Along Mississippi Avenue in North Portland, a cluster of shops and restaurants has sprung up in the past few years, and it has become a great place to stroll around and check out the boutiques. I recently discovered a store with a twist with the help of a fellow perfume lover. Flutter is known for its quirky and eclectic selection of fascinating items, including obscure books, weird toys and reworked vintage clothing, but it’s the last place you might expect to find an extensive selection of fragrances. Yet here they are among the vintage birdcages and throw pillows and wacky home décor; the complete line of Tokyo Milk fragrances, both the “regular” and Dark series. This is a relatively new niche line and I had wanted to sample it, so I was delighted to find a local source.
Tokyo Milk is an inexpensive line, but it’s known for unusual combinations of notes and many of its fragrances smell as though they should cost more (Shhh, don’t tell them!) and the range is broad enough so that almost anyone can find something to their liking. The bottles have a nice solid heft and the labels are easy to read. One thing I especially like about the packaging is that for each scent, the few most dominant fragrance notes are listed right on the front, so you can both find something that appeals to you and also figure out what it is that you’re smelling. I wish more fragrance brands would follow suit.
There is nothing very traditional about the perfumes themselves, which is obvious from a quick scan of the ingredients. For example, the one called Bulletproof in the Dark series has notes of smoked tea, coconut milk, crushed cedar and ebony woods; Arsenic (yes really) lists absinthe, vanilla salt, cut greens and crushed fennel. Not exactly your typical girly perfume, indeed. I was rather fond of Excess, which has amber resin, oak bark, blood orange and patchouli, as well as La Vie La Morte. This one combines two of my favorite notes, tuberose and cardamom, which I don’t ever recall smelling together in the same perfume before. Of course, the perfumes are more complex than that, since they have dozens of other ingredients, but you get the idea. At $38 for two ounces (60 ml) for the Dark series and $28.50 for one ounce of Parfum in the regular line, you can play with several of these without making a big commitment. Another enticement; many of the fragrances re also available in a rich shea butter hand cream and even lip balm.
The store also carries the West Third brand of cologne-style fragrances, various soaps and lotions and a nice selection of Voluspa scented candles and fragrance sprays. I did not get a chance to test everything so I plan to go back soon. For fragrance fans it’s really worth a trip to this vibrant North Portlandneighborhood. If you can’t make it in person, Flutter has a nice Web site for online shopping, although it’s not nearly as much fun as a visit to the store. Where else can you flip through a copy of a book called Absinthe: History In A Bottle while smelling the title ingredient on your wrist?
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