Crystal Gazers

[Seajewel]

A hazy image blooming into focus, all symbol and portent: crystalline white musk and yellow frankincense surrounding an amorphous, shifting shadow of black plum, neroli, verbena, and green cognac.

[Casablanca]

Crystal Gazers opens up like lemony-gold blooms on my skin, with lemon verbena leading and mingling with orange neroli and hints of greenery. The scent brings a picture of my old green, leafy verbena plant to mind, though I think the green I'm smelling is green cognac.

 

As it happens, green cognac comes out more on me during drydown. It smooths out the lemon and orange into an emerging plum. A glassy note that reminds me of clear flower vases also emerges, and powdery white musk.

 

On balance, it becomes a pretty, glassy citrus blend, with plum and green cognac bringing some interest.

[SophieCedar]

Lemon verbena is amped by neroli, which is amped by green cognac, which is amped by frankincense, which is amped by white musk. Whoa I'm alert nowww..jeez! Dries into a voice calmly saying- "Good morning. Welcome to your life. Would you care for some toast?"

Why isn't this a TAL called WTFU?

 

Lemony-yes. Incensey-yes. Rich on drydown-yes. Reach for it frequently-yes.♥️

 

Edited February 7, 2022 by SophieCedar

[puellacaerulea]

For a hot second I thought this would be what fills the Phantasm-shaped hole in my heart. It starts out with a big blast of lemon verbena, neroli, and white musk -- bright, herbaceous, and citrusy, almost exactly how I remember Phantasm. As it dries down, the green cognac, frank, and plum start to come out, adding a fruity, sweet, resinous quality that eventually shoves the citrus and herbaceous notes into the background. Like most non-citrus fruits, the plum comes out a little too sweet for my nose, so this is staying in decant-only territory for me.

[zankoku_zen]

Lemongrass, herbs, frankincense and a whiff of booze. This one is a nice, clean herby frankincense. Good throw and wear length.

[theredkilt]

I get lemongrass on my skin, but it's not listed as a note and I don't like the lemongrass note mingled with resins or musks. I'm no longer excited for what's to come. Little by little the lemongrass note goes away and I'm a left with a clean frankincense dry down.

Edited May 19, 2022 by theredkilt

[groovyrooby]

Dang lemon verbena stomped all over everything that was supposed to happen in this for me. It was the one note I was afraid of, and it's mostly what I got. That said, it wasn't too bad for a screeching lemon on me - the neroli softened it up a bit to lemonhead/lemondrop status rather than just straight up cleaning products. But to my nose it was more bitter and sharp than I expected. I was hoping for something richer and fruitier, but I think I should have read this outcome in the "crystalline" bit.

 

[Little Bird]

I originally completely overlooked this because of the "crystalline white musk," but this isn't sharp, instead smelling like my favorite type of white musk - creamy and cool and almost vanillic in quality.  I guessed lemongrass rather than verbena when I first tried this because I usually find lemon verbena to be more sour than this blend is initially.  The first half hour or so is lemony, but smoothly green, creamy, sweet and slightly herbal.  It has a clean, spa-like feeling and reminds me of LUSH's Avobath.  It starts off so wonderful, but I love Crysal Gazers less over time.  The drydown starts to take on a rather harsh, industrial, generic soapiness and a dry incense smoke creeps in and the blend loses a lot of its sweeter, smoother character.  It's sad that it starts out so enjoyable and then the drydown isn't really enjoyable at all to me.

[RoseThornAndOak]

I really don't know what the Hell I'm smelling. Ok yeah, verbena makes sense. Verbena + a random mix match of stuff I can't seem to catch, like a herd of chipmunks. A scurry, sorry. A scurry of chipmunks. 

 

I really don't need to smell like a scurry + some herb that wants to be lemon but never will be.

 

I kinda wish I knew what it was like to enjoy verbena. If you like verbena, definitely pick this up!