shriekingviolet

Initial Impression:

Like a fruit laced tea. Spa-like.

After Wearing It:

Very clean scent. The tea notes are very prevalent, with light suggestions of honey and lemon in the background.

Final Thoughts:

I'm not really big on tea scents (or really any scent that smells "clean"), but this would be a winner for someone who does. Would probably make a relaxing room fragrance as well.

Initial Impression:

Rosy and floral, but not unappealing (to me that is, since I'm not too keen on roses). I can smell the amber and musk in the background. Very nice.

After Wearing It:

Musky and floral. Not gross on, but it doesn't really appeal to me since rose and musk are two things I can only take in small doses. Maybe for someone else but definitely not for me.

Final Thoughts:

Blarg. Roses scents really do nothing for me. I need to come to terms with that fact.

Initial Impression:

Very floral. You can really smell the jasmine and honeysuckle. There would need to be more of that musty, decaying scent to really capture New Orleans (I lived there for 2 years), but I do recognize the way that the nightblooming flowers smelled in the garden district on late spring nights.

After Wearing It:

Very pretty and very floral, but very not me. The honeysuckle and jasmine are wholly apparent throughout the lifespan of the fragrance. I don't notice much different from the wet stage to the dry down, it stays pretty true hour after hour. The impressions I get from this fragrance are of wet flowers and humidity. Blossoms being trampled on the ground and releasing their scent from the rainsoaked earth during the ever drenched hurricane season.

Final Thoughts:

Beautiful for someone who enjoys florals, but I can't imagine wearing this often. It did do a good job of capturing the old southern elegance of the city, but didn't really represent the city as a whole. The old antebellum, dying wealth part of the city was certainly beautifu and one of my favorite parts of New Orleans, but it's only a small fraction of the city. There's the loud, decadent and drunken part (mostly fueled by tourists, but its a phenomenon that infects the locals more than most US cities), its rich jazz culture, and the sort of spooky undercurrent there that fuels literature, multiple haunted history tour companies, a lingering voodoo culture (small as it is), and wonderfully elaborate cemetaries.

Plus when I think back to the smells of the city, what I remember most is that musty book smell that nearly overwhelmed me when I first moved there. I wasn't used to the ever-present (but not really awful) smell of mildew that an older Southern city is bound to produce (especially one built on a swamp). Another smell that really sticks in my mind when I think back to when I lived there is the smell of crawfish and tabasco. And then there's that awful post Mardi Gras smell. Perhaps its best that the sort of Garden District themed scent was chosen, since it'd be the most appealing. And looking it at it objectively as a scent, Old New Orleans is very pretty, but it hardly scratches the surface of what is (and has always been, even in its youngest days) an incredibly vibrant and complex city.

Initial Impression:

CHOCOLATE! But you can smell the myrrh and sandalwood too. Smoky and sweet.

After Wearing It:

Smoky and sweet, the sandalwood, myrrh and chocolate all express themselves equally here. It's not a hershey bar scent, you don't smell like a dessert. Possibly like an extremely expensive specialty chocolate, but I wouldn't put too much stress on that. It smells sophisticated and decadent. Like a lovely, heavy velvet robe. I ended up using the whole vial the day I wore it, both wearing it and burning the oil to scent my room.

Final Thoughts:

I think I'm in the small minority here of people who love Velvet. I haven't tried Vice yet, but this still sounds more appealing. I think it's utterly lovely, but perhaps not for a chocolate lover who wants to smell like chocolate. I bought a 5ml bottle of this.

Initial Impression:

Cleaner scent than I usually wear but I still like it. Floral but still vaguely sweet.

After Wearing It:

Doesn't smell as "clean" on as I first thought in the tube. Goes on very floral at first, the gardenia and violet notes all but drown out the vanilla, though you can still detect a vague sweetness in the background. As I wear it, I notice the vanilla a lot more, though the floral notes remain the most apparent if smelled up close. Like the vanilla notes waft upwards, but the gardenia and violet cling close to my neck and wrists. I definitely don't feel anything dark or sinister about this fragrance, but find it rather sophisticated. Not something I'd normally wear, but something close enough to my style that I could wear to a family function or if I were being introduced to someone whom I wanted to leave a polite & poised impression with (like at a job interview or meeting your boyfriend's parents!). The dry down is very vanilla-y, though it's tempered enough with lingering bits of violet and gardenia to keep it from smelling too foody. My favorite stage for this fragrance.

Final Thoughts:

I'm not sure I'd buy a whole bottle of this since I'm more into smokier spicy scents, but I'm sure I'll use the sample up to the last drop. It's very pretty and sweet!