Let’s Leap Before Looking

One of the fun things about dipping into my housemate Carolyn’s sample orders (with her permission!) from LuckyScent is that they’re almost all surprises. I didn’t choose them, so I don’t have much in the way of knowledge / preconceptions / expectations. Many of them I’m unfamiliar with given the huge volume of fragrances on the market at this point, including plenty I missed when they came out. She orders; I sniff; I look up the notes and additional info afterwards. Some recent sampling:

Mossy Glen by Villa Erbatium — bamboo, black tea, cedarwood, cyclamen, fig leaf, narcissus, patchouli, tobacco. This one I’d heard of and really wanted to try – a lot of people think it’s got that flower-shop thing going on. I should love this, and yet somehow I don’t. I get a lot of fig and black tea, which would be just dandy except I feel like I’m amplifying some vaguely syrup-y sweetness on top of the hay-like narcissus? Dunno. I do like it more the further we get into the drydown.

Atelier des Ors Lune Feline – hehe this is a delightful skank-fest. Launched in 2015; nose is Marie Salamagne. Cardamom, cinnamon, pink pepper, woods, ambergris, styrax, cedar, green notes, Tahitian vanilla, Peru balsam, musk. “A dark and animalistic scent based on vanilla pods and sensual orchid warmed with balsamic notes and musky accords, these notes convey a rich, gourmand trail.”  On me, not so much gourmand as old-school dirrrrty; less floral treble notes and the animalic bass turned up full volume. Oh hey I talked about this ten years ago!

Taipei by One Day – from Luckyscent: “Ground soy, steamed glutinous rice and taro. The scent and nuance of beans, grains and roots. Soybeans strained and boiled into milk, the aroma of steamed rice and taro rising in the air. Flour and dough kneaded into taro balls, rolled hearty in bowls.” Notes are guaiac wood, iris, musk, rice, sandalwood, soy milk, taro, vetiver. What I got: chocolate dollhead and buttered popcorn, and no, not in a good way. Genuine scrubber territory for Carolyn as well. One of the most unfortunate combinations of notes I’ve sampled in quite some time, and you know what? I’m not sorry about it, because those are fun to sniff too! It’s such a perfumista thing: “omg this is terrible, smell it!!!” Also, feel free to assume I’m wrong about this, because it’s got plenty of rave reviews on Lucky.

cassis guimauves

Parle Moi de Parfum’s Guimauve de Noel. Okay, I need to stick in the perfect, evocative LuckyScent blurbage: “…while it reminds us most pleasurably of fougassette, a type of bread fragrant with orange flower water sold in every market in Provence, this is not at all a heavy, gluttonous fragrance. Rather, it is a tender puff of orange flower-scented air with the sparkle of sugar crystals.” Notes: orange blossom, sugar, vanilla.  Guimauve means marshmallow, seemingly another red flag, but French marshmallows are apparently really different and I fell down a whole rabbit hole reading about them. Anyway, if that all sounds terribly sweet, it is not – it’s … kind of a wonder. Orange zest rather than flower to my nose, all so delicate, and yet I cannot get enough of the hours of drydown, a delightful surprise. I need a decant.

Have you tried any of these? Anything tempting?

cover and panther images via Pexels; guimauves from ultimatehotchocolate.com