Oregonclaire

Sydney Rock Pool is an excellent summer scent. The mineral aspect is just enough to remind me of rocks at the beach without veering into unpleasant seaweed stink territory. The coconut and frangipani hint at suntan lotion without slapping you in the face with it. It's an aquatic skin scent, which is unique and interesting. The perfumer really nailed the brief on this one.

It's easy to wear and friendly. I've gone through two 0.27 oz. sample sizes and will probably commit to a full bottle at some point. It's like nothing else I've got on my shelf and perfect for reminding me of a beach vacation in the dead of winter (or the dead of summer when I'm stuck at home, lol). Layers really well with a body lotion I've got that's primarily lime scented.

When I was a teenager, it was a treat when my mom brought home a six pack of Henry Weinhard's Root Beer, it being considered quite fancy compared to, say, A & W in cans. This is the olfactory equivalent - honey, vanilla, and I suppose it's the tobacco notes stepping in for sassafras. It smells like fancy root beer. This is not a bad thing.

I wear it for the nostalgia factor and because I guess I like to smell like fancy root beer sometimes.

This fragrance is a gourmand, sweet but not cloyingly so. I get a lot of hazelnut cream and a little coffee, on a base of vanilla and musk. The bergamot and pink pepper are present in small amounts, adding just a bit of zing (much like adding some orange peel to a dessert). Longevity is several hours for me. I like the drydown a lot too, it retains some complexity rather than being a flat sweet scent.

I don't typically like most gourmand fragrances, but I find this one very cozy and comforting to wear, especially in cold weather. I don't find it too overwhelming for warm weather wear, except for maybe the very hottest days.

I think the bottle is fine, nothing special, but it is heavy glass with Carthusia in raised letters in the glass and the sprayer isn't flimsy like some I've used. I wouldn't characterize it as cheap so much as boring.

Overall, this is one of my favorite fall and winter scents to wear.

I remember reading an article (or maybe a blog post?) about the state of mainstream perfumery in the last few years. One of the criticisms was the fact that so many recent scents have great and interesting top notes (to hook people smelling them in store into impulse purchasing) but then they fall flat after they've settled down. Velvet Fire is the first scent I've experienced that really typified that description.

The initial impression is delightful - it's a sparkly aromatic experience with sage and lavender, and the first hints of the spices are nice too. After about 30 minutes, the whole thing fell flat, and became an utterly generic woody musk scent that reminded me of so many other woody musk scents, kind of soapy and dull.

Such a disappointment. Considering how much a full size bottle costs, I'm pretty happy I only had a sample.