Without A Trace

I am in absolute love with this! I am so surprised at how much I’ve been into it. I’m a Chanel boy, but not a snob because I’m not rich, I just like quality and a nice blend. And overall, I want to smell nice and feel good about what I’m wearing. I did not think I’d find an option at...Target!! Lol! But, ya never know! I first bought the body spray when I was at Target grabbing some deodorant and razors. As a fragrance lover, and I’m sure many of you are the same, I always have to stop by where the fragrances are. Even if they are not niche or designer, sometimes you can find a gem even at a drugstore if you have an open mind! I thought at first I liked “I’m a Musk” but something became off-putting. Then I smelled Flower Bed and that was what I was going to buy. But something about the color of Without a Trace (peachy - one of my favs) and the name called out to me. I was holding Flower Bed in my hand when I lifted the cap off of WAT and within moments put Flower Bed back on the self. This is a clean, musky, powdery scent that I’ve been searching for. I’m sure there’s something out there I’d like more, but this was a surprising good first impression. I didn’t spend much time with it before buying, as I felt I’d like it on its own and as a layering scent. I was not wrong. The body mist has pretty decent longevity (I think about 5/6 hours) with enough projection for the type of scent that it is. Within days though, I found a bottle of the Eau De Parfum on Mercari with only a few sprays missing, for pretty cheap. So I obviously got that, and I don’t regret a thing. The EDP has even better projection. The longevity remains a slight mystery. I wore it to work the other day, on what was the last cool day of Spring in my area before humidity and high heat came to take over until September. I wore it while wearing white shorts and a sweater with pastel pink/light blue/lavender cloudy prints (like a sky in the late afternoon sometimes) and it was perfect. At first I thought maybe it had died, or dissipated I should say, but then I got busy (I’m a server). As I was running back and forth, pouring beer, and moving swiftly...Without a Trace started PROJECTING! I don’t know if anyone else noticed it but me, but I was getting strong whiffs of it while moving around and although I got nervous (I don’t want someone to complain about my fragrance), I was loving every moment of it and the wafts were like aromatherapy. Just, so comforting. Something about it reminds me of the past, or something. Maybe another perfume from the late 90s, early 2000s. Or maybe the clean laundry at my grandmothers, her nice face/hand/body creams, and getting into clean sheets at night after helping gma clean and her bathing me and dusting me with Chanel powder as a small boy. I’m going to stock up on this, it’s a dream. I’ve tried so many musk scents recently, and besides Chance by Chanel (my signature), this is the best for me. I recently got a bottle of Jovan’s White Musk and although I love it, it’s not like this imo. One that this really reminds of is Noa by Cacharel. Not the same scent, but similar vibes. And I’m going to try the Egyptian Musk or Egyptian Goddess from Auric Blends, even though I don’t like applying perfume oils, but I want even more of this type of scent so I will report back. Also I’ve layered this with Chance by Chanel (original EDT and EDP) and Calandre by Paco Rabanne with wonderful results. 🥀 Update 06/2025 - This is surprisingly long lasting! I have layered this underneath another fragrance for work or going out, and woken up the next day to only this scent remaining. Wow! I also think this has really good projection. One of the most affordable options with bang for your buck when it comes to a body spray and edp. Would love a lotion/body cream of this too if I’m being honest.

I recently sampled Phlur's Missing Person at my local Sephora store and liked it but didn't fall in love with it - I was in more of a gourmand mood that day and ended up leaving with a completely different fragrance. In my quest for a skin scent, I ended up buying Soft Spot blind and loving it, which led me to consider Missing Person again. (Very "if you give a mouse a cookie" vibes.) Rather than spend another $99, I picked up Without a Trace at my local Target for under $20 on sale. So many of my reviews make use of "nostalgic" as a descriptor and this one is no different. It's somehow clean, cozy, fresh, and warm all at once. This isn't the warmth of a fireplace or a cup of cocoa, it's the warmth of a lofty blanket when the house is chilly or a hot shower and a fresh towel afterward. It almost instantly reminded me of Philsophy's Amazing Grace and Pure Grace, but after sampling them all side by side I think they're actually very distant cousins. I get the citrus opening and the musky drydown on all three, but the middle and overall impressions are very different. (Amazing Grace is floral-clean and Pure Grace is soapy-clean.) Continuing with the clean/cozy/fresh/warm dichotomy, this is both long-lasting and incredibly intimate, to the point where I thought I was nose blind to it and was very disappointed. I sprayed it on last night after a shower and could barely smell anything on my wrist 10 minutes later, but was able to detect it here and there when it wafted up to my nose. I could still smell it wafting this morning when waking up, and even got a hint of it on my wrist... but am back to nothing on wrists and the occasional whiff after a reapplication. Weirdly I'm not disappointed by this, as it's nice change from other fragrances in my collection. All in all, this is an affordable, versatile, inoffensive skin scent that I could see myself wearing year-round for everything from WFH and in-office days to lazy weekends on the couch and date nights out. It's absolutely worth trying at this price point if you've been curious about Missing Person and/or this vibe in general!

