Our story
We started Pulse & Notes because buying perfume in India shouldn't be a gamble
A few years ago, a friend spent half a month’s salary on a “blind buy” because an international YouTuber called it a masterpiece. It smelled incredible — for forty minutes. By lunch, in the Delhi heat, it had vanished. Eight thousand rupees, gone by noon.
That story repeats across the country every day. Most fragrance advice online is written for cold European climates, dollar prices, and shelves we can’t easily buy from. Meanwhile India has its own extraordinary scent culture — centuries of attar and oudh, plus a new wave of homegrown indie houses doing world-class work — that barely gets covered seriously.
Pulse & Notes is our answer: thoughtful, honest fragrance journalism built for the way India actually wears perfume. We test on skin, in real weather, over multiple days. We translate the jargon. And we put the price in rupees, where it belongs.
What we believe
Honesty over hype
We buy or sample what we review. If something is overpriced, derivative or underperforms in our weather, we say so — even the popular bottles.
India-first
Prices in ₹. Performance judged in 40°C summers and humid monsoons. Picks for shaadis, Diwali, the daily local — not a European autumn.
Education, not gatekeeping
Fragrance shouldn't be an intimidating club. We explain the jargon so a first-time buyer and a seasoned collector both feel at home.
Have a question we haven’t answered?
Ask our concierge anytime, or write to us directly — we genuinely read every message.