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.

Confessions of a Rebel B*tch, Please Perfume Review

I feel like it has been forever and a day since I have posted a perfume review. They arrive, I wear them I make notes and then I get distracted by something shiny like a befuddled magpie spotting an aluminium can.

This particular perfume came to me via my Scentbird subscription. It is a monthly perfumes subscription in which you receive 0.27 ounces of a particular scent (you get to choose the ones you want and set up your queue. It costs $14.95 per month and while the first perfume comes with a reusable travel sprayer, the subsequent ones come in the above pictured strategically placed cardboard tube. Sometimes I end up choosing a great scent, other times I am let down, but either way I have a month’s supply of any particular scent I order to use and decide if I want to invest in a full bottle. If you like perfume, you can easily see how much money this saves. Now I only buy the perfumes I know I will wear based on the fact that I did wear them for a month rather than just a few spritzes from a tiny sample where I hope for the best.

Admittedly sometimes, my selections aren’t the best. I can actually lose myself for hours just reading the descriptions. The words draw me in every time and I find myself thinking, oh yes that is the sort of exotic life…er perfume that attracts me.

Those marketing folks are good.

Admittedly, I also collect a lot of books about the incense and spice trade of yore too.

Go figure?

This scent was from the Brand Confessions of a Rebel. I’ve purchased form them before and in general like their scents. Their descriptions are less romantically inclined and tend to match their fragrance names actually.

So what did Confessions of a Rebel have to say about this scent B*tch, Please?

In-your-face fruit notes like blackcurrant mingle with jasmine petals, weaving a decadent web tinged with an element of sass. Bold, brash, and unafraid to bare it all, creamy sandalwood and skin musk evoke a carefree, confident kind of vibe. You know exactly who you are, and you are, in fact, the f*cking boss.

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Okay so perhaps this time, the marketing wasn’t designed to whisk me off to far off locales. As much as I love perfume descriptions it was the scent combination that got me and the knowledge that it is a good brand. It is supposed to have notes of Black Currant, Jasmine, Sandalwood and musk. To me, the combination sounded delightful.

In fact, it is quite delightful. There is a juicy fruitiness that is more earthy than sweet. There are light floral notes from the jasmine that are tempered by the spice of sandalwood. It is very well balanced and I loved spraying it on my wrist. There is something clean and fresh about it, and yes, something a little powerful.

My only problem is that it doesn’t last long. You have an hour, two tops before the scent fades. I don’t know if that is meant to be a metaphor or not. I do know that I like the perfume and despite the fading scent, I will consider this a possibility for a full purchase. It is a scent I wouldn’t wear to work expecting a full day of wear out of it, but something I would keep in my purse to spritz as I was leaving the building to meet someone or just before I left the house for dinner out. I think the scent would be fine for a dinner out actually as it stays close to the skin instead of spreading out to clash with the scent of the meal.

Name and description aside, it is a very seductive scent.

But then again, they say power is seductive too.

I may wear this out, but I think I would also wear it for a night in. It’s just that sort of scent.

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Moroccan Fig by Malin+Goetz Perfume Review

The perfume I chose from the ScentBird offerings this month was the Malin +Goetz Moroccan Fig. I figured for me, it was a sure thing as I love figs and I have never tried a Malin+Goetz product I didn’t like. Admittedly most of the items were non-perfume products. (seriously if you haven’t tried their Grapefruit cleanser, I would highly recommend it. It is amazing. But that isn’t the point of this post, although if I can find it I’ll link it down below because it is super fabulous).

First of all ScentBird is a perfume subscription service. Each month you receive a 0.27 ounce sized sample of perfume which is generally enough to last through a full month of use. At the moment I have subscriptions to both Scentbird and Scentbox since there is some variety in their offerings.

One thing Scentbird does offer that Scentbox does not are non-perfume items. They also have various skincare, makeup and beauty products offered as well so if you decide you want to trade it out and get something other than a perfume that month, you can. Actually, I think I have a non-perfume item slated for next month.

But this month I went with the Malin+Goetz Moroccan Fig.