I have been eyeing Phlur’s Missing Person for a while. Whenever I see a predominantly musky skin scent, I’m always intrigued. However, with Missing Person, I already have or have had 9 of the listed dupes. I couldn’t justify buying it particularly because of the price and the fact that many people were complaining about the quality/performance. I had already tried the Fine’ry dupe for Jo Malone’s Wood Sage & Sea Salt. I wasn’t initially impressed by that one but I eventually grew to like it a lot. Trying Without a Trace was a no-brainer for me after I discovered it in Target. While I might have no familiarity with MP, I do have some with quality musk-centric fragrances. Without A Trace could easily be a Narciso Rodriguez, Kayali, or Serge Lutens creation. Also, this does feel like a dressed up, modernized version of Jovan’s White Musk. There’s a slightly complex aspect here that I think is missing from White Musk. I think the review below me is correct, it must be the suede that’s helping to project a deeply subdued, realistically clean sensation that melds with your natural skin chemistry. It’s similar to how Clean’s Skin uses leather to create an epidermal base that amplifies the sweet & musky elements. It’s not simply just fresh or powdery. I am getting so sick of saying and hearing the phrase, “your skin but better,” to describe a fragrance but that’s absolutely what WAT is. Put simply, it just replicates the smell of a naturally clean and freshly showered body. Of course, nothing new or that hasn’t been done before but it’s done accurately. Performance isn’t the best on me but I have a feeling that it will improve once it macerates which is usually the case with musks. I love wearing this alone but it enhances my favorite soapy perfumes like Glow and Lovely so beautifully. The bottle isn’t the greatest and the cap keeps coming loose but it’s not a huge dealbreaker. For the price, it’s phenomenal. If you’re a musk/skin scent lover, this won’t disappoint.

I LOVE this so much. After reading about Phlur Missing Person I determined that it sounded like it's in the same family as the Egyptian Musk scents I like so much. I've been wearing Auric Blends Egyptian Goddess since the 90s but I tend to become noseblind to it quickly. After a while all I can smell is pencil shavings where others can still smell it fully. I couldn't ever seem to find a Phlur sample in Sephora though. Then I heard about Fine'ry's Without a Trace and ran to Target to try it. I was not disappointed. I got the body mist btw, as they were out of the EDT. I sprayed it as soon as I got back in my car and was immediately enraptured by this scent. It's soft and has that same unidentifiable floral musk quality as Egyptian Goddess. In other words, I cannot identify what flowers I'm smelling or any specific notes. I just get this beautiful, smooth, feminine skin scent that's unlike most fragrances out there. Without a Trace is not Egyptian Goddess, but it's definitely a cousin. So if you like EG I think you will like WaT. Plus, I don't seem to become noseblind or anosmic to this. I've been wearing it daily since purchasing and I sometimes layer it with Violet Magnolia by Good Chemistry or Brightest Bloom by B&BW. It makes a great "bed" for those brighter florals. It's wonderful on its own too. I may try layering it with Egyptian Goddess and see if I actually explode from too much goodness. This fragrance has me so enchanted. I have many fragrances but this one feels like Me. A definite repurchase.

Yes, this is an excellent dupe for Missing Person. There is absolutely no need to spend a ton of money on the OG. On me, this lasts just as long, if not longer. If I had to describe this scent I would say it's very musky, creamy, almost like a clean new clothing store with the neatest folded clothes and everything in the store is modern and earth toned, the music is low and soft, the lighting is just a glow. I personally wear this with a leather jacket, mom jeans, Converse, and simple jewelry. A true slick-back isn’t my best look, so I usually go for a soft blowout to get that clean-girl aesthetic, and this fragrance completes it perfectly. On some days, I layer it with JHAG Pear and the result is the coolest, cleanest, most luxurious scent, like I just took the best everything shower. It's the scent you wear when you don't want to be overbearing, just pleasant to be around. Some days I get out of the shower, douse myself in MIIMIIC 91, put on a cozy matching PJ set, then douse myself in Without A Trace. It's an impeccable combo for bed.