How do Boy Smells Kush flavors compare to candles?
It’s been six years since boy smells took the smell of cannabis leaf and turned it into an olfactory dream with their Kush candle, which remains a bestseller to this day. In 2021, founders Matthew Herman and David Kien expanded the brand into fine fragrances, and since then it’s been an afterthought.
Her original Tantrum fragrance of the drop won a Best of Beauty award and subsequent releases like Marble Fruit (another best seller) have also been well received. The eau de parfums they launched were all-new creations, but in December 2021, the brand finally launched a scent based on one of their candles, the beloved Hinoki Ghost. On April 12, Boy Smells launched three more candle-inspired fragrances, this time turning to the ever-popular Kush collection.
Since launching the Kush candle in 2016, Herman and Kien have added four permanent flankers to the mix: Purple, Italian, Cashmere, and Cowboy. They have reinvented these last three as eau de parfum for this new collection of perfumes. As someone who has burned all three Kush candles in their home, I was eager to see – or rather smell – how they compared to the originals. Turns out they’re pretty accurate for the most part.
Boy Smells’ commitment to the inherently gender-neutral nature of fragrance continues with this range, beginning with Cashmere Kush ($98). This one, I would say, deviates the most from the original, which happens to be my favorite. Instead of pot leaf, which the very first iteration of the Kush candle used, Cashmere uses pot flower to bring out the other floral notes it contains.
The fragrant version still has that pot flower note, but it comes right after the rhubarb, pink pepper, and fresh aldehydes you get on the first spritz. You’ll still find the tulip, powdery musk, vetiver, and cashmere wood here, but compared to the candle, this one is slightly less powdery, soft, and flowery to me. It’s divine, yes, but not as feminine as the original. Of the three, this one had the least intense trail and would be good for someone who likes to wear their fragrances closer to the skin.