The Garden of the Hesperides

[zankoku_zen]

Gleaming golden apples, gossamer vanilla foam, sweet wildflowers, white honey, and serpentine mint resting in the shade of a lush canopy of bright green leaves, ti leaf, hyacinth, and apple blossoms.

[Estamets]

This is light and fresh: a perfect weight for a cool, late summer evening... which doesn't occur where I live so this is a transportation blend for me!

 

I get tart-but-not-green apple flesh, the not-flowery floral of apple blossoms, and something kind of woody in the sillage. There are leaves in here: fresh, green, not crushed. Any honey is staying in the background. It's like laying in an apple orchard with a daisy chain on my head. 

 

Beautifully blended, it's really hard to pull out specific notes. And it's a bit of a morpher: the first time I wore it, my husband said "now THIS Is a perfume I like!" (he grew up in an apple picking town, and attributed it to that). The second time, though, he said, "meh, that's a little florally for me."

 

I love it, and it's become a favorite when layered with a grassy OCYL scent. 

[doomsday_disco]

Golden apples are my favorite type of apple, and I hadn't really found a scent that I've really loved with that variety of apple (Sjöfn was too sweet for me; the original discontinued Hesperides scent was more like green apple candy to my nose than any golden apple).

 

But this? This is true, sweet, realistic golden apples. They smell so refreshing and perfect for late summer, and I'm reminded of picking apples as a kid. There are touches of wildflowers and honey, but it's really hard to pick out any other notes, as it all just blends into the most wonderful golden apple scent. I have been wearing a lot of apple scents as of late, and none have been as swoon-worthy as this one.

 

I'm going to spend more time with my decant to see if the scent changes at all, but I'm likely to pick up a bottle of this before it goes away. If you're an apple fan, you really need to try this one!

 

ETA: This has become greener with a few weeks of rest, but I'm still not able to pick out notes like leaves and mint.

Edited October 27, 2023 by doomsday_disco

[RoseThornAndOak]

Wow this *IS* nice, thank you Estamets and Doomsday! It's a very pretty non-candy, natural-ish apple. There's greenery here especially in the beginning, so it's like green + apple, but not green apple, then there's a softness from the foam and wildflowers, making this very wearable and elegant. I forgot there was honey in this. Also forgot there was mint. A lot of apple blends have been smelling artificial or.. - ok, its not proper to say it, but I'll say it - pissy apple juice. Honey can go pissy too and it's not right. There, I said it.

 

So if that happens to you, fear not! Thankfully I get none of that here, and this is downright pretty and gorgeous. Perfect for late summer and early fall. 

 

Oh side note, this reminds me of Glittering Apple of The Stars a bit. Less glittery, more soft.

[Llanval]

Soft, delicate, pretty vaguely green apple scent that is not candy-like at all. i don't get any leaves or mint, or ti-leaf from this, which is a bummer. I was hoping for a better version of my beloved eternally OOS Ladon, but alas, this is not Ladon. I don't often like apple scents, I usually avoid them, but despite all the years, I still do hope for a notification from the Lab so I can purchase more again!

 

I do very much enjoy this, but it is whisper quiet within 30 min of application on my skin, and tragically reminds me of a B&BW soap I can't recall the name of right now. This is not to say that it's soapy, it is NOT. It just reminds me of the scents itself.

 

Beautiful, basically does what it says on the tin. Just not for me.

[samanare]

Sweet golden apples with greenery in the background and just a touch of mint. The apple note is the strongest note, but just barely. And it reads more as a golden apple. A lot of the other notes blend together for me to make a green, almost prairie note. It brings to mind apple trees against a background of green meadows, with various flowers and plant life, without being noticeably floral. And there is just the tiniest bit of mint, but it's there, and very green, like somewhere in the distant there is mint growing in the meadow as well. Overall, I'd describe this as a golden apple scent, with a bouquet of greenery in background that is not particularly floral, vegetal, or minty, but adds to fresh quality of the scent and brings to mind the tree that grew the apples.