Yazhini ManimudiIn the days of cool girl, brat summer, office sirens, clean girl and whatnot, everyone is keen on fitting into a particular aesthetic with everything they use on a daily basis. We see it with celebrities dressing a particular way to promote their most recent movie or album. Zendaya for Challengers and the Dune series comes to mind. Fans of musical artists have taken to dressing in a way that matches the vibe of the album when attending concerts. Who can forget all the effort Swifties put into dressing for Taylor Swift’s eras tour?
Emotions invoked by music can be translated into outfits and as we know, no outfit is complete without the right fragrance. When thinking of the kind of perfume that would go with Billie Eilish songs, most of what I came up with were unisex. Not a revolutionary revelation– she’s known for blending masculine and feminine in her outfits. Her albums all have a kind of melancholic air about them, combined with a rugged sensuality.
Billie Eilish entered the music industry in 2015 with her hit single Ocean Eyes at the young age of thirteen. The song describes being pulled into someone’s magnetic ocean blue eyes. It has a warm, airy quality to it that puts you at ease. It’s youthful, much like the artist herself. Released close to a decade after this song, Ocean Eyes by Who is Elijah would be a perfect fragrance to wear when listening to the song on repeat. The similarities go beyond just the name. The fragrance sparkles with its citrusy notes, invoking the thrill of being pulled into someone’s brightness, while notes of amberwood and musk provide a warmth that feels like finding your person.
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Over the decade, Billie, along with her brother Finneas have made music that speaks to the soul. Her first album titled ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’ is a dark yet delicate composition delving into the singer’s feelings of youthful angst. The songs string you along with their soft hauntedness only to disorient with sudden sharpness. There is something so fundamentally teen about it with the dark thoughts explored in the songs interspersed with memes and jovial moments. Can these feelings really be expressed through perfumes? I would say yes.
Killian Dark Lord
Dark Lord screams Bad Guy and takes the crown for fragrances that will make others bow before it. Too intense? Perhaps, but it’s just the right descriptor. The sleek black bottle gets ahead of the fragrance in giving an impression of a smooth flowing dark liquid.
The leather fragrance is composed of two types of peppers- black and sichuan. Both arrive with a fresh spiciness but their combined presence gives it dimension- the former brings in a nose tingling hotness while the latter is milder with a hint of citrus towards the end. It is enriched by strong woody- earthy notes of nagarmotha that makes a strong entrance and finds support in birch, vetiver, and cedar. Rum adds a slick sweetness that gives the composition an irresistible allure while jasmine sambac makes for a clean soapy dimension.
When using this By Killian perfume, one can’t help but think of All The Good Girls with its dark themes and connection to nature.
Viktor&Rolf Flowerbomb Nectar
Flowerbomb Nectar tells you who it is from the get go with its gunpowder opening note. What’s more teenage angst than that? It’s mysterious, it’s slightly metallic, it brings an air of mystery. It’s syrupy sweet and dries down to a darker profile that flows well with the yearning found in when the party’s over. Billie flutters between an innocent childishness and agony of being left behind in 8 , reflected in the fragrance transitioning from the sweetness of vanilla and tonka beans to the darker elements of osmanthus.
Viktor&Rolf Spicebomb Dark Leather
When we all fall asleep, we might just be going to the mellow sensuality of Spicebomb Dark Leather. The perfume, best worn in evenings, has soothing air about it with elements of smoke and tobacco. It offers none of the explosiveness suggested by the Spicebomb name but lives up to dark leather. Spicy cinnamon and nutmeg stay in the background, quietly pulling you into the smooth blend. It’s representative of the album in its evolution to a soft, rich complexity with the sharpness all mellowed out by the time we reach ilomilo and journey through to goodbye.
