Perfume Review: Brazilian Crush Cheirosa #62 from Sol De Janeiro

I have been wanting to try out the perfume mists from Sol de Janeiro for a while. They have a variety of them and each one seems to sound just utterly delicious. Seriously, listen to the description of the Brazilian Crush Cheirosa #62.

The scent that started it all. Irresistible and sunny, this warm gourmand fragrance is the ultimate expression of Sol de Janeiro’s Brazilian spirit. Experience the sweet sensation of our iconic perfume mist, with delicious notes of pistachio, salted caramel, and vanilla. Feels like summer all year round.

Cheirosa 62 Perfume Mist is inspired by the year 1962, when we fell for the Girl from Ipanema and the iconic beach culture of Brazil. Like the sundrenched wonder of Rio, you just can’t get enough.

Does that not sound utterly delicious? Here is the thing, I also like the scent of the Bum Bum cream, which is their original body lotion. This is the same scent. It literally is the scent of the cream turned into a body spray. which is odd, since I’ve always felt the cream smells a bit like buttered popcorn.

Despite the fact that in a side by side sniff test they smell identical, when sprayed on the wrist, this scent has a slightly more caramelly undertone. It isn’t overly sweet though, it is very much a summer time scent. If i close my eyes i can see myself sitting next to a pool. Surprisingly it is not a tropical beach at a high end resort though. when I close my eyes and smell I am somehow transported back to the community pool of my childhood. Our community pool was right next to a picnic area with places for grilling out and in the parking lot there were always snack vendors from ice cream cones to bags of popcorn.

Perhaps that is why. And perhaps it is also a scent that is fresh and somehow innocent smelling. It smells more of childhood fun than it does of resort life. I did enjoy the memory flash back actually.

So the scent was familiar, in many ways, but how did it perform as a perfume. Really well actually. I spritzed on the wrist and took it for a wear test. Even though it is a hair and body mist, i wanted to treat it as a perfume for the first few days. On the wrist it created a light warm scent that stayed with me all day long. It did fade back a bit a they day wore on. When I first sprayed it, I had a bit of a scent cloud around me. It wasn’t massive and it wasn’t a dense cloying cloud of scent. It was light, but it was detectable from a few feet away.

An hour later and maybe a foot away someone could smell it. An hour later and someone would have to be well within my personal space bubble to scent it. There the scent remained. As the day went on I could catch teasing whiffs of scent as i moved around, but it wasn’t a constant scent cloud. And when I went to get ready for my night time shower I could still scent it on my wrist if I help my wrist o my nose.

Clearly the scent will have more of an impact if you use it as an all over body spray and hair mist. Which I did try and liked. I would suggest doing that in an out door space and making sure no one is scent sensitive because it will be very noticeable. I did like having the scent in my hair when i went to a barbeque though. It made me feel ready for summer and oddly no one commented on the scent, but I did get a lot more comments about summer vacations that were coming up. It was as though the scent triggered thoughts of summer rather than thoughts of scent. I was very impressed with it this week and will happily use up this travel sized bottle throughout the summer. I will also probably repurchase it and look into other scents from Sol de Janeiro. It was nice as a perfume but I really liked having it in my hair as well. I know that right now they also have some limited time scents available so I might be looking into those sooner as well. Over all, I was very impressed with the Brazilian Crush Chrirosa #62 from Sol De Janeiro and can’t wait to try out more scents for hair and body from the brand.

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Perfume Review: Cherry Punk from Room 1015

As you know I love trying out new fragrances and so I often delve into perfume subscriptions. This Scent came from ScentBird. Scentbird sends you one scent per month (0.27 oz) in a spray bottle. While they do give you the travel case free with the first box of your subscription, subsequent scents arrive in a cardboard tube and you just reuse the case from the month before. You can get a case with each scent every month for an extra $10. The subscription itself costs $16.95. You can upgrade and get more scents per month if one is not enough, and they have luxury scents that you can use in your subscription but will cause you to need to add extra money ($5-$10 depending) to the cost of your subscription. They also have a candle subscription, but I have to admit I haven’t tried that.

This month My scent was Cherry Punk by Room 1015. I chose it partially because the scent profile interested me (after all what is the point if it doesn’t) and partially because I had heard of the brand but never tried anything from them.

