Ineke Hothouse Flower

As I went through the list of FiFi Indie nominees, my eyes caught on Hothouse Flower by Ineke as the information was transmitted into my brain which made my hand shoot into the box of samples in my desk drawer. Hothouse Flower was a fragrance I had intended to save for spring, but with its name coming up on the nominees list, I couldn’t help the curiosity.

Hothouse Flower

Hothouse Flower

In Bottle: Green and floral, lots of gardenia but smells like dew dappled gardenia.

Applied: Hothouse Flower reminds me of days where the rain only lightly mists everything. It’s fresh and green like the smell you get when you pinch a leaf. The gardenia is very present, but it works well with the greenness and the freshness. It’s tame, not crazy or overpowering. I don’t smell much of the tea, but there’s a small mention of incense in the fragrance. The scent ages with a more noticeable cypress but always remains true to that lovely, green gardenia. Very nice, conjures up beautiful images of tall trees, pretty flowers and dew–just the kind of imagery I could fall in love with.

Extra: Ineke Ruhland is an independent perfumer operating out of San Fransisco. Hothouse Flower was released in 2012 and found its way to my desk drawer via a friend’s recommendation.

Design: Nice, simple packaging. Cylindrical vessel with nice elements etched on glass with a tasteful, equally simple cap. Nothing glaring, nothing too obvious, just plain old good work.

Fragrance Family: Soliflore

Notes: Earl grey tea, leaves, cypress, gardenia, galbanum, fig, frankincense, guaiac wood, corn silk, musk.

After experiencing Hothouse Flower, I want to go out of my way to get more of it thanks to the imagery it inspires. Or, better yet, get my hands on more house samples. Best of luck to Ineke Ruhland in the FiFi awards.

Reviewed in This Post: Hothouse Flower, 2012, Eau de Parfum.


Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline

Up until about a year ago, and thanks to a friend with an Etsy shop, I wouldn’t have known what a black tourmaline was. Olivier Durbano apparently has a gemstone inspired line of fragrances of which Black Tourmaline is a member of.

Black Tourmaline

Black Tourmaline

In Bottle: Dark, smoky with a lather of leather and woods. Very dry and reminiscent of fallen autumn leaves and incense.

Applied: A bit of spice that darkens the instant the leather and oud rolls in. There’s a heady incense note that takes over after the initial spray and makes me think of leaves and autumn with its spicy, smoky woodsiness. The leather is well-behaved, it adds a bit of complexity to the fragrance without distracting from the rest of it. I get mostly incense with a bit of spice and plenty of woods. Very lovely, very complex and things get better as the scent continues to dry down as it takes on a warm mossy bit that adds to its spice and incense.

Extra: Tourmaline is this beautiful semi-precious stone that comes in a wide variety of colors. There’s some spiritual and healing properties that some people affix to it, but I prefer to look at it in a strictly scientific sense. Black Tourmaline, the fragrance was released in 2007 and is still available today on Luckyscent.

Design: A tall, square bottle. Not the easiest to hold or use, but not the worst, by far. Its simple design wins some major points from me as does the beautiful (and appropriate) color of the juice. Nice overall presentation.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Woodsy

Notes: Cardamom, coriander, cumin, frankincense, pepper, oud, leather, woods, musk, amber, moss, patchouli.

Strangely enough, I had been harboring some hidden love of rocks and gemstones that Black Tourmaline has resparked. As if the gardening I had taken up in my off hours wasn’t distracting enough.

Reviewed in This Post: Black Tourmaline, 2008, Eau de Parfum.


Holistic Body Therapy Celebration

I had the honor of participating in the Natural Perfumer’s Guild‘s Home for the Holidays event this year and was super excited to be paired up with Andrea Ashanti at Holistic Body Therapy. Today’s fragrance is a little different than the norm, it was formulated as a misting spray and can be used as a room spray or on yourself. I’ll be trying both.

Celebration

Celebration

In Bottle: Celebration gives me the distinct impression of Christmas trees and warm vanilla cocoa with a dash of cinnamon.

