& Other Stories Punk Bouquet Perfume Review

& Other Stories Punk Bouquet Perfume Review

A good few years ago I walked into the & Other Stories store in London for a very quick browse between blog events and walked out with a shower gel, since then the scent of it has stuck in my mind. I’ve had in my head to pick it back up again at some point, and then spotted that ASOS had began stocking & Other Stories clothing, so I headed to their beauty section. Alas they did not have the shower gel – but instead they did have the same scent in perfume form – so meet the & Other Stories Punk Bouquet Perfume.

& Other Stories is a brand from the H&M group, which I very rarely look into any more as I find their sizing all over the place. & Other Stories is more premium and tailored at a higher price point but my fears of ill-fitting clothes like H&M has put me off purchasing the clothing. However, I can get on board with the beauty line. For something that’s an in-house brand it compares to price points in the likes of Boots and Superdrug, with the fragrances coming in at £28 for a 50ml – not too bad, but if I compare to somewhere like Zara – their fragrances are £18 for 100ml bottles, so for a “clothing shop” line of perfumes it does feel a little up there, but the idea of that glorious shower gel lingering on my skin for longer was enough to tempt me in.

The packaging of the & Other Stories Punk Bouquet Perfume comes in a nice cardboard box with a slight raw texture to it in simple black and white. The bottle of the perfume is a simple glass bottle with a black mister on top with a rounded glass top. The perfume has a black dash detail around the centre of the bottle with a raw ribbon wrapped around the edge.

Now I wish I had the shower gel to compare against the & Other Stories Punk Bouquet Perfume as my initial thoughts were, was this really the fragrance I’ve been coveting for so long? Flicking back to my memories it might be bad memory, I might be right and there’s something different between the two fragrances as I did finish that shower gel back in September 2017!

It’s rare that I like scents that feel quite foody – but from memory this “frothy vanilla” scent reminded me very much of like an ice cream soda like it’s dropped in a fizzy rose flavoured lemonade. Whilst the fragrance has some resemblance of that vanilla scent I feel like the sweet ice cream like scent is lost and the floral element feels more general. So I’m putting aside trying to mentally compare it to the shower gel and thinking of it as something completely new to me – like 4 years of trying to recall a scent is clearly a bit of a tall ask.

The base notes of this are listed as Vanilla and Tonka Beans which is definitely the heart of this perfume balanced with the floral mid notes of cyclamen, orange blossom, and lotus. No rose bouquet, or flowers which are rosey at all! The top notes of this are listed as apple, almond and tangerine and to my nose, they are barely discernable.

I’m happy to spend a lot more than £28 on fragrances, and do, regularly – but I want and need longevity for the price point, as there are lots of things in the £20-30 price mark that do last all day and linger on me. And this one doesn’t quite hit the spot. It will be reserved for future shorter wears like a date in a restaurant at night (lol, when will that be?) or quick nip to the shops. But for all-day wear, this one is falling a little short for me and I think unless you absolutely adore the scent, there are better performing fragrances available for the price point.

You can find & Other Stories Punk Bouquet Perfume on ASOS for £28 here (affiliate link).

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Helpless Whilst Drying

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2 Comments

    • rachael
      Author
      February 28, 2021 / 12:27 pm

      It’s a cool name!

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