Salad64

i was on a spray testing frenzy in-store, and this one immediately stood out to me as a sweet fruity scent with substance. for a variety of reasons, i waited until i could pick up some secondhand rollerballs, and i retested them at home.

the opening reminds me of seasoned dried fruits--figs, apricots, yellow raisins, blackcurrants, maybe some citrus peel. this fruity layer is short-lived.
within an hour, mint leaf and gentle florals emerge. the mint is spearmint-like, not too harsh or heavy on methylsalicilate, so it won't rival any topical analgesics. i find most honeyed-floral tea scents excessively rosy and insufficiently waxy, but this is a rare exception: the waxiness here blends the aromatics nicely into the musks.
the musk base is very faint on me, kind of a soapy wooly scent. according to my senses, the mint and honey is the longest-lasting phase.

i am impressed with this one -- i grow mint plants and often make them into balms and drinks, and indigo blends seamlessly with the scent of fresh mint leaves.

neither the overall longevity nor the sillage is impressive, though. i have tried combining the fragrance with lotion to prolong the scent, but it still disappears within 8 hours. if you only need a little scent for a short time, you are in luck.

i got excited when i saw the word "pear" on this bottle, and was pleasantly surprised to discover a strong resemblance to jo malone english pear & freesia cologne (hereinafter epf)

it has a similar sweet, juicy, bubblegummy pear opening, with an ambery floral underneath. the amber is a bit more cloying and simple than that in epf, and it gave me an allergic reaction, but it's not unpleasant.
the most major difference i found is that the base lacks some of the earthy and woody nuances of epf. it comes across more like an inoffensive white musk i smelled a lot in the late 00's - early 10's, especially in victoria's secret fragrances. performance, down to the unfolding of each layer, was on par with epf.

sillage was a little bit broader than epf, but not too broad. atomizer broke immediately, so i took off bottle points.

i am happy to wear this as a budget dupe of epf, since it has a lot of the same appeal, but i might layer it with more earthy fragrances to add back some complexity.

i never got impressions of vetiver or vanilla from this one, but it does have a delicious rain-soaked leaf smell with a lot of mysterious synthetic aspects.
there is also a hint of something sparkly and salicylate-like, which adds a transient layer of cool, spearminty freshness.

i was using this as a casual daily scent for a while, until i noticed it was discontinued. unfortunately, i know little of any potential replacements.

it doesn't project strongly or last very long, but i prefer that.

i got this as a sample and was pleasantly surprised.
the apple-citrus-aldehyde opening didn't catch my interest, but it did remind me of apple soap i have found in public restrooms. afterwards, there are some peppery aromatics, floating over an agreeable base of ambery wood (and a tiny bit of coumarin.)

although the apple soap quality kind of holds the fragrance together, i find the aromatics and ambery wood base to be the most interesting and pleasant aspects. i found them surprisingly gentle and reminiscent of fresh, warm printer paper. i especially enjoyed the simultaneous warmth/dryness and freshness (freshness is more aromatic than it is fruity or juicy)

the fragrance blended well with my personal scent, and i enjoyed experiencing the gradual unfolding of the chemical layers, but they all kind of blend together. my impression, after a few wears, is that it's agreeable, clean, and low-risk.

after the first spray, i thought i was going to hate it, but it's alright.

the opening did not give me the impression of fruit i was expecting, but more of a synthetic shampoo impression, with strong projection.
after fully drying down, it became a little bit more powdery/floral, which i enjoyed more than the sparkly opening.
then, after a few hours of powdery floral, i was finally able to pick out some of the ambrette/musky aspects. while i liked these base notes the most, i feel like the medicinal shampoo and powder scents got in the way for most of the time that the fragrance was detectable.

additionally, while it is fairly pleasant on a strip of cardstock, the fragrance performs unpleasantly on my skin. it feels a bit one-dimensional, and it never blends with my own body scent, instead sitting on top of my skin like a contaminant to be washed away. (i am reminded of working in a wet eeg lab and rinsing baby shampoo and salt from my pruny fingers.)

although i don't particularly enjoy it on its own, i like layering it, in a comparatively small dose, with musk-heavy rose fragrances. it adds a little synthetic shimmer.