The Different Company Garden Perfume Coffret

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I got the little Garden coffret from The Different Company directly, and it looks like Beautyhabit is doing pre-orders on full bottles only now. You can also get the little three-bottle coffret with 10 ml each in it directly from The Different Company, but navigating to their order page can be tricky, just be warned. Two of the three got snatched up for my collection after being declared FBW. The bottles are the pretty colored ones in the traditional TDC bottle. The descriptions below with the notes are from Now Smell This. Celine Ellena, creator of my beloved Sel de Vetiver, is the nose behind all three of these scents, and I am quickly becoming her biggest fan — no, no, not a Misery-like biggest fan, just a fan fan, without the blocks of wood and the sledgehammer.

Un parfum des sens et bois — notes of white violet, cedar, pepper, ginger, elemi, patchouli and incense. This goes on peppery and sagey spicy, and the violet hides itself, like most good little violets do, but you can catch a little of it here and there peeping it’s beautiful, shy head out. I always think of the violet as the shy maiden that is dressed in her slip that hides behind the door and keeps peeking around the corner, and you think she’s shy until she finally steps into the room dressed in a black bustier with a pretty purple whip snapping by her side. Sorry, I love violets, I’ll continue on.

As it unfolds, the wood, the incense, the violet and spice all spin together to make this a veritable feast for the nose — there’s just not one thing that stands out, though you will catch a discrete note here and there — but this is not a heavy meal that you’ll be burping up for days. This has the same subtlety that Sel de Vetiver and Osmanthe Yunnan have, a light hand that is intent on creating a watercolor (description on basenotes that I agree with). For as subtle as this perfume is, it doesn’t disappear in a an hour or so, though it is not something that will trail you all day at full force like that ex-boyfriend from high school that never knew what “we are broken up, I don’t love you, I don’t even like you” meant. It’s a ghost, a cloud of scent that whispers across your nose every time you move, but that you just cannot find in the same strength, if at all, on your skin. Charming beyond belief.

Un parfum d’ailleurs et fleurs — notes of neroli, tangerine, tuberose, black elder flowers, star anise, musk, plum and hazel tree blossom. Wow! This one goes on very sharp and just pops from the skin, not entirely tangerine, some neroli, but I’m not sure what else is pumping up the volume on the open (wish I was better at picking out notes, sorry, guys!!!). There is an earthy fruitiness to this, and I didn’t even know that kind of combination could exist in a perfume and smell good, but that’s the best description I have. The drydown is just gorgeously soft. It stays earthy for a while, but then you get a little teeny bit of fruit, enough that you know you have fruit in there, and the florals blend in the fruit notes beautifully, and fruit is just not a major factor for the rest of its stay on me — you fruity floral hates can rejoice here because this is not a fruity floral. I never get much tuberose as a distinct note, but I’m sure it is in there. Many hours later, this has the prettiest, lightest, cleanest smell. Again, it’s a watercolor. When I think I can’t smell it, it is there, just dancing around my nose like a butterfly.

Un parfum de charme et feuilles — notes of marjoram, peppermint, Sambac jasmine, sage and clementine. I thought I would like this one the least only from the notes. This goes on very minty with a light spice, quite a lot of sage, but it’s tempered so well with the peppermint, it is not too much. I cannot ever remember being a fan of minty perfumes… but this one is probably the only one that would ever get me to change my mind. The longer this is on, it retains a little of the mint, but the jasmine and clementine and sage break through. I used to have pots of jasmine in my garden with catmint and Russian sage around it. This is that smell, but better. Again, this is a very subtle scent, it doesn’t whack you over the head with any of the notes. Just about the time my nose gets a little weary of the mint, it starts dissipating and letting the jasmine through, but maintaining a crisp sagey mintness througout the drydown, which lasts approximately forever (I’m at 8 hours when I wrote this). This is probably my least favorite of the three, but only because mint is not a favorite note, but it is definitely lovely and well crafted.

Can I just say that Celine Ellena is slowly moving to the top of the list of perfumers I adore? She has such a light and subtle hand, but the subtlety is never too light so that the scent just disappears. There are days I want perfumes that make a statement and days when I want a perfume that flutters about my senses, and these three fit the bill on the latter.

Giveaway this week!!! A set of all three of these perfume samples. Just drop a note in the comments that you’d like to be included in the drawing, and I’ll put you in!

Patty