Happier Than Ever
While her first album was heavy with its dark themes interspersed with sharp spicy qualities, her second album Happier Than Ever is soft and silky with an underlying air of heaviness as she croons over growing pains. When looking for perfumes that resemble this vibe, I knew they should be warm, soft, subtle in its spice and more mature than perfumes that you would wear to listen to When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Narciso Rodriguez Narciso Poudree
It contains a soft femininity with the hypnotic bulgarian rose and spicy fresh jasmine.
The heart offers a powdery musk that makes the fragrance silky smooth. It’s mature without being stuffy. It feels like Growing Up, like the cozy warmth of knowing and falling in love with yourself as in the song my future. It’s soft, clean, and creamy with an intimate quality. It doesn’t announce itself loudly yet is bold in a classy way. At its base is the rugged sensuality of woody scents and sweetness of coumarin I associate with Billie’s voice.
Holy Oud Holy Musk
If you are a fan of how soft, airy, and rounded Billie sounds in Lost Cause and Halley’s Comet, Holy Oud’s Holy Musk is for you. The powdery musk perfume brings about an easy freshness through its lily of the valley. Tolu Balsam in the background lends it an inviting yet majestic aura accompanied by a slight sweetness of vanilla. It makes a statement, quiet but impactful.
Billie Eilish Eilish No.2
It can’t be a Billie Eilish perfume article without her own fragrances in it. One of her four perfumes, Eilish No.2 is a woody floral musk that flows with the mood that the album sets. The perfume opens brightly with citrusy bergamot and soft floral apple blossom, the incense creates the moody feeling you get listening to NDA. The pepper at its heart makes for a spicy punch characteristic of Therefore I Am. Papyrus offers a green freshness and the poppy brings about a powdery quality reminiscent of the silky tones of the album.
Mon Destin Dark Shade
The Woody Spicy fragrance is a men’s perfume, suited well with the signer’s penchant for the masculine in her style. Spicy ginger comes out at the top the way Billie bursts her lines out midway through the title song Happier Than Ever. The boozy vanilla is in harmony with her lilting voice as she sings about a relationship that is no longer. The woodsy notes emerge in the dry down, mellowing out the sweetness.
The ingredient list is minimal, but they play together fantastically to create a fantastic harmony that can be compared with the blend of soft moodiness and rugged edges of the album.
Hit Me Hard and Soft
Hit Me Hard and Soft is airy and romantic but with a deep heaviness represented in the album cover. Yearning is the common thread that weaves through the songs and there are an array of fragrances that can replicate the same.
Vilhelm Parfumerie Dear Polly
This perfume is Birds of A Feather through and through. It’s for a couple who should stick together as founder Jan Ahlgren created it for himself and his dear wife Polly when their travels keep them apart. Dear Polly sparks of citrusy freshness from the bergamot. The perfume brings a coziness of light summer days in a garden sipping on a glass of the star ingredient black tea with a fleeting haze of spice and sweetness of green apple. It’s the comfort of familiarity yet also the longing for something that was never yours, reminding the wearer of Wildflower. Dear Polly dries down to be slightly smoky and musky just like the background of Birds of A Feather.
Guerlain Shalimar
This one has a love story behind it, too– that of Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal who loved the Shalimar gardens. The fragrance is dark, sultry, and heavy with yearning for lost love we hear in The Greatest and L’Amour De Ma Vie. It is deep and heady, making for an unforgettable perfume, loved even a century after its creation.
This oriental spicy perfume is a strong opener, grabbing you with the brightness of citrus. Some might find the perfume a little too heavy for their tastes, but patience is key. Letting it sit on your skin for half an hour, you’ll get to the floral heart of this classic which then gives way to the amber, vanilla, woody scent along with an otherworldly incense.
Faiz Niche Collection Sweet F3012
Blue summarizes the album– somber, melancholic, yet bright. This woody aquatic fragrance smells is taking in the fresh airy seaside breeze yet drowning in the deep darkness of the waters conveyed through the wood and musk scents left behind in the dry down. It’s a simple perfume, reliable to wear on a summer day out.
Yazhini Manimudi