The description:

10:45 a.m. – she’s always late. Sipping her CHERRY coke mixed with port, this spiky MIMOSA in army boots opens the Westwood’s shop at King’s Road. You would wait for an hour just to see her swirling around with the new vinyl records, this seditionary VIOLET in a spray-painted LEATHER jacket. Lost in a sweet reverie, her lipstick burns your skin, the JASMINE-white frills of her blouse gives you the hint of romance…but don’t get it wrong – maybe this “SEX” (the store created by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren) is for the rebels, but it still sells. “7 pounds for the “Pistols”, no coins, please.” God save this Queen.

Head Note: Cherry, Saffron, Sichuan Pepper, Heart Note: Violet, Jasmine Absolute, Mimosa, Base Note: Patchouli, Tonka Bean, Black Leather, Perfumer: Jérôme Epinette

Okay tell me you can read that and not be a little bit interested? It is a fantastic description. Whoever wrote it gets a standing applause from me for a well crafted perfume description. Really, well done.

Now to the scent. While I looked at the notes when I put it in my line up I did not check through the descriptors before applying it, wanting my own scent profile. Because really, as good as a description as it is, scents smell differently on different people and we all have our own descriptors.

At first i sprayed it in the air to see if I liked it. There have been occasion scents I’ve tried where I knew from one spritz that i was simply not going to want to wear it so this is always my first test. In the air is did smell like cherry coke and leather. As I am fairly certain that throughout large chunks of my high school years i smelled of Cherry Coke and Leather i found the scent appealing and oddly nostalgic.

And then I put it on my wrist.

It smelled like my grandfather’s pipe. I mean that in a good way. he always smoked a pipe whose tobacco had a slightly cherry scent to it. At least that is how it always seemed to me. When I sprayed it in the air this scent reminded me of my high school years. When sprayed on the wrist it smelled exactly like my grandfather’s pipe tobacco. There may be a little more cherry in it than his pipe, but it is a very slight difference.

It isn’t smoky, it is very much a pipe tobacco scent. After about an hour it fades back so that it is a cherry tone with a deep earthy richness behind it. That lasts for about two hours and then the scent is hard to detect on the wrist. At no time was it a traveling scent. It is a scent that sticks to the wrist for as long as it is there. It is not terribly long lasting but it is quite fabulous. After a week of steady use, I still have plenty of scent left in the bottle. I will keep this spray bottle and I will occasionally use it. For me i don’t think i will purchase a full sized bottle simply because the scent is too much of a nostalgia bomb for me to wear every day. it is a scent though that i will wear when i am missing my grandfather. I am also going to be looking into more scents from Room 1015. I honestly can’t wait to read their other descriptions.

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Perfume Review: Aurikah Parfum Stick

I love perfumes. You know that. I love trying out new scents and seeing how they work on me. I am the sort of person who enjoys a scent library so I can choose the scent that suits my mood, the season or just simply appeals to me that day rather than someone who goes with a signature scent.

While I have tried a lot of perfumes it has been a while since I tried a solid perfume. When I was about 10 years old my grandmother got me a set of six perfume balms. If I remember correctly they had names like raspberry splash and strawberry spritz. They were in little metal tins and I thought they looked so grown up. I used them down to the very end and then for years I used them to keep my small earrings in. They were really great for travel actually.

To be honest I haven’t used a solid perfume since.

This solid perfume stick came in the February Glossy Box and I have used it periodically since. It does not come in a little metal tin. It comes in a clear plastic case and looks like a lipstick. The case acts like a lipstick and you twist up to dispense more product.

This solid perfume is the Aurikah Parfum Stick. The scent is Aurasmic. Some how the image on screen looks much more pink than mine does. Mine is a silvery lavender. It is described as a…

A soft rose infused with hints of cardamom and narcotic floral with crisp woods at its base. This intoxicating rose petal dream conjures visions of faraway lands and pink spice.

Our spill-proof, phantom-like formula dissipates onto your skin without color or residue, leaving your skin luxuriously fragrant and soft with a few circular strokes of the fingertip. Packaged in a convenient, twist-up iridescent tube with cap for ease of use and visibility. TOP NOTE: CARDAMOM, HEART NOTE: ROSE PETAL,BASE NOTE: WOODS
Aurikah

To be honest the scent itself reminds me of lemonade where a drop of rosewater has been added to the mix. You can tell there is something floral there, but it just sort of reminds me of lemonade. I applied the stick to the wrist thinking that as it warmed up I would see more scent notes emerge.

The stick is a little waxy when applied, but the waxiness fades rather than staying on the skin. After a few minutes the lemonade like scent fades and it does come across as a soft floral with slightly woody notes. It is actually quite pleasant to wear.

