03/14/2024
Dryasiulia
53 Reviews
Dryasiulia
1
Surprising Mountain Laurel
Those that grew up in and around the Hill Country are very familiar with the Texas Mountain Laurel. It's a native slow growing shrub/tree that, for a brief few weeks in early spring, is inundated with huge purple lilac/wisteria terminal floral clusters.
Although the blooms do look similar...these are no demure wisteria/lilacs. These bad boys are the Alien of flowering trees. If you hold a single small blossom in a your hand for a few minutes you will still smell like mountain laurel for hours. For a short few weeks a year entire areas smell like a rich ladies bosom in the 80s!
I've never found a perfume that captures it, there's a distinct sweet "Purple" smell that reminds me of grape bubble yum. But, unlike wisteria which has a softer, honeysuckle sweetness and almost a peppery freshness Mountain Laurel, although not at all camphorous and not really indolic, has BASS. She has a tuberose-esque headspace (which definitely lends to that "love it or hate it" element of how locals feel about the smell). The perfume problem comes in here as grapey elements are pretty common in jasmines; but they are almost always drenched in a heavy syrupy sweetness (think Alien etc). They few that avoid this then swing too "fresh sweet" - more honeysuckle ish -- think Jasmine Full etc. Tuberose centered scents tend to drop the grapey elements altogether and add in camphor and greens. If you browse my collection it's obvious Im a fan of all these things; but they all take me farther away from capturing Mountain Laurels.
That was the longest segue ever to say TNT is not a Mountain Laurel fragrance. There's 0 grape here. BUT! BUT! The wonderful headspace tuberose is very very close to that booty butt bass she has. It doesn't really smell at all like holding a single Mountain Laurel blossom in your had...but it does smell like the blossoms on the breeze in March, and thats the closest thing I've found.
IN CLOSING (finally!) buy this because its an amazing headspace tuberose (I have a bottle with a sizable dent in it AND a back up) -- but ALSO buy it if you are another disappointed Central Texan that's never found anything close to the Grape Flowers of Dreams
Although the blooms do look similar...these are no demure wisteria/lilacs. These bad boys are the Alien of flowering trees. If you hold a single small blossom in a your hand for a few minutes you will still smell like mountain laurel for hours. For a short few weeks a year entire areas smell like a rich ladies bosom in the 80s!
I've never found a perfume that captures it, there's a distinct sweet "Purple" smell that reminds me of grape bubble yum. But, unlike wisteria which has a softer, honeysuckle sweetness and almost a peppery freshness Mountain Laurel, although not at all camphorous and not really indolic, has BASS. She has a tuberose-esque headspace (which definitely lends to that "love it or hate it" element of how locals feel about the smell). The perfume problem comes in here as grapey elements are pretty common in jasmines; but they are almost always drenched in a heavy syrupy sweetness (think Alien etc). They few that avoid this then swing too "fresh sweet" - more honeysuckle ish -- think Jasmine Full etc. Tuberose centered scents tend to drop the grapey elements altogether and add in camphor and greens. If you browse my collection it's obvious Im a fan of all these things; but they all take me farther away from capturing Mountain Laurels.
That was the longest segue ever to say TNT is not a Mountain Laurel fragrance. There's 0 grape here. BUT! BUT! The wonderful headspace tuberose is very very close to that booty butt bass she has. It doesn't really smell at all like holding a single Mountain Laurel blossom in your had...but it does smell like the blossoms on the breeze in March, and thats the closest thing I've found.
IN CLOSING (finally!) buy this because its an amazing headspace tuberose (I have a bottle with a sizable dent in it AND a back up) -- but ALSO buy it if you are another disappointed Central Texan that's never found anything close to the Grape Flowers of Dreams
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