Seduction Theory

Seduction Theory by Universal Flowering. What a pleasant surprise! This was not on my radar at all, and in fact, I didn't even know I had it. My mother actually found it for me when I asked her to find a completely different fragrance in the same bag. I purchased directly from Universal Flowering about a year ago and received a large bag of fragrance samples with my purchase. There are so many that I randomly pick one out and wear it as my scent of the day. Today happened to be Seduction Theory! There is a vintage vibration to this fragrance. Done so on purpose! And done so very well. Yes, there is tobacco, similar to Jasmine cigarette From ELDO. That one is quite heavy on the cigarette ash. This one is not. I would consider this one to be quite the opposite. Seduction is very welcoming and approachable. My mother would not wear anything that remotely smells like cigarettes, and this one she simply loves! That tells me instantly this is fresh and beautiful. What makes this fragrance special is the great amount of depth that comes from the concept the fragrance was built from. If you are familiar with Revolutionary Road, the novel written by Richard Yates, you will easily be able to put yourself in the mindset where this fragrance rests. Familiar emptiness. Beauty within melancholy. This describes the fragrance better than simply saying it is a jasmine-focused composition. It is sad in a very elegant way. Or perhaps it is merely hiding its true feelings. Perhaps this tells me more about my mother than I initially thought. There are instances where fragrances truly do feel like art. Sometimes even masterpieces. They can evoke emotions often thought not possible within the limitations of perfumery. I personally think Seduction Theory has done so to me and I am excited again to see what else is out there.

I’m so glad I ignored warnings not to blind buy. The bottle is absolutely stunning. This was the perfect gift to myself at the end of an exhausting summer. After 7+ years of looking, I think I might have found my signature scent. Heartbroken it’s limited edition💔 This perfume smells like you stumbled drunk from the beach straight into a dimly lit dive bar, careened over to the counter and ashed your cigarette into someone else’s three-quarters full martini... It also smells like you’re a grad student sneaking back to your car after you and your dissertation advisor took a walk around campus to discuss academic matters together, but accidentally fell into a jasmine bush and started fucking. But don’t mistake this for a summertime fragrance. The cigarette-martini-jasmine-sex is surrounded a softer atmosphere of resins and smoke, this girl can be worn all seasons. But it’s not because she’s good natured and flexible. What makes this perfume so versatile is that it’s **inappropriate for all seasons.** It’s also inappropriate for both daytime and nighttime. Too martini-salt-sexy for cold weather, too smokey and resinous for warm weather. Too sexual for daytime, too much summer-jasmine-sunlight for nighttime. She gets kicked out of the literary salon for being too horny, then goes to a sex party and makes everyone uncomfortable with her decision to sit in the corner reading Freud. You can't take her anywhere, might as well take her everywhere. If you’ve spent your life feeling like an outsider in every room you walk into, no matter how good looking you are and how many martinis you drink, this one’s for you. Longevity is decent but sillage is quite intimate. I think you could layer this with less complex scents if you’d like her to be a bit better behaved for certain occasions.

A pheromone-like floral. My dark horse of the Universal Flowering fam. The star is pillowy, voluptuous jasmine. It’s flower made flesh, sweaty and humid. The supporting lychee is lush and drunken, a bang on lycheetini. Tobacco provides the bassline, incense the chorus. Something about it feels a bit retro – like 80s shoulder-pads retro – which might be the hairspray accord some have found. Simultaneously youthful and mature. Lasts all night on skin and my favourite jasmine to date, but I don’t have much occasion to stiletto about penthouse lounges. And if someone ever asked what I was wearing, would not be able to say its name with a straight face. Mental Snapshot: Running into your boss outside of work. Your hot boss. Think Sue from The Substance meets Cruella de Vil. She’s still in a suit, but her hair is tousled from the dancefloor and she’s got two cocktails in hand. One is for you. “If you can still finish that report by tomorrow.” Somewhere, a live band starts playing Careless Whisper. tl;dr: does what it says on the tin🍸🌃

Once, I made love to two men—a butcher and a barman—in the backseat of a Malibu headed nowhere in the outskirts of Regina. Heaved into by the meatman while the boozeboy drove, I zoned out to the rattling passage over rocky road. The air conditioner was harsh. Strong, loud, but hardly cooling. It only served to accentuate the swelter. The sex was not pleasant and my pussy ached for days after. But now that I'm older and in a semi-stable relationship on the trajectory towards marriage with a dog and kids, there's something tantalizing about the stale air of that Malibu. The clumsy, Budweiser-brained thrusting, the shameful indulgence, the entrées of sweat I drank. Even displeasure is cheery in retrospect. But in Proustian fashion, Seduction Theory resurrects the bimbo in me. She follows me into conference calls, into mild-mannered double-dates, into Christmas with boyfriend's family. She lives in my shadow, a reminder of what was, what I always can be.

This fragrance is the vintage fragrance of your dreams. I gives 80s sl*tty realness. Imagine (she)'s had a long week. Shes tired, shes over it, she wants to feel something. She goes out for a martini- lychee of course. But decides she wants to FEEL SOMETHING. Pulls up her black lace bra to show a little more through her dress.. goes into the bathroom and teases her highlighted hair and fringe real high and puts on a shade of red lipstick that would stand out even in a dark nightime alley. Heads to her car and throws on a leather jacket to arrive at a dive bar where she plays pool all night, smokes her cigs and eventually ends up with exchanging tongue and her blue eyeshadow all over the admirer by the bar.

