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Hi, I’m a big fragrance enthusiast and a perfume collector.
I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that perfumery is an irrational art (1+1 doesn’t equal 2), capable of evoking memories and letting the imagination travel.
If someone asked me what ANR means to me, the first thing that comes to mind is the connection between two people who both need to give and receive affection.
That’s where my reflection begins:
is there a smell or a fragrance that takes your mind to your personal idea of ANR?For me, the answer is yes. Looking at my collection, I found three fragrances that do exactly that:
1. Seminalis by Orto Parisi
A warm, lactonic fragrance with sugary nuances and a musky base that makes me think of the scent of warm skin. Alessandro Gualtieri, the nose behind it, never releases the olfactory pyramid of his creations, so interpretation is left entirely to the wearer — a detail I truly love and one of the reasons he’s among my favorite perfumers.2. Lattedoro by Maison Gabriella Chieffo
Once again, a warm, lactonic fragrance where (to my nose) iris, sandalwood, and cinnamon stand out. I believe it’s inspired by an oriental milk-based drink with spices. This is a fragrance that deeply moves me every time I smell it, and I deliberately chose the smallest size to treat it as something intimate and precious.3. Grande Ile by Nissaba
This is an exceptionally elevated fragrance.
From the very first spray, I felt almost celestial vibrations. A warm, sophisticated, spiced vanilla — but not in a banal or contemporary way. It feels timeless.
In terms of complexity, it comes close to the vanilla by Mona di Orio, but this one is less sharp, softer, and rounder. A sweet and peppery opening, supported by an aromatic, woody base, creating an almost meditative expression overall.
Zero banality here. Zero “girlishness.” Zero people-pleasing.So, what is your personal definition of ANR?
Is there a smell or a fragrance that makes you think to ANR?I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Well Luca, I’ve never thought of as abf/anr that way. Coming across a scent has triggered fond memories. The smell of lilac reminds me of hiking in Virginia and coming across a small field loaded with lilac bushes.
The smell of freshly washed sheets drying on a clothes line reminds me of breastfeeding. That breath taken between her bosom. Quaffing in her scent and the hint of her lightly applied perfume. Heaven.😋Hey Luca. Thanks for an interesting and thought provoking post. I don’t have one personally, from lack of experience, but curious to smell the ones you listed!
@grogman If you love the smell of cleanliness, try Blanche by Byredo
@sleepyjack74 Thanks, but let’s start: your definition of anr/abf?
@Luca
Thank you for a totally different way to look at ANR/ABF experiences! My read on it is that she may wear a perfume, even consistently, or only for that occasion, that will Pavlov train me to associate that olfactory experience. That makes it more immersion! And yes, I will learn to trigger on that scent. Her choice of perfume has shaped my experience AND conditioned my response.However, there is a side to this that is much more organic, and after years of ANR experience, I can say for me it has to do with her basic scents. That experience is much more associated with the movie scene where King Kong is climbing the Empire State Building, and is looking for Fay Wray. He plucks a woman out of a window and sniffs her… she is not the pherome he seeks, so he casually tosses her to her death. THAT is the olfactory experience that I seek… it’s her scent… not clean sheets, it’s her pheromes screaming in my head, and making be dizzy, the slightly earthy and milky scent of vitamins and minerals mingled with a one off scent of her pheromes, that cannot be duplicated on the alchemist’s bench… living biological color that makes my cribiform plate olfactory sensors wild for her touch, taste, scent and sounds… so yeah, the olfactory experience of women cannot be dupilcated from the Alchemists bench…
I really appreciate your perspective — it’s powerful, raw, and very honest. I completely agree that there is something deeply primal and non-replicable in a person’s natural scent, something that goes far beyond perfumery and lives in biology, instinct, and memory. That kind of olfactory connection is alive, irrational, and impossible to reproduce in a lab.
For me, though, fragrance works on a slightly different but complementary level. I don’t see perfume as a replacement for natural scent, but as a trigger — a symbolic layer that can anchor emotions, intimacy, and imagination. Almost like a shared language or a ritual that helps the mind enter a certain emotional space.
In the context of ANR, I think both things can coexist:
the organic, unfiltered power of a person’s real scent, and the intentional choice of a fragrance that becomes associated with affection, care, and emotional closeness over time. One is instinct, the other is meaning — and together they can deepen immersion rather than compete with each other.That tension between the primal and the constructed is probably what makes the whole experience so intense.
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