scent of the day: whispers in the library (maison martin margiela)
now this i adore. it’s a simple, linear fragrance, but it’s really well executed. the vanilla is warm and papery, the woods smell resinous like freshly polished furniture, and there is a bit of an camphoraceous/resinous incense note too, but not in a church service kind of way. it enhances the dust-motes-caught-in-a-sunray atmosphere of the fragrance and also hints at the scent properties of ink and binding materials, and even of an apothecary’s medicinal cabinet. very evocative and faithful to the premise of an old library.
whispers in the library’s vanilla is so heady it verges on boozy. avoid if that’s not your type of scent or if you have an aversion to anything mothball-adjacent, but if you’ve ever felt intoxicated by the scent of an old bookshop (minus any sneeze-inducing dust), this will be a dream come true. it’s very gender-neutral, too. it may be one of my favourite replica scents, next to coffee break.