It is a nice scent and one that sticks close to the skin. Unless you hold your wrist to your nose, you will not smell it. It does not travel. Which is ideal for a work place or daily use if you come into contact with people who are scent sensitive. I think part of the reason that it doesn’t travel is because it is a solid. It isn’t aerosolized. It puts scent on the skin the same way body wash puts scent on the skin.

It is not terribly long lasting though. It was detectable on my skin for only about three ish hours. It remained longer if I was sitting at the desk working and faded more quickly when I wore it outside and was moving around. While this isn’t a childish scent, it does tend to skew younger. It is more sophisticated than my Raspberry splash, but not by a whole lot. I could see this more as a middle school going into high school sort of scent. It is the kind that you can wear when the school regulations forbid you to wear scent to class. I could very easily see myself at age 13 putting it on my wrist before school and thinking that I got away with something.

while it is a bit on the young side for me now, I think that i would like to try out other scents of this formula. I spend a lot of time with people who are scent sensitive. I actually wore this around them this weekend and no one even noticed. If the other scents from the brand have the same no traveling aroma and I can find one that is a little more suited for me, I would certainly consider picking it up specifically for those times where I want to make sure that I cause no offense. And if I can’t find a scent that suits, I think that I would still look into stocking stuffers for next year for some of the younger family members who are just dipping their toes into the world of beauty. The Aurikah Pafum stick is an interesting product and one I think I will look into just a little bit more.

Perfume Review: L’Extase by Nina Ricci

This L’extase by Nina Ricci was my choice from Scentbox for march. As all Scentbox products do, they arrive in a metal travel case and contain a spray bottle of 0.27 ox of scent. I chose this perfume because of the fragrance notes. They are Amber, Benzoin, Caramel, Raspberry and Rose. Several recent fragrances I have tried have Benzoin in them and I am beginning to discover that I do not like the scent. I discovered this after this scent was mailed out and I thought about sending it back if I didn’t like it, as Scentbox has a really good return policy, but then i lost track of time and didn’t try it until it was past the return date.

I do like the other fragrance notes so I went into this scent with an open mind and willing nostrils, so to speak. The description of the scent is enticing as well…

Nina Ricci presented L’Extase, a new fragrance in 2015, inspired by a woman’s erotic fantasies. This fragrance represents the new, third pillar of the house when it comes to perfumes, two other pillars being L’Air du Temps and Nina. L’Extase invites you to liberate your fantasies. This floral, musky and oriental composition is created by the famous perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. The composition is made of two kinds of accords – the first one consisting of white petals, rose and pink pepper, while the other is more sensual and warm with Siamese benzoin, Virginian cedar, musk and amber. French model Laetitia Casta is the face of the campaign.
Scentbox

All of those sound like this is a perfume i would like. So a spritz to the wrist we go. The scent comes on strong. One spray is all you need. Pick a wrist, spray and then tap your wrists together. A second spray will be far too much.

This scent will linger in the room where you spray it for pretty much the rest of the day. It is the aroma equivalent of putting a pin in a map. This perfume was sprayed here in the last twelve hours.

It will not be the last place it is seen, or smelled.

This is a scent that likes to sneak out and make friends. It is not one that hugs the wrists until it has started to fade several hours after application. It doesn’t travel down the hall and around corners without you, but you will be noticeable in an elevator.

The scent is floral, mostly rose with a slightly sweet-ish not underneath. I am not sure if it is the caramel or the raspberry to be honest. It is a bit to generic a sweet scent to be identified as either. Underneath is the slightly rubbing alcohol scent that I associate with benzoin fragrances.

It is a very mature scent. It is the sort of scent that if I smelled it in an elevator I would think one of the elderly church ladies from my childhood was in the elevator before me. It is not just that it is for a mature woman. My mother is in her seventies but it is not a scent i would think a woman in her seventies today would wear. It is the sort of scent i associate with women in their eighties in the 1980s wore.

In fact it reminds me of Mrs. Snyder’s perfume. She sat next to us in church and was quite a lovely woman. She was in her eighties and had an array of basket hats that she wore to church each Sunday. She was only about four foot eight inches so even with the hat on she didn’t block anyone’s view. The hat had little silk flowers around the base where the bottom flared out. Her gloves and shoes would match the hat.

This L’extase by Nina Ricci reminds me of her perfume. It is an older scent from an older generation. In fact smelling it makes me certain that if your hat gloves and shoes don’t match, you probably shouldn’t be wearing it. The fact that it was created in 2015 is very surprising as there is nothing modern about the scent.

