La Belle de Russie

Рyсская красавица

Nóvaya Zaryá / Новая Заря

I bought this after I found midnight poison, I loved the notes but buying a bottle or sample was not in the cards for me. I found this as a suggested dupe and scored a bottle off of mercari for 18 dollars. I tried it and fell in love. It is so classy and fresh on me. Longevity and Sillage are great in my opinion for the price. To me it is a warmer scent, its cozy but I feel like I could easily wear it year round. It opens very sharp and fruity I definitely pick up on the black currant and patchouli. It is very well blended and nothing seems to overpower other notes, it is super hard to find this quality in scents with base notes of patchouli. As it wears for a couple hours it become less sharp and the vanilla, apricot, and amber become more noticeable. It most definitely is Russian though, think of a beautiful classy and rich Russian woman with long blonde hair in a beautiful mink coat a gun strapped to her thigh covered by the luxurious material of her black dress. Even though I am American I have been told by many I have Ukrainian features (sharper more pronounced bone structure) so when I saw this was produced in Russia I was even more attracted to it. It is a perfect reflection of my personality I think with a sharp intimidating opening and a softer more seductive dry down. I love this so much and I will be buying more bottles as well as experimenting with others from this house. Try it, she doesn't disappoint.