Old Cedar Magus - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Old Cedar Magus
Solstice Scents


Notes:
Old Cedar Magus is an amazing blend of fresh cedarwood on a bed of mystical incense and soft vanilla. Excellent as a unisex woodsy scent... slightly smoky and very alluring.

One of the most powerful attractants (is that a word? it is now) for me is smell. I don't look at people in the street but if I walk past a man who smells good I will stop dead, whip around and stare as he passes by. He could have a head like a robber's dog but I'll still be attracted. Ironically, my last two long term relationships were with men who hated anything that smelled the slightest bit perfumy - one because he was a hippie skank and the other because he gets headaches from strong fragrances (and also because he was a bit of a borderline hippie skank, it has to be said).

All this is a long-winded Grandpa Simpson way of saying that to me, Old Cedar Magus smells like the PERFECT MAN. It's warm, inviting, a bit sexy but not in that Sex Panther kind of way (you know what I'm talking about).

In the vial it's a freshy woody scent, like walking through a forest in the middle of the day - green and a bit zingy. You know when you go out to the country and you throw your head back and breathe deep and go, "Aaaah, smell that fresh air!" and look around smugly at the people you're with while they stare at you wondering whether you're going to be that annoying for the whole trip? Yeah, that.

Once applied, the warmth comes out - a rich, vanilla resiny wood, mildly smokey, just delicious. The dry down doesn't change a whole lot, but the vanilla comes out more as it wears on. Solstice Scents' vanilla note is just so far beyond anyone else's that it's ridiculous. Go home everyone, SS has got this covered.

Longevity is medium - I finally stopped sniffing myself after about 6 hours because it got to the spritzer hour and more important things were afoot. Sillage is medium - you could keep it subtle with a dab, but if you splashed it about or, say, took it out in the street and threw it on random men, you'd definitely know it's there.

Sidenote: When I tried this on at first I happened to be listening to this song, and the combination of the two conjured up an immediate feeling of warm snuggliness. Weird how that happens sometimes.

Rating: 
5/5 Full bottle ASAP.

Day 86!

Alchemy - Black Baccara

Details: 
Alchemy
Black Baccara

Notes: 
In this bottle is an Alchemist's lab strewn with bottles, jars, brews, and divinely scented, decaying cabinets of curiosities. A mysterious unisex perfume blend -deep and sensuous with notes of incense, honey, sandalwood, cardamom, and the faintest hint of plum.

This is a funny one - lots of weird things going on but I can't pin down anything in particular. When I read the notes, I was thinking, oh yeah - that's there, and that's there, and that's there... but without that to tell me I was lost. It's incense but not quite, spicy but not quite, woody but not quite. There's something in the opening notes that almost makes me dislike it, but then I kept getting drawn in to sniff past whatever that was (and I still don't know - something sweetly sour, like when a baby spits up milk). The whole time I was wearing this I sniffed it compulsively, even at work like a weirdo. It's so interesting, even though I can't decide for sure whether I like it.

The dry down is sandalwood, and it smells musky even though that's not mentioned in the notes. The base is more of a classic scent than the unusual opener. I've probably been of no use at all describing this one, but it's a mystery to me, even though I wore it for a couple of days in a row trying to get my head around it. Sillage is lowish, but longevity is good - 10 hours at least.

Rating: 
3/5 I might come back and make this higher eventually. I'm not entirely decided.

Day 85!

Marzipan - Alchemic Muse

Details:
Marzipan
Alchemic Muse

Notes: 
A truly delicious confection of sweet almonds creamed with raw sugar and delectable notes of buttery vanilla, almond milk, shortbread and a touch of sweet cherry.

This was a freebie sample - I would never have bought it in a million years, because I detest marzipan. It's smell, its taste, its very existence is offensive to me. I am eternally grateful to the person who discovered in the 1990s that wedding cakes did not legally have to have almond icing on them. Finally, marzipan began to die the slow painful death it deserved.

In the vial and when first applied, that hideous almond stench is all it is - marzipan, marzipan and more marzipan. I stuck it out, wondering if that's all it was going to be (I hadn't looked at the notes yet), but finally it started to mellow and that sharpness faded into the background. The drydown is a sweet pastry vanilla. I like quite a few of the Alchemic Muse perfumes but they almost all have a synthetic smell about them, sometimes not an issue (for me), and sometimes kind of  "Ew, cheap scented candle!". This one is somewhere in between. It's not unbearable, but there are so many better sweet desserty vanilla scents out there. The longevity and sillage was thankfully quite low on this one.

Rating: 
2/5 Not quite a scrubber, but not impressed.

Day 84!

Black Forest - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Black Forest 
Valentine's Day 2012 (now permanent)
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Agarwood, Nagarmotha EO, Tobacco Absolute, Dark Chocolate, Chocolate Mousse, Cocoa Absolute, Maraschino Cherries, Black Cherries, Hay Absolute, Sandalwood EO, Whipped Cream & a drop of Pink Peppercorn Essential Oil

I have plunged face first into enough black forest cakes in my life to know what one smells like, so I was surprised to find that this perfume was nothing like I expected. In the vial, it’s quite dark. The chocolate is very bitter and leaning a little to the masculine – it’s not at all foody. On the skin, the cherry comes out strongly, and that’s more the classic gourmand cherry note I would expect, but the darkness of the chocolate tempers its sweetness. I thought I was going crazy because I could smell something smokey, and I couldn’t imagine how on earth that was worked into a black forest cake, but when I looked up the notes, there it is – tobacco absolute. And lots and lots of wood. Ah, so that’s what gives it all that depth. The wood comes out much more in the dry down, when the cherry has pretty much disappeared, but that bitter chocolate still hangs around in the background.

