Commodity Book Eau De Parfum Review

There’s something about the smell of books. Especially to an old school booklover in these days of ebooks. It’s a nostalgic smell; a comforting embrace encompassing timeless memories of wrapping one’s self in the pages of a beloved book and finding your happy place, your escape from the mundane.

But when you really think of it, what makes up that holy smell? What does a book smell like? It’s the scent of paper pulp. Of cardboard and ink. Of binding glue. These are not the most enticing of scents. So when I saw the Book scent offered by Commodity I thought “Do I really want to smell like a book?”.

And at $105 for 3.4 oz/100 ml, it’s best to make sure, ya know?

But it seemed luck was on my side, because with my last Sephora order I was able to get a deluxe sample of this bookish fragrance so I could give it a whiff and take it for a spin.

Commodity Book Eau De Parfum is described by its makers as a “fresh and woodsy” unisex scent with an exciting mix of “spicy cucumber and torchwood” and notes of cucumber, eucalyptus, bergamot (citrusy), lavender, amyris (woodsy), amber, sandalwood, Haitian vetiver (sweet smokey earth scent), balsa (pine), and guaiac (resin).

In the bottle, the cirtusy scent of bergamot, fresh cucumber, and warm amber come through right away, with sandalwood and balsa in the background.

Applied to the skin, that spicy cucumber hits first and foremost, followed by sweet/smokey/earthy vetiver, eucalyptus, amyris, and sandalwood. The resin is subtle and I don’t really get the lavender at all.

An interesting blend of scents for sure, but does it all add up to “book”?

Short answer: yes. But also no.

The sandalwood and amyris mimic the paper pulp smell of pages. The spicy cucumber and eucalyptus give off cardboard/binding glue vibes in a subtle way. The resin gives you that slight inky smell, but more pleasant.

So yes, Commodity Book Eau De Parfum does smell like books, but in a pleasingly wearable way. It’s a deep, layered, sexy, complex scent and brings to mind a charming old school patchouli-scented wood-paneled bookstore decorated with worn antique rugs, Tiffany lamps, and a fluffy cat curled up on the seat of an overstuffed leather chair. I am so here for that.

It wears well and I couldn’t stop delicately sniffing my wrist every 5 minutes or so while wearing the perfume because I enjoyed the scent so much. I also got a lot of positive compliments on how unique the fragrance was.

After testing it out, I am absolutely obsessed with Commodity Book Eau De Parfum and definitely plan to splurge on the full-size bottle – it’s well worth it in my humble book addict opinion.

What about you guys? Anyone else as in love with Commodity Book Eau De Parfum as I am? Is there another book-scented fragrance that I should try out? Coffee-scented? I’m thinking I might do that next.

p.s. – I just imagined wearing book-scented perfume on one wrist and coffee-scented perfume on the other and I almost swooned at the idea 😍