I had a hard time with this scent. And not just because i am lucky if my socks match each other let alone a hat gloves and shoes. When it is first sprayed it is too strong for me to wear. It made me sneeze a bit if I am honest and it gave me a little bit of a headache. However after about two hours it faded back to something a little more wearable. The problem is that when it faded back it faded to basic rose with a sort of sweetness and an underlying rubbing alcohol scent.

This scent is not for me.

However it does confirm the benefit of a perfume subscription. From the description this scent sounded like it was right in my wheel house. Minus the Benzoin, everything seemed like something i would like. And yet, it wasn’t. Perfume is something you really need to try before you buy, lest you spend a whole lot of money on products you simply don’t want to wear. On paper, I should have loved this scent. If I purchased a full size I would be finding someone to give it to very quickly or I would return it to the store.

As it is I will be passing this sample on to my neighbor. She is a nurse who works in a nursing home and she will often take a lot of the things that come in my subscription boxes that I know i won’t use to the lovely ladies there. It is an old fashioned scent that I am sure someone there will appreciate far more than I do.

It does make me extra happy with my scentbox subscription though.

Perfume Review: Plum in Cognac by Scents of Wood

The perfume I have been wearing this week is called Plum in Cognac by Scents of Wood. I had never heard of the brand or the scent before but when I saw the scent profile on Scentbird I had to give it a try. It just looked too intriguing to pass up. The description too is lovely…

Torn between sweet and spicy, mellow and wild, dark and light? Allow our Plum in Cognac fragrance to tease you endlessly with a blend that is at once sensual, nourishing and provocative.

The scent notes listed are cinnamon bark, purple plum, rum absolute and vanilla.

So the scent arrived, I spritzed I sniffed, I waited for the scent to settle in and I sniffed again. At first there is a moment where the first spray seems overpowering and I thought I made a bad choice. Then the scent settles in and snuggles dark and warm against the skin. To me there is a smoky almost tobacco scent to this perfume. When I close my eyes the first image that does come to mind it the old leather chair my grandfather used when smoking his pipe. I think part of that comes from the rum absolute which is kind of the forward note in this scent. The vanilla tames it down but it doesn’t make the scent sweet.

I was worried that with both vanilla and plum listed that it might get a bit sweet scented. The rum and the earthy cinnamon seem to ground the fruity and sweet notes for a wonderfully warm and dark scent.

In the first hour of wear it is noticeable to those in your general vicinity, but after that it fold back and becomes a skin hugging scent. If I applied it at eight in the morning, by nine am I was the only one who noticed the scent as no one else was within my personal space bubble, and by noon it faded to a ghost of a scent that I had to press my nose to my wrist to pick up.

while I did test it during the day, this is definitely a night time scent and far too sensual to wear in an office. This scent just makes you think of curling up somewhere cozy, whether alone or with someone special. It is a very intimate feeling scent and something that would go well with a date. I would apply it early if you ae going out to eat though as I am not so sure it would pair well with food. It is a drinks and dancing sort of scent not a dinnertime one.

I would say that it is more wintery than anything else but to be honest I could see wearing this on a moonlit walk even in mid summer. It is more the time of day rather than the season that matters for this scent.

For me this scent was a winner and one that I really want to keep wearing. Because it is a scentbird sample it has a month’s worth of scent in it so after a full week of testing I still have plenty to use. Oh and if you are thinking this might be something you would like but aren’t entirely sure you are up for a month of an unknown scent, Scentbird also has small samples (1.5 ml, so the traditional perfume sample size) available for $4.95. As perfumes can be very subjective it is a great way to try something out of your comfort zone without having a lot of excess product around.

The trick for me will be setting this Plum in Cognac aside so that other scents can get a fair trial. I really did love this scent and I have to say I will now be looking into the brand more to see what other delights they have to offer. Don’t you just love finding new brands you never knew existed?

Especially when they smell fabulous.

Unboxing Scentbird for March 2023

You know I love perfumes. There are those that prefer to have a signature scent. I am not one of them. I like to have a scent library. I am a very scent oriented person and while I find there are some scents that have a season, a ;lot of scents I find are mood based. There are days where it may be bright and sunny outside but I am indoors working and I want richer warm scents that one would normally associate with the winter. Sometimes in the depths of winter I want something light and airy that reminds me of spring. Some scents remind me of people or places. And of course some scents seem to go with certain places. I even associate certain scents with music.

So for me there will never be a signature scent. But I do love my scent library. However building a scent library can be very expensive, especially when I can so easily be drawn in by the descriptions. Some perfume descriptions are like poetry, whisking you off into a sensual world of adventure. Unfortunately it isn’t the description you are wearing. And sometimes the scent isn’t what you expected.

