Lila - Wiggle Perfume

First sniff: 
Lilacs - very floral, very perfumey


First applied: 
Yep, still lilacs - this is a super feminine floral, quite potent. There's a green note in there too but it's delicate, the flower takes centre stage. Old ladyish but in a good way.

First 30 mins: 
Considering how potent this is when first applied it fades pretty quickly. I applied this to my wrists, behind the ears and in the cleavage (the warm spot - shut up, you know it's true) and I can only smell it now if I get close to my wrist and sniff. Not sure if it's a natural perfume - those tend to fade on me in minutes - but it's a shame that something so pretty is so fleeting.

After 3 hours: 
Almost entirely gone. If I press my nose to my wrist I can just barely catch the last remnants of it.

Longevity: 
Maybe 2-3 hours. 

Actual notes/description: 
Okay, so you may have noticed that I've been adding a bit of lilac to everything this spring. I found an amazingly true lilac scent and I've become completely obsessed. I love the summery promise of lilacs, but I wanted to give it a different twist. I read somewhere that the name Lila means "night", and combining that information with its use in a wonderfully dreamy Morphine song, I felt inspired to create a deeply dark romantic lilac scent. Lila combines a rich and retro-fabulous lilac note with an inky black musk, touches of vanilla and black tea, dusky black rose, and a healthy kick of black pepper.

Availability: 
Wiggle Perfume
Discontinued

The Piemaker - Sarawen Perfume Art

First sniff:
Fruit, but for once not gross fruit. Okay, I'm going in.

First applied:
Sort of like cherry, but this smells like actual cherry pie made with actual cherries, not that cough syrup cherry note you usually get in perfumes. I kind of like this - it's warm but light at the same time.

After 30 minutes:
Jammy fruit and something floral - it smells like one of those blossom jams you get at farmer's markets. There is a very, very slight dustiness - I hope that goes away. Sillage is not high, even after just half an hour I don't really notice the perfume unless I sniff my wrist.

After 3 hours:
Sadly this went completely dusty not long after the 30 minute mark, and pretty much disappeared within 2 hours. That first burst was pretty nice, but it didn't like me much after that.

Longevity: 
Not long - not even 2 hours. I find that with a lot of Sarawen perfumes, my skin just seems to eat them.

Actual notes/description: 
Having baked pies all morning, the piemaker opened his establishment and commenced to serve his customers. The scent of berries, baked pastry and a hint of floral wafts through, beckoning one to sit at a booth and enjoy one of the piemaker's fine treats! The piemaker is inspired by the character of Ned from Pushing Daisies, and is a balanced unisex fragrance with a floral amber background blended with gourmand notes. Main notes: berry pies, pale musk, apple spice, tuberose, amber.

Availability:
Sarawen Perfume Art
Limited Edition - Valentine's Day 2015
Available at the time of writing in sample and full size.

Dorian - Sarawen Perfume Art

First sniff: 
A very potent single floral note - not rose, maybe lotus? With a sharp green note as well.

First applied: 
Woo, this is a head kicker - I sneezed a few times immediately after applying. The floral note is still right out there but I don't think it's lotus. It's definitely not iris or violet, it's familiar but not common to me. Mystery! There's a teeny bit of something that is maybe vanilla... or possibly coconut. It's got that slightly tropical edge. I like this - it's definitely floral but not old lady-ish. Jeez, it's really strong though. Sorry in advance, office!

After 30 minutes: 
I had a doctor's appointment first thing this morning and while he was talking to me he suddenly started sniffling and then sneezed. He said, "Sorry - sensitive nose." At the time I thought he was referring to hay fever, but I realised later on it was my perfume that set him off. Oops! At the 30 minute mark it was still pretty strong, and I still can't figure out what that floral note is. 

After 3 hours: 
Almost gone. Wha' happen? It was super potent for a while and then it seemed to fade really suddenly. I can smell it if I hold my wrist up to my nose but it's definitely only got about two hours or so of real life in it. The base is more mellow, musky and less floral - I'm thinking there's coconut in there for sure. I like this one a lot so I wouldn't mind having to frequently reapply. It's probably more suited to the evening than the office though. 

