FebruaryFoxglove

I’ve had a really different experience with this one! On me it’s a beautiful, soft, golden glow, sweetened by the honey dust and made almost savory by the chewy rice milk. The hay and oolong lend a mellow earthiness that is distinctly dry, but not sharp or peppery. I’m not really clocking heliotrope and it doesn’t read as particularly floral to me. It’s a cozy golden hour scent, with the champaca, frankincense and sandalwood blending into a gentle incense that weaves in and out among the other notes, keeping the gourmand vibes at bay. I would recommend it to fans of the vanilla husk/nutmeg/hay absolute trio from a couple of years ago!

This one is a lot mellower than I expected, and I’m usually too intimidated by these notes! In the bottle, I agree that it’s very dragon’s blood forward—I was immediately brought back to my teen years burning incense, but that intensity faded almost instantly on my skin. After a few moments it blurred into a soft, sweet, pinkish resin, drier than Dragon’s Milk and a bit less sweet. To my nose, this is a closer relative than Ghost Dragon’s Mama! 

This is my favorite ménage of recent memory—the osmanthus is a dewy, blushing pink, bordering on jammy, but is anchored by a sweet vanillic resinous base that outlasts the florals on drydown. The bourbon vanilla here helps deliver the flourmand vibes I had wanted (but did not get) out of the mallow flower, honeysuckle, and vanilla trio!

Woah! Silky skin musk and lush wet lotus poured into a slinky leather catsuit. Smooth, slithery and seductive, but not as sweet as the notes might suggest. The sandalwood is subtle, working with the vanilla dust and black amber to temper the sourness of the serpent scale note.  The overall impression is effortlessly mysterious and quietly powerful. It’s not the sweet floral I was expecting, and is indeed different from any scent I’ve encountered before. This suggestive sorceress would feel right at home with the Shungas! 

I was personally very worried about the brown sugar note, because I’m not a gourmand person generally—but I *am* a tea fanatic, so I gave this a try. Very pleased that I did! The brown sugar is present but not overwhelming, and the classic Earl Grey bergamot/citrus comes through. The cream is hard to detect, but I suspect it is doing some work smoothing over the sharper edges. I think it could be worn year-round, and layered especially well with vanilla or lavender.  Wear length is on the shorter side, which I find it pretty typical of tea blends. The brown sugar has more staying power on dry down. 
Overall: a sweet tea blend for tea lovers, exactly what I had hoped for 🖤 

As a jasmine devotee, I adore this! Wet, it's definitely jasmine-forward with playful but mellow cucumber following close behind--an unexpected combination which works better than I ever would have imagined. It smells fresh and sophisticated, with the slightly heady, smoky jasmine and the sharpness of bergamot keeping it from being soapy. The white tea comes out only when dry for me, but it is lovely when it does appear and helps cement this scent as the perfect embodiment of library eroticism. A well-blended, versatile,  unisex scent that says "I'm freshly showered, well-read, and unapologetically naughty."