Vanilla

Creamy, almondy, sandalwood VANILLA oriented scent. The almond / tonka notes give me smooth amoretto vibes. Also / contrastingly, but at the same time- maybe even more like the vanilla ice cream in a root beer float, but somehow isolated, and without the root beer. It seems to radiate a creamy ”heat” of a grown up (again) amoretto topped vanilla ice cream on my skin. It’s surprisingly unusual (imo) and one of the people in my life who does not usually like sweet fragrances told me he is shocked to like this and complimented it on me, asking to smell it over and over again. He is not the only person in my life who has complimented it in the first two days of me having it that is not usually interested in this sort of fragrance, either. It’s not SUPER sweet, but it’s still SOFTLY sweet and very creamy and nutty. Predictably; it’s an amazing layering scent! One spray of lost cherry with 2 sprays of this smells like the most amazing warm cherry pie with fancy ice cream! I also tried it with Eben Fume and it made it a sweeter vanilla woodsy scent that I love! Really nice extra creaminess w Plum Japonais and Cafe Rose, too. I see limitless potential for layering like this and that versatility is exciting for me. It’s not a tough wear, or an intellectual fragrance (of course). It’s a simple one, but beautifully done and really delightful. The bottle and color is super cute in my collection of TF , and I can tell I will be reaching for this one often - it’s a no brainer. An easy fragrance to wear, with the silly name - that will probably be quite successful for those reasons. Out of the newer TF releases, it is definitely my favorite from the past half decade or so. BUT— I love simple vanilla fragrances. (Tihota is my #1 and btw this is nothing like that, that being a benzoin /musc/ vanilla). Definitely not understanding the Babycat comparisons... All around, very nice! But I am that audience that loves Tom ford and gourmands / vanillas Safe.

I probably look like spam at this point for the amount of times I have reviewed this fragrance, but I felt the need to return once more to reiterate how much this perfume means to me, because you never know when a brand will discontinue.. I come to this page often for a temperature check, and because I’m a broke med student, I can’t afford to just buy 10-20 backup bottles. My mom actually buys my VS for me bc of it. I noticed that Tom Ford has already discontinued the collector’s 250mL and replaced it with the 100mL. (By the way, this is the first time Tom Ford has ever offered Vanilla Sex in a 100ml, so beware of buying from resellers because scammers have been making that size for years). Vanilla isn’t just a simple pleasure for me— and collecting is not a hobby of mine. I could be completely satisfied owning only one perfume for the rest of my life if it is Vanilla Sex. Vanilla is my medicine. I have had severe anxiety and med resistant depression almost my whole life, and vanilla perfumes have saved my life on days I wanted to give up, and almost did . I can feel myself healing on a molecular level when the scent of Vanilla Sex enters my body. I’m such a vanilla connoisseur, I can always tell when a fragrance contains authentic vanilla notes versus just a bunch of aroma chemicals. This is the real thing. And let me tell you, I’m picky. Yann Vasnier did his big one here... and it sucks that so many of you guys only smell urine and private parts! I wish everyone could experience the pure bliss that this masterpiece is made of. See my other reviews for more details bc this is already too long.

I tried Vanilla Sex on for the first time 10 days ago while browsing at the department store and didn’t expect to like it so much. I remember spraying my wrists and then going “Oooh not bad!” Then I continued shopping for the next two hours and couldn’t stop sniffing my wrists. I’m telling you, I was sniffing myself every couple seconds. I felt perplexed. I definitely enjoyed the scent but was it worth the exorbitant price tag? I had to walk away. A week passes and I still cannot get the fragrance out of my head. I had a gift card from my birthday which had HKD$1500 (~$190USD) on it, so with that, I opted to get the 30ml bottle which costed $2040 (~$260USD), meaning I still had to fork out $540 (~$70USD) of my own money. The bottle just arrived at my doorstep and I immediately opened and gave myself a good 8-10 sprays on both sides of my arms, neck and behind the ears. I’ve been sitting with the fragrance for close to an hour and it is absolutely delightful on my skin. It is an almond leaning vanilla scent and is giving vanilla bean milkshake on me. I am so happy to have and able to enjoy it. The scent is very comforting to me and makes me happy 😊

As soon as the fragrance was released, I bought a full bottle right away. I liked it, but at some point I eventually decided to sell it. Still, mentally, I kept coming back to it from time to time. Today I decided to stop by a perfume store and refresh my memories. And the second time around, I liked it even more 😬 For me, it’s one of the most beautiful fragrances in the gourmand vanilla category. I realized that the bottle needs to return to my collection, because I haven’t come across anything similar. When the updated note pyramid was released, it finally became clear where some people detect so-called urinous nuances , apparently the animalic facet comes across that way to some. The animalic facet, apparently, comes across that way to some noses, just like in another fragrance with a similar profile, Initio - Absolute Aphrodisiac, which also has an animalic touch that isn’t to everyone’s taste. But both fragrances are beautiful 😍

I hadn't read anything about this perfume before smelling it, so I was quite surprised by the negative reviews. However, it is striking that I have seen before that pheromone-like scents are perceived very differently; now I just haven't decided yet whether this scent smells bad to some people because the fragrance isn't sexually compatible with them or because they haven't stuck their noses into flowers often enough to discover that urine can actually smell quite nice. To me, this smells like a damp, sun-warmed oleander that, immediately after spraying, has a very smoky quality that changes on the skin into something sweet and synthetic, reminiscent of condoms, and over time leans more towards vanilla ice cream. I’m very excited about this scent!