Longevity: 
About two hours at full potency, then fades considerably. 

Actual notes/description: 
A beauty that never dies, which lingers in late nights with absinthe-induced fantasies as light musks permeate the air. The sweetness of his sins is covered in dark orchids and red florals, while exotic chypres and hints of coconut cream linger in his debauched luxury... main notes: musk, absinthe, orchids, (d'oh!), coconut. 

Availability: 
Sarawen Perfume Art
Fall 2014 - currently available
Sample and full size

Dark Chocolate Fudge Taffy Pull - Violette Market

First sniff: 
Just lots of chocolate.

First applied: 
Chocolate and something a bit watery, sort of reminds me of Tom Ford's Black Orchid. There's a definite floral note but I can't place it - something delicate. This is quite faint too - I slathered a bit but the sillage is not at all high.

After 30 mins: 
A watery floral with a bit of a chocolate base note, pretty but not at all what I would expect by the name.

After 3 hours: 
The base has deepened a little and it's slightly more chocolatey than it was at the 30 minute mark; the aquatic floral is still there and seems to be the main focus. The perfume overall is quite faint now - this one doesn't hang around too long.

Longevity: 
Two to three hours. 

Actual notes/description: 
Dark chocolate fudge with hints of Bourbon vanilla, vanilla cream, pink sugar cane, lemon blossom, orange cream, raspberry truffle, blueberry and caramel. 

Availability: 
Violette Market
Limited Edition - State Fair 2012 
No longer readily available. You might pick it up in private sales.

Venus Libertina - Arcana Soaps

Details: 
Venus Libertina
Arcana Soaps (bought from The Rhinestone Housewife)

Notes: 
Night-blooming tuberose, pink gardenia, wax myrtle, tiare, bay rum, sandalwood, cucumber, iris and a teensy spill of champagne. 

Don't those notes sound lush? I imagined this to be a gorgeous, rich white floral with a dry down warmed by the sandalwood - pretty much my jam. And yet what I got was... lemon toilet cleaner. I don't get it. There is nothing lemony mentioned in the notes. Could it be the bay rum? I know sometimes that can be a tad limey. The wax myrtle? Wax myrtle gives us the scent bayberry. Fine and dandy except I have no idea what that smells like. Is it lemon?

Not to put too fine a point on it, this was grooosssssssss for the longest time. I really wanted to scrub it off, but I wasn't going out anywhere so I stuck it out, hoping that somewhere along the line it would morph into the amazing white floral I'd been expecting. Nope. Never happened. Instead after about an hour the toilet cleaner finally went away and I was left with a very faint, generic pot pouri floral that was completely gone within 2 hours. I considered trying it again the following day to see if there was just something weird going on with my skin chemistry, but you know what... I didn't want to.

Rating: 
1/5

Day 224!

Little Flora - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Details: 
Little Flora
Turn of the Screw
Yule 2012
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes: 
Peonies and cream. 

I've tried this out a few times since I got it late last year, but I've put of including it in my daily reviews because there just isn't much to say about it. This is a highly perfumey, super creamy floral. It doesn't change on me at all from go to whoa. It lasts for hours and hours - I could still smell it when I moved my wrists around 12 hours after applying. The sillage is high-ish, and when I tried it this most recent time I actually spilled a dab on myself while applying and it smelled really strong for a long time.

Little Flora is an ultra-feminine perfume in the vein of something like Wiggle Perfume's Buxom, though without that one's complexity. I like those kinds of perfumes, which is just as well.

As an aside, I find the label on this one really creepy. There is just something about pictures of old-fashioned little girls that makes me think of dolls, and there are few things that give me the heebie jeebies as much as dolls do.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 222!

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!

Limerence - Darling Clandestine

Details:
Limerence
Darling Clandestine

Notes:
Limerence is a rich floral-not a grandmotherly floral, but a moody blend of bruised Casablanca lilies, bittersweet succulents, full-bodied herbal essentials, a heady crust of sea salt, and a wonderfully fine mitti attar that's the essence of first rain hitting sun-baked earth. 