Sipping lychee martinis in a humid room, the air is very hazy and heavy, there’s no air conditioning in this house. The elemi, myrrh, and tobacco come out. The tobacco is raw and it’s fruitiness mingles with the jasmine tea and the black currant, but the tobacco is the star. Something about this perfume smells very salty and sharp, but smooth and musky at the same time. It smells sweaty and dirty, like something you aren’t supposed to smell, but in the best way possible. The notes mix together so well that it’s more of a composition than a perfume. I’ve been wearing it every day for the last 3 days.

the myrrh and elemi are dominant throughout every stage of wear for me, theyre not overwhelmingly smoky or patchouli-adjacent. it feels like theyre thinly veiling your nose from detecting the other notes which is kind of..poetic? the jasmine can go by undetected. feels a tiny bit green but not in a grassy way, but comforting like diptyque philosykos (just the green aspect, it is not similar in any other sense) not so aromatic that it's headache inducing, the salty sweetness of the lychee is addicting and the rest of the notes are just there to comfort you while you take a nosedive

The opening is very harsh and almost old-fashioned, but stay with it for five more minutes and it opens up into a beautiful spicy floral composition. This is the only perfume that has prompted me to buy a full bottle after only spraying it once in the store. It’s in the same family as Flaming Creature, which I own and love to the point of obsession, so maybe I don’t *need* to have both, but I think they’re different enough to justify it. The fruity notes in Seduction Theory make it easier to wear year round, while Flaming Creature is definitely more of a fall/winter fragrance.

I probably wouldn't have picked this out for myself - received a sample as a freebie with a purchase. I'm really surprised by how much I enjoy it, especially because some of UF's other white florals don't work with my body chemistry. Smells like you needed to shower before going out but ran out of time, smeared on chalky red lipstick, and then spilled a lychee martini on yourself at the bar. It definitely leans feminine, but I'm not a feminine person and still find it really wearable. Doesn't hurt that the bottle is so pretty...I want it.

this reminds me of a french summer fling I had: he was gorgeous, snarky and hand rolled his own cigarettes and played the trumpet. we drunkenly made out in the back alley of a concert hall and he told me I reminded him of a symphony. he had a girlfriend. this is sexy, a little raunchy at first but then you realize it’s just confidence. it’s perfect for a night on the town. the lychee martini note is so gorgeous and sharp against the sensual jasmine. the tobacco and mhyrr ground the whole thing. another win for Courtney.

filthy hot weather perfume. intoxicating and sneakily dirty like smelling the sweat of someone you have a crush on but aren’t supposed to. it’s like someone took a cold shower on a hot day, put on jasmine body lotion, and then laid naked in the hot sun licking the salt off a martini glass and smoking a cigarette in plain view of the neighbours. wore my sample to work at the strip club once and immediately ordered a full bottle.. it’s a slutty one for sure. tart verging on sour, naughty, and beautifully blended. love

not as off-putting as many of the reviews have made it out to be—definitely not a blind buy, but give it a chance. not huge on the lychee note that dominates through when i spray on skin, but it was when i sprayed the sample on my shirt and was able to get that beautiful, bitter martini note that i knew i needed to FB this thing expeditiously. and though it’s not something i’d wear to work, it was a crowd favorite among the coworkers i ask to smell my samples. no piss detected i am happy to report. :-)

This is naughty!! Bitter, slightly sterile opening. Then there's sweet candy underneath the booze and sleaze. Jasmine beckons you. Very hot summer nights, mid July, when you and I were forever wild. I need her. Just not yet. She deserves to be worn by someone boundless, and I have a 10pm curfew. edit: I believe it was Gandhi who said "be the sexy freaky boundless angel girl you want to see in the world", so I bought the full bottle. Mwahahahahaaaa.

This smells like The Awakening by Kate Chopin in perfume form. The smell takes me to the last days of summer in turn-of-the-century New Orleans. Slightly elegantly stinky, like sweet sweat and a slightly furry cat-like vibe. It’s truly unique and beautiful.

Seduction theory to me smells like the woman I've always wanted to become. This is femme fatale, it's sultry, it's unforgettable. She's mysterious, intimately private, and hard to understand but that keeps you coming back for more. There's a bold bubblegum-like sweetness to it that undercuts the darkness of the tobacco and myrrh, like a good girl gone bad. The notes in this are doing a beautiful dance, none of them are overpowering each other or taking center stage.

A scent that makes you blush because it’s so confident in its stink. If you’re immature you’d smell this and go “peeeeyouuuu!!!” lol. If you’re like me, you’d only find the confidence to wear this after some drinks. It’s cool it’s dirty it’s womanly- not girly. It’s cleavage out boobs spilling out of the bra. It’s braless. It’s push-up bra. It’s a single woman on the prowl. But in no way is she desperate

This absolutely gives off a heady 80s vibe - it reminds me of obsession but (& I’m going back in my way way back machine here) with more white floral which adds to the seductive stank of it all. Would absolutely want to wear this out in a late night in the summer. It’s maybe a bit too heavy but here that feels like the point

Very sweet, lychee-forward, spicy, floral. Solid base, probably the myrrh. I like it but it's not my favorite out of the samples I got (Holy Hell is). Very unique, not too strange, but I think everything from UF is probably worth a try. If anything I wish they'd turn them up to 11, bring out a little more of the weirdness.

she's stinky! an overripe tropical fruit kind of stinky. a little pissy too dare i say. whoever wears this probably licks around the rim of a martini glass covered in salt and lemon sugar and doesn't break eye contact. too tart for my personal taste, but to each their own.

This smells similar to Lust from Lush, but even stinkier. It reminds me of a warehouse rave--fog machine, sweat, booze, smoke, a little bit of pee.