This is one of the reasons I love perfumes sample subscriptions. You get a month’s worth of perfume to try out and see if it suits you and you suit it. Now I will of course wear the perfume that came in this subscription and then review it, but I wanted to take a moment to look at the Scentbird Subscription. For a while I had both the Scent box and Scent Bird Subscriptions. Then I was inundated with perfume samples from other sources and felt I couldn’t give the scents the time they deserved. I cancelled my scentbird subscription and held on (for a little while longer) to my Scentbox subscription. Then I had to let ot go as well until I dug out of the samples pit.

At the end of 2022 I emptied my samples box of perfumes and felt ready to go back to the subscriptions, but which to choose? I decided to try them both for a while and weigh the pros and cons of both Scent bird and Scent box and see if i want to keep both because they are different enough, or if I want to go with one over the other or perhaps trade off months alternating between the two subscriptions. This is my first Scentbird in a few years and I think a few things have changed. So let’s look at the subscription.

It is $16.89 per month and with your first month you get a free case. It is refillable. If you would like to get a new case each month you can sign up and for $10 they will send you a new case each month. My old Scentbird case was metal and it was the simple sheath design. This new case is plastic and it is held together magnetically. It is sturdy and it looks nice but something about it just looks and feels a little cheap. I am happy to have the case but I don’t think i would be ordering one a month. I will be monitoring the case to see how it performs for multiple month’s use. So that will be something I will watch. It does look pretty though.

As this was the first month the sample also came with a drawstring bag to hold the case. To be honest, I think the bag is nicer than the plastic case. It is nice cloth with the gold lettering on it.

The selection of perfumes seems to be pretty broad. I did notice that there were a lot of scents that were labeled premium and you could only add them to the list if you wanted to pay an extra fee for that month. In addition many of the samples were listed as for a limited time. I went ahead and chose a full year’s worth of samples for my personal list, some of them limited time options. I want to see how limited their time is and if they will still be available by the time their month arrives or if I will have to choose something else.

After all a selection is only broad if you can in fact select it.

At this moment there seemed to be quite a few selections available and a lot of scents I wanted to try. Some I never heard of. There were a few that I tried to search for that weren’t there. Oddly most of those brands were on Scentbox when I looked. In fact after I set up by Scentbird queue I went over to Scentbox to make sure there were no duplicates. There weren’t any actually as the ones one company carries the other doesn’t and visa versa. I don;t know if that is just my selections but it is something I will investigate as I move forward.

I am actually quite excited by this evaluation. Plus I get to try many perfumes. I loved the fact that many of the ones Scentbird featured were unknown to me or items I had only heard mentioning in passing. It reminds me how vast the field of perfumery is and makes me feel a little bit better about building my scent library. My March Selection was one I heard of but never got a chance to try. It has newly arrived and This week I will begin it’s first week of testing to see if i want to add it to my collection. For now though, I am very happy that i was able to choose a sample of it to try out. At the moment Scentbird is looking pretty good.

Perfume Review: Milk by Commodity Fragrances

I have heard a lot about commodity fragrances for a while now. About six months ago I received a sample of their fragrance Paper and tried it out. The scent was not for me at all. However once I tried it, it seemed as though Commodity fragrances was everywhere. Including in the Advent Calendars this year, which is where this Milk from Commodity came from. It is a 10 mL size that retails for $25. The full size 100 mL retails for $135.

One thing I like about Commodity is their rating system. They have perfumes listed as Personal, Expressive and Bold. I actually really like how they categorize it so I’ll put it here for those interested:

The Personal Collection is for those who prefer a subtle, intimate fragrance – to be noticed only by you and the few you allow close. Soft, ethereal and luxurious, these molecular compositions have a trace of their ‘Expressive’ counterpart and embody the concept of less is more.

The Expressive collection is considered by many to be the perfect balance of longevity and projection. These fragrances will make a statement without overpowering any space – to be noticed by you and the many around you.

There is no modesty when it comes to the Bold collection. Infused with exotic notes, these are amplified renditions of their ‘Expressive’ counterpart. Designed for those intent on making their presence known, they are for you and everyone else.

Commodity

Milk is listed in the Expressive category and it’s description is …

Seeking comfort in the familiar, this creamy and calming scent offers the perfect start to the day. Cold Milk adds a cooling element to an otherwise rich and warm fragrance of Marshmallow, Mahogany, and Tonka Bean.