First a note about the vial - these actually come labelled with a little ticket, like an old fashioned bus or tram ticket, as shown in the third picture on Liber Vix's review of some Darling Clandestines. It's a cute idea, but it's not overly practical for storage - I was worried they would fall of and then I'd never know which was which, so I just stuck these little labels on them myself. 

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before, but I find in a lot of perfumes - and particularly with Darling Clandestine perfumes - that the vial and the little wand cap smell different. In the vial this is very floral - an English/Victorian garden scent with lilies and something old-fashioned like lilacs or hyacinths. The wand, however, smells very green and herbal. Once applied those notes blend together - a green, lush, wet country garden. Surprisingly for a DC perfume, this one doesn't change all that much on me. It lasted about 6 or so hours before I felt that I needed to reapply, and the sillage was low to medium. 

Rating: 
3/5

Day 179!

Rose Coloured Glasses - Twyla Perfumes

Details:
Rose Coloured Glasses
Twyla Perfumes & Apothecary

Notes:
This one is definitely for you Rose-lovers out there. Four different roses are used in this beautiful aromatherapy perfume, as well as a gorgeous vanilla, a generous dose of calming sandalwood absolute and jasmine sambac, and finally a touch of a beautiful and uplifting fresh mint absolute i've just found (and now i refuse to use anything else). I absolutely love this one, and find it especially good to wear on those days when my spirits need a bit of a lift. And if you're already feeling good, this will make you feel even better!


Super pretty rose perfume, with the roseness of the rose (heh) tempered by the sandalwood and vanilla, which adds a slightly musk candy scent. I don't really get the mint as such, but there's something there that adds a bit of a zing.I've worn this one a few times and I really like it - it's sweet and feminine and there's not a huge amount going on but that's okay. Sillage is medium - if you threw it about you'd probably announce your entrance to a room, but a bit of a dab is fine. Longevity is fairly good - I find it lasts 6-7 hours on me.

Rating: 
3/5

Day 178!

Pig & Pepper - Twyla Perfumes

Details:
Pig & Pepper
Twyla Perfumes & Apothecary

Notes: 
Cyclamen, raspberry, rose, milk accord, amber, mimosa, honey and pink pepper. 

Sometimes I have a week where everything seems like a dud, and sometimes I have a week where I like pretty much everything I test. I wonder if that's just chance or if there is a body chemistry thing going on. For example, I wonder if I'm having 'lady's days', my skin chemistry changes to make everything smell either really crap or really good. Interesting. Or maybe just creepy.

Anyway, this has been a pretty decent week and this is the third one in a row that I've tested and really enjoyed. In the vial I can smell rose, mimosa and honey, it's bright and sweet and a tiny bit fruity. Once applied the pepper gives it a bit of a spicy kick, and the raspberry adds a nice tart element to balance the sweetness. The amber is there in the dry down but doesn't amp on me for once - it just makes everything else smell a bit deeper. There's a creaminess that I attribute to the milk accord, and overall this is a lovely bright perfume that I'd probably wear more in the spring and early summer.

Sillage was medium, as was lasting power. I reapplied after about 6 hours.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 158!

Courtly Love - Possets

Details: 
Courtly Love
Possets Perfume

Notes: 
The slow stately thromb of courtly love as the man adores his lady and shows his love every day. Coconut (here used more as a serious element rather than a novelty) dances with apricot and a light kiss of vanilla and a very sweet, not stinky, jasmine to make a honey-ed note stand out. Swoony nice.

I wore this for three days in a row because it was so pretty. It's just a sweet, girly gourmand, but something about it just kept me gravitating back for another wear. In the vial I can smell the jasmine and vanilla - it's a prettier than usual version of any number of white floral vanilla scents. Once applied, the coconut comes out and the jasmine just kind of hovers around the edges - this is definitely  a foody perfume rather than a flowery one. The coconut is more creamy than coconut generally is in perfume, and the apricot makes it smell like a delicious dessert - it reminded me of something custardy like a pannacotta or a crème anglaise.

