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!

Lyra - Twyla Perfumes

Details:
Lyra
Literary Ingenues - Spring Collection 2013
Twyla Perfumes

Notes: 
Lyra - from Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series.  This one in particular is very close to my heart - it was my son Jamie's favourite book - we must have read it together 5 times in the space of 3 years.  I dedicate this one to him.  

Mandarin, jasmine, lily, cedarwood, copiaba, soft musk, madagascar vanilla and pink pepper.

 

In the vial I get a musky sweet white floral with a teensy bit of pepper that made my nose twitch. Applied to skin the pepper comes out more. At first I wasn't sure about it, I didn't want to sit here all afternoon sneezing my head off. It's not that kind of pepper though - it adds a really interesting spicy  kick to what could have just been a pretty floral musk. There's a slight woodiness too - I looked up copiaba because I'd never heard of it, and apparently that can be a bit woody, plus the cedarwood adds that sweet resiny kind of note. The vanilla didn't really come out on me at all as a distinct note - more just adding a bit of depth and sweetness in the background. It was all quite light and bright at first (I never did detect the mandarin, but I suspect that is what was making it so bright), but although the scent itself didn't change a whole lot, it deepened considerably as it dried down. Although it seems quite feminine, I think this one would actually work really nicely on a man. Sillage was medium, and it stuck around for about 6 hours or so before fading right down. I could still smell traces of it at the end of the day, but only with my nose up close. 

Rating: 

4/5 I really like this one, and yet again I'm tempted to get a full bottle, but ehhhhhn. How many full bottles of perfume can one person get through? I'm still considering whether to make a last minute dash before this collection comes down. 

Day 107!

Lucretia - Enchanticals Perfume

Details: 
Lucretia
Enchanticals Perfume

Notes: 
A Victorian, Gothic Mourning fragrance straight from the halls of the finest Funeral Parlors draped in velvet curtains, lace doilies under fine crystal vases of floral arrangements, and perfumed handkerchiefs dampened by tears of love lost. Soft powdery vanillas, a bouquet of funeral wreaths with Attar of Rose, Lilies, and Jasmine, with black Amber and a few other dark secrets.

In the vial Lucretia is a sweet vanilla floral, the kind of perfume I am always guaranteed to like - it's my jam. Application to my wrist brings out a pastry/cake note and a very faint hint of something lemony. The amber is present right from the beginning but it's quite soft. I can smell the jasmine and lilies in a beautiful blend of white floral, but the rose is not distinct - that's a good thing in this kind of perfume, it could easily take over. There's nothing much unique going on here - I've smelled many versions of this kind of perfume, but this is a particularly lovely blend. The dry down is a really pretty floral musk. Sillage was medium for a couple of hours, but even when it faded, the scent itself lasted for ages. I applied it early evening and I could still smell it on my wrist the following afternoon (for the record, I would normally have had a shower in that time but I'm on holidays so I'm skanking around the house).

Rating: 
5/5 Loved it, couldn't stop sniffing it. Definitely going on the full bottle list for my next Enchanticals purchase.

Day 87!

Hasta la Muerte - The Morbid The Merrier

Details: 
Hasta la Muerte
Valentine's Day 2011
The Morbid The Merrier

Notes:
The innocence of lily and carnation, sweetened with vanilla absolute, smashed and marred by an undercurrent of heartless black spice.

This is one of the few perfumes I have left from The Morbid The Merrier, and it's never been a favourite. When I first bought it, I found it just okay, but nothing about it kept me going back. After a couple of years, this has aged quite well (interestingly, because the other TMTM scent I reviewed for this blog was the opposite). In the bottle, it's a sweet, very faintly spicy floral, mostly the lily with a dab of vanilla evident. Once applied though, the spice comes out and I get the carnation as well. It's so different from bottle to skin - almost like an entirely different perfume. This is what I'd call a unisex floral - you can definitely smell the flowers, but it's not girly. The spice makes it more deep and masculine.

I'm glad I pulled this one out - I really like a lot this time around. The vanilla stays in the background, just adding a slightly warm, sweet base as it dries down, but the carnation is the most definite note, there all the way through. Sillage is medium - like many carnation scents, it would be easy to go overboard with this, but subtly applied it's not too out there. Longevity is pretty good - I could still smell it 6 hours later.

Rating: 
4/5 A forgotten gem.

Day 70!