I did not look at this description before trying out the scent. I thought I would like to see how I felt about the scent before I saw what other’s claimed. I will say that I have seen a lot of people on You Tube raving about this scent so I was eager to try it.

The first spray gave me a woody aroma with a heavy back note that smelled like alcohol. This isn’t all that uncommon for a first spritz of scent so I let it sit and let the alcohol of the first spray disipate.

Except that it didn’t. There was the woodsy scent that remained with a hint of sweetness as a back note. The back note was very light and the scent my nose picked up as rubbing alcohol I am fairly certain looking at the full description on the page is Benzoin.

I enjoy the woody notes and the slight sweetness I would guess comes from the Tonka been, but that heavy benzoin scent takes over and of that i am not a fan. After a while the pleasant woodsy notes faded and I was only left with that benzoin scent which I do not find at all pleasant. For me this was a very off balance scent.

Oddly it smelled better in the room than it did on my wrist. when I sprayed it in the air and then left, later returning, the woodsy notes remained and the benzoin smell dissipated. I don’t know why on my skin it was the reverse.

I have no idea where they are getting the light creamy scents with cooling elements and marshmallow tones. I had a hind of sweetness behind the woodsy aroma that I am guessing comes from the mahogany. It is a more masculine scent, which I really do enjoy. But only when it is sprayed in a room (one small spray into the air nothing more, it is very strong). On me is is too heavy on the benzoin for me to take. As a room spray it is great as for some reason the scents I don’t like dissipate.

I really like the designations for scent categories and i have to say the strength of the scent is spot on. It is listed as expressive and given their description that is exactly what this is. However their scent descriptors do not match what my nose is smelling. This may be the darling of social media right now but this Milk is not for me.

Perfume Review: Crystal Noir

I have finally managed to whittle down my perfume samples box and while there are still a few assorted perfumes to try, I have restarted one of my favorite subscriptions. Scent Box.

Monthly supply of fragrance, just $9.72 $15.95/mo thereafter, cancel anytime. Free Exchanges & Shipping

I love this subscription. I get to browse through all of the available samples in their library of scents and choose the ones I think i want to try, adding them to my line up and then each month the 0.27 oz sample is sent to me in a travel spray bottle. Each month is a different color. AND each month earns you Scent bucks which you can store up and use to purchase full sized fragrances. The sample size is enough that you can use it every day for a month. And then it is time for a new sample.

I have chosen poorly in my sample selections. There have been some perfumes where I loved the description and then the scent arrived and with the first spray I knew I was never going to use it. That’s why they include a return label and you can send it back and get a different one. I have had to to that twice (once because one spray from the perfume had me sneezing for hours) and there was never any hassle.

And if you can’t choose for yourself (or want to be surprised) they always have a monthly sample they select for you. There are always so many i want to try that I always fill up my queue. And of course you can pause whenever you want to. I had to pause mine for a while because I just had a box of small samples that I needed to go through. But as I said at the beginning of this post, the box of free samples with purchase perfumes is mostly empty. So the first perfume in my line up was Crystal Noir from Versace. The description is…

Crystal Noir by Versace is a lush blend of gardenia and amber, this sheer fusion of modern contrasts is the ultimate statement in luxury and femininity. Destined to become a classic, this delicate scent was inspired by haute couture, and is the ultimate high-fashion accessory. Notes of Gardenia and Amber.

This is a perfume that comes on strong with the first spritz. It felt momentarily overpowering. However after it has a moment to settle down it becomes less intense. In fact i thought it was more intense than it was because when I sprayed it, the scent lingered in the air for a while. When I left my bedroom and walked into the hall and other parts of the house, the scent became only a light fragrance that was only detectable if someone got into my personal space.

I did notice that a few hours later when I had to go into the bedroom there was still a lingering trace of it in the air. It seems to stay in the air where you spray it for a while. So it is not a perfume I would slip into my purse to apply while moving between office and going out. Unless I wanted my car to smell of Crystal Noir for a while. Which I wouldn’t mind actually as I rather like the scent.

But we will get to that in a moment.

On the wrist, the scent is noticeable for a long time. It has the power to last all day. When you wake into the room it is not noticeable to those around you unless that are well within your personal space bubble. However I did notice that if I stayed for any length of time in a small area and then left for a bit and came back, thee was a hint of it in the air. It does take a while to sort of permeate the air. And I have to say that while it does leave a whiff of itself behind, it is a light one. More of a something scented passed this way sort of vibe.

there is a floral note from the gardenia but it is warmed up by the amber. In the scent profile pepper, cardamom and ginger are all mentioned and while none of them are individually identifiable all of them combined gave this a warm spicy scent. There is still a floral note but it plays in harmony with the others instead of rising for a solo performance.

