Catch Up Post #8

Delightful Rot Poisonous Dream - The blackberry musk of of a sweet dream, distorted by cool mint and black oud.
This is a synthetic smelling soapy perfume. It smells like an old lady rose-scented soap set that's been gathering dust on the shelf of a country chemist for at least 10 years. Sillage is fairly low and longevity is low to medium. It was gone in about 4 hours, and I can't say I was sorry to see it go. 2/5

Deep Midnight Perfume Nivens - Nivens will lead you down a rabbit hole to tasty helpings of sweet creamy pastries, cakes and sticky puddings, topped off with plump wild berries and a touch of spices and soft florals. Fresh, sweet, and delicious!
This smells really synthetic to me, as most of Deep Midnight's perfumes tend to do. The smell is nuts, coffee and cream to my nose and it's all a bit sickly. The dry down is a slightly sickly creamy milk scent. This was pretty gross, to be honest. And of course, because I didn't like it, it hung around for ages - about 8 hours. Thankfully the sillage was lowish, so I wasn't inflicting it on anyone else. 1/5

Solstice Scents Violet Truffle - Dark chocolate, violet, violet leaf and vanilla absolute.
This is a sweet chocolate floral that reminds me a bit of Serendipitous. It goes a wee bit dusty in the first few minutes but doesn't stay that way for too long, maybe 10 minutes or so. I was just starting to decide that I didn't like this at all when it morphed into a vanilla base and became quite perfumey and pretty. The dust note was still there, but low key. In the end I liked this one quite a bit after the first half hour, but I doubt I'd buy a full size. 3/5

Possets Lovechild: Sweetbaby - Vanilla concentrated with lavender and amber.
At first this is sickly sweet - all lollies and baby chunder, and I almost washed it off. However, I stuck it out for the cause and it mellowed after half an hour or so to a sweet, creamy vanilla - somewhat similar to Courtly Love though more foody and not quite as perfumey. This one had average lasting time on the wrists - maybe 6 hours - but I also dabbed a little in my cleavage (oo-er missus!) and it really stuck around in there.  I was catching whiffs of it 12 or more hours later. This one's a clinger. 3/5


Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Regan A deceptively sweet orchid vanille with a faint trace of stephanotis.
A very heady powdery floral, pretty and old-fashioned, but nothing remarkable. I feel like I've smelled versions of this a million times. Sillage is highish and it lasted most of the day - not really an office perfume. Meh. 2/5


Days 217 - 221!

French Chocolate Macaroon - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details:
French Chocolate Macaroon
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes: 
Victorian ladies love Paris – and French pastries and treats! Enjoy the scrumptious smells of creamy chocolate, toasted coconut, and tantalizing vanilla.

Guys, I'm totally over chocolate. I know, right! I never thought it would happen, but I have completely chocolated myself out over the past year, I think. In the vial of this one I can smell chocolate and coconut, which does make me kind of want a Bounty, I have to admit. Once applied nothing much else happens, though it does get a bit sweeter as it dries down and the vanilla come out. 

There's nothing wrong with this perfume - if you're a chocolate fan you'll probably like it. But there's nothing that makes it jump out from all the other chocolate scents either, and I'm just..... zzzzzzzzzzzz

Rating: 
2/5

Day 149! 

Dark Winter's Tale - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details: 
Dark Winter's Tale
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes:
The winter night air freezes your breath on your scarf as you walk towards a waiting haven of light, safety and the inviting smells of a winter cottage. Hurry to get inside from this dark winter night, and an evening of warmth and joy awaits you! Inspired in part by a fantastic cookie recipe from Morgan Crone, this holiday perfume contains many wonderful scent notes, including: dark gingerbread, rich vanilla, molasses, cardamon, anise, and black pepper. A scrumptious, gourmand, rich and spicy unisex winter scent!

