Heya gorgeous Olfactoria’s Travelers,
Portia with you all the way from Australian Perfume Junkies and Perfume Posse (and now writing for My Perfume Samples too). Today I wanted to talk Cheap & Cheerful. Frankly I think all this aspirational pricing is getting out of hand so let’s look at a super reasonably priced gem that has flown under the radar and if your aim is to smell good without all the attendant high end spend then this could be your frag.
Dead Sexy by Tokyo Milk Parfumerie Curiosité, was created in 2000.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Vanilla, woody notes, ebony, white orchid
I get a soft focus citrus opening that seems to be floating above an enormous bank of white musks, though it is not a big fragrance. Dead Sexy is muted and calm, clean and elegant. The woods are amorphous, no particular wood that I can discern but general woodsiness is hinted at, and its warm wood. The floral aspect is a little like stocks, no not really but a dream of a fresh vase of them as you walk past the room they’re in. As we reach the heart the orchid(?) and vanilla are twined and I get a hint of unnamed fruitiness too. The woods go smoky, fire and a hint of smoke, through the heart and the vanilla takes centre stage as we head for dry down, a sweet musky vanilla that still hints at woods. A spring vanilla.
Photo Stolen Flickr
I know it reads like a real roller coaster ride but Dead Sexy is not, these are all very minor increments and done in a bit of a haze. After about an hour Dead Sexy is a skin scent and it stays at this almost not there level for ages just slightly lifting the smell of my skin into something beautiful. There is something very comfortable about Dead Sexy, it is super hot but not in a forward way.
Dead Sexy would make an excellent office or date night scent where you don’t want to be overly fragrant. No one will tell you that Dead Sexy is an important or ground breaking fragrance, it’s not. It’s a slightly generic haze of a scent for when you’d like to smell clean, fresh and warm all day. You will have a hint of fragrant glamour that cruises along under the radar till you get in extremely close. Even then you will smell nice, not AH MAY ZING, but it’s the kind of nice that you can keep smelling all night and day. Not cloying or in your face. A perfect spritz and go.
My advice, wear it near where you want to be kissed.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
Further Reading: EauMG and My Perfume Diaries
Beauty Habit has $30/30ml
Do you have a favourite Cheap & Cheerful spritz & go frag? Tell us, we love to get the bargain shopping tips.
Portia xx
Olfactoria's Travels 
I love how you’re an Equal Opportunities Perfumista, Portia. You’ll give time to the cheapies as well as the luxe. This does sound like an attractive, easy wear with some nice warmth. Tokyo Milk seem to have some good buys in their line-up. Unfortunately I’m a sucker for the pricey stuff 🙂
Love both pics!
HA! Tara, I never picked you as a price point snob. Excellent, but I am such a frag ho that if it smells good I want it at any price point.
Have you ever tried the Tokyo Milk Hand Creams? I really like them and give them as gifts a lot.
Portia xx
Thank you Portia for putting this on my radar. I could not agree with you more about all the aspirational pricing. Frankly, it is beginning to put me off of trying new perfumes. Xo
Hi there Sandra,
There are whole houses of fragrance that I’m not trying just in case I fall madly in love. There has to be some sort of a line.
Portia xx
TM’s Arsenic is awesome, too!
And what a fabulous name too Carol. MMMM
Portia xx
Cheap is fun and makes me want to skip about!! Crown Bouquet, Le Couvents des Minimes Eau de Missions, Silences, Demeter’s Flower Show (plus a ton of others), Yardley’s Iris.
Silences Holly, What a beautiful choice, I love it so much. Did you ever try Niki de Saint Phalle? It’s getting harder to find but the search is well worth it.
Portia xx
I did try it ages ago, and I have a mini of it a few hundred miles away. I’ll be on the lookout.
How sensible to keep your minis close at hand, He he he. Why is it so far Holly?
Portia xx
Oh the lamb the lamb, if Dead Sexy makes me think of that pic I’ll want it 🙂 I don’t have any actual cheap frags, but I didn’t pay much for my ‘L’eau en blanc’ which I love, and I was clearly not alone, since it’s now being re-released.
HA! How freaking cute is that lamb? I couldn’t help but put it in.
Getting something expensive at a reasonable price is a very exciting moment.
Portia xx
I have to second Asali. The lamb is precious! I’ll take one of those and skip the perfumes, expensive or cheap 🙂
Ha Ha Ha Kandice! Lambs only stay that cute for the shortest time and then you either have to shear them or eat them, at least with fragrance after you’ve purchased all you need do is look and spritz.
Portia xx