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!

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!