Hexahedraon v3

[cfrancesca]

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description.

 

On me, this starts out as slightly smokey/burnt brown sugar, soft spices, pie (or a soft bread-like note) and dried fruits, I'm guessing figs and maybe prunes, and a touch of vanilla. I also get some citrus, maybe orange (or possibly mandarin) with a bit of lemon zest, it's actually really lovely. As it settles, it kind of reminds me of the "figgy pudding" note (but not as spicy) in A World of Fools or the mince pie note in Fezziwig's Ball, it's also a bit reminiscent of Bedbug (which smelled like dried fruit cookie to me). It's a very warm holiday type scent to me.

[zankoku_zen]

I can't decide if I like you or I'm madly in love with you Hexahedraon v3.

 

This definitely has mandarin in it. It's a bright, juicy orange note. BPAL's orange, lime and grapefruit note burn off, but lemon and mandarin tend to stick around longer. This has a burnt sugar edge to it, spices, fig and a tough of vanilla. It does end up closer to "figgy pudding", as it dries it oscillates between the juicy mandarin (much more prevalent on wet - which was AWESOME), the burnt caramel/brown sugar edge that is almost salty and then underneath the figgy pudding.

 

It's a little jagged, and the notes both compel me closer and further apart. Like I said, I can't say that I dislike it, but I can't pledge undying love to you... except for a few seconds when I definitely do.

 

Sadly, I think the figgy pudding wins in the end, which makes me ultrasad. Because if this was more juicy mandarin, I'd be all over this sucker.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

5mL bought on LJ.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

This was one of those impulse buys. The reviews don't sound bad, but they don't sound amazing to me, either. Honestly, Hexahedraon v3 sounds like one of those scents that could be perfectly nice but just not for me. But I'm pretty open-minded as long as scents aren't too wildly far from my tastes, so I'm going into this hoping for the best, but not really expecting it to work.

 

First sniff:

 

Buttery pie crust, something dark, sweet and fruity in the way that dried figs, dates and raisins are fruity...sort of a sweet, sticky scent. I also get a tiny hint of citrus here, like there's some citrus zest of some sort here.

 

Wet on skin:

 

No real change from in the bottle except that the citrus gets even fainter.

 

Dry down:

 

I was trying to think of what this reminded me of and I realized after puzzling over it for a good half an hour that it's two things, not one. This reminds me of The Knave of Hearts without the rose or The Crumpet Rebellion without the tart citrus. It's got a very similar feel to both on my skin. Unfortunately, neither one is really a scent that I love. They're both okay, but not my style (in spite of my really wanting to love Crumpet), and that's the case here, too. Hexahedraon v3 is fine, just not for me.

 

The bottom line:

 

I've never smelled mincemeat pie or figgy pudding, so I can't say how similar this is to either. To me, it's a sort of dense, dried dark fruit pie sort of scent. It's not my style, so it's moved onto a new home where hopefully someone will enjoy it.