Sillage was medium to low - it didn't really scream its presence at all, but I could smell it when I moved my arm. It didn't last a long time though - it was virtually gone in 3 hours or so.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 157! 

Bloody Valentine - Black Baccara

Details: 
Bloody Valentine
Black Baccara

Notes: 
A perfume for those who like their florals with a hint of gloom and doom. Bloody Valentine is a story of aged papers and Victorian flowers enhanced by a tinge of the metallic and earthy. It is a strong, floral blend best suited for those who love the smell of "vintage" flowers and Victorian inspired perfumes. The scent here is from another time and place. The strongest notes are those of violets, followed by rose, sandalwood, a hint of red wine, a trace of soil, and clove pennyroyal, among others.

The dominant notes in this floral are violet and rose, and boy are they running the show. It's like Bea Smith and the Freak fighting for supremacy in Prisoner (the real one, not that travesty of a remake). This is a true head kicking perfumy perfume, and not for those who like their scents delicate. There is a sweet note that could be wine, and a sharpish spice note that might be clove or nutmeg. The dry down was like a mildly spicy soap, and once that soapiness made an appearance it stayed until the perfume disappeared about 4 hours later. No likey. 

Rating: 
1/5

Day 155!

Lady Nightingale - Sarawen Perfume Art

Details:
Lady Nightingale 
Dragon Age Set
Sarawen Perfume Art

Notes: 
Fragrant white flowers of ginger blossom, jasmine, and gardenia over a sensuous base of light musk. Topped off with a single note of sweet vanilla. Delicate and innocent, yet charmingly sexy. This scent is an ultra-feminine floral musk inspired by Lelianna.

In the bottle there's something that smells almost fruity, but once applied this is definitely a white floral - the jasmine in particular is prevalent. It's quite strong at first, with a medium to high sillage, but after 20 minutes or so it dries down and softens a bit. The vanilla and musk base sweeten the floral. It lasted about 6 hours on me before I felt I had to reapply.

There is nothing unique about this perfume - it's a pretty standard white floral musk, but if you like that sort of thing, it's a very pretty version. I found myself sniffing my wrist a lot when I was wearing it.

As a side note, I can't believe this is the first Sarawen perfume I've tested for this blog! I just got a haul of samples the other day so there will be more. I love the packaging - the little bottles with screw top lids instead of vials with wands are a great idea.

Rating: 
3/5

Day 148!

White Rabbit - Enchanticals

Details: 
White Rabbit
Enchanticals Perfume

Notes: 
The frantic little fur ball...always running around with that over sized pocket watch. What was he in such a hurry for down in Wonderland? This perfume is in homage to that cute little fella with a blend of white things like white gardenia, a hint of fluffy coconut, then I added some fresh orange essential oil, dark juicy berries, tree barks & mosses and ancient ambers. Subtle, fresh and super alluring while being completely enchanting and fit to be adored by all on both sides of the Rabbit hole. Fragrance Family: Modern/Floral, Feminine.

In the vial White Rabbit smells foody - I can smell the orange and the berries, but applied to the skin the white floral comes out and it's quite potent.  It's sweetened by the coconut, which I took for vanilla until I read the notes and then realised immediately I was going up the wrong path there. This is a heady, 'perfumey' perfume - I was right on the edge of a headache with it for the first half hour or so. Once it dries down it softens to a smooth, foody floral, but it still has a fair bit of throw. Longevity is medium - I reapplied after about 5 hours. The moss and amber were lost on me - this was straight up floral gourmand. 

Rating: 
2/5 Meh. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. 

Day 138! 

Isabella - Possets

Details: 
Isabella
Possets Perfume

Notes: 
So very ladylike but so very seductive. Notes of rose are combined with a light resin, white tea leaf and a rare honey/milky-musk. This one starts off as demure and gradually becomes more and more seductive as it warms on your skin. Finally the musk comes out, and it is the sort I call "cream musk" as it becomes very brightly smoothly sweet as the mixture matures. A light dusting of familiar spices round out the mixture and make it the perfect portrait of Isabella and what she must have left behind after she lingered in a room. Enchanting and uplifting perfume. 

