau de Parfum

Carolina Herrera — Peony leads, dewy and almost rose-like, with bergamot and a powdery bitter almond before vanilla and tonka settle it; one wearer first thought of Tommy Girl, another of Delina.

Gucci Rush Eau de Toilette

Gucci — Creamy peach, gardenia and vanilla over mossy patchouli, with the strong projection and long wear that wearers commonly report..

Hypnotic Poison Eau de Toilette

Dior — Almond and vanilla with an anise edge that wearers keep naming as root beer, licorice or marzipan; Play-Doh comes up so often it works as a fit test.

Insolence Eau de Parfum

Guerlain — Violet in its loudest form: owners reach for Parma-violet sweets, grape candy and lipstick powder, with red berries and orange blossom behind it.

Jasmin et Cigarette Eau de Parfum

Etat Libre d'Orange — In the accounts of those who wear it: rich jasmine and cold tobacco ash, a dry turmeric accent, and a little tonka sweetness under the smoky floral..

Kouros Eau de Toilette

Yves Saint Laurent — Soap and sweat in the same breath: clove and carnation over a musky, animal warmth that owners liken to clean bedsheets and, less kindly, to a urinal cake.

L'Air du Temps Eau de Toilette

Nina Ricci — Carnation with its clove bite, softened by gardenia, rose and jasmine and settled on powdery sandalwood and iris.

La Vie Est Belle Eau de Parfum

Lancôme — Strong projection and long wear are the norm in reviewers' reports of this sweet, powdery iris on a prominent patchouli base..

Le Male Eau de Toilette

Jean Paul Gaultier — Lavender and mint over vanilla, with the shaving-soap smell of an old barbershop: the sailor-torso bottle that fought Joop! Homme for the dance floors of the 1990s.

Le Male Le Parfum Eau de Parfum Intense

Jean Paul Gaultier — The original Le Male's lavender and vanilla, darkened with a burst of cardamom and a powdery iris: to one owner a rich chocolate dessert made out of the original, to another Le Male's final form.

Like This Eau de Parfum

Etat Libre d'Orange — Pumpkin and ginger as warm, savoury vegetables and spice, with bright tangerine at the start.

Loulou Eau de Parfum

Cacharel — Purple, spiced and unmistakably of the eighties: a sweet floral with powder and a dense vanilla heart that wearers have come back to for decades.

Lovely Eau de Parfum

Sarah Jessica Parker — Musk dominates for many wearers, under a lavender-and-bergamot opening and a soft floral heart, and the argument is whether it is the bargain twin of Narciso Rodriguez For Her or a pale copy.

Lust Perfume

Lush — Jasmine the way the flower really smells, which is the whole argument about it.

Milk Expressive Eau de Parfum

Commodity — Cold milk and toasted marshmallow, with sesame at the start and a woody warmth under it: comfort food, as most owners put it.

MOD Vanilla Eau de Parfum

Ariana Grande — Cool rather than sugary, this is what one wearer calls a vanilla for people who dislike vanilla.

Moonlight Eau de Parfum

Ariana Grande — Blackcurrant and plum start it and the powder stays put, with marshmallow and peony in the middle and sandalwood, amber and vanilla settling underneath.

Moth Extrait de Parfum

Zoologist — Dust, honey and smoke: wearers describe an old wardrobe opened after years, powdery flowers and burnt honey, once a loud spice-cabinet opening has passed, which some read as medicinal or metallic.

Narcisse Noir (2021) Parfum

Caron — Less animalic than older Narcisse Noir, wearers who compare the two often find: dry orange blossom and jonquil, a green, waxy narcissus, and sandalwood and vetiver beneath..

Obsession for Women Eau de Parfum

Calvin Klein — Warm spice, amber and musk, sometimes with a powdery or incense-like haze: the spicy amber its long-time owners still reach for.

Papyrus Moléculaire Eau de Parfum

Maison Crivelli — Paper more than wood: wearers describe starchy, sun-bleached reeds, pencil shavings and clean skin, with a curl of cigarillo and a milky softness underneath.

Passage d'Enfer

L'Artisan Parfumeur — Cool incense and white lily with an impression of stone.

R.E.M. Eau de Parfum

Ariana Grande — Lavender is the axis here: herbal and loud to some noses, a sleepy soft version to others, wrapped in salted caramel and marshmallow with tonka and sandalwood underneath.

Roasted Green Tea Eau de Parfum

J-Scent — Roasted green tea with nutty, savoury peanut and seaweed impressions, cooled by mint and wintergreen before a softer iris-and-vanilla drydown, as reviewers describe it..

Tabu Eau de Cologne

Dana — Spice, smoke and patchouli settling into a dusty, grown-up powder: soft as baby powder on some skins, loud, dry and faintly dirty on others, with an animal streak that one reviewer could not wait to shower off.

Times Square Eau de Parfum

Masque Milano — Lipstick meets the street: glossy, waxy cosmetics and peachy osmanthus against hot rubber, asphalt and smoke.

White Diamonds

Elizabeth Taylor — A large, bright floral bouquet that grows softer and more powdery as it settles.

White Linen Eau de Parfum

Estée Lauder — Sheets drying in the sun, or a bar of good white soap: sparkling aldehydes on rose, lily of the valley and orris, drying to vetiver and moss.

White Musk Eau de Toilette

The Body Shop — Clean, soft musk with a powdery floral lift, comforting rather than loud: owners of thirty years call it uplifting and still collect compliments, and one layers it under everything else.

White Rice Eau de Parfum

d'Annam — A skin scent by design, and owners wear it that way: steamed, faintly nutty rice and green pandan that settle into orris, jasmine and clean white musk.

You Eau de Parfum

Glossier — Pink pepper, powdery iris and a warm, faintly sweet musk that reads like skin.