The Candy Perfume Boy

The Candy Perfume Boy is written by Thomas Dunckley, a six-time winner of the Fragrance Foundation UK's Jasmine Awards, one of the most decorated writers in this directory, with wins confirmed across categories including the Digital Award (2013, 2015), the Independent Soundbite and Digital Experience awards (both 2017) and an Innovation Award (2018). His stated mission is to cut through marketing language and make fragrance genuinely accessible.

Two things set the blog apart. First, its 'Guide to...' series, which takes a single note, vanilla and violet among others, and walks through its odour profile alongside 'must sniff' reference perfumes, a genuinely useful, well-organised piece of reference writing rather than a one-off review. Second, longevity: the blog has been running continuously since the early 2010s and, as of our research, was still publishing through 2025, including a podcast episode in October 2025 and reviews through the summer.

On trust: Dunckley is an honest, engaged reviewer rather than an entertainment-first personality, and his award record from an independent industry body is real third-party validation rather than a self-awarded claim. The one thing to disclose: he also runs paid copywriting, training and consultancy work for the fragrance industry via a separate professional site, so, as with any specialist writer who also takes industry commissions, it's worth reading with that in mind on pieces that touch a client relationship. Posting frequency has also thinned from its earlier peak to a handful of posts a year rather than a weekly schedule.