Applied: Celebration goes in the air and on my skin almost at the same time. In the air, it fills the room with a beautiful dense fir fragrance followed quickly by the warmth of a vanilla, cinnamon and yummy cocoa scent. The gourmand latter really strikes a happy note with me, reminding me of days spent decorating and then curling up under the Christmas tree and drinking hot cocoa while it snowed during the Holidays. The fragrance is light but leaves a fabulous lingering impression in the room for a few hours that seems to uplift the spirit. On my skin, I get a little more mileage as the fir needle note blends in with this rich cocoa fragrance. I get more vanilla and a little less cinnamon on my skin but I also get more frankincense presence near the end of the fragrance’s wear time as it joins the delicious vanilla cinnamon cocoa and helps to further warm the scent. I found myself unable to stop sniffing my wrist and looking forward to Christmas more and more.

Extra: Celebration has an impressive mix of ingredients from fir needle, cocoa, vanilla and cinnamon to the Mount Shasta spring water and flower essences that give it a beautiful crisp aroma for a scent that really embodies the idea of Celebration.

Design: Celebration is bottled in a green glass sprayer bottle with Holistic Body Therapy’s label affixed to it. It’s cute and functional and works great for its purposes.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand Woodsy

Notes: Fir, cocoa, cinnamon, vanilla, frankincense.

The closest thing to a Holiday scent I had before Celebration arrived was a cinnamon and clove candle that would fill the house with a huge dose of spice. My Husband admits he doesn’t like it much and neither do I. I leave it in the pantry with the lid closed and it still manages to scent our beans a little. Cinnamon and clove candle beans are about as delicious as you would think. I was ecstatic to discover Celebration and went crazy spraying it around the house one day near Halloween. The fragrance doesn’t overpower, it lingers but its light. When my Husband came home, his first impression was much like mine, memories of good childhood Christmases in a bottle.

You can get yourself a bottle of Celebration for this holiday season at Holistic Body Therapy’s website. At $25 for 2 oz, you’ll get more than enough holiday cheer.

Reviewed in This Post: Celebration, 2012, Misting Spray.

Disclaimer: The fragrance reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.

If you want to check out the participants in the Home For the Holidays Project, try Holistic Body Therapy, Anya’s Garden, Happy Herb Soaps, Belly Flowers Perfumes, and JoAnne Basset Perfumes.


Illuminum Arabian Amber

It was a surprisingly chilly day and I was in the mood for something warming, so I decided to test out Arabian Amber today in the hopes that it would give me that warm feeling that ambers tend to do.

Arabian Musk

Arabian Musk

In Bottle: Clean and very heavy on the bergamot. I get woodsy from this too as well as ylang-ylang.

Applied: The strange thing about Arabian Amber when I tried it on me was that it wasn’t very warm. Ambers or scents that bill themselves as ambers tend to warm up. I get the bergamot in the beginning that does a nice job introducing the woods that roll in during the midstage. The cedar in this is sparingly used and tempered so that it doesn’t overtake the entire fragrance. It’s definitely present and definitely threatening to take over, but it doesn’t because of the lovely touch of spice and light-handed smoke that funnels up through the scent. Arabian Amber has a bit more of its namesake as the fragrance ages and has a much more prominent ylang-ylang presence than I thought it would have. The ylang-ylang reminds me of Illuminum’s Cashmere Musk as it dries down to a smoother woodsy and ylang-ylang fragrance that joins up with the clean patchouli for a pleasant finish.

Extra: Launched in 2011, Illuminum is a British fragrance house created and led by Michael Boadi. The house focuses on contemporary, sleek and modern design.

Design: Still not that big of a fan of the bottles.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy

Notes: Bergamot, nutmeg, black pepper, cedar, ylang-ylang, oppoponax, frankincense, patchouli.

I expected a lot more warmth from Arabian Amber and while it does have a bit of warmth to it, I noticed the ylang-ylang in the fragrance more than I noticed the spices or the amber notes. I’m not sure this one is for me but it certainly smells nice enough. Arabian Musk is available in 50ml or 100ml and you can buy a bottle at Luckyscent or Illuminum’s website.

Reviewed in This Post: Arabian Amber, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.


Chanel Allure Sensuelle

Allure Sensuelle is the flanker to Chanel’s Allure fragrance. My love for Chanel Allure has faded a bit since I wrote about it last. While I still wear it, the fragrance doesn’t have the same amount of “punch” it once did.

Allure Sensuelle

Allure Sensuelle

In Bottle: Dusty and woodsy with a floral note and a bit of vanilla.

