It's fine. Smells like a good designer perfume. Fuzzy creamy cardamom, sharp fragrant sage. For the first ~10 minutes or so I am pleasantly surprised. It's cozy and aromatic, with plenty of vetiver below and budding yellow florality the type of which I don't see very often.
But then narcissus blossoms and so does vanilla. And I immediately get bored. Sharp florality and overwhelming vanilla sweetness drown out the upper notes and turn the composition into another faceless crowd pleaser. About 2 meters worth of sillage. Smells good. Strong, but not too overwhelming. Pleasant, but entirely forgettable. A man at the bar who leaves an overall nice impression, but whose face I struggle to remember as soon as I turn away.
Takes about an hour to settle in the wearer's immediate vicinity, and another hour to settle on skin. During these ~2 hours vanilla and narcissus remain the only things in the spotlight, drowning out everything else. I can feel cardamom and sage close to my skin, but it's a struggle to get that close without going nose blind. A shame. They're lovely.
By the time it settles on skin and mellows out, upper notes disappear. Narcissus also starts fading. The next ~2 hours are ruled by vanilla and vetiver. I can feel a bit of sleek sandalwood in the background, but it doesn't catch any attention if I don't deliberately sniff it out.
Then the drydown begins. Sweet, soft, creamy and vaguely woody. It lasts into the night (was light, but still visibly sweet when I took a shower and went to sleep ~4 hours into it). When I woke up the next day, the arm I tested it on didn't necessarily smell like it, but its base scent was slightly sweeter than usual. I'm not a fan of that, but I'm sure there are people who would be happy with that kind of longevity.
It's... fine? Have you ever received a good grade at school compared to the rest of your class, but had the teacher still look at you with disappointment, as if silently saying that they expected something better from you? That kind of thing used to annoy me immensely when I was a kid, but this perfume makes me understand my teachers' feelings a little bit.
Compared to most other designer perfumes I smell on the streets – it's pretty good! But it had so much potential it didn't live up to that I can't help but feel a bit disappointed in it.