According to the description…

Moroccan Fig is a light, tropical fig perfume layered with green pepper and coconut, for a spicy and deliciously earthy experience. The heart of Moroccan Fig offers a round, fleshy, and full profile of sweet, dark fruit that will definitely get you noticed as it heats up.

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I have to say it does have more of the scent of the fig leaf than the sweetness of the actual fig and I can detect the green pepper. It has both a spicy note and an oddly green note that I find quite pleasant. I can’t detect the coconut at all.

For me that is not really a drawback. If it is in the mix, it is a background supporting player and not a front runner. It was actually my one concern as coconut can take over and make everything smell more tropical vacation –y than expected. It did not have that effect here. If it does anything it lightens the scent and lifts it from its earthiness a little, rounding it out.

Over all I do like this scent and I am very glad I added it to my list. I’ve enjoyed wearing it this week. I think it is more an evening scent than a day time one though. It isn’t a definite night time scent. There is just something about it that says, ‘It’s time to leave the office’ rather than something I’d wear to an office. I think it would be a scent I would spritz on at the end of the work day, before a commute home or stepping out to a happy hour with friends. Kind of a clear demarcation between the end of the work day and something else.

But I’m like that with scent.

I often find them a more accurate line of change in my day than the actual clock. Especially when I am working on a project.

The scent is one that stays close to you instead of sending out a cloud of warning prior to your arrival and the scent tends to fade after about four hours making it perfect for the post work time frame.

While I like it enough to use the remainder of the bottle, I am on the fence about whether or not I would add a full bottle to my permanent collection. It is a nice scent but with a $142 price tag, I need to be certain I love it before I buy it. I would definitely snap up any sample sizes I came across and I would hoard them, because it is a great scent. On my scale of personal likes from one to five, five being the best, I would give it a solid four.

To be honest I can see myself thinking about this scent and dithering until a sale came along and then pouncing on the sale. Or waiting until I need a weight loss reward and picking it up then as a special treat. Either way it is definitely one to keep on the list of possible future purchases.

I seem to be on a roll with scents. I don’t know if I am getting better at picking out the ones I like or if I’m just on a lucky streak. Last year out of more than thirty perfume samples I tried, only three made the cut. Thus far in 2020 I have already found two perfumes I want to add to my list to add to my collection. I doubt my streak will last, but I am going to enjoy it while I can. Admittedly I’ve also learned to avoid anything with patchouli in it as it tends to make me sneeze. That sort of helped the luck out a bit. But here’s hoping the luck continues, at least until my perfume shelf can take no more additions.

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Walk on Air by Kate Spade

This was a strange week for me. It was filled with mishaps and calamities the likes of which were more surprising and time consuming than horrifying. Don’t get me wrong, they were relatively easy to deal with in the grand scheme of things but they made any attempt at scheduling seem like a joke. It is at times like these that I really like having a perfume on hand to lighten the mood.

Or at least help control my mental state through scent.

That being said, this was a good week for me to be testing the Kate Spade Walk on Air perfume. I believe it is Scentbird’s scent of the month. I’m not certain whether that month was January of February, but I enjoyed having it now. I’m pretty sure it was my January pick, but to be honest, I’ve gotten behind on my perfumes. At the holidays I tend not to wear any because we have a couple of people who are sensitive to scent and it is easier just not to wear any. It is entirely possible that this was December’s scent. I’m pretty sure it was January’s though. Regardless, I wore it this week.

The description reads…

Walk on air by Kate Spade New York is a fragrance that celebrates the graceful confidence of its wearer. Sweet and tender layers of lily of the valley, magnolia and crinum lily caress the skin like a breath of fresh air. The fragrance exudes delight. It’s an invitation to seize the day and envelop yourself in the promise of something wonderful.

The scent, when sprayed on the wrist is lightly floral with back notes of citrus. I’m not entirely certain about seizing the day, but it was nice and calming during the neighbor’s impromptu mudslide. It is definitely a light day scent that wouldn’t cause raised eyebrows at the office for being too sultry. It also sticks close to the skin instead of sending out a cloud of scent so it is really just a personal scent. If your coworkers complain about it invading their nostrils, they are probably invading your personal space.

In that case, HR is down the hall and to the left.

