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Do you ever fancy treating yourself to a new perfume, but you have no idea where to start? Finding a perfume you love can be tricky, especially when there is so much choice out there. If you’re shopping online, it’s even harder to know which perfume you would like. That’s why many perfume brands these days offer sample sets so you can try out their range before committing to a full-sized bottle.
This is the case with Electimuss, a luxury fragrance brand based in London. I was gifted their Discovery Selection Box which contains 20 perfume samples from their range. I decided to work my way through the perfumes, using one at a time until I’d tried them all. I’ll take you through my experience, but first, here’s a little more information about Electimuss.
About Electimuss
Electimuss London is a luxury fragrance company founded in 2015 by Luke Granger and Jason Collison. It is inspired by Ancient Rome, a culture where perfume was of great importance. Electimuss work with some of the world’s best perfumers to create high quality, unique and creative perfumes for fragrance lovers.
The name ‘Electimuss’ means ‘to choose the best’ in latin and they are all about quality. They use rare and precious ingredients, and all of their perfumes are ‘pure parfum’ with 25% or 30% concentration, meaning that they have great longevity and a little goes a long way.
First Impressions
The Discovery Set arrived in a cardboard box, padded out with brown paper. The set was wrapped in pretty, striped paper with a ribbon tied around it – it felt like opening a present! The set itself came in a luxurious looking purple box with the Electimuss London brand name on the lid. The majority of the packaging was recyclable, being made of paper and card rather than plastic, and I appreciated that the brand is making the effort to be sustainable with their packaging.
The packaging is so pretty and it speaks quality! I could already tell at this stage that these were luxury perfumes, and it was even more obvious from looking at the website and seeing what the full-sized bottles look like. They are beautiful and elegant, and you can clearly see the Ancient Roman influence.
The 20 perfumes came in small 1.8ml vials, each with the name of the perfume on the side. This was really helpful for telling which perfume was which. I also appreciated that the vials came with spray tops rather than being the type you have to dab on. I find sprays much easier for applying the right amount.
Luxurious, Unique and Varied
I am no perfume expert, but to me, Electimuss perfumes really smell like luxury. They are not your ordinary, generic high-street scents. They are really unique and there were several, including Auster, Black Caviar and Silvanus, that made me think, ‘I’ve never smelt anything like that before’.
My favourite type of scents are sweet and gourmand but I appreciate that everyone’s taste is different. In this discovery box, there truly is something for everyone as there are so many different types of scent.
The perfumes are arranged in alphabetical order rather than by the type of scent, and I tried them in that order. It just so happened that many of the first perfumes in the box, such as Amber Aquilaria and Aquila Absolute had spicy scents, so I got the impression that was their signature kind of scent. I began to doubt there would be any sweet or gourmand perfumes, but in actual fact, many of the later perfumes were sweeter and more gourmand. These included Imperium and Mercurial Cashmere.
Other types of scent included were medicinal (I felt Aurora and Puritas fell into that category), fruity (Celestial, Rhodanthe), and floral such as Auster, and many perfumes fell into multiple categories. There is really something for every preference.
These Perfumes are Strong!
As mentioned earlier, all of Electimuss Perfumes are ‘pure parfum’, with a concentration of 20-30%, rather than ‘eau de parfum’ or ‘eau de toilette’ which would have lower concentrations. This means the perfumes are strong! I soon discovered that one spritz was enough. Earlier on in my testing, I sometimes did two spritzes, and there were a couple of perfumes (Capua and Patchouli of the Underworld) that I found too overpowering and I ended up washing them off after a while.
I think it’s a good thing that the perfumes are so strong because not only does the scent last a long time on your skin, it also means that a little goes a long way, so the vials or bottles will last longer. I recommend to start off with just one small spritz because for most of these perfumes, that is enough and any more than that will become overpowering.
Gender Inclusivity
I noticed when browsing the Electimuss website that the perfumes are not divided into ‘men’s’ and ‘women’s’. Some of them are described as masculine or feminine, but many are not labelled by gender at all and you get the impression that all their perfumes are unisex. I really like this aspect because it’s inclusive, and it allows you to choose the scent you like, without any bias caused by reading that it’s aimed at women or men.
