puellacaerulea
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Everything posted by puellacaerulea
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Black Pepper, White Sage, and Tea Rose
puellacaerulea replied to Seajewel's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This one's more tea rose and sage than pepper -- the pepper's not noticeably sharp or spicy, but just adds a very subtle roundness to the scent. This is mostly light, fresh, pink rose notes with cool, herbaceous sage. The sage doesn't exactly blend with the rose -- my experience of sniffing this is more "oh, there's rose! and now sage! and now rose!", but the sage seems to ground the rose and help keep it fresh rather than powdery. Overall, a really lovely, light, fresh herbal rose scent. It does give expensive soap, but I mean that in the best way possible. This will probably get a lot of wear from me this spring, and I might want more than the partial I currently have. -
This one is warm amber, woods, and cream, with a kick of black pepper in the background. Overall, a warm, brown, floofy scent with a bit of spicy bite. It's pleasant, but I have other blends in my collection that scratch my itch for this particular scent family. Fans of scents like Judgmental Longhorn and Year of the Ox might enjoy this one.
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This one leads with heavy, polished mahogany, which gives me a distinct scent memory of (of all things) the smell I'd be hit with as I walked into my grandparents' house. As it wears, the black musk and amber amp up. On my skin, this is more heavy woods and musks than florals, but that said, red musk does tend to overwhelm everything else on my skin. A little too heavy for my liking, but I did appreciate the scent flashback to my grandparents' furniture.
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The rose notes in this scent are fresh and heady, with a slight lemony edge that the Oman frankincense complements well. The sandalwood is soft and adds some grounding. Feels very vintage, classic, and romantic.
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In the decant: Very dewy and green, but with a bitterness that's a bit off-putting. As it wears, the bitterness calms down, and the white musk softens the greenness a bit. I do like it once the bitter edge comes off the green notes, but the very low throw and short wear time might keep me from getting more than a decant. Fans of scents like Cholorophyll and Sprouting Grass Moon may like this one.
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Testing this one was a journey! In the decant, it's greens and juniper. Once it goes on, the leather and oud really amp up, and a slight smokiness enters the scent. At this point, it's leaning noticeably masc. After drydown is where this scent really shines. The smokiness and the leather note calm down, and the green tea, mint, and citrus notes reassert themselves. The oud is still a strong presence, but it's non-indolic -- just a sort of creamy woodiness that complements the leather note. (The juniper also pretty much disappears on drydown, but I don't particularly miss it.) After drydown, this is a really beautiful interplay of light, clean, green notes and more grounded leather/oud. It smells gender-neutral and expensive. I have to wait until drydown for this blend to get to a place where I like it, but once it's there, it's great. I don't have anything quite like this in my collection and will probably want more of it.
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This one is beachy coconut first and foremost, amped up by the pearl accord and orris. There are hints of clean (as opposed to salty) aquatic notes in the background, but the coconut is strongest on my skin. I'll keep my decant for summer wear, but I think I was hoping for this to be a little more aquatic-forward.
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This is the cool, creamy, slightly minty snow note from scents like Almond Blossom, with a bit of pink pepper adding spicy brightness. As it wears, the "smoldering" aspect of the scent starts to come out -- a noticeable smokiness starts to overtake the snow note. Well after drydown, I'm mostly getting pink pepper and smoke.
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This starts out as a warm, brown scent between the musk and tonka (a la Judgmental Longhorn), but there's something weirdly sharp and overpowering about this blend on my skin. It might be the amber and mandarin along with the other notes, but this was more sharp, intense musk on me than warm and cozy.
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I was prepared to dislike this one based on the strong, sweet almond note in the decant, but the full complexity of the scent comes out on my skin. The black tea and lemon peel are light and astringent, but they're grounded by distinctly chewy patch and tobacco notes that complement each other well. The oud is hard to detect and doesn't go noticeably indolic on me, but there is a smooth woodiness going on alongside the patch and tobacco. This is an unusual but really appealing scent -- the interplay of the lighter black tea and lemon with the darker, deeper, sweeter notes makes this feel like a distant cousin of Dorian to me. Haven't ruled out a bottle purchase.
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This one starts off with loud, sweet-tart cranberry, but as it wears, the cranberry calms and a clean, just vaguely soapy skin musk emerges. This is more of a skin musk with a faint hint of cranberry on my skin. I can pass on a full bottle, but I'll keep my decant.
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Avocado, Lemongrass, and White Musk
puellacaerulea replied to Silvertree's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This one starts out almost like a lemongrass SN on me, but there's more to it. I've never tried a perfume with an avocado note, so I can't say I can place it specifically, but there's something subtly creamy behind the lemongrass that makes me think avocado. As it wears, the lemongrass calms down and the white musk amps up, such that it's eventually more of a white musk with a pale green lemongrass edge. Fresh and clean, and I can see the comparison to Avobath or just a general Lush product vibe. Good throw and staying power. This one's a keeper for me. -
Cabbage accord was a hard sell, but this blend worked out surprisingly well for me! It opens with watery greenness, with just a little bit of cruciferous-veggie funk that really is evocative of green cabbage. The cabbage accord is never overpowering, though -- the green musk and cucumber notes keep the scent a more watery, grassy, fresh sort of green. This is a green blend that manages to be vegetal, grassy, and watery all at once. I can see myself wearing this in warmer weather.