It is very much a night time scent. It is something I would wear for date night, whether going out or staying in. It is just far too sensual for the office. The scent is warm and dark. As I have quite a few day time florals, in fact the last spate of perfume samples have all been more day time scents, I am pleased to have a perfume that I like that is more for the night. I like that while it is sensual and spicy it is not overly heavy on the nose. I am guessing that is the influence of the gardenia. The floral lifts the spice while the spice grounds the floral It is a really good balance and one that I very much enjoyed wearing this week. I am very pleased with my selection and can’t wait to see how the next Scent Box sample performs. For me Crystal Noir from Versace is an excellent date night scent.

Perfume Review: Wakeheart Sunlit Sensations

Some of you may look at the title and maybe the image and think, wait, Mimsy didn’t you review this one? I did not. this was actually a set of two fragrances. They are both sample sized roller ball scents. The labels are different colors and the writing is tiny, but otherwise they look very much the same. According to the brand Wakeheart, Sunlit Sensations is…

Sunlit Sensations is pure serenity. It’s calming, warm, and comforting. Know your value, the warmth begins with being kind to yourself.

Scent: This fragrance is slightly sweet and floral, made with notes of Vanilla Sea Salt, Sparkling Pomelo, Blue Freesia, Orchid Petals, White Patchouli.

*not available outside of the contiguous United States, Canada, & Mexico.
Wakeheart

The scent on the website is in a full sized bottle and retails for $49. Which is actually quite good for a perfume. I did not see the scent offered in a roller ball application like the one I am using. which can be a bit of a problem. I have noticed that scents seem to apply differently with a spray than with a roller ball.

Well obviously one you roll on and the other you spray, so the mechanics are different. However there is also a difference in the scent, at least to me. The spray always seems a bit stronger to me than the scent I apply with a roller ball applicator. I don’t know if more of it is just used or if the spray saturates the air so that it feels more like I am surrounded by scent.

The roller ball applicator worked well with this scent. It is a soft feminine scent that smells more like and adult woman than a little girl. Which I’ve noticed is really hard to do with florals. You either get little girl with her first perfume or matron holding court at the plaza. This is able to ride that line between little girl and matron.

Personally I really like it, and to be honest fruity florals aren’t really my go to scent-wise. Perhaps it is that it is leaning a bit more fruity than floral. For me I get the sweet citrus of the Pomelo blended with the orchid as my top notes. There is a hint of vanilla in the background which keeps it a little on the sweet side but is a light enough note that the scent feels more airy and fresh than I would have expected. There is also, surprisingly a hint of coconut.

When I looked this up I found it is supposed to be a dupe for the Tom Ford Soleil Blanc. I have not tried that perfume before but if it is anything like this, I may have to give it a try sometime.

It is definitely a day time scent. It will give you a small bubble of scent around you but unless anyone is invading your space (only about a foot away) then I don’t think it is strong enough to cause anyone irritation. This is not a far traveling scent.

It feels more spring or summery than winter, but I have to say on a cold and dreary day it does bring a lovely hint of warmth to the office. While it comes on strong when first applied, after about two hours it fades back becomes much more of a personal scent. I could still smell it on my wrist throughout the day It was still there and remained there until bedtime, but it was very faint after about six hours. Which is quite long lasting actually. Especially for a scent that doesn’t travel a lot. I found this an interesting scent and I would definitely consider adding it to my collection. It is a nice light made for spring scent. I will be enjoying the last of my sample and picking up a full size of the Wakeheart Sunlit Sensations when i can.

Perfume Review: Pinrose Secret Genius

This Pinrose Sweet Genius perfume came in my IPSY Glam Bag X this month. It was one of my choice items. From the description it seemed like it was either going to be something that I liked or something that one of my Aunts would enjoy. It was a description that could lean either way. And really with perfume descriptions they can only give you a very limited idea of what the perfume will smell like on you.

Don’t get me wrong, I love perfume descriptions. They are pieces of writing that are designed specifically to conjure images of lives you might want to live. The descriptions can whisk you off to a life of adventure as you travel the Silk Road. They can describe a glamorous life lounging in an exclusive Mediterranean Resort. They can make you think adventure, love, sex, drama and excitement.

Which is the reason those descriptions exist.

