Metal Rat

[zankoku_zen]

"A new year’s blessing! Peony, China’s national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, lychee for strong family relationships and peace in the home, orange for happiness, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, coconut for longevity, and candied melon for good health, with a splash of blazing red of dragon’s blood… to help you scare away the rampaging Nian."

[Lucchesa]

Fruits and flowers are not my jam, and I only ordered Metal Rat because it came as part of a set of February decants.  It's primarily peony and melon on my skin; the citrus notes are present but faint.  I couldn't make out pine at all, though it is a note that has been going sweet on my skin lately.  This is a sweet, uplifting blend, and so far out of my wheelhouse that if I keep the decant it will be to use more as a TAL than as a perfume.  

[zankoku_zen]

Peony, a ton of melon, faint citrus, and a note of watery bamboo. This is a cool melon blend, with that fruity peony blush that some very ripe green melons get. Cool, delicate, fruity. Good throw and wear length.

[Little Bird]

This lunar new year blend is more dry and sharp than many of the other variations.  Dried out, sour citrus peels, laundry soap powder, a realistic kumquat note trying to sweeten things up, and a good deal of smokiness that smells like a recently blown out candle, wax and all, with a hint of incense scent.  Dry and crisp.  It doesn't sound that great the way I've described it, but I do like it.  Its clean citrus and laundry + smoky thing is actually working for me and it smells joyful to me.  It leans towards a dry and sophisticated incense in the drydown.