The First of the Three Spirits

[countessmouse]

Shimmering white amber, voluminous vanilla, white musk, zdravetz, and summer flowers.

This scent is absolutely gorgeous! It starts off very vanilla, but quickly dries down to a floral and slightly herbal scent with just a tiny hint of the vanilla left. Must get a bottle!

[zankoku_zen]

Creamy, plasticy vanilla, powdery amber and woods. Soft dry floral on the drydown.

 

Pretty, powdery, floral

[Iceblink]

A really bright, shrieking white musk and a really sweet vanilla. This just screams WHITE to me. As it dries I get the herbs and flowers; they tame the overly sweet vanilla and that loud musk a bit but this is still just too cloying.

[grrrlennyl]

The First of the Three Spirits

 

On: Flowers and pretty white musk.

Half an hour in: Sweet vanilla with pretty white musk and flowers.

1 hour in: Fruity flowers and powdery musk.

1.5 hours in: Fruity and powdery.

2 hours in: Still powdery fruit.

2.5 hours in: Powdery fruit, with a bit of flowers.

Overall: This is just OK on me.

[angelicruin]

Soft amber, musk, vanilla, and barely-there floral note. I could wear this perfume all year long.

[crebbsgirl]

I get a fruity-floral vibe from this. I agree with the comparisons to The Girl and the like. On my skin the vanilla stays pretty cool. The white musk starts amping a bit on me. It's a little crisp for me.

[milo]

Very pretty light floral vanilla, with the emphasis on vanilla. I get a creaminess here that reminds me of coconut, and it ends up being very much like Tiki Princess rather than the on me, only without the touch of pineapple I get from her. It also has the frothy 'coldness' I get from Tiki Princess, but I don't get any musk and I don't really get The Girl from this one, which didn't work for me. I really like this, though it seems more suited to the warmer months, or perhaps Christmas in Hawaii. It does seems to strengthen as it dries, and side by side comparison to TP, TP is gone, while this one is gaining strength. Hmm, I may get a bottle for the summer months...

 

eta: Damn, after two hours, the musk is gaining strength, and its not a nice musk on me. Kind of like dirt and ice mixed together. Oh well, another bullet dodged...

Edited December 24, 2010 by milo

[sihaya09]

Fans of The Girl, this one's for you. It's very similar on my skin. It's a light airy vanilla, totally non-foody, tinged with amber and a phantom whiff of lemon. I might have to get a bottle!

[surlygurl]

Mmmmm! Soft & pretty! This scent is soft white summer flowers. Smelling this on my arm, I picture an old "Summer's Eve" commercial - dark haired woman in a white cotton sun dress swinging on a tire swing under a tree out in a meadow somewhere. This scent is a little tropical and a little innocent. On the drydown, if I sniff up close I get coconut cake! The throw, anywhere in the wet/dry phase, is early summer flowers. Very pretty and very girly.

[AngelaTarantula]

i had to come here and scan the reviews because as soon as the buttery note faded (and thank goodness for that) this smelled just like the gc blend XIUHTECUHTLI without the smoke and sqwook noticed the resemblance too so i guess i'm not nuts lol

[spiresinthesnow]

I love this one, and I love white musk, yet this one isn't as crisp a white musk as most due to the amber I presume. Soft light amber, musky and slighty crisp and cold with a glittering sweetness over faint white flowers (daisy and lily types?). I love. Its one of those blends that I put on and throughout the day get occasional whiffs and wonder if its me that smells so good. Pretty, and enough throw and presence without screaming "look at me". Anyhow it reminded me of Defututa (GC) but upon comparing them side by side they both had an initial similarity but First Spirit turned out to be more musky and crisp, when Defututa had more of a "meaty" honey sweetness.

Edited December 28, 2010 by spiresinthesnow

[thekittenkat]

Must admit that I was hesitant about even testing this because I like vanilla and musk and summer florals, but was worried about the amber and the mums. Turns out that I didn't have that much to worry about.

 

In the decant: The flowers are light and delicate; the white musk is anchoring them, and the vanilla is adding a touch of sweetness that is not foodie in the least.

 

Wet: Still mostly light vanilla florals with a drop of musk.

 

The dry-down: This blend stays mostly true throughout. The amber, which I'm not picking up that much of, isn't too powdery, but is giving an overall dry feeling. The mum note is deep down, keeping this blend from being very sweet. I'm thinking that this will work best as a spring scent, when the tea note in Needlework is too much. (Needlework became my fave spring scent last spring.)

[vowsatsea]

This is gorgeous. On my skin, it's a creamy vanilla with a fruity floral backdrop. This is going to be my comfort scent. It just makes me think of a warm blanket on a cold winter's day.

[het4377]

so not only am I a huge white amber/musk fan, and vanilla and i get along smashingly, so First of the Three Spirits is one of my most anticipated Yule blends of 2010. Now, lets get this review underway . . .

 

Wet on skin: Wow, nothing faint about this blend. The throw is rather substantial, and filled with WHITE MUSK with a strong of vanilla/amber/floral backing it up.

 

Dry on skin: Did I mention that this is a strong blend? Cause wow, is it ever. This is also on the cloyingly sweet side of things, with the white musk and vanilla combining to make a vaguely foody blend of super sweetness. Maybe it's the florals that are pushing this over the edge for me . . . all I know is that this is verging on headache-causing territory.

 

After a while: about the same, though this chills out on about 2-3 hours in, the throw lessening and becoming less intrusive, but only slightly. I really just can't get behind the sweetness of this blend, and the white musk is just too much.

