DorothyGrace

After I washed this off, my skin was left with a rather pleasant but slightly metallic sweet, powdery, iris. But that was after I had washed it off and as it had only been on my skin all of 10 minutes it hadn't really had too much of a chance to bed itself in (no pun intended).

I remembered not liking this when I tried it back in the day, before joining this website so more than 10 years ago. My little sample hasn't changed to my nose probably because so synthetic and the little tube being almost full not much air got to it.

I still don't like it.

Metallic, a bit stale yeast extract, Elastoplast, sour milk, oranges, spicey sharp resin, seaweed. fruity floral. It leaves a taste in my mouth like I have bleeding gums.

The more I smell it the more my brain filters out the extraordinarily offensive bits; still unpleasant but less so. The smells are still there. My son's face when I got him to smell it on me. "What? Oh no. What? That's rather acrid." Sorry son.

I used to watch (she doesn't really post any more) Katie Puckrik Smells. Her take on this perfume is spot on to my nose.

And I'm off to give my skin another wash.

Edited to add my batch code indicates a date of manufacture of 2024-04-29

Over the last few days I have been trying on lots of old samples, revisiting my latest ones, and testing out this blind purchase.

To my horror my son came to me and asked whether I had been trying perfume on because there was a stink of bathroom in the passage. "Oh no!", thought I, "Which one is it? I don't want to be walking around with all and sundry thinking I smell of a well used bathroom."

Panic over, we went into the garden and someone in the area was having a very stinky bonfire with plastic and who knows what else they had put on it but I suspect they had been clearing up after foxes. Yuk!

Anyway, back to the review.

This perfume after just a minute or two doesn't smell on my skin or at least I cannot smell it on my skin but when I came back into the room in which I had applied my latest acquisition, there was a lovely soft springtime floral in the air. Springtime florals can be quite harsh with narcissus in particular being quite heady. This isn't that.

I liberally applied to my hair and went to seek my son's opinion. He could barely smell the fragrance on my arm and opined that the scent in my hair was quite nice, quite subdued.

Don't know what that says because being my son we may well have in common aroma-chemicals that we cannot detect well. I did read that one in 10 people cannot smell artificial musks.

What I can smell is rather pleasant with a flurry of lilac, peach, and bergamot as an opener. It then settles into a soft springtime mixed floral with nothing overtly jumping out at me but reminding me of linden blossom essential oil (that's a super faint scent to me), maybe some crushed violet leaf but not a sweet parma violet, a bit spicey leaning more nutmeg than clove, a good old mixture of musk (what on earth is Tibetan musk?) and a bit of an ambery base but not leaning into the vanilla.

Then 15 to 20 minutes and I can barely smell anything.

My auntie wears this one (along with the After 5) and leaves a lovely trail wherever she goes, eliciting lots of compliments from her friends, so I presume that it does smell and last, and it's just my chemistry cancelling out the fragrance, and/or my sense of smell that makes it so faint to me.

I will wear this, liberally applied after my shower onto my clothes and in my hair. Although I myself will only get minimal delight with the occasional waft if I become a bit hot, I think others may appreciate my air of clean grooming. Or they may not but I don't think I will be stinking them out.

This old Avon perfume, and likewise my sample is old, is a beautiful sweet, floral, pineapple.

The vanilla is discreet, the floral powdery, a little musk, slightly woody.

I've always liked this one and my little sample from decades ago is still lovely especially compared to some new offerings on the market. It's lost a lot of its strength and longevity (lasts about 20 minutes) but doesn't smell off. I smell it and can still remember it in its full glory.

I'd put it in the same family as Beautiful by Estee Lauder (the old one again I am afraid as I haven't smell this one for more than a decade).

Personally I wouldn't buy a used bottle because I don't like chasing things long gone and because it would be very touch and go as to whether or not it was still good enough bearing in mind I don't collect but buy to wear.

I can't think of anything that I have recently tried with a similar vibe.

Nice going through my old samples.

According to Kafkaesque blog interview with Liz Moores this perfume (as at the date of the blog 2015 at any rate) was 68% naturals and 32% synthetics (synthetics including musks). My sample is from 2015 and I have not smelt newer batches so whether or not this has had one of the dreaded reformulations is impossible for me to know.

The list of naturals (on the blog) included:
Annimals of hyraceum, civet, and castoreum
Florals of carnation, jasmine, rose, and orange blossom
Citruses of bergamot, and bitter red orange
Woody smells of patchouli, oakmoss, tobacco, and sweet hay
Spices of clove bud, and cumin,
Balsam/sweet notes of vanilla, and styrax,
Smoke notes of birch tar

The blog didn't go into the synthetics, which of course could be anything.

My sample is in great condition, despite being a little 2 ml decant into a glass tube with a plastic dipping stick. I haven't opened it often so there is that.

There is a cold, slightly medicinal note that bothers me a bit but other than that it is a dry, woody, earthy, floral ( get mostly carnation) with a noticeable birch tar.

The room where I put the perfume on is much more sweet and floral in comparison to my skin which just smells of slightly plasticine (could be civet which smells a bit like dirty plasticine to me), musky, earthy, smokey woods with that slight medicinal note.

I'd wear this in the summer on long walks in the managed woods of old country estates now parks. I think its woody, animal, florals wouldn't be out of place sitting on an old fallen tree trunk eating a picnic.

I think I would like a bottle but would have to buy another sample as ten years is a long time in perfumery and I am of the opinion that rules on what can and can't go into a perfume will have forced a tweak or two (or three ha ha).

Don't know what to make of this as it is so soft on my skin/to my nose.

Starts with a flurry of bright citrus which turns a bit soapy. A nondescript floral comes in which develops very soapy on my skin. A touch of black pepper, quite noticeable, pokes its head up for a few minutes. A smokey, musky, nondescript soapy woody base flip flops with the soapy florals for an hour or so before becoming the skin scent with the occasional re-emergence of the soapy florals.

I'm getting a little birch tar (obviously just to my nose as I have no idea what goes into these mixtures) but only a tiny bit as nothing spills over into smokey bacon crisp territory. Now and then it smells a bit like suede but not all that much.

I'm not getting any discernable liquorice, chocolate, vanilla, incense. Maybe a touch of a dry patchouli but hardly anything.

I'm not getting much scent radiating to my nose, the fragrance isn't circulating the house (my son would let me know but of course he might not be able to smell it either).

I will try it again, because I find it quite nice, perhaps in warmer weather when it may behave differently. As it is, and having now read some reviews from around the internet which indicate that my experience is quite out of line with the general consensus, I don't know what to make of this - is it soft or can I just not smell it?