u/Happy-Rub-321

I love great storytelling as much as the perfume itself. Of course storytelling can't make up for a scent that isn't for me, but it's what first piques my interest. The POV can be for the perfume itself or the overall house!

I'm open to lots of scent profiles but I find myself regularly falling for greens (like tomato vine, snapped stems, herbs), airy florals, gourmand as a feature not the main story, industrial notes, off the beaten path combos.

Bonus: minority owned (LGBT, BIPOC, immigrant, disabled...)
My hard nos: brands that use AI, rebottle fragrance oils, support the current administration

Based on a lot of the commentary I'm seeing, I feel like I watched a different show than some people when it came to participants outside of the men on Charlie. It's pretty unanimous that the men from Charlie sucked and everyone I've seen defend them sounds just like them (ignorant, woman hating, and delusional...which tracks).

So I want to talk about other participants

Abby & Morgan: people keep calling Abby a snake for voting Morgan off. How? She went to Morgan day 1 to try and build a relationship. She volunteered to go with Morgan to chop some things up. Morgan said she didn't need Abby's help and immediately asked one of the men to go with her instead, essentially snubbing Abby. Despite that, Abby still tries to connect with her again and pitches that they form an alliance and bring an all woman team to the end. Morgan flat out refuses. In her solo interviews Morgan makes it clear that she hates other women and sees them as competition, "I don't want another girl on the team." She talks about never getting along with other women, then rejects a woman who genuinely wants a good outcome for them at the end, and mocks Maddy when Alpha comes to them to make the trade. Morgan, at the beginning at least, hates other women.

I'm happy that she showed some growth toward the end when Sarah joins them, but it wasn't lost on me that their relationship was built on a mentor/mentee dynamic, meaning she didn't see Sarah as competition/a threat. Even though she called Sarah her best friend, Morgan didn't fight to keep her in the game. Whereas Abby advocated for not voting Morgan out when Pharoah was pushing for it in order to get the bow. Had it been Morgan and Pharaoh making this decision, I highly doubt she would have done the same for Abby.

**** An aside regarding Abby and the swim challenge: divers aren't the same as competitive swimmers. They use different techniques to maximize air and buoyancy, not speed.

Leiya & Sarah: I think this dynamic made me the most sad. Both of them were in a terrible environment with the Charlie choads, but I respected the hell out of Sarah for standing up for herself and the needs of the camp even though it was uncomfortable and scary at times. Wes was a bully who contributed very little around camp and though Leiya and Braxton agreed with Sarah, they abandoned her during every conversation she tried to have with Wes. Leiya at one point says that she would probably be able to relax once Sarah was gone, mistakenly believing that because Sarah was vocal about the issues, she's the cause of the problem. But the problems don't leave with Sarah, right? The full burden just shifts onto Leiya's shoulders. I appreciate that she finally tries to stand up for Sarah when the men are discussing voting her off, but it was too little too late - they had already committed to the narrative that Sarah was the cause of all their woes rather than the person who built their shelter and kept them fed. It was nice to see Leiya really smiling and laughing once she joined Alpha, but I was really disappointed in her cowardice in a circumstance where she wasn't the direct target of bullying.