Paperback

Like reading an old book at an ice cream parlor. Honestly, I bought this for the fact that this was once Gerard Way’s signature scent but I genuinely really love it. At first it smells a bit like a fizzy coconut on my skin and then dries down quickly into that old paperback smell. I want all my clothes to smell like this. I want to be read.

I do adore this, though I like it for bed more than to wear during the day. It's a sweet musty scent...just like a used book store.

Slightly musty and milky vanilla ice cream, very nice

Has a sweet, woodsy, vanilla scent to me that's not necessarily realistic to paper imo. Maybe at the start it smells a bit like a book store? I love the idea of a perfume that smells like books or a library, but this just doesn't do it for me. I do like it for what it is though. But it is only a like and not a love for me because of the longevity. Seems to fare better longevity wise when layered with other perfumes that have better longevity. I layered this with Pandan by d.grayi, which also has sweet, woodsy notes and that enhanced the sweetness of Paperback. I might try layering it with Diptyque's L'eau Papier and see if this brings out the dry papery notes a bit more. I also find Paperback to be quite similar to Oak, a newer release by Demeter that has slightly better sillage and longevity (particularly on clothing) than this one. Thankfully I only got a sample of Paperback, but I think I will be sticking with Oak if I had to choose between the two as the two are quiet similar scent-wise, with the latter having better performance overall.

If you like old(ish) book smells, it’s likely you’re responding to the breakdown of lignin, a wood pulp component, into vanillin. The vanilla notes in this perfume are no accident, but scientifically accurate. I have smelled many ages of books and can say *really* old books smell of mildew, vinegar, and urine, and you probably don’t want to smell like them. Paperback opens with powdery vanilla/lignin (reminiscent of aging mid-20th c paperbacks en masse), becomes unexpectedly spicy/musty and masculine, and then fades to barely perceptible warm sweetness. I actually found it wasn’t as sweet as I wanted for a used bookstore vibe (and slightly too powdery), and typically layer with Philosophy Cream Warm Cashmere. If you think of modern trade paperbacks at a big box store when you see “paperback,” you may be disappointed, as it lacks the sharper, crisper glue and chemical notes. Poor longevity and sillage, but this makes it great for a quiet work scent since I don’t want to hurt anyone/trigger scent sensitivities.