I got a Possets order the other day and the entire package smelled like this perfume, to the point where I thought it must have leaked. It hadn't though - it's just incredibly strong. In the vial it's a creamy scent, distinctly musk but quite unusual, and the rose is there but that musk is running the show. There's a faint candy note - it's not like those pink musk lollies, though. More like the milk bottles you get in the Allen's Retro Party Mix.

This perfume doesn't change all that much as it dries down, but the musk deepens a little and the honey adds a sweetness. The sillage is really high - you definitely need to have a light hand with it. It also lasted a really long time - well over 12 hours and then I had a shower. It's really pretty and quite old-fashioned, but I'm not sure I could tolerate wearing it too often. It's the very definition of a head kicker.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 129!

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!

Leather Rose - Black Baccara

 

Details: 

Leather Rose

Black Baccara

Notes: 

Leather rose had been in the works for some time, as I wanted to created a leather and rose blend that was deep, rich and evocative while at the same time not being too floral. This is not a delicate floral, and it is comparable to my Black Rose blend in regard to the darkness of mood. I also consider it the female counterpart to my popular men's cologne, Marquis De Sade. This blend contains four different types of rose including Hawthorne Rose and Tea Rose. The roses dance with a deep, dark leather. This blend goes through many changes. At the onset, the different rose varieties begin to bloom, seemingly one at a time. Soon after, the roses retreat and make way for a subtle leather whisper, which gradually grows in intensity.

Where is the leather? There is no leather in this that I could smell at all. I just got rose, rose and more rose. This smelled like Yardley Roses. There’s not much more I can say about it, really. 

Rating: 

1/5

Day 124! 

Catch Up/Round Up 3

Yes, I have slacked off yet again and need to catch up in a job lot. I just can't seem to get much time on my laptop lately before it starts heating up dramatically so I have only been using it for downloading. Fingers crossed it behaves this morning while I do all my blog and comment catch-ups. Anyway, I decided to be lazy and put all the rest of the Solstice Scents Spring collection perfumes in one post. I'll put some links to other people's reviews at the bottom so you can get more detail if you'd like. I'm not sure how long these will be around for, but I presume at least to the end of this month. I've already done Chiffon and Dellamorte, and Garden Gate from one I bought a year or two ago.

Cascade of Gold - Sandalwood, White Sandalwood, Honeysuckle, Champa and White Lotus
Oh dear. On me this is honeysuckle-scented fly spray, which I think might be the champa, as I've had that happen before. I didn't really expect to like it anyway because I'm not a big fan of sandalwood, but it really doesn't agree with my skin chemistry. 1/5

Blossom Jam Tea Cakes -  Southern Tea Cakes, Petit Fours, Floral Infused Jams & Preserves, and a delicate aroma of Tea
Whenever I go to farmers' markets I invariably buy jam (even though I don't really eat it) and if there's some kind of weirdo jam there that I can't readily find elsewhere that's the one I go for. Hence I have in my lifetime tried a few floral jams. The jam note in this perfume is very true to those - not sweet or fruity, but a bit tart and fresh, and conjures up images of a well-used country kitchen. It smells just like a jam-filled cake you'd get out of the Country Women's Association cookbook (which I have, because my mum is a farmer's wife and sends me those kinds of things). On the skin there's something a bit smokey, which confused me. I don't know what it is, but I like it. The tartness of the jam stops this perfume from being too 'foodie' - it's one of the few cake ones I've tried recently that doesn't just smell like all the others. It's very unusual and lasts a long time. Not sure it's a full bottle, but I am enjoying the sample I have. 4/5

Chantilly Cream - Whipped Cream, Peach Nectar, Vanilla and Yellow Mandarin EO
I expected to haaaate this, as peach is one of my least favourite scent notes (remembering all my friends drowning themselves in The Body Shop Fuzzy Peach back in the late 80s/early 90s *shudder*), but surprisingly I didn't mind it. The peach nectar is a little deeper than the usual peach note, and the cream smells like it's been dowsed with a nip of brandy or rum or something. Basically, it's like an old-fashioned boozy trifle. 3/5