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This leads with lavender in the decant, with white florals and luminous blue musk behind it. As it wears, it's mostly a lavender-heavy twist on white floral blends, with the orris adding a slightly powdery softness. It's pleasant enough, but doesn't really wow me. This might work well for someone who likes the idea of white florals but tends to find them too loud -- the lavender and orris keep the florals from getting out of hand.
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Old book smell, but make it extra cozy. This starts off heavy on the woods, old paper, and leather -- it's a somewhat sharp leather note, but it slowly mellows as it wears. The old paper is the most prominent note, and it's extra vanillic. There's not a beeswax note listed, but there's a slight sweetness behind the old paper notes that reminds me a lot of beeswax. If you like the idea of an old-books scent but found Ü too dusty or heavy on the balsam, this could be a good alternative.
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This started out promising in the decant, with the citrus notes (with the mandarin balancing out the tartness of the lime and bergamot) and tea standing out. Unfortunately, on my skin, the plum amps up and overtakes the whole blend -- sweetly fruity, but also weirdly spicy, in an autumn-potpourri sort of way. I may hold onto my decant for scent locket use, because while I do like it in the decant, my skin takes the plum note and does unpleasant things with it.
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I almost decided to pass on my bottle of this because of some of the weird stuff it does on my skin as it dries down, but ultimately I'm glad I held onto this and kept testing it. In the bottle, the Australian sandalwood (which to me is greener and a little more astringent than other BPAL sandalwood notes I've tried) and cotton blossom are evident -- light, airy, just a little floral. Immediately upon application, the scent takes on this weirdly fizzy/effervescent quality. And then something goes wrong as it starts to dry down, getting unpleasantly perfumey, almost like potpourri. I'm not sure what notes are the culprit here, but based on prior experiences with the white leather accord, I'm prepared to blame that alongside the white amber and cotton blossom. I thought this was going to be a dealbreaker, but after drydown, the potpourriness of it all fades and I'm left with the sandalwood and cotton blossom, with a little bit of amber glow in the background. It's cool, airy, approachable -- not exactly sterile, but clean in a way that does evoke an upscale airline cabin or a bougie department store. While I have to power through the potpourri phase with this one, I like the end stage enough that I'll probably stick with it.
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A bit of context here: I grew up in Northwest Philadelphia, and one of my earliest and most sentimental scent memories is the smell of rain on the pavement outside my grandparents' house in the summer. Specifically, the smell of big, heavy raindrops just starting to fall on hot pavement, with the grass and weeds of the postage-stamp front yard and humid Philly summer air in the backdrop. So when I saw that the Lab was capturing the smell of a Philly summer rainstorm, I was sold. I wasn't sure about the coconut and lavender, but they're relatively minor players -- this is mostly an impressively close approximation of that rain-just-starting-to-fall-on-hot-pavement smell from my childhood, with a touch of greenery.
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I think I was hoping for a citrus similar to Nightlife HG with this one -- a true citrus, with a bit of rindy, bittersweet bite to it. I do get a bit of that realistic orange in the decant, but the musk blooms quite a lot on my skin and overpowers the citrus. A little too musky and heavy for me.
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For a scent that only has neroli listed as a floral note, this scent feels surprisingly floral, in a bright, sunny way. The combination of the amber, neroli, and citrus notes evokes cheerful and sunny florals. The cedar and frankincense start to peek out more as the scent wears on my skin, adding some more backbone to the scent without losing its golden and light quality. Definitely evocative of the idea of sunflowers.
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Mallow Flower, Honeysuckle, and Vanilla Bean
puellacaerulea replied to Silvertree's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
In the decant, the honeysuckle is there, but the mallow flower and vanilla are giving it a floofy sweetness that makes it almost gourmand-adjacent rather than floral. On my skin, the mallow flower and vanilla mostly overtake the honeysuckle -- there's a little bit of white floral in the background, but this is mostly airily sweet mallow. -
There's a little bit of salty aquatic and mineralic notes here (in the vein of Hagstone, The Blue Door, and A Summer Night), but the linen and rosewater are the most prominent notes on me. While I can get the salt notes, this is more of a somewhat high-pitched linen and floral scent than an aquatic on my skin. It's not unpleasant or full-on dryer sheets, but I think I prefer A Summer Night for a linen/aquatic blend that puts more emphasis on the aquatic.
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In the decant, this is a toasty almond with a creamy undertone. Unfortunately, it's less toasted almond and more almond extract with something plasticky on my skin. Too bad this one doesn't get along with my skin, because it smells great in the decant.
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This is one of those complex, well-blended scents where the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The vanilla (with a hint of cacao), cedar, and cardamom are the notes that stand out the most on me, while the orris adds a certain softness without going powdery. It's dry, soft woods, vanilla, and orris, but the ambergris is also a presence, adding some subtle muskiness. Pale, soft, and atmospheric. I'm glad I snagged a bottle of this.
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Vanilla Cream, Pistachio, and Macadamia
puellacaerulea replied to Seajewel's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
In the bottle and once on, this is a big, creamy gourmand, with the vanilla cream out front. At this stage, it's sharp (more like nut extract than nuts), more than a little plasticky, and generally Too Much. It does calm down a lot as it dries down, and the scent gets more realistically nutty, with a slightly creamy backdrop. Not quite pistachio ice cream, but adjacent. I can see myself reaching for this when I'm in a gourmand mood (and have the time/inclination to let it calm down after application), but I don't need more than a decant.