 

Final Verdict: wow, for a blend that I anticipated so much win from, this is so very, very meh. White notes usually tend to work so well on me. Also worth noting, this is strong enough that I feel like I'm enveloped in a cloud of scent, and I would be forcing this on whomever I came in contact with out on the street, which I do not find an appealing trait.

 

Rating: 2/5 do we have a "disappointment" smiley?

 

If you like this, try: Dia, Skytyping with Chemtrails, Thoos, Under the Harvest Moon, The Girl

 

Using a slightly altered yeahbutnobut review formatting, because it is the epitome of awesome and helpful.

[astarinel]

This one reminded me of Joyful Moon, but I'm not sure it's because the scents are so very similar (other than having vanilla and floral notes in common), but my disappointment with both was the same, and so they're together in my mind.

 

In the decant, this was a soft, creamy vanilla musk with a whisper of floral.

 

However, on my skin, one of the floral notes amped up and became soapy, and it just killed the blend for me. If I smelled hard, I still smelled that wonderful soft vanilla musk, but sitting atop it was this high pitched soapy floral. I am going to guess that one of the "summer flowers" in here is a lily or rose type, because those are definitely my personal soapy floral bane.

[hlinspjalda]

White amber and zdravetz are what made me want to try this.

 

In the vial: A rich vanilla, a tart but pleasant floral, and a touch of amber. Although I am uneasy about it, there's something about it that draws me.

 

Wet: White amber first, a floral I like a lot (is that the zdravetz from my beloved Schwarzer Mond?), and a light sugary vanilla-musk impression.

 

One hour: There's something almost fruity about this, but mostly it's white amber and vanilla.

 

Four hours: This now has a faint citrusy cast but still white ambery and floral. The vanilla is persistent, but stays true (unlike some vanilla notes, which mature badly on me) and is very light. This is pretty.

[Mellifluous]

Wet: MMm, this is very soft and feminine. I dont know why, but smells kind of like pineapple on me. Like a mellow pineapple, with soft soft amber and very soft florals way in the back. I actually kind of like this a lot! I think it would make an amazing room spray thats light and fresh.

 

Dry: Okay, pineapple scent is gone (I really wonder what that was >.> it did smell good though). I get the vanilla/amber combo with the zdravetz as a major player for most of the dry-down. About 6 hours later its light skin musk and very light sweet florals. Very pretty and feminine. Although I wish there was more pineapple

[paradoxicaljlb]

First of the Three Spirits smells so much like Giant Vulva on me that I had to make sure I didn't pull it out of my imp box by mistake. Strange, because the only note they have in common is musk, and it's not even the same type of musk. I can pick out the amber but the rest is as bright as it is soft and sweet. Very strong and long-lasting.

[DifferentDances]

Decant!

 

Imp: Oh dear, this reminds me dreadfully of the butterscotch candy bowl in my grandma's house. Sickly sweet with a strange older perfume.

 

Wet: Now this is interesting. It smells like the best perfumed plastic erasers you'd get as a kid.

 

Drydown: A bit more plastic and a lot less perfume. Bit of a vanilla waft.

 

Dry: Weird sour plastic vanilla. What a WEIRD transition.

 

My rating: 1/5

[Beatrice33]

I agree with Hillary that this one has similarities to Chance by Chanel. I wore Chance for a while and loved its fruity-floral cheerfulness, but this one is much better and I'm sooooo glad to have found it. It's become my go-to scent when I need a pick-me-up in the morning. My only concern is that I should have gotten a back up before the Yules came down....

[kelpsoda]

I must amp florals. I get the vanilla muskiness, but it's immediately overpowered by the florals - and they're cloying. It dries down to some sort of floral baby powder scent. yuck.

[deprongmori]

Gorgeous, warm scent. It is actually fairly similar to Changing the Shadows on me, somehow, and both vaguely remind me of Lolita Lempicka (I know other users have mentioned Angel or Chance). It is very "perfume" smelling but in the best way! Definitely a year-round staple. Great lasting power. I wish I had a full bottle!

[captainecchi]

Huh. I thought I had already reviewed this one. Apparently not!

 

Light amber oil. Strong pineapple note - I have no idea what in the notes list is causing that. I can't say I ever really get anything else out of this, although it's softer in the drydown. Was really hoping, with the zdravetz, for the spicy-sour smell of torn geranium leaves, but no such luck.

 

Verdict: 2 or 3 out of 5. Doesn't do anything special for me.

[Pepperminx]

This was added to my last Yule order and just arrived today. I almost has teh sad that I only ordered the one bottle, but it does remind me of Arcana's Frilly Underpinnings, which I have a bottle of, and there are some notes in there that remind me of last summer's moths and butterflies, which I also have a couple of, so I will probably not need more bottles.

 

It's a soft amber and vanilla floral. Not my usual thing, but it's real gentle on my nose and hasn't turned to soap. I like it a lot!

[calivianya]

I was frimped a tester of this.

 

In the imp: Buttery musk? Wha..? For some reason this does smell like a sweet butter to me right now.

Wet on my skin: The strange buttery impression is not present on my skin. This is mostly amber and a creamy vanilla, with the white musk and flowers hiding underneath. This is a very pretty scent.

Dry: I can definitely see where comparisons to Angel, and even The Girl, come from - but The First of the Three Spirits is very much its own unique scent. It goes a little too powdery-sweet for my tastes, but I'm very glad I got tot experience it.