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that most of Deep Midnight's perfumes are sadly not for me. The vanilla note - which is in a lot of the ones I chose or were sent for free (from memory, the owner was particularly generous with free samples) has a distinct synthetic element that just bugs me. It's not that hideous toilet spray vanilla that some companies use, but it's just a bit NQR on me. Dark Winter's Tale has that note and it immediately put me off as soon as I realised. It's kind of an odd thing - it almost smells like coffee. There's a spice note in the vial as well, gingery but also probably the cardamom. Something like allspice in a Christmas cake. Once applied the ginger really comes out on me and combined with the pepper it actually made me a bit sneezy for a couple of minutes. When it settled a bit I didn't mind the ginger, if only that synthetic note would have gone away. After 20 minutes or so it started going dusty on me and stayed that way. Sillage is low and it didn't last terribly long - very, very faint by about the 3 hour mark. 

Rating: 
2/5 

Day 143!

Garden of Desire - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details: 
Garden of Desire
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes: 
Garden of Desire Perfume Oil: Draw him into your circle of desire with your unique magnetic presence. This blend was a special request from my customer Nia. Blended with rare and delicious Mignonette, tuberose, ylang-ylang, and a touch of magic. Sensual, sweet, and heady!

I had never heard of mignonette. Apparently it's a fragrant flower that was popular in the Victorian era. When I first smelled this I thought it was violets. There was also a very faint almond-ish note that I could smell in the vial of this perfume, and I wonder if that's mignonette as well? That note had gone when I applied this perfume to my wrist. What we have here is a fairly standard floral. The smell of violets (which of course I know now it isn't) dominates in the first 20 minutes or so and then a white floral scent comes out - the tuberose and ylang ylang. Super flowery, super girly. Sillage was quite low for a perfume that was entirely floral, and it had disappeared within 3 hours. It's quite old lady-ish, which normally I would enjoy, but there was a synthetic element to it that put me off. 

Rating: 
2/5

Day 127!

Catch Up/Round Up 2

Well, dramas are still drama-ing so yet again I'm forced to do a catch up post as I'm testing but struggling to keep up with writing the actual reviews. I hope to get all this sorted and get back on track very soon - I don't want to lose my momentum entirely. :-/

Solstice Scents Violet Mallow: Dark chocolate, violet, violet leaf and vanilla absolute. 
I'm undecided on this one - I've worn it a few times but I can't work out whether I like it or not. The violet is strong at first and it smells very floral. Once applied and it starts to dry down the chocolate and vanilla come out - it's essentially a floral gourmand, but it's very rich and quite strong. Lasted quite a while - about 6 hours before I felt I had to reapply. 3/5

Alchemic Muse Cloud Nine:  Victorian lilac, fresh cream, white raspberry, sweet jasmine, white rose, white violet, cherry heliotrope.
This is a Spring limited edition, but mine is from last year's Spring collection. It's a gentle floral, with the rose quite dominant on the skin for a little while. There's a zingy green note in it, and once the rose settles, the lilac and jasmine come out, making it very much a 'country garden' perfume - I don't really get the food notes at all. I haven't had much luck with heliotrope in general, and particularly in Alchemic Muse perfumes, but here is doesn't seem to come out on me, thankfully. There's nothing remarkable about this perfume, but it's very pretty. Doesn't last long - it was gone in a couple of hours. 3/5

Black Baccara Carnival of Ghosts: Pumpkin, kettle corn, apple, licorice, freshly turned soil. 
Yet another in my large collection of Carnival/Fair perfumes that I buy compulsively but never wear. This one smells like Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs - is that what kettle corn is? On the skin there is a slightly astringent sweetness, like lemon sherbet lollies. This was quite strong at first but didn't last more than a couple of hours. 2/5

Firebird Bath and Body Brown Sugar: Brown sugar, coconut, vanilla bean. 
This is just a very simple burnt sugar scent. If you like the smell of those kinds of perfumes, you'll like this one. It's not bad, but it's definitely not my cup of tea - I don't find sugar scents interesting at all. Lasted about 5 hours or so but sillage is quite low. 2/5

Enchanticals Mysteire Noir: Blood orange, raspberry, dark chocolate, black labdanum, vanilla.
Fruity top notes, once applied the chocolate comes out but the fruit stays around and it's too much for me. This perfume is similar to Alize, except that one is more chocolate and this one is more fruit. Lasted quite a long time - I put it on at night and could still smell it on my wrist the next morning. 2/5