Applied: Dusty fruits and vanilla with a hint of wood upon application with a tart and very quick sting of citrus. The fruity midstage is slow to develop but it eventually rolls in making the fragrance smell like creamy fruit slathered onto a plank of wood from the woody notes in the base wafting up. I’m not sure that I like that combination. It doesn’t read to my nose as something I particularly like or want to keep smelling. The strangeness of the mix is repelling me as opposed to drawing me in, but I will admit the fragrance’s warm creamy oriental side can keep me around.  I’m not too fond of Allure Sensuelle though she smells just lovely and when I compare it to the original Allure, I think I gain a bit of an appreciation for it.

Extra: Allure Sensuelle was introduced in 2006. If you want to get some of this stuff, Chanel sells it in body lotion, EDP, and Parfum iterations.

Design: Allure Sensuelle looks largely like Allure except with a richer, deeper color scheme. Otherwise the parfum version comes in a very beautiful flacon that I wouldn’t mind displaying as it looks like a classic Chanel bottle.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy Oriental

Notes: Bergamot, mandarin, pink pepper, jasmine, rose, iris, fruit, vetiver, French vanilla, amber, patchouli, frankincense.

Sorry, Allure Sensuelle, you don’t really work for me. Though it is a nicely composed fragrance with a rather interesting approach to woodsy orientals with its fruity and creamy introduction.

Reviewed in This Post: Allure Sensuelle, 2007, Eau de Parfum.


Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Snake Oil

Snake Oil is one of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s most popular fragrances. In fact, I can probably safely venture that it’s the most popular fragrances. Many people love it, and even those who aren’t within the BPAL folds tend to say that there’s something about Snake Oil that makes it special. Snake Oil

In Bottle: Here’s the thing about my bottle of Snake Oil. It’s been “aged” for two years so it smells different than a fresh bottle. Mine has a deeper vanillic quality to it, layered on top is an incense like smoke note, a jolt of cinnamon and clove, and a little hint of woods.

Applied: A bit of medicinal spice to this, I swear it’s a cinnamon and clove mix with some other spices I can’t identify. There’s a bit of an incense going on, smoking up the fragrance a bit and making the smooth vanilla scent that’s hidden underneath these opening notes. Snake Oil lasts a ridiculous time on me, and I can often wait most of the day for it to turn into something else. But as you keep wearing it, you’ll notice the spices and the smokiness level out a bit and dense, warm, vanilla fragrance will waft up. The vanilla in Snake Oil isn’t your sugary ice cream vanilla scent. It’s got a bit spiciness and sophistication to it. It draws with it a woodsy sort of note that I want to say smells a bit like sandalwood or some other sort of powdery, perfumed wood. The more you let Snake Oil wear on your skin the more vanilla and less spicy it will get until it turns into a lovely creamy, warm vanilla fragrance with a hint of some clove-ladden spice and wood in the background.

Extra: So there’s a practice amongst BPAL fans who adore Snake Oil. What you do is get some of the stuff and leave it hanging around for a bit. That’s it. You leave in a dark corner of your fragrance chest, cupboard, drawer, sock, what have you, and pull her out periodically to test. Many people have reported the vanilla becomes stronger and sweeter. If you like the spices and the woods then perhaps “aging” Snake Oil is not up your alley. It’s still an interesting experience to compare a fresh vial of Snake Oil to an older one.

Design: Snake Oil, aside from having a fancy label that makes it look like it actually came out of a tonic peddler’s wagon, is bottled in the same amber glass vials as the other Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab scents.

Fragrance Family: Spicy

Notes: Cinnamon, clove, ylang-ylang, frankincense, amber, sandalwood, vanilla.

Please note that I’m only guessing at the notes list above based on what I think I’m smelling in Snake Oil. The official word on the BPAL website says that Snake Oil is “a blend of Indonesian oils and vanilla”. So we at least know for sure there’s vanilla but the rest of the notes list I’ve got is only a guess.

Reviewed in This Post: Snake Oil, 2009, 5ml Bottle.


Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure

Sonoma Scent Studio is one of those awesome independent houses with an excellent selection of fragrances that are magnificently well-blended. I’m a big fan of independent perfume houses, and am happy to see them doing things their own way. The mass market and even the niche market can sometimes be restrictive. So independent is the way to go.

In Bottle: Incense Pure is like a sniff of incense heaven. It’s heady, it’s sophisticated, it’s sensual and deep. The first smell out of the bottle or vial is like an invitation you can’t refuse.

