Smell Ya Later

We welcome Dana Steinfeld, chief innovation officer, blue sky & founder of Anecdotes By Artists, to chat about how beauty incubators bring fragrance brands to life on a mass scale — from Being Frenshe and Fine'ry at Target and Ulta — to now the debut of  Anecdotes By Artists launching in Sephora. The new fragrance line champions the ambition of the perfumer (Patricia Choux for the inital three...

Yet another episode about everything we don't know and refuse to learn about what's going on in the Internet's fragrance community. Also, a recap of the Laundry Sauce x Arquiste Misfit launch event, a brief construction and deconstruction of what makes a fig scent, a Die Hot re-do, a few new scents we've smelled this week, and a visit to one of those venture-capital-funded bougie wellness contrast...

We've said over and over that we do not seasonalize scent (and we don't!). But in a world where fragrance is divvied up by what season it's appropriate for, are we just beating the same tired drum? Or are we correct? (We are correct.) Anyway. Here's an episode in which we're fighting for our lives against these allegations as we discuss some upcoming holiday scents from Athena Club, a laundry scen...

Can skin scents be gourmand? Can gourmand be a skin scent? With all these lactonic, milky, musky, mochi, scents now on the market, the answer is becoming, resoundingly: "Sure!"  Why not! I don't know! What we do know is the scents that we like of the lot and why. Here are the lot of them (that we could think of when recording) in this episode. [What we smell like today: Violet Grey Mme. Grey, Nett...

It's the our favorite season: awards. And this marks the 6th annual Smell ya Later awards, brought to you by none other than your hosts and their impeccable taste and expertise to bestow our beloved scents with their flowers in such esteemed categories as: The Honda Award For Best Accord or Note The Tynan Sinks Award for Biggest Fruit The Lactose Intolerant-Presenting Award for Best Milk Fragrance...

PSL season is upon us, which means... so is cuffing season. We're catching up after a late-summer break with a smelling spree on Fall's new fragrance drops, fragrances that were embargoed for weeks and that we're circling back to, and ones we wanted to talk about but, for no discernible reason, haven't yet. The lot includes some confusing irises, sexy cake scents, slutty going-out party girl scent...

Nick Axelrod-Welk can be credited with a lot of beauty culture's millennial-charged evolution in the 2010s, having co-founded Into The Gloss, Necessaire , and Homecourt . For his next act, he's launching a beauty house: Contrapposto , beginning with fine fragrance — 3 of them, in fact. We welcome Nick on this week's episode to talk us through the three scents created with master perfumers Frank Vo...

Perhaps you've heard of Athena Club, one of the millennial-era DTC personal care brands of the 2010s that offered period products, razors, and deodorant. Once fragrance entered the mix (and the brand entered Target and Walmart), Athena Club unofficially reintroduced itself with an assortment of eight scents across body wash, lotion, and fragrance mists. Most recently, their scents Banana Sunmilk a...

We have the pleasure and delight of welcoming comedian, director, and actor John Early as a guest on this week's episode to discuss his film Maddie's Secret — AND the fragrance of the same name, made in collaboration with Marissa Zappas and Ruby McCollister for the film. We get into the gourmand of the fragrance and how it reflects the foodie elements in the film, how so many "LA girl" ingredients...

We're catching up with new scents we've been living in for the past couple of months — some of which were embargoed by The Brands, some of which flew under the radar until recently, and a suspicious many of which are milky, musky, lactonic scents.  In short: what's the deal? In long: this episode. [What we smell like today: d.grayi Pandan, Valentino Vendetta Donna] 🌐 Find more info, episodes, and...

The Gap re-released its beloved fragrance line, "re-imagined" for today, which, in fragrance-speak, we know to mean reformulated. Formula updates are industry standard for quality protocols, but how do they change the scents themselves? Well, we can tell you in this episode just how the new line compares to the originals we have, and as we remember them. [What we smell like today: Athena Club Bana...

A repeat guest is a rare occurrence on Smell Ya Later, but when we heard that fragrance aficionado Funmi Monet had something big in the works, we had to bite. Influxious is Monet's brand-new fragrance line, inspired and informed by her Nigerian heritage. She joins us on this episode to talk us through her four debut fragrances, each with its own expression for how you want to feel, connected with...

We hosted the scent swap of the scentury last week (kidding, but also not kidding) at the Standard Highline, and 115 of you showed up to contribute to the second annual (?) scent circulation trade. This episode is a breathless recap of everything that went down: the community, the energy, the interlopers (we had a swaplifter!), and the lovely folks who helped it all happen: shoutout The Standard t...

