IrinaSpalko

IrinaSpalko

Reviews
1 - 5 by 15
IrinaSpalko 7 months ago 1
Delicate, Tender Tobacco - Perfect for Layering.
Sphinx perfumes have been taking me on a roller coaster ride since sampling Strawberry Sugar High, KoKonut Daiquiri, and Strawberry Kiss earlier this month. Those ones are loud, intense and extreme. But after spraying this one, I was left questioning my judgement of this house for being all about loud gourmands.

My first loves involving tobacco were Guerlain's Tobacco Honey. as well as Tobacco Vanille Eau de Parfum. But I didn't know that I loved tobacco, as a note, until the subtle sweet tobacco only ever found so far in Cocoapink's Dreaming of Roses.

I went into the day slathered with project pan of June Wedding body butter and a few sprays of my Tabac Citron Vanille. At first I couldn't even detect this, and realized my mistake in layering, assuming the new scent was lost in the other. But many hours later today, I stood washing my hands in a breack room wondering "what is that beautiful smell? Is that me or something in here?" It was me. What came to my nose was in this Sphinx, a most delicate, tender fresh tobacco leaf. I refreshed myself again with the sample and was greeted with a gentle and unassuming tobacco. Quiet but perceptible. In fact, it is the same tobacco I love in Dreaming of Roses!

There isn't much vanilla or citrus to this with my nose, those notes only exist to build up the main star which is this sweet and cute tobacco my dreams are made of. Considering a full bottle in my collection for layering, to make everything into a tobacco version of itself.
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IrinaSpalko 8 months ago 2
8
Bottle
6
Sillage
9
Longevity
10
Scent
Beige Leather Suede for the Sophisticated Minimalist
After just recently selling my full bottle online, I feel this one deserves a few words. It is a discontinued signature scent of Italian fashion house, Bottega Veneta, known for their woven leather bags and minimalist clothing.

The smell itself is similar to both hot sand and pure, wet clay. Plain cotton warmed in the sun. A simple naked earthen vessel, both before and after being in a kiln. To me there are no flowers, no fruits or aldehydes. It evokes the clean elegance of a desert. It smells like itself, and nothing else. It has no color but beige, white linen, and suede. Polished and casual as the tan boulders that have sat for thousands of years in a clean arid sandscape.

I am personally a maximalist and a mystic. Fruits, flowers, and incense are my go tos. If the scents I like resemble a Queen Anne Victorian home in the woods, Bottega Veneta is a minimalist glass home set atop a cliff. Where my favorite scents embody the spirit of a punk graffitti artist, a tarot card reader, a burlesqe performance.... Bottega Veneta is the "clean girl" working the front desk of a spa, the chosen simple look of a rich man's wife, a tan brunette sunbathing in a natural cotton bikini by a salt water pool. Where my favorite scents seek to grab attention or relationship, this scent exhudes aloofness and maintain a safety that is out of reach of the common man.

It's truly impressive. But thusly, the "not me" -ness has led to the sale. May this bottle continue to provide status and elegance to those who embody that lifestyle.

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IrinaSpalko 8 months ago 3
What Shalimar Promises, Sketch Delivers
Sketch is an ambery sweet vintage cozy smoothly blended vanilla oriental. This is what I'd imagine the 1920's Shalimar Shalimar Eau de Parfum originally to be like. Or perhaps, if it had never been invented until this day, what a newly invented Shalimar would be. My husband is put off whenever I dab on from my collection of vintage Shalimar examples, but with THIS, he sniffed the air around me and quipped "mmm.... smells like a succlent Chinese meal." (This is a meme reference btw - Sketch does not in any way smell like Chinese food, although it possibly resembles Chinese five spice powder). After his demonstrated approval I full bottled it pronto (2.5 ounces, the smallest size offered). It is huge and this bottle towers over anything else in my collection to date. Such value! And a reward of a lifetime of use. My love for Maison Violet is real as I wait to receive another full bottle of their scents, Pour Rêver Pour Rêver (2024) that resembles (but not as nearly identical to) Guerlain's Fève Gourmande Fève Gourmande. This is my call to lovers of Guerlain and Shalimar to try out Maison Violet's Sketch, and be amazed.
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IrinaSpalko 8 months ago 1
Sad, Nostalgic and Antique
Reminds me of the smell of being in 1920's-era art deco and italianate styled mansions in South Florida, the kind I've visited that have many original decoration and linens still in use. It makes me strangely sad for times before my time, the days before air conditioning, the smell of the roof tiles cooling off after facing the sun all day, verdigris on copper bath pipes, windows open to let in sea breeze carrying the smell of orange blossoms and date palm fruit. My only criticism would be the brief longevity. I wore it to bed and it was gone by the morning.
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IrinaSpalko 9 months ago 1
Nostalgic Memories of a Specific Home Decor Shop
This one reminds me of a place in the indoor shopping mall that my mom used to take me and my sister to as a child. In this mall was a store similar to Pier 1 that sold rustic home decor such as artificial flowers made of wood, twig wreaths, potpourri, and rivergrass lotus baskets. It is sweet, cinnamony and spicy. Not a "pumpkin spice" but the type of clove, anniseed, orange peels, dried rose heads, and cinnimon sticks that would be found in a potpourri basket, including the smell of the basket itself.
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