Story of Your Life

A deep love for me. As some have already said and I agree, there’s a definite nod to the bread in Lutens’ Jeux de Peau, which I appreciate. I get a hint of that warm treacle note found in American tinned brown bread. I’ve noticed reviews here in which they say they can’t smell the rum. If you swallow a sip of rum (DARK rum, not the clear stuff, and not the spiced commercial Captain Morgan) and then breathe out through your nose— trust me, you’ll immediately “get it”. The rum note in SOYL is by no means faint, it’s deliciously intense and leathery. The cacao is sweet and powdery, like dark Dutch processed cocoa powder. But what brings me back again and again to wearing SOYL is the fantastic note of a very specific kind of smoke. When I first smelled this I couldn’t place why the subtle scent of the char in SOYL was so familiar, or why smelling it made me feel a deep sense of happy wonder. It’s the *story* of that particular kind of smoke in SOYL that made me fall in love with it. It’s not the smoke off of cones of balsamic incense, a wood fire or the sulphuric salt of burnt matchsticks. It’s somewhat close to the tallowed soot of extinguished candle wicks, but that’s not right either. It’s mineral, but in what contexts of human experience do the scents of smoke and mineral happen simultaneously? Volcanoes! Molten rock... the smell of a forge? Hmmm 🤔 Well, yes, but still not quite right. It came to me finally while having movie night with my two daughters. We were watching Clan of the Cave Bear (not my choice of movie, don’t judge me!😄🤷🏻♀️). I had been wearing SOYL for quite awhile at that time, still confused as to why that beloved note was so familiar. The scent memory suddenly hit me when watching Daryl Hannah in this movie discover how to create fire when she struck a piece of flint against a lump of iron pyrite, resulting in a large spark...and a wisp of smoke. When I was 11 years old, I remember doing the same thing in summer camp in northwest Texas. While camping one evening in a shallow canyon on the banks of the Guadalupe River, our camp guide (muscular, tanned and long blonde hair, like Daryl Hannah) passed out pieces of glittering pyrite from a burlap sack and showed us how to find chunks of flint, which were actually quite common around the area because of the amount of natural chalk within the surrounding sedimentary rock. She then showed us how we could generate sparks to make fire by striking these two natural materials together. After forming a nest of dried grasses, she made our campfire that evening this way. I recall how entranced we young preteen girls were by the magic of it, totally struck dumb at the magnificent sight of this strong, beautiful woman’s expertise with this primitive yet powerful survival skill. I remember all of us striking our stones together, brilliant sparks illuminating our laughing faces in the grey-lavender dusk of a Texas canyon twilight...and I remember that hot, mineral scent of scorched rock. Story of Your Life actually smells like a story of mine.😄

Got my hands on the sample kit with 20 small vials of ELDO's fragrances to try with my girlfriend. This was the sixteenth fragrance we tried from the collection together! I'll start with my experience; off the bat, I got huge boozy notes, a ton of balsam, alongside a punchy herby smell. As it dried down, the booze weakened, I got that sort of rye smell, and then the orange blossom took over the scent. It further developed into a woody baseline; maintaining the slighty sweet, yeasty qualities that were floating around before... with a side of beer. There's something dirty in my mix that lasts the whole way through as well. For my girlfriend, she got an opening of RUM - distinctively rum, like more of that rum flavor and less alcohol - and the bread and orange blossom. There were traces of the balsam notes but they were significantly weaker than on my own skin. Then it got sweeter from that vanilla note (which is fantastic) and it really lifted up the rum note; and the scent was overtaken with a resonant, warm amber. Very little "dirt" or "green" on her skin. This scent is quite polarizing, just from glancing at reviews and comments about this one. Given that I try these with my partner, it's fun to compare how the scents take to our skin - we've had a couple instances of "this smells different on you" in the sample set, but this immediately was "wow, that's really different on your skin." I have a feeling that the skin chemistry plays a way bigger role in the overall experience of this fragrance than most others we've tried from ELDO. It's definitely dynamic and not for everyone - which means this isn't a safe blind buy and you should absolutely try a sample prior to purchase. If you're looking for something similar from ELDO, the closest approximation is probably "Frustration" which is similarly rummy and sweet and not as confusing or complex. With that being said though, we really enjoyed our respective experiences with this fragrance quite a lot; it projects solidly (5-7 hours) and stays as a skin-scent for longer, and hovers around the body enough to detect it consistently. A favorite for us so far!