In all seriousness though it is a light enough scent that you could get away with it in a cubicle environment without causing any sensitive noses issues. I generally find that a spritz on the wrists and neck lasts, scent wise, until about midafternoon. The scent will be a bare whisper of a ghost by about four o’clock. Which is not a bad thing. This is definitely a day scent. It is not something I would reapply at night I would go with more of an evening scent then.

Personally, I am tickled by that. Because I tend to gravitate towards the spicier scents, I now have several evening and night scents to call on. I don’t really have any day scents that I have purchased for my collection. I think that I will be purchasing this one for day time wear. I also think I will be looking into more Kate Spade scents in the future. I have to admit even though I’ve seen all of the pretty bottles, I never actually added any to my try on list. This may have to change. Walk on Air is definitely a keeper for me.

Wisteria Blue by Nest Fragrances

It is time to return now to one of my favorite indulgences. That’s right, perfume. I love the way a good scent can completely transport you either to a memory or a place that never existed outside of your mind. If you want to know a secret, sometimes I choose scents because they let me pretend I am someone else. I used to keep one scent around that made me feel as though I was a secret agent when wearing it. I have no idea what scent notes made that connection in my mind, however I often wore that perfume when I knew I had to get through a long and pointless staff meeting. It was my staff meeting survival scent. I can’t remember the now but I’d know the scent anywhere.

While Scentbird sends a reusable case with the first order, future scents come in a protective (and recyclable) cardboard case.

But then again that is the sort of person I am. Names I tend to be hit or miss on, scents I remember.

And yes it has given me a few awkward moments at cocktail parties. Seriously, never let me introduce people. Chanel Baby powder does not appreciate being introduced to Cough drops Old Spice. Even if they did later on get married and now have two children. Luckily, my babydoll is a wiz with names. He remembers their actual ones while I just tag them by scents in my head and hope the names will come to me later. It helps to love someone who is good at what you aren’t. That’s not why I love him of course, but it is a handy feature.

Speaking of my darling dearest, as his opinion features in this post, I should mention his lexicon when it comes to scented products. If he doesn’t like a scent his is fairly unequivocal. The scent is termed weird. Not bad, weird. That means he doesn’t like it. Fancy means it smells nice. When testing this perfume this lexicon became important as you will see in a bit. But first on to the scent.

As you may remember I recently tested out the scent Indigo also from Nest Fragrances and absolutely adored it. It is what prompted adding this to my Scentbird Queue. (actually it may have been more than a little while ago since I tested that one. Over the holidays I had to put all my perfumes aside since we have several people sensitive to scents in the family. I had to restrain myself. While I love them and was willing, it was rather hard for me. Luckily I was baking a lot so I sort of smelled like cinnamon and nutmeg over the past month.)

So the next on my list was the Wisteria Blue from Nest Fragrances. It’s description…

Wisteria Blue’s clean, fresh, softness is slyly addictive. An ethereal blend of powdery wisteria, rich Imperial jasmine and soft roses creates a subtle mystery that grows more compelling as the scent lingers on the skin.

Go ahead, read that and tell me I’m not going to want to try it. They got me again. I knew they would. Those clever marketing people with their adjectives. They know just what to write to draw me in.

So the scent arrived. I spritzed. I sniffed. I sighed. I know not exactly Veni vidi vici, but still.

It is a lightly warm scent that does, at least in my mind where scents and colors occasionally combine, smell blue. It smells like something you would wear on a sunny afternoon when strolling through a garden looking to see if the early crocus flowers have popped up in the back garden. It is not a summer scent.

It is certainly not a winter scent.

It isn’t quite a spring scent though.

It is that winter spring edge where things have started to grow but you are well aware that a cold snap may make those new shoots regret poking their noses above the safety or the earth. It doesn’t quite have the innocent brightness of spring, but it is not the hibernating coziness of winter.

It is like hope tempered with experience.

At least that is how it smelled to me. When spraying it on, the scent is a bit strong at first but after a moment or two it fades back a little from its aggressive entrance. It is long lasting, I was getting teasers of the scent throughout the day. While I liked it initially,. I have to say the more I wore it, the more I liked it.

But of course, I do not live in a bubble so I am not the only one who has to smell my scents. So I asked my darling dearest to take a sniff. He said ‘Its fancy but not fancy fancy.’

