Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.

Scenting the season 🌻🌹🌺🌷

Of the girlie perfume genres, we at Sample Sluts tend to lean more vanilla than floral. That said, we smell a lot of perfume for you bitches, so our tastes have naturally expanded. Some of these perfumes have genuinely humbled us. You could even call us recovered floral skeptics. If you think you’re too tough for flowers, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s put the leather and incense away for one sec and try to smell like spring because word on the street is that it has sprung. Also, please share your favorite florals in the comments—we’re always on the hunt to expand our bouquets!

Lilac no. 4 by Universal Flowering

We all know I am a Courtney Rafuse superfan. The Toronto-based perfumer makes and bottles every scent herself at Universal Flowering, and is one half of Gummamina with Marissa Zappas, another icon. Rafuse’s work is “formulated in dialogue with the liminal, the erotic, and the unsteady autobiography of memory,” and her bottles are fucking gorgeous. She also writes poetic copy that originates from her diaries. For Lilac no. 4, she writes: “the lilacs are at it again! the whole block drunk on purple light.” Lilac no. 4 is that kind of drunk on purple feeling: it’s a photorealistic lilac bush right after it rains, the suburbs in the spring—pastel-colored and soaking wet. It converted me to purple florals entirely (I actually have a full bottle of this; rare!). This is quite literally the scent of spring.

Hot or cold? Cool like a spring rain.
Who wears it? Your high school best friend’s cool older sister.
Place? Suburban garden in full bloom.
Animal? Purple butterfly.
Song? “Butterfly Net” by Caroline Polachek.
Texture? Damp petals.
Signature drink? Lilac wine.
Favorite word? “Dewy.”
Vampire or angel? Wet angel.

—Anna

No. 44 Fire and Rain by Cognoscenti

I recently fell in love with Dannielle Sergent, the artist and perfumer behind Cognoscenti. This is the first and only Cognoscenti fragrance I’ve sampled so far—thank you to the kind geniuses of Decant Planet for throwing it in my last order—and it certainly will not be the last! No. 44 Fire and Rain is a perfect petrichor scent, yes, but to me it’s like being in a fantasy botanical garden after a storm. The floral notes here are at once incredibly light and immersive. Like the great Carnal Flower, it has the ability to turn me feral in seconds. I normally have a deranged streak of body dysmorphia, but wearing Fire and Rain makes me feel obsessed with myself. This is the kind of perfume that merits a new dress, fancy dinner reservation, and possibly a round-trip flight somewhere warm. It’s my new favorite dirt scent—an extremely high bar to clear, even though it is literally underground!

Hot or cold? Sweaty but also shivering.
Who wears it? Hot L.A. woman in a silk slip dress.
Place? Griffith Park garden after a rare downpour.
Animal? Two hummingbirds sheltering inside a rose.
Song? “Crystallise My Tears” by Danny L Harle, Oklou, and MNEK
Texture? Wet dirt, duh.
Signature drink? Ice cold lemonade garnished with edible flowers.
Favorite word? “Elemental.”
Vampire or angel? Angels making out in the bushes.

—Crissy

Little Flower by Régime des Fleurs

Before I was into purple florals, I was into rose. And Little Flower is in my rose hall of fame. I’m picking her here because she is the greenest, most springlike of my favorite roses, truly the happiest, coolest rose around. Régime des Fleurs founders Alia Raza and Ezra Woods teamed up with Chloë Sevigny for this, so it’s obvi cool. Chloë is apparently a lifelong rose obsessive who wore Comme des Garçons Rose for years before it was discontinued. Little Flower is what she wanted next: freshly bloomed rose with tart blackcurrant, sharp green leaves, pomelo, black tea, and a palo santo base. Think a more indie Delina, a more complex Rose Struck by Liis, a sexier L’Ombre Dans L’Eau. This is not your grandma’s rose.

Hot or cold? Cool like Chloë’s shade of blonde.
Who wears it? It Girls trying not to smell like the subway.
Place? A rose bush in Tompkins Square Park.
Animal? Rose-breasted grosbeak in Central Park.
Song? “Let Me Kiss You” by Morrissey.
Texture? The laces on your ballet sneakers.
Signature drink? Baudry Greene’s rouge claire negroni.
Favorite word? “Crush.”
Vampire or angel? Vampire in blush pink.

—Anna

Freckled and Beautiful by What We Do Is Secret

Another incredibly horny scent! Don’t say we ever let you down. Freckled and Beautiful lives up to its name, conjuring images of perfect summers, skin-on-skin, and bikinis on the floor. To me, it smacks of honeysuckle in the best way, swirling with something like sunscreen, coconut, vanilla, and fresh neroli. It’s the most floral gourmand I’ve ever encountered, and as they say on Love Island, it ticks all my boxes. They say it has notes of ‘warm milk and pastry crust’ and they’re not wrong, but it’s like a freshly baked confection served with a side of fresh orange blossoms next to the pool at a five-star hotel. I’ll be wearing it all summer.

Hot or cold? Sunburnt.
Who wears it? Dua Lipa on her 37th vacation of the year.
Place? Under a floral trellis at Chateau Marmont.
Animal? Papillon in a picnic basket.
Song? “sweetener” by Ariana Grande.
Texture? Gingham mini skirt.
Signature drink? Bottomless bellinis on someone else’s tab.
Favorite word? “Golden.”
Vampire or angel? Bloodsucker with a perfect smile.

—Crissy

📸📸📸 Camera roll 📸📸📸
🌻🌹🌺 Floral edition 🌹🌺🌷

New Order’s Power, Corruption, and Lies (1983) paired with Ombre Rose by Jean-Charles Brosseau (1981).

Kate Moss with calla lilies in the 90s paired with Michael by Michael Kors (2000)

Lily-Rose Depp with rose bush paired with Chanel No. 5 L’Eau.

Joni Mitchell with a lily in her hair paired with Clinique Aromatics Elixir (1971).

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999) paired with Ame Toscane by ID Parfums (1996).