This is a unisex scent that leans quite masculine, and I’d say it’s the perfect chocolate perfume for people who don’t like chocolate perfumes. You will definitely not walk around smelling like cake wearing this (not that that’s a bad thing!). The sillage is medium – it is strong at first but the dry down is closer to the skin. Longevity is good – I could smell it for a good 7 hours or so, and the following morning (I applied early evening) I could still smell traces of the woodiness on my wrist. 

Rating:
3/5 I like it quite a lot, but even though it’s different from most other chocolate scents I own, I still have too many chocolate scents. I doubt I’d buy this in a full size.

Day 83!

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!

Arizona - Sage and Honeycomb - Possets Perfumes

Details: 
Arizona - Sage and Honeycomb
Possets Perfumes

Notes: 
I have had a lot of requests for a desert scent. Many people love the sagey smell and thin clean atmosphere that comes with some very heat. Arizona seeks to capture the spirit of the state. A drop of honey mingles in the astringent fuzziness of sage, a good shot of evening musk lets you know that people really are here. A very beautiful blend, clean but appealing and bright. USA. 

This was one of the (many) freebies I received with my last Possets order; I would not have bought it myself as none of the notes appeal to me. As herbs go, sage is not a favourite of mine (give me the smell of basil or coriander any day), and even if it was, I don't like smelling like herbs - I like walking into a kitchen and smelling them. In the vial this is indeed herby and sweet, and there is also a note that makes me think of hay (my mum is married to a sheep farmer - I have smelled a lot of hay). What I don't have is a lot of experience of deserts - my last trip to a desert was a school excursion 30 years ago. However, when I smelled Arizona, it actually did make me think, "Yes, this is what I think a desert smells like." Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but it's effective. And I wonder if maybe the 'hay' smell is just a smell of 'dryness'? If so, that's clever.

Once applied, I can smell the honeycomb - or more correctly, honey. I'm not a fan of honey, either in taste or smell. It's one of those slightly sickly sweet scents that makes me screw my nose up, and combined with the sweetness of sage (man, there is a lot of alliteration in this sentence!), I was not loving it. And it continued to get more and more sweet as it went on. Of course, because I was not loving it, it lasted FOREVER. I put it on early evening and the next morning I could still smell traces of it. The sillage was not too high, but I think if you slathered it on (I didn't), you would risk announcing yourself from the next room. The dry down is musky and still sweet, with the sage hanging around until the bitter end.

I can understand why a lot of people would like this - it has a whole 'nature' thing going on that many people find appealing. However, it's not for me.

Rating: 
2/5

Day 81!

Belle Epoque - Black Baccara

Details: 
Belle Epoque
Black Baccara 

Notes:
Inspired by Marchesa Luisa Casati, one of the most fascinating women of the 20th century and the Queen of the Belle Epoque. This blend captures the decadence of the time period and the sensory delights that might have surrounded the eccentrics of high society. A feminine yet bewitching blend featuring an unusual combination of florals and gourmands. Deep florals of hyacinth, geranium, carnation and a touch of rose make up the floral bouquet, which is blended with a decadent brew of tobacco, chocolate, vanilla, anise and black pepper. As the scent unfolds on your skin, you may also catch glimpses of strawberries and rum as it settles into a complex chocolatey floral. Belle Epoque is a soft, yet extremely seductive and enchanting blend reminiscent of vintage perfumes of days gone by.

This perfume is so tightly blended that I struggled to pick out any specific notes. It smells like an expensive, slightly old-fashioned perfume of the type I could buy in the less tizzy section of the David Jones perfume department. One of those ones that has a classically heavy cut glass bottle. In the vial it's floral - nothing stands out, just a bouquet, as the decription says. Once applied I thought I could detect vague snatches of something smokey now and then, but every time I tried to sniff it properly, that note disappeared. After 20 minutes or so the perfume deepened - I guess the chocolate and vanilla warmed it up, but I honestly could not detect either of those notes in themselves. It was just... a warmer, deeper floral than it had been minutes before. Several hours later they become more apparent - it's still a floral blend, but the chocolate and vanilla are there, faint though they may be, and the rose has finally dominated the other flowers. I did not get either strawberries or rum. Sillage is quite high when wet, it almost made me a bit headachy at first, and I don't know whether this was more caused by the cold I am currently getting over, but for the first 10 minutes or so after I applied this I was sneezing like a mofo. It lasts quite a long time - I have had it on now for about 6 hours and it's still chugging along. It's definitely an 'older' perfume; I could see this being more suitable for someone 35+ than a teenager or young person.

Rating: 
3/5 I do like this, but it's nothing amazing.

Day 80!