Deep Midnight Perfumes Charis: Sandalwood, Vanilla, Musk. 
This starts off as a boozy vanilla but goes dusty on me within minutes and stays that way. It was gone entirely within a couple of hours.I don't know what happened but I tried it a couple of times and the same thing happened - something in it just doesn't work on my skin at all. 1/5

Twyla Perfumes Gun Street Girl: Bourbon vanilla, tobacco absolute, musk, leather accord, Russian rose absolute, blackcurrant, green cognac.
Another Twyla winner for me - I adored this one. It's a boozy, smokey, leathery, masculine vanilla with a dab of soft rose. This is one of her newer formulas and the lasting power has definitely improved - sillage was medium and I got about 6 hours before reapplying just because I wanted to keep smelling it. Gorgeous, definite full bottle. 5/5

Days 98-104!

Euphrosyne - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details: 
Euphrosyne
Fantasy, Legends, Lore
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes: 
The Three Graces, or Three Charities, of Greek mythology were Charis, also known as Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia. They were the goddesses of joy, pleasure, grace, beauty, festivity, adornment, dance, and song. Daughters of Zeus and the sea-nymph Eurynome, they were also the attendants, or handmaidens, of Aphrodite and Hera and protectors of vegetation. Euphrosyne, (yoo-FROS-uh-nee), comes from the Greek and Latin, meaning “mirth,” “merriment.” Her scent is a myriad blend of tropical fruits, fresh pears, red berries, cream, figs, Sicilian orange, pummelo, caramel, lily of the valley, and a barely hidden note of red licorice. 

In Greek mythology, Euphrosyne didn't do much except dance around with her sisters having a good time. She was kind of frivolous and a teensy bit pointless - an early Kardashian, I guess.  This perfume is also kind of frivolous. In the vial I can smell fig, orange and a faint alcohol scent I attribute to pear. I thought I caught some marzipan too, but I think maybe there's a dab of cherry in there - I often confuse those two in the first seconds of smelling them. Once applied it's a bit of a messy fruity blend, with a strong note of berries. It's very strong and the sillage is high. The caramel comes out in the dry down, but it's that kind of caramel note that borders on smelling like vomit. If someone took a younger Kardashian into a lab and said, "Blend together the things you like the smell of and make a perfume", this is exactly what I would expect them to come up with. It smells like a cheap, trashy celebrity perfume. Gross.

Rating:
1/5

Day 82!

Bourbon Street - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details:
Bourbon Street
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes:
Bourbon Street: The Lamplighter turns down his last alleyway, and you long to follow the scent of sexy bay rum touched with vanilla and musk. Originally created as a men's fragrance but popular as a unisex scent!

I'm really enjoying these blokier scents lately. Am I maturing or just getting old, I wonder? This is the masculine version of any number of vanilla musk scents out there, with the bay rum giving it a slinky smokey edge in the vial and when first applied. There's nothing really unique about it but I do like it quite a bit. Sillage is medium, but it doesn't last all that long - it was gone in a couple of hours.

Rating: 
3/5

Day 55!

Blood and Donuts - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details:
Blood & Donuts
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes: 
Dark Egyptian amber and gaharu wood, well blended and served with creamy vanilla, cinnamon spice, rich chocolate, and a splash of turkish coffee. It's.... to die for.

In the vial I smell chocolate and vanilla. Once applied it’s spicy vanilla coffee. I don’t drink chai, but I imagine this is what it smells like (although is chai coffee? I’m not sure it is...). The synthetic note that a few of the Deep Midnight perfumes doesn’t show up in this one. The dry down starts as a fairly strong amber, which goes a little dusty for a while, then mellows to a slightly spicy vanilla amber. Sillage is low to medium – I caught a whiff of it now and then when I moved my arm but I wasn’t aware of it otherwise. Longevity is medium – about 5-6 hours.

Rating:
2/5 It has all the notes I like but it doesn’t really do anything for me.

Day 46!

Coco Violette - Deep Midnight

Details: 
Coco Violette
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes: 
Reminiscent of old fashioned violet candies and sweet childhood memories. This is a wonderful scent for grown up ladies too! Old fashioned violet, milk chocolate, and a hint of creamy vanilla.