Immediately upon seeing the rating for this fragrance, it's a reminder that all fragrances are subjective and no matter how popular or highly-rated something is, you should still try it for yourself. If I came across Story of Your Life online, I wouldn't even bat an eye: No way am I going to blind-buy a fragrance with this low of a rating, and so easy to find online, it must not be in demand or liked. ...this boxed-in opinion I had for so long on fragrances is what lead me to purchase so many Designers and popular Niche's that I just ended up selling. Etat Libre D'Orange's Story of Your Life is a loud fragrance without being your traditional loud scent: That benzoin is noticeable right from the start and keeps throughout. It gives off a fizzy-drink vibe but only a few minutes later smells more edible, like a sweet bread. You might hear bread and think that's not a desirable smell you want, but it's done differently with this. I say it's not a traditional loud scent because it's versatile and different from anything in my collection. Usually you hear a scent is "loud and sweet" and you think it's a rough wear: Take JPG's Le Male Elixir, it shares some same accords but my goodness Le Male Elixir is headache-inducing and I sold it after a month. This one is done different, like a fresh spicy vanilla with some edible accords, where you can criticize this scent is that it almost feels like it has an identity crisis, like it wants to be sweet but also aromatic/fresh/spicy. However for me I love how versatile that makes it. As for longevity and projection: My brother wore this from morning to evening and it lasted literally all day, I kept picking up the scent around him and it projects so well even in open space, I am impressed with the quality and longevity of this one. TDLR: A sweet & spicy fragrance with an identity crisis but lasts all day and keeps you wanting more. 8.5/10

Reminds me of the incense smoke that lingered in my aunts linen curtains she hung in her historic home in downtown that I house sat the first fall of my undergrad. I’d bake biscuits in her tiny kitchen while playing house, imagining what it would be like live on my own. I consumed classical theatre scripts and detective fiction. I fell in love with a boy who was very much still a boy but loved The Smiths and so I loved The Smiths too. I walked along the riverside in the middle of autumn and felt so nostalgic from the smell of rotting leaves. I devoured French Canadian film in her basement that was lined with wood paneling and twinkle lights. That’s what this fragrance conjures in me; book pages, incense, sweet baking, and artificial life. Upon first test, this fragrance leaned so heavy into benzoin which smelt heavily synthetic that I almost couldn’t sense anything else at all. But I let it linger on me for the rest of the day, slowly settling in my skin, to eventually turn into a sweet warm reminiscence of vanilla lattes and wood. I gave the fragrance a try the next day and found I could identify more of the notes like the cocoa and patchouli. I definitely prefer the dry down much more than the top notes, and the top notes seem to linger for quite some time. I also found this to not have much projection and had to really get close to my skin to sense the notes, only sometimes get a whisper of it when I moved my hair away from my neck. This is a really good test for me in trying fragrances more than once. I really thought I would be giving this a disappointed review but I find myself loving it the more and more that I think about it and wear it on my skin. Sadly I used up my lucky scent sample on this last wear today but I am really debating ordering a larger decant of.

So if you liked Orto Parisi's Seminalis, this should be a really great match for you. I feel like it has the same spicy-warm, kinda milky tone, especially after the dry-down. It is not overwhelming and if Seminalis is too much projection for you, Story of your life is a great alternative, also because it's cheaper and Orto Parisi fragrances are very hard to find. I really love that one it's not too gourmand which I very much apriciate here. It does smell like some kind of sweet pastry with warm vanilla milk and orange-flower jam. It reminds me of a cozy afternoon in October, where the rain pours outside, the raindrops are knocking on the window-glass and sill. You're sitting on the sofa with a warm cup of vanilla milk, with a littlebit of brandy in it. The fire is crackling in the fireplace. The air is filled with the warm smell of wood, vanilla rain and freshly baked brioche. You're thinking about the long-past, your childhood memories, your grandparents. It is an amazing smell, perfectly balanced.