Miyabi

Alas, like Flowering Peonies, I get neither lychee nor peony. I am, however, getting a lot of rosehip tea and curiously, mint. This is more interesting than Flowering Peonies (which was, sadly, tuberose and dryer sheets), but it's not for me, I don't think. 

I managed to pick up Cluster of Cherry Blossoms from last year's Shungas. Curious to see if there are any available perfumes (maybe Gynotize!) that have that similar floral skin-musk that's clean without being soapy? 

I nabbed a decant hoping it would be gin and the minty slush note that I'm so fond of. Sadly, I got zero slush. It was, however, very green and herbal? Very much like soap but in a masculine cologne-ish sort of way. 

A fresh honeyed floral that never turns soapy, screechy, or overly resinous. I've noticed that I keep reaching for the decant throughout spring, so I think a bottle is in my future. 

Starts out with a very bright candy cherry brought down by an indolic jasmine sambac. Cherry fades, but the indole calms down to leave some sort of resiny floral that's very much like Dior's Dolce Vita. I might share the decant with my mom to see what she thinks, since she'd been using the Dolce Vita lotion for a long, long while. 

I get fancy soap at first, and then warm florals that are cut by the peach blossoms and grapefruit. The peach blossoms aren't screechy this time, thank goodness, but when it all dries down, I get the milky honey from White Rabbit with a touch of dryer sheet. It's nice, even comforting, but I think I'll just keep the imp. 

Very fruity floral white peach tea is what I get upon first sniff, and that impression doesn't go away when it's been on my hair. It teeters between fresh and sometimes sickly-sweet. I've already got Peach Tea, Lychee, and White Musk, so I think I'll keep my decant, but I won't look for a bottle. 

Sniffing it from the bottle, I get labdanum and honey in that order: sweet perfume, almost reminiscent of some hair product I used back in the early 2000s. Sprayed on, the plum comes out to balance things with fruity tartness, making this unique and refreshing. If there's any lemon amber, I assume it's just amplifying the tartness. 

Overall, my impression is basically a honeyed plum candy perfume, which is not what I was expecting, but delightful nonetheless. I'll need to compare this to Pink Peach Blossoms and White Plum Flowers, but I may want a bottle. 

I'm trying the 2021 version, and this is so much better than 2018. No funky old lady potpourri, but fresh, sweet, and more shy and reserved than haughty. I love it. 

2021 version. 

Alas, I think I am part of the contingent that gets Play-Doh, from out of the imp to drydown. It has a bit of a vanilla-almond tinge to it, but I already have Dana O'Shee for delicious almond, and Dana also doesn't give me Play-Doh vibes, to boot. 

Clean floral soap. It wears close to the skin, but it doesn't fade. It's clean and inoffensive, not quite for me, but it's a very pretty and quiet perfume given the name! I'll definitely keep the decant. 

On my skin this is basically ALLCAPS PINEAPPLE. I don't know if that's the florals that soften it just a bit as it dries down, but I'm getting no rose or peony, which is what I was hoping for! 

Pineapple lovers, this is for you. 

I seem to be one of the odd ones out, as I did get dried rose, but only for a few fleeting moments. I smelled something lemony at first (the redcurrants?) but it eventually dried down to patchouli on my skin, and patchouli is a death note. I think something similar is in Bleeding Walls, because I get that on the drydown after the initial cherry goodness. 

Really was hoping this one might have had me come around on patchouli, too. This confirms that I need to avoid it at all costs.

Oh, this one surprised me in such a good way! It's all sweet cherry candy on the skin wet, but later on, that steel note comes in and grounds it instead of clashing. I don't know if a bottle's in my future, but I do like it. It's kind of what I was hoping Bleeding Walls would be for me.

Somehow, I'm amping the ambergris (which I don't mind, but I was hoping more for the lavender and ocean spray, which appear briefly before vanishing). It's pretty, and it's a good "clean but not soapy" scent, but now my skin's eaten a lot of it except for a bit of the ambergris, so I don't quite think it's for me. 

I had high hopes for this, but from application to drydown all I got was GARDENIA. No aquatics, no ginger, just GARDENIA blasting me in the face. 

Guess Sea of Glass remains my number 1 BPAL aquatic...

Tried out an aged imp this morning. Wet on skin I get a salty edge, but mainly indolic florals. It does thankfully dry down into what I think is a very strong tuberose. Lovely! But not for me, and I'm missing the aquatic notes in here. 

So I love aquatics (Sea of Glass is one of my BPAL favorites), but I gotta agree with the folks who say they're getting men's cologne from Thalassa. It has been Benzoin City ever since I put her on and I'm getting Dangerous, Suave, and Charming Pirate Captain instead of Dangerous and Beautiful Mermaid.

Benzoin is lovely, but this was ultimately not what I was looking for. 

This was everything I hoped for and more. It's like a lilac version of Chaste Moon 2010, with Chaste Moon's crystalline iridescence of blues and pinks, and while the lilac's definitely there, it doesn't punch you in the face like Salt Phoenix does (which is also lovely, but also stronger), and it's also not WOW FLORALS like Hotaru no Yu. This version of The Lilac Wood is a quiet shimmery iridescent purple. 

It does dry down to powder on my skin, but I don't mind that. If you like lilac, I think it's worth trying! 

Bumping this up! So far the only aquatic I have of BPAL is Sea of Glass, because it's a great feminine marine white floral. It smells more of salt than dryer sheets, and there's enough of a floral undertone to not have it go into men's cologne. There's a definite clean, crystal blue-green quality to it. 

How does Thalassa compare? For those of you who have and love Sea of Glass, is Thalassa something you'd recommend trying? The frankincense kind of scares me, in all honesty. 

So I really wanted to love this because peonies! lychee! green tea! It was going to be the fruity floral of my dreams. But on my skin and to my nose, the peony and lychee is nowhere to be found (and there seems to be no bergamot, for that matter). It is tuberose dryer sheets; lovely and would probably layer great with other florals, but also not why I ordered the decant to begin with. The throw is not very strong, as in I have to sniff harder to get an idea of it on my skin--it's more a whisper than anything else. 

This was much heavier than I expected it to be. Nothing breezy, and the wildflowers seem to have gone out. It's what I would call very strong honeyed amber dryer sheets on my skin. The description sounded so pretty, but this is definitely why I go for decants vs. bottles most of the time. 

I get the cherry blossoms when it's wet on my skin, but it does have a commercial perfume feel to it. I think that might be the cream and the gardenia, which is what wins out. It's lovely, to be sure, but I also feel like that what it becomes on me is not my type. Whatever fruitiness there is disappears with the cherry blossoms. I'm glad I got the opportunity to try it, but it's not for me. 

In the bottle, it's definitely JASMINE, and even more so on my skin, with a bit of a plasticky note. Once I compare between the skin and bottle, I can detect the cognac in the latter, which gives it a slight commercial perfume scent. Anything else (honeyed cream, vanilla, sandalwood) are nowhere to be found. I was kind of hoping for the honey to sweeten things up, but I could layer this with Chaste Moon 2010 if need be for sweetness. It smells sharp, wet on the skin, but it seems to calm down as it dries. 

Oh, I wanted to like this. Citrus! Frost! They usually go so well together! But the mandarin on me is coming off as a blend of orange Starburst and possibly bathroom cleaner. It's not for me.