Top Notes 
Black pepper
Black tea
Mandarin orange
Nutmeg
Peach
Heart Notes 
Blue lotus
Carnation
Clove
East Indian patchouli
Easter lily
Fig leaf
Jasminum grandiflorum
Russian rose otto
Base Notes 
Amber
Clove tobacco
Frankincense
Moss
Musk
Opoponax
Sandalwood
Tolu balm
Tonka bean
Vanilla06/03/2025
ClaireV
958 Reviews
ClaireV
1
Not very spicy after all
The notes list for Poppy reads like a proper spice extravaganza, with tons of nutmeg, cloves, carnation, and tolu balsam. In fact, I was confidently expecting something along the same lines as Souvenir de Malmaison or Poivre, because a) the notes lists are vaguely similar, b) the word ‘poppy’ is analogous to ‘opium’ scents in the indie sector (and which all use some variant of clove or carnation to build the opium accord), and lastly, c) Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is famous for her deft hand at spicy carnation-based fragrances. In fact, her talent with hot spices (clove, carnation) is practically a signature.
All very suggestive and all very misleading. Poppy is not spicy or ‘hot’ in any way. Instead, it smells like a curl of green apple peel floating on a lotus reflecting pool. I’d go so far as to suggest that Poppy is an aqueous scent, a watercolor in pale blues and greens on a silk screen. It’s also a bit soapy in that amorphously perfumey style common to clean white musk scents. Poppy leaves me, if not cold, then at least a little lukewarm. But people who wear the rather soulless floral musk-and-latex-paint jobs like Alaia and Narciso eau de parfum (white cube) will probably love it.
All very suggestive and all very misleading. Poppy is not spicy or ‘hot’ in any way. Instead, it smells like a curl of green apple peel floating on a lotus reflecting pool. I’d go so far as to suggest that Poppy is an aqueous scent, a watercolor in pale blues and greens on a silk screen. It’s also a bit soapy in that amorphously perfumey style common to clean white musk scents. Poppy leaves me, if not cold, then at least a little lukewarm. But people who wear the rather soulless floral musk-and-latex-paint jobs like Alaia and Narciso eau de parfum (white cube) will probably love it.
