Dossier Advent Calendar Review
I thought it would be a festive idea to try a brand’s advent calendar as a discovery set! Many of them I found to be overpriced or a great price, but a mix of many brand’s top hits, but when I saw this cute 12-day Dossier calendar for $40, I felt like I had found the one.
The Dossier Perfume House describes themselves as “fair-priced French perfumery crafted for the next generation.” They have some great brand stats, like stating their products are vegan & cruelty-free, and that they cost 70%-90% less than designer brands – but then dip significantly in the originality section when it comes to this, too. They have two main collections it seems: Dossier “Originals”, as well as Dossier “Impressions” which after further investigation look to be attempts at “dupes” that are crafted using customer insights.
Particularly their wording on their website is: “Dossier Impressions offers an ever-growing selection of designer-inspired fragrances based on customer insights. Enjoy the luxurious experience of your favorite scents minus the brand tax.”
I haven’t tested many of their fragrances, but I do see Dossier ads often & their bottle/label is pretty much iconically stuck in my memory forever. They do have great aesthetic presence – modern & clean, yet colorful – and have recently launched their first celebrity collaboration with mgk. A solid choice when it comes to Dossier’s founding values of next-gen artistry. Dossier also has an “AI-Nose First” find-your-scent quiz, which was just an AI prompted question about what the AI “Alnee” would recommend. I went with a Dossier Original, & it suggested to me “Milky White” which had coconut as a core note (something I do not prefer!) but otherwise sounded nice. It ended up being in the calendar...but NOT what I expected.
The full Ethéré Parfum experiential Find Your Fragrance quiz can be found here!
Quality: 4/5
Originality: 1/5
Presentation: 4/5
Price: 5/5
Day 1: Woody Sandalwood – This one smelled like a combo of my Indian sandalwood oil & my atlas cedarwood oil. Nice & masc, but very one note with no transitioning of the scent on my skin.
Day 2: Ambery Saffron – While I didn’t get too much saffron, this was a very nice amber perfume; perfect for layering gourmands or spice perfumes.
Day 3: Winter’s Kiss – Finally getting a bit of nuance, but this was a clove & vanilla centric gourmand. It was definitely giving winter vibes but heavy on both of those notes, which I am (personally) not a huge fan of.
Day 4: Gourmand Vanilla – This is a very ylang-ylang forward vanilla... good for layering for an extra sweet floral vanilla, but I was not a fan!
Day 5: Floral Marshmallow – Very nice sweet floral, however the dry-down is very marshmallow forward... the floral has at least 2-3 variations in it which is great, but this fragrance definitely skews younger because of how quickly the florals dissipate.
Day 6: Gourmand White Flowers - On day 6, this perfume went right to spot #1. This is one of my personal favorite combinations in fragrance anyways, but the gourmand was just the right amount of present but light and the white flowers aspect was definitely a mix of a few, which was appreciated. Overall, a very approachable fragrance that I think everyone could wear whenever.
Day 7: Ambery Cherry - This one is nice. I can tell that I like Dossiers Amber & their cherry is also smooth. The two blend very well together. I can see this being a lovely layering fragrance with Ethere’s ‘Mon Cheri’ to really amplify the deep amber & cherry fruitiness against a black cacao & marzipan.
Day 8: Milky White - Very coconut-y yet powdery, not creamy like I had thought this would be. This was (surprisingly) the perfume recommended to me by the site, and I very much do NOT like it. It went straight to the bottom of the list for me actually, which makes me think Alnee the AI fragrance nose is a bit of an amateur. 😉
Day 9: Orchid & Sandalwood At Dusk - Now, if Alnee the AI Nose had given me THIS fragrance, I would understand. The balance is great and there is some nuance to it. Personally on my skin, I find it slightly too musky & less appealing overall than ‘Gourmand White Flowers’, but it’s a standout in originality.
Day 10: Tantalizing Red - At first sniff, this read as cherry cough syrup – but quickly when it starts to dry, tobacco & leather notes comes in to settle it down. It leans masculine in my opinion, with that bit of musk to push that cherry to the masc side as well. This is the first real masculine one I believe I’ve smelled in this advent calendar.
Day 11: Free the Musk - I did enjoy this musk, despite the lower ranking, but it’s still more of a layering musk. It’s one for the colder seasons (the dry-down is giving a bit of pine/fir), but it’s a unisex musk that would work with a lot of woodsy or spicy or even fresh scents!
Day 12: Ambery Vanilla - Another great amber pairing. I have to put the three “Ambery” fragrances at the top of the list as the best of the bunch. This one gave me some nostalgic Bath & Body Works vibes on the dry-down for some reason, but again, a very lovely layering amber.
Top 3
Ambery Vanilla
Ambery Cherry
Ambery Saffron
(with a special shoutout to ‘Gourmand White Flowers’)
Bottom 3
Gourmand Vanilla
Milky White
Winter’s Kiss
Final Thoughts
I actually opened these up in random order each day, as after the first one I realized that there was actually no numbers on this calendar! And no place or strip given to test these off-skin. Overall, I was a bit disappointed in the perfume scents themselves, although I cannot deny that they were decent quality and a good strength for a great price. I would mainly use any of the Ambery scents as a layering fragrance!
