Fragrance Expert Thomas Dunckley: The Great Dupe Debate, GLP-1’s Impact on Perfume, and The Genius of Thierry Mugler’s Angel

Jessica Matlin (0:06)

Hey, everyone, welcome to Fat Mascara, okay. Finally, finally, a big juicy fragrance episode. I know you've been waiting, I've been waiting too. Okay, finally, we have the most amazing fragrance. I said content creator, but he is beyond content creator. We are with a real fragrance expert here, okay? We're with Thomas Dunckley. His Instagram is Making Sense of Scent. I want you to go subscribe to it now because you will not be disappointed. When I stumbled upon Thomas Dunckley's Instagram, I immediately pressed follow because not only I was laughing, I was learning and I was like, how did I not know this guy? Turns out I did know who he was. So when I go listen to the show, and you'll understand how this all comes together. But a little bit about Thomas, he is an eight-time Jasmine award-winning fragrance expert. Of course, he's a content creator. He has a great podcast. He's a fragrance trainer. He's a host. He's been doing this for 15 years. His whole thing is about making fragrance accessible, hence making sense of scent. He's really fun. He's funny.

He's the anti-snob. He's not about gatekeeping and he's just a good hang. So please join me for a fun-filled conversation with Thomas Dunckley, one of my favorite fragrance experts.

Thomas, welcome to Fat Mascara.

Thomas Dunckley (1:31)

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Jessica Matlin (1:33)

I don't love when people say like, I have a parasocial relationship with this person because it's a little weird when people, I don't know, I just, I don't do that. But I do feel like I have a parasocial relationship with you.

Thomas Dunckley (1:43)

That's fine. I think I will allow it. You seem relatively safe as a human. So let's go with it.

Jessica Matlin (1:50)

I'll see you by the end of this.

Okay, no, I love your series. We're going to get into your series. I got introduced to you through Scent Sounds. The algorithm pushed it my way. We're going to talk about Scent Sounds a little later in the chat. And I got really hooked on your content. But as I was doing more research about you, I was like, who is this guy in his bedroom with his albums? I was like, wait, this is Candy Perfume Boy?

Thomas Dunckley (2:18)

Yep, that's me.

Jessica Matlin (2:20)

Okay, Candy Perfume Boy, you had a website, go back. You've been in the fragrance, like everyone now is a fragrance blogger, vlogger, TikToker, who are you? Take us back to when your fragrance journey, your fragrance online journey started.

Thomas Dunckley (2:34)

Yeah, so I'm one of the OGs really, I'm an old man now. Which is why I can't be Candy Perfume Boy. I've had a bit of a rebrand, I was kind of looking at going, hmm.

Jessica Matlin (2:43)

You know, Candy Perfume Man.

Thomas Dunckley (2:45)

Yeah, I know, that just sounds all sorts of wrong.

Jessica Matlin (2:47)

All shades are wrong. Yeah, that's so, you know.

Thomas Dunckley (2:51)

I kind of got into fragrance probably like 2005, 2006 I was always super into fashion. And I had this obsession with Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. And Alexander McQueen released a fragrance called Kingdom, which I actually have on my desk here, which came in this amazing bottle, like a kind of metal shrouded heart. And I remember going into the department store desperately wanting to try this fragrance. And I tried it and I was like, this is disgusting. What is wrong with it? It smells like sweat. It was very heavy with the cumin. And I was like, oh, I hate it. Why is it so awful? But also, why do I want to wear it? Why am I slightly compelled by this?

Jessica Matlin (3:28)

And at this point, you were just like a civilian, right? You're not a fragrance expert.

Thomas Dunckley (3:32)

Yes, just not a fragrance expert, just a civilian who loved fashion. And I couldn't afford anything that Alexander McQueen made, but I could afford that. And I ended up buying that. And through kind of questioning about why do I like this fragrance that smells like sweat, I went online and found websites like Basenotes and lots of blogs like Now Smell This, like the really kind of foundational blogs. And I started realizing that people like fragrance and they talk about it. And it's more than just the thing you get for Christmas from your mom or your dad. So I then met lots of people throughout. I met a good friend of mine called Nick Gilbert, who now has his own business creating fragrance. And we decided that we were going to start writing about fragrance on Twitter and we would do fragrance reviews in 140 characters. And that's when I started writing and I had so much fun with that. I was like, do you know what? I want to write more. And that's when I started the Candy Beafenboy and I started writing. I think, probably long form, that was in about 2011 So it's been a while, yeah.