Applied: Incense Pure starts off with an airy but very detectable blend of–well, incense. The myrrh really gets me. Makes me grin from ear to ear even. Incense Pure isn’t like most incense fragrances I’ve tried. This one is tempered, easier to wear, still absolutely lovely with that oh so distinctive incense fragrance but it’s tempered a bit by a woodsiness that digs itself up and bunkers down. There’s a lovely sense of sensuality about this fragrance too and a hint of ambery musk infused with a gorgeous vanilla. This isn’t your sweet, synthetic vanilla either. The incense seems to do wonderful things to vanilla, bringing out its spicy personality instead of relying on vanilla’s surface sweetness. There’s even, to my delight, oak moss in this! And the oak moss does wonders to give the fragrance a beautiful mossy green undertone. As if the incense wasn’t enough, it gets me twice with the oak moss too.

Extra: Sonoma Scent Studio offers Incense Pure in a variety of sizes and for some very reasonable prices considering the quality of the ingredients. You can read up about Incense Pure on their website.

Design: I have a sample of this fragrance, but the bottling looks quite nice. The shape of the bottle is clean and neat. A tall squarish bottle with a gold cap. Keeping it simple is always a plus in my books.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy Incense

Notes: Frankincense, myrrh, labdanum, cistus, oakmoss, Indian patchouli, sandalwood, cedar, ambergris, orris, angelica, elemi, vanilla absolute.

If you’re a fan of incense, you really should try this. Even if you’re not sure whether or not you’re a fan of incense, you should try this. It’s quite the excellent experience.

Reviewed in This Post: Incense Pure, 2010, Eau de Parfum.


Old Spice

Today we’re smelling Old Spice. I’ve smelled new Old Spice (hah) plenty and I’m sure you’ve smelled Old Spice plenty too, so let’s take a minute to appreciate what Old Spice smells like. Just because.

Old Spice

In Bottle: Spicy sweet floral with a citrus palette cleanser, bold for a men’s fragrance I gotta say. This is sharp, clean, sweet and strangely complex. A surprise to me immediately as it adds to its opening concoction a slightly boozy note intermixed with a dash of sugar sprinkled in.

Applied: After the citrus is done its job, the spice lingers around as is to be expected as the fragrance slowly introduces a fantastic miasma of cinnamon and clove with a few powdered flowers tossed in there for good measure. This scent is very dry, like a basket of cinnamon sticks at a spice market sitting near a bunch of burning incense on a hot summer day. It’s dry and warm and comforting with an interesting note of smoothness that comes up to mix with the florals and the spices that I want to say is sweet vanilla. Old Spice is a remarkably complex fragrance that goes through several stages on me but it’s mid-stage–that mix of sweetness, smooth vanilla, dry spices, and incensed florals is truly something else. Don’t turn your nose up at this or you’ll miss out on a very, very respectable scent. When Old Spice dries down, it takes a while to get there, but when it does it introduces a woodsy quality to the spicy floral sweet vanilla incense and warms things up even more with an amber and toasty tonka bean scent. Something this complex is mind-boggling how it could work together but it does! And it’s delightful.

Extra: Unlike a lot of people, I don’t have any early memories of Old Spice. I don’t know anyone aside from my fiance who may have once used Old Spice deodorant. And I kind of wished I did because this stuff is great.

Design: Old Spice’s bottle can be seen above. I don’t actually own a bottle of this stuff though with the affordable price tag, I really have no reason not to. The shape is reminiscent of a cola bottle but it works for this stuff and actually looks kind of nice. I can imagine that sitting on someone’s vanity. Wait, do men have vanities? I’ll just call them sink counter. Bottom line, the bottle works, it looks fine, it’s a good design for what it is and good for what you pay for.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Orange, lemon, spices, clary sage, aldehydes, cinnamon, carnation, geranium, jasmine, heliotrope, pimento berry, vanilla, musk, cedar, frankincense, benzoin, tonka bean, ambergris.

Don’t knock it ’til you try it. Old Spice is a confident little classic number that’s been around since 1937. Yeah, the Old Spice really is old and I have to say, it’s aged rather well.

Reviewed in This Post: Old Spice, 2010, Eau de Cologne.


DKNY Delicious Night

Delicious Night is one of the flankers from Donna Karan’s very popular Be Delicious line which centers around the apple note. Despite its shape and its heritage, Delicious Night does not contain a single apple. Delicious Night

In Bottle: Sweet, citrus and berries that verge on being cloying even as it’s sitting in the bottle. This is a fact that troubles me. It’s like a warning.

