Perfectly Scentimental—The Only Perfume Collection I'm Wearing This Year

"It's not that deep. It's literally just perfume."

I don't think the woman knew I'd overheard her saying this to her friend in the bathroom after they'd spent the last half hour eavesdropping on my coffee date with a friend. I definitely don't think she knew I was in the stall right next to her as she said it. She's not entirely wrong. It really is just perfume, but for someone like me—ethnic, daughter of a refugee, always in search of deeper meaning beneath—it really was "that deep."

I don't buy things on TikTok. As a self-proclaimed budget queen, I practice extreme restraint when it comes to impulse buys, and I'm seldom swayed by sponsored TikTok videos or influencer reviews. However, when d'Annam perfume started spiking on both my Discover page and Google Trends alert, I had to hear them out.

"D'Annam is a fine fragrance house from Vietnam … rooted in the rich tapestry of Asian culture," the brand's site reads. "Celebrating Asia … we collaborate with local artists and partners to honor the culture in the most authentic way." Additionally, the brand gives back by putting "a portion of [its] earnings towards enhancing the lives of children in Vietnam, contributing to charities across the country."

Sold. On my lifelong journey to find the best perfume for everyday wear, I had never made a purchase so fast.

My mother was a Vietnamese refugee who fled her city and country right before the fall of Saigon. A lover of endless bowls of rice, noodles, and any complex carb, my mom often told me stories about how she would order multiple XL bowls of pho daily during her pregnancy with me (which my grandfather and father both confirmed). She's also solely responsible for our family's unhealthy obsession with coffee—because "we make it strong in Vietnam."

This made buying the Discovery Set: Enchanting Vietnam from d'Annam even easier. With perfume names like White Rice, Pho Breakfast, and Vietnamese Coffee, it felt kismet. Can perfume be destined? I don't know, but the Vietnamese brand screamed "Mom" to me, so how could I resist?

d'Annam White Rice

Let's start with the viral bottle you might have seen on TikTok, White Rice.

Upon my initial spritz, the perfume felt familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on whether it was a luxury-perfume familiarity or something deeper, which confounded me. As the perfume dissipated, the memories came.

White Rice makes me think of warm, toasted, broken rice layered across a bed of nutty pandan sweetness—staple ingredients in my early childhood—both woven together and made cohesive over a base of white musk. I can't explain what this perfume does to my senses except that it reminds me of eating with my mother.

d'Annam Vietnamese Coffee

The second most discussed scent? Vietnamese Coffee.

This puts all other coffee-influenced fragrances I've tried to shame.

I'm sorry, but it's true. Western culture has yet to fully awaken itself to a cup of Vietnamese coffee, but when I tell you "she's her—she's it," I mean it. Coffee beans harvested in Vietnam don't have the same profile as arabica beans, which Western coffee culture tends to frequent. That just might be what separates this perfume from others I've experienced on the market.

Also key to that nuanced difference? Condensed milk. Freshly brewed robusta coffee over a bed of condensed milk is the only way to enjoy coffee in our household, and this sweet perfume encapsulates that buzzy, uplifting scent with a through line of milky sweetness that is just perfect without being sickening. I have never. Full stop.

d'Annam Through the Forest

Finally, my sleeper favorite? Through the Forest.

I've never smelled a fragrance quite like this.

Through the Forest is a spicy perfume, and d'Annam describes this scent as "a form of meditation," one that "isn't primarily intended for an audience, but encourages introspection"—and this is what that woman in the bathroom was referencing when she said to her friend in the stall next to her, "It's not that deep." Because—sorry, lady—it is. Hours into wearing this scent, I realized what it was about this fragrance that I felt was so comforting, and it broke me.

The initial hit is peppery and spiced, but as that warmth dissipates, the incense comes in, and I'm transported back to the temple where I used to watch my mother pray—pray for our longevity, for our health, for our joy, and for our protection. When that memory hit, I cried.

My mother died 11 years ago, and for a perfume brand to carry the scents of her home, her heritage, our memories, our joy and love through food and prayer—what a gift. What a beautiful and comforting gift of memory through the senses and celebration through a simple whiff.

This is all to say d'Annam isn't "literally just a perfume." It's a love letter to Vietnam, and each note is perfection. For those of us who are used to seeing our Asian cultures refracted across all industries, made consumable and palatable through fetishization or pandering generalizations—thinking of Orientalism and the odd obsession with "opium haze" to evoke the "Far East"—this collection defies expectation, handpicking individual ingredients that make up our beautifully rich and complex history and bottling cultural magic for all to wear and share.

Founder Nick Hoang says in an open letter on the website, "[d'Annam] is a manifestation of a dream, a sensory memoir of Vietnam."

And so it is. And what a beautiful dream to wear so proudly on our skin.