Catch Up Post #7 Solstice Scents Summer Sampler

I don't have a lot to say about any of these, because I didn't really like any of them. A rare miss for me with Solstice Scents, but I guess we can't all love everything. 

Coquina - Sandalwood, Orange Blossom, Clementine EO, Beach Sand, Plumeria Absolute, Coconut, Ginger EO, a splash of Sea Spray
Reading that list of notes this sounds like a fun, bright scent, but on me it was just a fruit cocktail. It smelled a teeny bit synthetic too. I didn't hate it, I just thought... meh. It didn't last long either - it had gone entirely within two hours. 2/5

Hand of Darkness - Oceanic Accord, Rain Accord, Woods Blend, Black Pitch, Buddha Wood, Lime, Coriander, Tarragon, Amber
I would have bet money there was sage in this - what I smelled was sage and dirt. After a few minutes there was a peppery note. Longevity was about 6 hours or so, sillage medium. I was surprised when I came to write this and saw what the notes actually were because I did not get any of that. 2/5
Note: For an alternative view, Rachel was more appreciative of this one than I was. 

Cardamom Rose Sugar - Brown Sugar, Cardamom EO, Moroccan Rose and Bulgarian Rose
At first I get burnt sugar and rose petals, pretty but unremarkable. The rose disappeared after 10 minutes or so and all I was left with was burnt sugar. And that's pretty much it. I find cardamom to smell quite distinctive and I never for a moment picked up any of that. Disappointing. 2/5

High Noon - Worn Holster Leather, Tobacco, Whiskey, Woods, Sand, Gunsmoke, Musk and Soft Ladies' Perfume
This was the one I was most looking forward to, and it was just... ehhhhhhh. Really, all I smelled was leather. There was maybe a tiny bit of musk there but that was about it. I tried it a couple of times to see if it was just a quirk of the day or something, but nope. Same deal the second time. For such usually strong notes, it was surprisingly close to the skin, too. Longevity was about 6 hours. 2/5

High Desert - Desert Sage, Ceremonial White Sage, Sandalwood, Mitti, Cacti, Indian Tobacco, Prickly Pear Cactus, Hay, Smoke, Labdanum
At least I correctly picked the sage this time. I hate sage, and that note was overpowering on me, to the extent that I couldn't pick up anything else specific. This was a total scrubber for me - I had to wash it off after half an hour because it was making me feel a bit sick. One thing I will say is that it is extremely good at mimicking actual desert scents, and now I know why I don't like the desert - it smells like sage. 1/5

Sirocco - Moroccan Spices, Sandalwood, Hot Baked Earth, Myrrh Resin, Precious Saffron Threads and Oud
To me, this smelled like a less nauseating version of High Desert, which is odd since they don't have the same notes. There was more of a sweetness to it, almost-but-not-quite floral. I assume that's the Moroccan spices, which lean towards sweetness. Sillage and longevity were quite low with this one; it was gone in about 3 hours. 2/5

Tropical Moon - Coconut, Tuberose, Tahitian Gardenia, Lime Essential Oil, Pink Lotus Attar
If I went to the Reject Shop and bought a candle that was called something like "Tropic Delight" or "Hawaiian Nights", this is exactly what I would expect it to smell like.  Diappointingly cheap and synthetic smelling. Conclusion: much as I love Solstice Scents, their summer perfumes are obvously not for me. 1/5

Days 207 to 213!

Beguiled - Haus of Gloi

Details:
Beguiled
Summer Collection 
Haus of Gloi

Notes: 
Lemon cake made with the tang of fresh buttermilk and raspberry coulis - an otherwise innocent cake corrupted by cardamom and deceptive pink peppercorns.

Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake! (That's an in joke for Jacquie.)
This perfume is not so much cake to me, more like a sweet lemon custard. It's quite strong at first but does mellow. Very, very lemony for quite a while - thankfully not the toilet cleaner kind of lemon! The lemon fades a little in the dry down and blends more in with the other notes. This is when it becomes more cakey in my mind. I didn't get the spices at all - I found it very smooth all the way through. I did say earlier in the year I was a bit over cake/dessert scents, but I would almost be tempted to buy a full size of this one. It's very well done and super pretty. If you like gourmand scents, this is definitely one worth checking out. Beguiled lasted about 7 hours on me before I felt I needed to reapply.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 198!

Edit: Liber Vix made a cake from this scent's notes and it looks and sounds amazing. Definitely going to try this! 

Pyrotechnik - Darling Clandestine

Details: 
Pyrotechnik
Darling Clandestine

Notes: 
Carefully blended and infused by me in small batches in vintage glass wine bottles, this fragrance is a sangria-spicy concoction with bold notes of cantaloupe and raw sandalwood darkened with smoke and earth. A multitude of different scent elements and weeks of methodical alchemy make Pyrotechnik no ordinary scented oil mix—it's a truly inimitable fragrance. The spice element in this one can warm the skin a bit, so take note if you're a sensitive type.

It took me ages to work out that what I was smelling was melon - in the bottle and when applied wet there was a strong watery element that I thought might have been cucumber for a while, but then realised it was too sweet. There is also a green note and something that smells like damp earth. I don't really get spice or sandalwood, though it does warm up as it dries, so maybe that's just those adding some heat rather than specific scent notes. This doesn't last a long time on me - maybe 3 hours, and although it starts off quite strong it sits close to the skin once it dries down. However, the bottle I have is huge so frequent reapplication doesn't bother me at all. 

This would be a lovely summer scent; the melon is fresh and bright without smelling 'fruity'.

Rating: 
3/5

Day 134!

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!