And there are days when I would love to go on one of those adventures, even if I can only get as close as spritzing my wrist and inhaling between answering e-mails and making the weekly meal plan.

Which is the allure of perfumes.

But I have noticed that some perfumes I love in the bottle and adore when I smell them on other people, don’t smell the same when i wear them. Perhaps it is body chemistry or atmosphere. Honestly, I kind of like that about perfumes, even if it is a bit frustrating at times. I really like that even if a hundred other women wear the same scent I chose to apply, it will smell subtly different on each of us. There is something about that I really like.

It is also why I tend to lean into perfume samples. (And I am now down to only one sample size left in my perfume sample box so I have officially restarted by ScentBox Subscription. I am so excited by that actually, both to be restarting my subscription and that I am finally at the bottom of my samples box).

While this is a larger size, 30 mL, I think this was an IPSY size rather than the full size. The full size on the Pinrose site is 50mLThe actual bottle you would purchase is in the picture to the left. I like the look of the bottle. It is nice and sleek looking which I always think is a classy look in a perfume bottles. I also like the cut corner look of the edges. It’s not fully faceted but it is a nod in that direction.

But a beautiful bottle is one thing, what is the product like? My plan was to spray it once and if it seemed like a scent I liked I would continue with a personal test. if I didn’t like the scent I would pass it along. Because I am not the only one in my family who enjoys perfume we often pass perfumes from one to another. I am not the only one who has picked up a scent based on a description only to find out the actual scent didn’t work for me. Luckily we each have different enough tastes that what one of us doesn’t like someone else will.

Oddly we also have a contingency of family who are very scent sensitive so for holidays no one wears any perfume, so I figured the week before I headed home would be a nice time to indulge in a perfume trial. As you can probably tell, I ended up liking the perfume so I tried it for the full week and I will be keeping this bottle in my collection.

But before we get to that, lets look at the description…

An intoxicating blend of caramel, Madagascan vanilla and sandalwood.

Sophisticated sugar? Yes. Syrup? No. That’s the brilliance of Secret Genius; luscious caramel and vanilla notes rendered so sheer they’re almost diaphanous. Like a dulcet voice it draws you in… eager to whisper sweet nothings.

Fragrance Family: Warm & Spicy Gourmand
Top Notes: Mandarin, Bergamot
Heart: Caramel, White Chocolate, Jasmine
Dry Down: Madagascan Vanilla, Cedarwood, Sandalwood
Perfumer: Harry Fremont

ALL PINROSE PRODUCTS ARE CLEAN, VEGAN AND CRUELTY FREE.
Pinrose

Now if you have read many of my posts you know that the item on that list that gave me pause it was the bergamot. Luckily for me, it is not a prominent scent. This perfume comes on a bit strong so spray and let it dry a moment. Vanilla is the scent I get first and foremost. It is a sweet vanilla and I’m pretty sure it is the caramel scent. However as it settles in there are some spicy notes that rise. The cedar wood comes through for me. I think the sandalwood is more of a background note. It is a sweet yet wood spice scent for most of the day. As it starts to fade the vanilla remains and the Jasmine starts to kick in.

I found this an interesting scent to wear. It started off sweet that made me think of wearing it to a barbeque or a picnic, then as the cedar notes kicked in it felt more sultry and less day time. It felt more like a scent i would wear for an evening out. Then as the jasmine started to rise (towards the end of the day) it once again felt like a day time perfume.

I’ve never had a day time perfume turn into a night time perfume and then back into a daytime perfume before. I prefer the more sultry night time scent, but I like the sweet and floral bookends as well. It stays longest in that sultry zone so i would probably classify this as a night time scent.

I think it is too heavy a scent to wear into an office during the day. Even the lighter day time ends to it, seem to lead my brain to out door events like barbeques or picnics. It just doesn’t feel like an office scent to me. It does have a good longevity to it. I spritzed in the morning and could still detect the scent when I was getting ready for my evening shower.

This is not a scent that will proceed you down the hallway by a mile, but it isn’t one that sticks close to the skin and doesn’t travel. It is a scent that a person standing in front of you for a chat will smell. It is not an outlandish travel scent cloud, but it isn’t one that just hugs the skin. which is another reason I would probably not wear it to an office. To be honest it is the sort of perfume intensity that makes me think of old mystery movies of novels. When the detective comes into an empty room and remarks that the faintest trace of a perfume was evident in the air but soon disappeared.

that is this sort of scent.

So don’t get involved in any locked room murder mysteries while wearing the Pinrose Sweet Genius perfume, and you should be fine.