Taipei

I am very much aware how popular this fragrance is becoming. I don't follow anything on social media, but I still get a good idea. Every time I try to purchase it, it is always sold out! That is a good indicator. I will admit. I have only tried it once before, and that one time really stuck with me. It is a very good fragrance. Very good! Sometimes it's very hard to explain why it is good versus not good. Sometimes a fragrance just has that quality. Very similar to humans. It just has it. It is sweet without being too sweet. It's milky without being over done. A tiny bit of salt comes from the rice accord. It becomes very balanced when that is added in. And that makes for an enjoyable experience where you can wear it for a long period of time without getting sick or nauseous or simply just tired of smelling it. It also wears very light. Now, if you were to ask me, I would say it is a little bit too light. I like to wear mine a bit heavier than the average person. However, it is perfectly fine for the typical fragrance connoisseur. I'm sure if they were to change it, the overall composition and the smell would change as well, and if we are talking about just the smell, I don't think you can get any better than where it is right now. So I'm very happy they did not try. The corn chip thing? I don't get that whatsoever. Keep in mind the things that you eat and drink every day influences how you smell. You might want to cut back on some things if you are smelling corn chips here. That does not come up for me and I'm quite certain it should not come up for anyone else. Taipei does not change overtime and I don't think it's supposed to. It's very straightforward and I don't mind that at all. In my opinion, it is a perfect Night time of fragrance as in going to bed. Not necessarily going out at night. Very similar to a cup of warm milk and honey. Perhaps good for the really early morning as well. Maybe it is raining outside at around 6:30 in the morning and you would really like something comforting to help you get going. This is the fragrance for that. The more I talk about it, the more I want it! At this point for me, it's very hard to find a fragrance that is unique and enjoyable enough to purchase a whole bottle. I am currently on a milk tangent. I have been craving it and have been trying to add to my collection. I don't have anything quite like this. I wanted something light but not weak. Something sweet but not sickening or overly done. I didn't want anything complex, but I also didn't want it to be boring or something that I had to compromise. I am aware it sounds Goldilocks. It is even more surprising that I found it! Thank you to whoever made Taipei. It may not be for everybody, but it certainly is for me. You have reignited my love for perfumery and I am looking forward to what is coming next.

Soy milk in Taiwan is very different from American soy milk. It has an almost nutty quality to it. My favorite breakfast in Taipei features a steaming bowl of soy milk, (sweetened with several spoonfulls of sugar) and youtiao (an airy fried dough). You dip the youtiao in the piping hot soy milk, it soaks it up and becomes almost custardy. The vendors who make their soy milk fresh the traditional way (and their youtiao extra fluffy and flaky) always have crazy long lines in Taipei. In the states, you can buy powder mix to make Taiwanese soy milk, but it doesn’t taste the same. It doesn’t taste the way this fragrance smells. Ever since I was a little girl, I loved having a bowl of soy milk all to myself. I knew lunch time was approaching by the smell of a rice cooker just popped open, or freshly steamed taro. Taipei by One Day captures all of those scents perfectly. It’s evocative the way I think all gourmands should be. It’s powdery, but powdery like taro, certainly not like baby powder. I love to spray this right before bed. It smells like a hug: selfless, desperately sweet and a little bit sad. But maybe that’s just my association with these memories. (p.s. this scent is often compared to White Rice, which I was very disappointed by. It didn’t smell like rice and it didn’t last at all on my skin.)

I am very addicted to this perfume. This is my first "gourmand" and as a starch-y / salty snacks girl, I did not realize I would enjoy smelling savory as much as I do. I first sniffed this at Stéle in their SoHo location on a hot hot summer's day when I asked the store owner for an usual recco he could provide me for the season. I didn't buy it then and there which frustrates me to no end because it was suddenly sold out for MONTHS. During that time I had such a strong olfactive memory recall of what it smelled like and I grew to desperately yearn for this perfume. My mother lovingly gifted me a full bottle for my birthday and I have to hold myself back from wearing it every single day, reapplying multiple times a day or bringing with me when I go out. I need to GET A GRIP ;) This just calms and soothes me in a way I am unsure how to put into words. I put this on in the morning when I wish I was still in bed. I put this on before I have to run annoying errands to keep my mood in check. I wear this post-shower in my softest PJs, water bottle filled with ice water and ready to binge my favorite comfort show before going to sleep. Such a special scent that I will be buying over and over again as I am sure I will use this bottle to the last drop.

They did it boys, they did it. They made me want to smell like soy milk. Wow. This is a beautiful bear hug of a lactonic. It’s a nutty, blond-wood cream, ever so slightly sweetened with taro. But not too sweet. I also get that musty, Frito-y dog paw scent, but in the best way possible. While I always fear these milky musks will wind up sheer, Taipei held for at least 6 hours and had a close, dense scent bubble. It’s everything I wanted in d'Annam's White Rice. I feel like this opaque, savoury lactonic is a profile I hadn’t come across until this year (also see Arielle Shoshana’s rice puddingy Sunday), and I love this niche. Perfectly unisex too, for all soy boys/girls/theys. Mental Snapshot: A cloudy morning, in a city you’ve never been before. You wake up in a childhood friend’s loft. Strange, but familiar. The celling-to-floor windows yawn upon a misty jungle of high-rises and balcony gardens. You nestle under the duvets, savouring a mug of milk tea. tl;dr: milky beans 🥛🐾

This is so good. Being tawainese, I was super excited to this get and it did not disappoint. You can definitely smell the different facets of this: the rice, the taro and the soy milk. It smells a lot like the little chewey taro rice balls (tan yuen, iykyk) that is used in a hot sweet water broth or as a shaved ice topping. I also have dannam white rice and while I see the similarities, they’re different enough to own both. Dannam is a bit of a colder, drier rice, with the iris to mimic the rice accord being somewhat discernible. Taipei is a smoother, more gourmand rice with a touch of sweetness. At first I thought it was similar to strangers perfumarie Chokadee or sweet farewell but it never approached their sweetness levels. TL:dr - very good nostalgic scent that should be comforting and nostalgic to any Taiwanese person :)