2016: Ivory Phoenix

[hammy]

The great joy of 2016 was the creation of the first perfumes in our collaborative series with Blood Milk. Jesss creativity, artistry, immense talent and beautiful soul is a true inspiration, and designing scents based on her jewelry talismans that inspire me so deeply was such a profound pleasure.

2016 is a hard year to talk about, as that year also saw the onset of tremendous darkness in the United States a brittle victory for hatred, intolerance, and cruelty. We launched our opening volley against it with Nasty Woman, a scent benefitting EMILYs List and Planned Parenthood.

A scent of stubborn hope, a light in the dark: golden frankincense and clove, a drop of fiery cinnamon, and white cognac.

In the bottle - This is a gorgeous spice, likely thanks to the clove-cinnamon combo.

Wet - Oh god. Alllll the cinnamon for a hot minute. I smell like a really creamy Red Hot right now. I like it.

Drydown - Maybe it's the season getting to me, but this smells like Christmas. The frankincense lends just enough resin to balance and ground the fierce spice, which has now softened from "hot hot heat" to the warmth and coziness of a fuzzy blanket. I think the cognac keeps the blend from overheating. This is a comforting, robust scent that fades fairly quickly.

Verdict - I'm so SO glad to have this. I almost didn't buy Ivory Phoenix because it has a couple worrisome notes for me, but dammit... Stubborn hope gets me every time.

[zankoku_zen]

Frankincense, clove and cinnamon. It smells golden and dusty. The clove is the same Indonesian Clove note. Low throw, medium wear length.

[LiberAmoris]

Ivory Phoenix does smell a little like Christmas! The combo of golden frankincense, clove, and cinnamon definitely conjures up warm holiday scents. It's a really warming mix, evoking both mulling spices and incense. The white cognac is a nice touch here, giving the blend a little buzz. Golden is a good word to describe it. Dries to a light, golden skin scent on me of frankincense and clove.

[VetchVesper]

This makes me think of horchata in the bottle. It's a light milky cinnamon smell. It gets quite a bit more intense in my skin, but I amp cinnamon, so your mileage may vary. Now I get a strong cinnamon and frankincense combo, exotic and comforting all at once, dusty, but still creamy. It reminds me of Faustus, but the white cognac adds a nice complexity and gives the fragrance a certain buoyancy that Faustus doesn't have, like a ray of sunlight through velvet drapes in a dark, antique drawing room. I don't usually go for cinnamon, but I might keep an imp of this about.

[ramblingrambler]

Beautiful but very light wear—mostly frankincense wet, but then it meets cinnamon shortly after as it begins to dry... and then there's some clove that starts to sneak its way in to the picture. Lovely, light, and evocative. Glad to have a bottle.

[Little Bird]

Sharp, dry cinnamon and hints of a smooth, golden, sweet frankincense. Too much cinnamon for me. It does remind me of a more cinnamon-y Faustus.

[LizziesLuck]

I got a set of half decants of all the Phoenixes, which is leading me to try things that, in all fairness, are very unlikely to work on my skin. Both Frank and cinnamon often totally overpower on my skin, so I am not expecting this to be a success, but still, sometimes scents surprise you!

 

Wet: So far this is actually all about the clove! A bit of the frankincense comes through, but it's mostly clove, and a hint of sweet cinnamon. It's quite nice so far, but also sort of "generic spicy scent" on me. Not at all bad, but not amazing either.

 

 

Dry: The same, but softer. Golden frankincense (which I kind of like in this!) with lots of clove and a bit of sweet cinnamon. It's OK, but not something that wows me. I have already found several clove scents lately that I like quite a bit better. Actually, this reminds me a bit of The Pope, but I like the Pope much better for whatever reason.

[milo]

Pretty much SN Indonesian Clove on me. After a bit, the frank comes out, but this is pretty much all I'm getting. Though it's clove heavy, it is quite soft, and reminds me of Goth Queen. This isn't for me, I like Velvet Bandito for a good clove blend. Fans of Goth Queen may want to check this one out.

[lady_pandora]

This starts out with a note reminiscent of something like melon? It makes no sense with the listed notes, so my skin or nose is being weird. Then it becomes cinnamon-dominant. In the later hours I can make out frankincense close to the skin, but the throw continues to be all cinnamon. There's nothing objectionable about it, but I have spice blends that stand out more, so this is probably one for the swaps.

[zazkea]

After 3 months

 

Wet

Sharp cinnamon, literally white cognac, winter season

 

Dry

golden incense is the fitting woord, but the other notes are also there.

 

Conclusions
I'm not sure I personally like the clove frankincense combi in this one, and I do get a slight headache. Luckily the fieryness vanishes; what remains is nice, but I prefer other scents.

Edited March 22, 2018 by zazkea

[torischroeder9]

In the bottle: Cinnamon, clove, and something sweet. The spice notes, in the bottle, are so forward that I cannot get the specifics of the sweetness. 

 

On my skin:

 

The cinnamon-clove-sweetness combo remains much like in the bottle, at least wet on my skin. The best comparison I can discuss is something like a cinnamon spice tea, though I'm definitely not getting a tea note here. As it dries, the cognac becomes more identifiable as the bright, sweet scent I'm experiencing. It lightens and brightens the spices here, making this a more spring- or summer-like cinnamon and clove scent than many others I've tried.  It takes a while, but as the blend develops on my skin, the powdery, resinous frankincense also becomes apparent. It's a nice addition to the blend, softening the powerful notes of cognac and spices. 

 

The end result is almost one of clove and cinnamon incense smoke. I'm not sure it will end up being the most wearable, multi-purpose clove blend that I own, but -- I never don't love clove.