Applied: Sweet blackberry and citrus fruits. Or should I say, SWEET BLACKBERRY and CITRUS INFUSION 9000!!! Because Delicious Night goes on loud. Very loud. Also very sweet and that cloying sweetness I got in the bottle is full throttle on my skin. This stuff is like blackberry and lemon syrup, dumped into a vat of sugar and then rolled into a giant candy ball. I had thought Miss Dior Cherie was a cloying headache inducer but Delicious Night really takes the cake as I wait out the top notes amidst this bizarre combination of scents that remind me uncomfortably of children’s flavored and sweetened cough syrup. Much to my chagrin the mid-stage echos the same level of syrupy sweetness as the opener except with a bland mix of flowers that are trying to swim out of the Sweet’n’Low sea but they can’t quite make it under the merciless sugar baron’s iron-fisted rule. If you think you can get away from the sugar baron on the dry down you’ve got another thing coming. The sweetness is miles long, and it won’t stop until you do. It invades the base notes as well, sugaring up the sheer clean patchouli and if it’s one thing I don’t think patchouli should ever have to do, it’s be both clean and sugary sweet.

Extra: Be Delicious was the original DKNY apple scent that a lot of people really like. And it’s a pretty decent apple scent that inspired Victoria Secret’s Appletini.

Design: Bottled in the same shape and concept as DKNY Be Delicious and DKNY Red Delicious. Delicious Night is a dark purple affair with an apple-like shape. The black plastic cap also hides the sprayer that makes a distinctly plastic sound as it splodges the fragrance out onto you like a hooked fish would regurgitate the last of its water. I wasn’t impressed by the lackluster function of the sprayer nozzle–in other words. Maybe I just hit a bad bottle. I will admit that it’s a pretty cute shape and a rather clever way of hiding the sprayer.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Pomelo, ginger, blackberry, pink freesia, martini, night orchid, jasmine, pink iris, amber, frankincense, myrrh extract, patchouli, vetiver.

Delicious Night was supposed to be sexy and modern. All it made me was kind of nauseous. Sorry, Delicious Night.

Reviewed in This Post: DKNY Delicious Night, 2010, Eau de Parfum.


Amouage Lyric for Women

Amouage is a luxury niche fragrance house base based in Muscat. Most famous for their very expensive and very decadent Attars, Amouage is well known as one of the most artistic and luxurious fragrance houses in the world. Lyric for Women, released in 2008 is one of their newer fragrances. Lyric for Women

In Bottle: Big kick of spicy citrus upon first application. It immediately reminded me of a BPAL oil. I cannot put my finger quite on which one but I’m going to tentatively say it reminds me of a more complex Lear. At least, that’s what my mind flew to first.

Applied: Lyric for Women only vaguely resembles BPAL’s Lear for the first ten seconds. It starts to smooth out and become more floral, softer, definitely more feminine as the initial spice gives way to a lovely bouquet of jasmine, rose and angelica flowers. The rose is the star in the mid-stage, vibrant but not overbearing. It’s kept tame by a fantastic and very well-done incense note. It’s a beautifully blended fragrance with a clear and fascinating progression as Lyric for Women dries down into a complex medley of clean incense woods and smooth spicy vanilla.

Extra: Amouage is a world famous, luxury niche fragrance house with roots in the Sultanate of Oman. It’s most famous fragrances are the Attars, rich and decadent scents that can run you upwards of $400 for 12ml. Lyric for Women is not one of these Attars but it is beautiful just the same.

Design: I love the bottle. Deep red glass, has a fantastic feel to it. Has a good amount of weight, is easy to hold, and very pleasant to look at with the Amouage seal on the bottle’s glass and the fragrance’s name running along the circumference of the neck.

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Bergamot, spicy cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, rose, angelica, jasmine, ylang-ylang, geranium, orris, oakmoss, musk, wood, patchouli, vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla, tonka bean, frankincense.

Now, while I love how Lyric for Women smells, I’m not so sure about the cost of the fragrance itself. Running at $300 for a 100ml bottle, if I were to drop some serious cash on an Amouage fragrance, it would be going into an Attar instead.

Reviewed in This Post: Lyric for Women, 2008, Eau de Parfum.