In the vial this is a chocolate floral with a sharpish green note. Once applied it's violets and that green note still hovering. The chocolate is very much in the background on the skin, although it comes back again in the dry down, which is a chocolate floral sweetened by the vanilla. Like some of the other Deep Midnight scents I've tried, that odd synthetic note is there, and I'm not keen on it. I wanted to like this, as it's my kind of thing, but... no, it's not happening. Sillage is lowish - it's not super close to the skin but doesn't have a lot of throw. Longevity is medium, it disappeared pretty much entirely in about 6 hours.

Rating:
2/5

Day 33!

Carnivale Rouge - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details: 
Carnivale Rouge
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes: 
Let the red carnival sweep you away into decadence and mystery. Who is that delicious stranger behind the mask? What are you willing to give in return for brush of his lips? Will you remove your mask and bare your desires? Remember.... nothing is ever as it seems when the masquerade begins! Notes of amaretto liqueur are deepened with balanced tones of the darkest cocoa, cappuccino, rich cream, and buttery amber, while background notes of oakwood fire, and citrus deepen the intrigue. Come and play if you will!

I have all my untested samples in a glass bowl in my room (I know I should stand them upright to prevent leakage and so on but it's just not practical for me), and I reach in and pull one out at random to test. For some reason, I keep getting Deep Midnight ones! Though I do have quite a few, as I got 10 samples and was sent 4 free with my order. Anyway, Carnivale Rouge was my latest, and I chose this because it was a gourmand scent with cocoa and cream, two of my favourite notes. I'm not super keen on amaretto, but I find it's one of those notes that comes out sharp early on but never hangs around for long so I can live with it.

In the vial, the first thing I smelled was marzipan, which of course was the amaretto. Once I applied it to my wrist, it was more smokey. The almond scent was still there, but not as sharp. The cocoa isn't chocolate-y as such - it actually adds more to the smokiness and makes everything smell a little like tobacco. The dry down is a warm, fairly light amber with a touch of vanilla. The sillage is low, but once the perfume dries down it hangs around for quite a while, and it's a comforting scent. I like this one.

Rating:
3/5

Day 30!

Children Of The Night - Deep Midnight

Details:
Children of the Night
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes: 
Children of the Night: What sweet music they make! A nice Gothic blend of dragon’s blood, silky champas, deep vanilla, dark black fig, and the haunting faint breath of heliotrope. This unisex scent will them howling for more.

There is a note in a few of the Deep Midnight perfumes I have sampled that has that synthetic, plasticky smell that's kind of like bandaids. This one has it too, and it's quite strong both in the vial and when first applied. I feel like it might be the heliotrope, which can sometimes smell a bit weird on me. I'm not overly keen on this - it's not quite a scrubber, but that synthetic note distracts me. When it dries down it smells like vanilla and incense. The sillage is not strong, and the lasting power is medium. I don't have much else to say about this one, but I'm definitely not howling for more...

Rating: 
2/5

Day 26!

Pirate's Keg - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details:
Pirate's Keg
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes:
Oh, that Black Jack – you can only imagine the booty he possesses! Raise a glass and toast him on his way to more grand swashbuckling adventures. Bay rum, rich leather, wild musk, and a shot of coconut and lime. A delicious unisex scent!

I don't tend to like masculine scents all that much, but now that I have to review 365 perfumes I thought it would be a good idea to step out of my comfort zone occasionally, otherwise all you'll ever be reading is variations of chocolate, cream and white florals. I chose Pirate's Keg because I'm only vaguely familiar with bay rum as a scent note, and also because it has leather.

In the vial I smell booze and lime. My ex (now BFF) and I would quite often drink vodka with lime and bitters on hot days (and in Adelaide there a lot of those) and that's what this made me think of at first. Once it's applied I can still smell the booze, and also now the leather. The coconut is there, but it's not the suntan oil kind of coconut - it adds kind of a warm, faintly sweet softening to the rum and leather. The lime pretty much disappears on my skin, but every now and then I thought I could catch a whiff of it. The dry down is leather, softened a little by the coconut. I rather like this perfume, despite it being more blokey than I would normally lean toward.

Rating: 
3/5 Not sure if I'd get a lot of use out of a full bottle, but I will put the sample away and bring it out again when the weather cools down.

Day 17!