Personally, I prefer feminine scents on myself, especially ones that are sweet and gourmand. A few of the perfumes came across to me as very masculine – Capua and Gladiator Oud in particular. I couldn’t see myself wearing them so I’ll be passing them on to a male friend or family member. Others smelt very feminine to me, including Trajan, Vixere and Vanilla Edesia, and these tended to be the ones I preferred. At least half of the perfumes in the discovery set didn’t stand out to me as either particularly masculine or feminine, and I’d definitely describe them as unisex.
Are Electimuss Perfumes Vegan and Cruelty-Free?
Some of the perfumes, including Cupid’s Kiss, state on the website that they are vegan and cruelty-free. However, for most of the perfumes, this is not specified. Many of the perfumes have ‘animal’ notes such as honey, musk, leather and ambergris, but it was unclear whether they are actually from animals or synthetic. I felt that Electimuss could be more transparent about this on their website.
I have since been in contact with Electimuss and they have clarified that all their perfumes are vegan apart from Persephone’s Patchouli, Patchouli of the Underworld, Capua and Pomona Vitalis. The non-vegan perfumes contain ambrettolide (a synthetic musk derived from secretions from a type of beetle) or beeswax, but they don’t use things like animal musks. They also claim all their products are cruelty-free, presumably meaning they are not tested on animals. They also confirmed that they are in the process of building a new website that will contain vegan information about each of the perfumes, which is great news.
Related post: Doing Veganuary? Here Are 6 Non-Food-Related Swaps To Try
My Favourite Perfumes from the Discovery Set
I tried to pick my five favourite perfumes from the set, but I couldn’t narrow it down, so here are my six favourites:
Cupid’s Kiss
This scent, Cupid’s Kiss by Julien Rasquinet, made me think of Christmas! To me, it smells like cinnamon, clove and incense. It reminds me of a church at Christmas time, although this is clearly my own association as there is no reference to Christmas in the description. I think it’s a really comforting scent and something I would wear in the autumn and winter.
This perfume appears to be Electimuss’s newest release, so it’s great that it has made it into the Discovery Set already. I assume the discovery set gets switched up when a new one is released, so if you are reading this in the future you might not necessarily get the same perfumes that I did.
Imperium
Imperium was the first perfume in the set that I really noticed had a gourmand side. It’s sweet and vanilla-y, but with a hint of spice and a sharper edge too. It’s more feminine than some of the others, and on looking it up I saw that it was made by a female perfumer, Sofia Bardelli, so that makes sense.
Mercurial Cashmere
Created by Sofia Bardelli, this perfume has a smooth, soft, sweet scent, as the name Mercurial Cashmere suggests. I found it feminine, floral and slightly gourmand. I liked the fact that this perfume is not too strong compared to some of the others; it was subtle and not overpowering.
Vanilla Edesia
I like vanilla scents, so I already predicted that I would like Vanilla Edesia by Cécile Zarokian. I was right. When first applied, it smelt vanilla-y but also had a herbal side to it. By the end of the evening, it had mellowed down and smelt warm, soft and pleasant. I really liked it!
Trajan
Trajan was created by Marco Genovese. From the name ‘Trajan’, I expected this perfume to be quite masculine, as it reminded me of the word ‘trojan’ which I think of as quite a masculine word. However, I’d say this perfume has both a masculine and feminine side, and is very much unisex. It’s soft, sweet and a bit fruity.
Vixere
Vixere came across as fruity, a bit medicinal, sweet and peachy. It smelt feminine to me and again was created by Sofia Bardelli. It’s a unique scent and one of my favourites!
Are Electimuss Perfumes Worth the Price?
These perfumes are high quality, and this is reflected in the price. The full-sized (100ml) bottles range between £185-£395, which for the average consumer is a lot to splash out on a perfume. However, you get what you pay for. As mentioned earlier, the perfumes are very concentrated and strong, and a little goes a long way. Therefore, a 100ml bottle would last for a long time, potentially saving you money in the long run compared to buying cheaper but weaker perfumes.
Before buying an Electimuss perfume, I’d highly recommend getting the Discovery Set. This itself is still an investment, coming in at £95, however, I did the maths and for the amount of perfume you get altogether in the discovery box (20 x 1.8ml = 36ml), that would work out as £264 for 100ml, which is around the average price of a full-sized bottle. So you get the same value but you only have to pay £95 and you get to test out almost their full range.
The Discovery Set comes with a £95 voucher to redeem against a full-sized bottle (within 30 days of your purchase), so you end up getting even better value if you do find a scent you really like. And if a full-sized bottle is totally out of your budget, why not add it to your Birthday or Christmas list?
