Catch Up/Round Up

I have had some family dramas going on lately - nothing major or out of control, but it's sapping a lot of my time and energy so I've fallen behind on reviews and comments (and reading other blogs!). I'll catch up with comments in the next day or so but I have decided to do a quick montage of the perfumes I've tested in the last week to get up to date. I'm just going to put a few brief words about each - really just the impressions I write down as I am testing them. Sorry to do this, but I feel like I'm just going to keep falling behind otherwise, and I'm really into this project and don't want to abandon it. Hopefully I can resume normal daily reviews in a couple of days. I'm linking to the creator's description of each scent.

Twyla Lirrit - Sweet and candyish but not sickly. A fruity floral I don't hate - a very rare thing. Doesn't last long. 

Twyla Honekakala - Honeysuckle and tropical flowers. It's very pretty, normally honeysuckle makes me think of the American south, but this one reminds of somewhere like Hawaii. I imagine this is what a lei smells like. Again, didn't last more than about 2 hours, but most of my Twylas are the old formula and these have since been strengthened so hopefully longevity is no longer an issue. 

Twyla Bohemian Baby - This is one of the new formula perfumes, and it certainly lasted a while on me. Unfortunately it's mega patchouli so not really to my taste. If you're a patchouli fan it's definitely worth checking out. 

Possets Theodora - Resin, resin, resin. Very exotic and vampy, but totally not my thing at all. I’m not a big fan of frankincense and it amps on me like crazy with this perfume. The dry down is a strong, slightly masculine musk, but there’s something vaguely cheap-smelling about it. It makes me think of a men’s musk cologne that would be in a stack near the front counter of Chemist Warehouse and cost about $15 for a 100ml bottle. Sillage and longevity are fairly low – it lasted about 3 hours and I wasn’t sorry to see the back of it.

Possets Gingerbread Whorehouse -  In the vial, this smells like sweet cake with a dab of ginger. AGAIN WITH THE CAKE SCENTS. In my defence, this was a freebie – not one I chose even though I already have eleventy million cake scents. The ginger comes out a lot more when it’s applied to skin – I like the smell of ginger, but there’s something else in here that’s not very nice, a note of something that smells like turned cream. Thankfully, about 20 minutes later at the point where I was seriously considering scrubbing this off, that note disappeared and the perfume dried to a cakey, sweet vanilla. Oddly, given the name, the ginger doesn’t hang around. Sillage is medium, as is longevity.

BoondockG Vanilla Vanilla - Really strong, sickly vanilla toilet spray.

Delightful Rot Ravenclaw - One for the Harry Potter fans (I'm not). I like this but I don't love it. The pear is vaguely alcoholic - as pear always is to me, and the amberwood is soft and doesn't dominate. I don't get more than a flash of tea every now and then. It works well. It's just... not my thing. 

Black Baccara Old Fashioned Holiday Candy - I asked Noodles what this smelled like to her and she said pineapple and pina coladas. To me it smells exactly like Wonka Nerds, so I guess it lives up to its name.

Again, apologies for the half-arse catch ups, and if you want more information about any of these, please feel free to ask and I'll say more in comments.

Days 89 - 96!

Victorian Black - BoondockG

Details: 
Victorian Black 
BoondockG Soapery

Notes: 
Wickedly seductive ~ a floral blend of delicate violets, clover flower, heather ~ hints of basil and fennel ~ fine notes of oakmoss and labdanum….with just a hint of powder. 

There’s really not a lot to say about this. In the vial and on the skin it smells like an English garden – very much an old lady floral. There’s not a lot of change in the dry down, though there is a talcum powder note that comes out. I don’t get the basil or fennel at all – there is nothing about this that spices up the floral on me. It’s pretty, but there is nothing whatsoever interesting or remarkable about it. The sillage is low and longevity is medium. After about 5 hours there's just a very soft amber base left.

Rating: 
2/5

Day 52!*

Slowly catching up. 

Nyx - BoondockG

Details:
Nyx
BoondockG

Notes:
A spillage of robust fine wine over black orchids and ylang flowers ~ a blend of exotic spices with light nuances of sultry amber. Highly seductive, esoteric perfume oil for women. Highly recommended for nightwear. A proprietary blend of fragrance and essential oils.

The first sniff in the vial was bugging me - what is that? I thought at first it smelled very fruity, like one of those children's scented shampoos, but that wasn't quite it. Eventually it hit me - bubblegum! What the - ? So weird. Once applied it's an aquatic floral scent, with a strong candy/sweet note. It's really strange, and nothing like I would expect from the notes describing it. When it dries down it mellows to a soft floral amber, which is pleasant but nothing special. This perfume has little sillage and not much staying power - it had disappeared entirely within two hours.

Rating:
2/5

Day 27!

Cinnamon Milk - BoondockG

Details:
Cinnamon Milk
BoondockG

Notes:
Dry cinnamon bark swirled in warm milk and cream ~ drops of sugarcane and toffee ~ cocooned in vanilla pods, benzoin and sandalwood. Made with skin-safe cinnamon fragrance….enjoy the flame without the burn.

I feel bad because I'm about to shade this perfume and this is the first time I've ever mentioned this shop. I have a couple of others that I quite like, but this just happens to be the one that I pulled out for testing.

In the vial, this smells oaty - like dry porridge oats, but not the supermarket kind. The kind that you get in big buckets at the market. Not an unpleasant smell, but not really what I'd want to smell like. Once applied, it smells like a cheap plastic doll. The cinnamon note is there too and smells fake - like the kind you get in chewing gum. The dry down is killer - it smells like baby vomit. I'm not exaggerating. I asked Noodles what she thought of it, and she reeled back, screwed her face up and said, "Ew, baby spew!"

Rating: 
1/5 I'm sorry to say that I just hated this.

Day 14!