Yup, that was new to me so I asked for clarification. Apparently it is a ranking system. He saw two perfumes by Nest and decided he liked them both, the one termed fancy fancy is better than the fancy one, but he still likes both so neither is weird. Everyone on the same page?

I asked him what he was going to do if I tried out the other perfumes from Nest Fragrances. First he was surprised that any company would have more than two fragrances (which is a whole other discussion). To prove it to him I showed him the lineup. Citron and Cocoa Woods are now on my list to try. I should have known as he is a huge fan of anything even chocolate adjacent and anytime I get a citrus scented body wash or soap he ends up appropriating it as ‘house soap’ because it was left in the shower.

So the end result is that I do like Wisteria Blue. And like all of the Nest Perfumes, the bottles are quite lovely and very crave-able. It seems that I will now definitely be picking up at least one for my collection, but which one has yet to be decided. At the moment Indigo might be slightly edging out Wisteria Blue, but only by half a breath. The problem is that they are scents for different times of the year and each put me in a different frame of mind. With two more on the list to try and possibly others down the road to add to the list, I strongly suspect more than one will end up added to my collection. That wasn’t the plan, but I’m not really complaining. The bottles are really very pretty and I do love finding new scents to try.

Scentbird Review: Indigo by Nest Fragrances

This month’s Scentbird Indigo by Nest Fragrances

As we all know, I love perfume. And I love to try new ones. I noticed as I was looking around that Scentbird carried some scents that weren’t currently available elsewhere and a few of them intrigued me, so I decided to give the subscription service a try.

For those interested Scentbird is a subscription service that sends a one month supply of a perfume so that you can try the scent before you commit to an entire bottle. There are different prices depending on what section of service you buy but the base is $14.95 + tax for one monthly sample.

One thing to be aware of is that only the first month comes with a case, the following months come with the tube of scent in a protective cardboard tube. While you can use the perfume without the case, I personally don’t like to as I like the protection around the glass so I don’t have to worry about breakage. Each tube is clearly labeled which I really like and the tubes clearly come out of the tube easily, so I keep the scents I am not using in the drawer and just move the current one to the travel case to sit on the dressing table. If you want, you can order extra carrying cases for an additional $10.

The subscription charges to your bank account on the 15^th of the month and usually arrives sometime in the third week of the month.

So on to the fragrance.

This month I selected Indigo from Nest Fragrances. From friends who have purchased their perfume before I have heard very good things about Nest Fragrances and this was the first place I saw them offered as more than a tiny little sample. As I tend to spill more than I apply with the tiny samples, I don’t like them and I don’t like judging perfumes based on them. So this was perfect.

And as always, I was excited about the description. It reads:

Tart wild figs and bright bergamot sparkle over Moroccan tea, the dusky midnight spice of black cardamom, and the smooth comfort of Kashmir wood. This is a perfume for clandestine meetings in the hidden corners of the night.

It sounds simply sublime doesn’t it? Once again, they reeled me in with the description. Way to go marketing team. Job well done. The listed scent profile marks bergamot, cardamom, black tea, fig and cashmere wood as the scent’s main notes.

I have to say, I am in love.

The scent has an slightly spicy, almost deep woods kind of scent to it. It comes on strong with the first spritz as though planting a flag and declaring its presence, but dies down to something more livable after a few moments. Which is good because it lasts all day. The various components make it perfect for the colder months.

It is a warm scent that is a little earthy and slightly sexy. Usually when I describe a perfume like that, I find it is more of a special occasion perfume, something to be worn on a night out, but not suitable for the office. This one is oddly more of an everyday kind of scent and one that doesn’t need to be restricted to the night, despite the fabulous marketing description.

One thing I really like about this is that it doesn’t have patchouli mixed in. I tend to find myself drawn to more of the earthy scents as many of the highly floral ones I find a little more cloying than I care for, but the problem is that many of them have patchouli in their make-up and patchouli makes me sneeze my head off like a cartoon person inhaling a snoot full of pepper. This has no patchouli and I have no problem with it. The scent Indigo by Nest Perfumes will be going on my ‘to be purchased’ list and will actually making it into my collection.

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