We would never be flip about attending such illustrious events as a Knicks championship viewing party or the Fragrance Foundation Awards (affectionately known as the Fifis). Ha ha, of course not. We take the honor as seriously as we take this podcast, which has its own ideas about how awards categories could probably benefit from a bit more diversity. (But no one's paying us to award perfumes anyt...

Not to be boring, but we're talking about body mists again. Particularly body mists from luxury brands that we'd assume have a slightly more restrained strategy with releases. But, you know what, maybe it is actually that $imple, and we've been overthinking brands again for our allotted weekly yap. [What we smell like today: NETTE Mochi Banane] Don't forget!: 🏨HOTEL SMELL YA LATER🗝️ 6/25/26  6-9...

Well, you can, technically. But the collective understanding of cologne is very gendered. So, something to think about... Which, we do! in this yap-centric ep about a bunch of new smells we've smelled recently, AND a very exciting announcement: 🏨HOTEL SMELL YA LATER🗝️ 6/25/26  6-9 pm Join us at The Soda Shop at The Standard High Line to sip and swap with a few surprises...   Tickets are $15, and...

We chat with everyone's favorite esthetician and acne whisperer, Sofie Pavitt, on this episode. You might recognize her colorful skincare line, Sofie Pavitt Face, from countless Top Shelf name drops. She has the coolest facial studio in Chinatown where we (as well as every cool downtown figure) have had our mugs graced by her skillful hands. Lesser known, however, is that Sofie is just like us: a...

Slutty teen elixirs, plastic clouds, milky vanillas, musty vanillas, and an impressive new collection from everyone's favorite cloven-footed fashion brand — these are some of the new smells we tackle today, choking through a cloud of blotters without proper ventilation. We do it all for you, the listener! [What we smell like today: Mugler Angel Blush, Eleasium birth!] 🌐 Find more info, episodes,...

Seems like fragrance is revisiting a certain kind of scent profile combo dubbed by traditional perfumery as chypre (a scent profile we both keep forgetting about). We smell a few modern releases taking the idea and giving it a modern interpretation, as well as a few more new-ish scents in varying degrees of "sure, okay!" and "oh yes, that!" [What we smell like today: MEMO Paris Cap Camarat, D'orsa...

Sort of, yes, kind of, more than before... It's just us this episode, chatting about some fun new fragrance releases (Vacation's new Orange Gelée collection, Born To Stand Out, etc), some BBB [beautiful but basic] fragrances (Guerlain's wedding collection, yet another Born in Roma, etc), and some ones we do not quite understand, but "sure, why the hell not?" (Notewrks's new "for men but also every...

On this week's ep, we have Bryan Edwards, co-founder & CEO of Snif, one of the first brands to kick off the DTC fragrance-buying format. With clever and experimental scent releases that have always injected a bit of cheeky humor into fragrance, they're stretching in polar directions in a way that most brands would dare to endeavor — one way that engages with nostalgia-driven fun with pancake,...

While perfume for dogs continues to miss, one pet grooming category — the shampoo and coat conditioner — remained woefully underconsidered. Enter Biche , a luxury pet grooming line launched by friend of the pod, Alexandra Pauly . The former High Snobiety beauty editor, fragrance enthusiast, and dog mom set out to create a line of pet shampoo and coat conditioning oil that would make bathtime a mor...

An us chat about a week of new smells, featuring this modern, salty, solar fragrance accord that seems to be everywhere now, being humbled by luxury brands, new venture capital-backed fragrances, a listener voice message about the alleged almond-pocalypse, and, y'know, the general ranting we inevitably do. [What we smell like today: Discotheque Lola At Coatcheck, IRFĒ Marshmallow Musk] 🌐 Find mor...

Two NYC icons, Susan Korn, aka Susan Alexandra, and perfumer Marissa Zappa teamed up to create Glorious, the first official scent of Susan Alexandra's jewelry and accessories brand. You know the colorful beaded bags and fun charm jewelry on site, and now you can experience the brand's signature playful delight with its first scent. We speak with Susan Korn on this episode about how she started her...

We're back after a wee break (vacation, life, etc) with a listener question about the pros/cons/whats with plunking down the dollars for a full-size scent vs. taking home a discovery set when in the market for niche fragrances abroad. We also discuss a handful of new scents from D.S. & Durga's Debaser In Bloom, Summer Fridays Sunlit Vanilla, Non-Fiction, Sidia, and more. [What we smell like to...