Devil's Millhopper - Heather, Oakmoss, Fern and Delicate Wood Notes
In the vial I get mostly heather, but once applied the fern comes out and there is a lot of greenness going on. The oakmoss and fern add something damp that smells ever-so-slightly mould-like, which I'm not keen on. This is one of those deep-in-the-forest scents that fans of 'darker' perfumes would probably love, but it's not for me. 2/5

Spirit Tree - Delicate White Flowers, Soft Vanilla and Sandalwood
This is a pretty common blend - in fact, trashy celebrities have been churning out some version of the white floral-vanilla fragrance for the last few years and they have succeeded in really giving it a bad name. However, I still love a well-blended version, and this one starts off beautifully, a lush white floral with the vanilla adding a hint of sweetness. The sandalwood behaves on me at first, just adding a bit of creaminess, but sadly it all goes south as it drys down and the sandalwood takes over. For some reason Solstice Scents' sandalwood note just amps on me, and I really wish it didn't because I loved the rest of what was going on here. Boo hoo. :-( 2/5

Spring Collection reviews from Amanda at More Tea, Wesley?
First sniff
Chiffon
Blossom Jam Tea Cakes
Chantilly Cream

From Amanda at Iris Handmade Soaps
Chantilly Cream
Chiffon

And finally here is a review of last year's Spring collection from Liber Vix, which has some of the same scents.

Day 117-121!

Dellamorte - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Dellamorte
Spring Collection 2013
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Oak, White Carnation, Oakmoss, Egyptian Musk and Vanilla

I expected to like this one - I'm usually pretty fond of a musk/vanilla combo, I adore Solstice Scents' vanilla note, and I like carnation in perfumes a lot. But... no. There is something weirdly synthetic about this and I can't figure out what it is. The oak is overpoweringly strong when sniffing in the vial; it smells like wood polish rather than actual wood. That transfers to the skin too, which is not pleasant. The dry down is a little better, as the oak retreats to the background and the scent becomes a floral musk, but it's not distinctly carnation - there's none of that spiciness you usually get. Surprisingly, it didn't last very long either - it was gone in a couple of hours.

Rating: 
2/5 No matter what stage this was going through, that synthetic note was there to some degree all the way, and it really put me off this one.

Day 116!

Buxom - Wiggle Perfume

Details: 
Buxom 
Wiggle Perfume

Notes: 
This is a very full bodied perfume! If you don't like sweet creamy scents or strong florals then please run, don't walk away from this scent. If you do, prepare to be eveloped in the richest, most femininely decadent fragrance you've ever come across. This perfume is not for little girls, it's sensual and sumptuous and not the least bit shy about it. A blend of buttery rich bourbon vanilla and redolent English rose, this fragrance smells like a posh patisserie and florist smooshed together. I've grounded this fragrance with a lavish red musk, and embellished it with a flirty hint of powder. This oil will warm with your body heat, adding to the freshly-made-dessert effect. Be careful someone doesn't try to take a bite out of you (unless you're into that)! ;-)

The other day I was poking around in a handbag I hadn't used for a really long time when I felt something in the lining, and after investigating found Noodles' lost house keys and this bottle of Buxom perfume, both of which have been missing for well over a year. As it was always one of my favourites, the first thing I did was slather it all over myself.

Nani isn't exaggerating when she calls this 'sweet creamy... strong floral'. Oh man, this is not for the faint-hearted. In the bottle it smells heavily of a sweet, powdery rose. Once applied the powdery note subsides, which is good as 'powder' is not something I'm overly fond of. The vanilla is there, and adds a sweetness and creaminess to the musk that stops it from going too crazy (though it's borderline). The dry down is a strong floral musk, very deep and potent. This perfume lasts FOREVER. I applied it about 2ish in the afternoon, and the next day at around the same time of day I could still smell it on myself. The sillage is high too - I wore this to work once and the lady next to me complained that it gave her a headache. I love it, but it's definitely not for everyone. This is very much in the realm of 'head kicker'.

Rating:
4/5

Day 115!