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!

Baneberry - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Details: 
Baneberry
Rappaccini's Garden
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes:
A poisonous fruit-bearing member of the buttercup family. The scent, like the plant, is dark green, herbal and plump with bulging black fruit. 

Erg. This is one of those BPALs that just turns into a smooshy mess on me. In the vial I can smell a herby green note and a sweet, berry-like fruitiness. Once applied it's just a giant fruit salad. Not for me at all. Sillage and longevity were medium - it lasted about 6 hours or so. We all know how I feel about fruit scents - enough said here.

Rating: 
1/5

Day 133!

Aequitas - Darling Clandestine

Details: 
Aequitas
Darling Clandestine

Notes: 
Yes. It's a fragrance inspired by the Boondock Saints. Smoke and blood and whiskey and damp alleys and leather and steel and gunpowder and sweat and denim and sweet wooden rosary beads and a bit of clover struggling up through concrete cracks. It is unisex and so, so, so sexy.

Aequitas contains highly concentrated German chamomile, so it's got a bit o' the green. And since it also contains real whiskey, the dark resins and lovely insanely green oil-bubbles tend to separate and settle at the bottom. Just give the bottle a shake, and the perfume turns the color of a luna moth. :)

I wore this for three days in a row trying to get my head around it and I'm still baffled. I can't really pick out any notes, it smells like... green. In the bottle I think I can smell the steel note and also the whiskey, but to be honest I could only pick out those notes once I knew they were there. It's very masculine - slightly too masculine for my tastes. Once applied it stays that way for quite a long time, but then a couple of hours later there's something floral about it - no particular flower, not particularly girly, but definitely floral. It's weird. I have no idea whether or not I like it. Sillage is medium, longevity is about 10 hours.

Rating: 
Undecided. I'm going to try it again in a month or so and see if I can make more sense of it.

Day 114!

Mad as Birds - Darling Clandestine

Details: 
Mad as Birds (prototype)
Darling Clandestine

Notes: 
Mad as Birds is a sweet, cool, garden-dew fragrance with notes of pear and mint and amber and marigolds. A multitude of different scent elements and weeks (months!) of methodical alchemy make Mad as Birds no ordinary scented oil mix—it's a truly inimitable fragrance. 

A few weeks ago in the middle of the really hot spell towards the end of summer, I was stuck in the house and bored and read a Facebook post on Darling Clandestine's page offering a special deal of 3 full size (specific) bottles and a 'bitsy' (Evonne's version of a sample - though really it's not that much shy of a full size bottle of, say, BPAL) of a prototype of Mad as Birds, a perfume that had been available in the past but was now reformulated. I had no idea what the notes were in any of the perfumes in the deal, and I'd never bought anything from Darling Clandestine, but I decided on a whim to grab it anyway. White wine spritzers may or may not have been involved.

In the bottle, Mad as Birds smells green and fresh, with a tiny hint of the mint discernible and a slight wine-ish note. This might just be me - when I was little my grandpa was always making wine out of weird things like bananas and pears, and since then I've always thought pears smelled slightly alcoholic.

Once I applied to my skin the pear was more distinct and true to its fruitiness, and I have to say, I really liked it. Am I actually coming around to fruit? Noooooo! The green note (is that marigold? I don't know what marigold smells like), still with that little dab of mint, keeps this perfume light and bright; I would have liked to have had this in the above-mentioned heatwave. The fragrance doesn't change all that much throughout, though the dry down is a bit deeper, with the amber darkening it all just a touch (not too much, though - it certainly doesn't scream "Hey, I'm amber!" as many others do). Sillage was medium, as was longevity. I had this on from early evening and could still smell it when I went to bed. In the morning there was just a tiny faint hint of it left.

Note: As this is a prototype, it may or may not be the same version as the one currently available on the website.

Rating: 
4/5 I don't feel like I need a bigger bottle of this at the moment, but I am glad I have more than a standard size sample. I have hardly any 'summery' perfumes, so this is something a bit different for me.

Day 78!

Garden Gate - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Garden Gate
Spring Collection 2011
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Voluptuous Lilac blossoms in the foreground combine with faint traces of cascading wisteria and subtle, fresh, green grass notes. Contains a blend of fragrance oils and African Bluegrass EO to creat a sweet, creamy and gorgeous floral. The dry down is an intensely beautiful and very wearable floral that smells true to the light purple flowers that inspired it.

This perfume is similar to several other 'cottage garden' ones I have, which is why I never bothered buying a full size. The lilac is most prominent on first sniff - that's pretty much all I get. It doesn't really change any until the dry down, and that's when the wisteria and the 'green' show up. It's lovely if you like garden florals (and I do very much). There's really not a lot more to say about it. Sillage and longevity are both on the low-ish side. I could still smell it after 3 hours, but it was extremely faint. 

Rating: 
3/5

Day 58!

Ostara - Alchemic Muse

Details: 
Ostara
Spring 2012
Alchemic Muse

Notes: 
The eternal embodiment of spring pays tribute to you with a mix of hyacinth blossoms, myrtle, and wild heather fused with the soft green foliage of moss and ivy, gently grounded by a warm and earthy base of clove, cinnamon, and myrrh.

Not to put too fine a point on it, in the bottle this smells very synthetic. And yet I like it. It's so old lady-ish and I have a fondness for old lady perfumes. Applied the synthetic note is still there, but not as obvious. I smell hyacinths and lots of lush, damp greenery. It makes me think of an English country garden - something like this:

 Source

Despite the apparent presence of possible amping notes like clove and cinnamon, this doesn't really change much on me as it dries down. I like it, though it’s nothing amazing – just a pretty, very old lady-ish Springtime floral. Noodles commented on this one too, just after I applied it she walked in and asked what I was wearing and said, “I like it.” High praise indeed. It’s quite strong at first, but the dry down is close to the skin. Longevity is medium – about 4 hours or so.

Rating:

3/5 As I said, it’s a very pretty floral, but it’s nothing remarkable.

Day 44!

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!

Amsterdam - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Details:

Amsterdam

Wanderlust

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes:

Tulips, peony, fresh flowing water and crisp green grasses.

In the imp I smell a watery floral. I have to admit, I don’t know what tulips smell like, so maybe that’s what the floral is – I really don’t know. Once applied it’s a bit less watery, and the grass note is detectable. I like how those sorts of notes define ‘green’. When someone is describing a perfume and they say it smells green, I know exactly what they mean.This is definitely a green note - fresh and a little astringent.

The dry down goes a bit soapy on me. In the end, Amsterdam is a light, summery floral. Nice enough, but not my cup of tea.

Rating:

2/5 Pretty, but not very interesting.

Day 10!