NAVA Alyssum Champagne Crystalline Review

Brand: Nocturne Alchemy/NAVA
Availability: General Catalog
Notes: Egyptian Alyssum, Effervescent Champagne White Grape, a drop of Silver Sandalwood-Musk Accord and Crystalline Vanilla Bean whole

First impression out of bottle: Powdery sweet flowers at first, a teensy bit honeyed and green like linden blossoms. This reminds me of linden blossoms crossed with jasmine

Freshly applied: There’s a hint of sugary floral like what you get from gardenia. This also has quite a clean-laundry feel, a little bit of the cotton blossom vibe, like that Bath & Body Works scent from years ago. It’s like 70% beautiful white floral and 30% fabric softener. It settles into something truly heavenly- the fabric softener becomes a more natural bright fizzy green (from the champagne I believe) that nuzzles into the fluffy white sweet blossoms, and it’s a very intoxicating but strangely innocent white floral. For those of you who haven't smelled alyssum, I would describe it as: 

• 60% jasmine (pillowy, white)
• 10% linden blossom (a little honeyed and green and an eensy bit sharp)
• 30% gardenia (mature, a bit sugary, tropical)

Beautiful fresh floral alyssum scent

Drydown: As it dries, it’s basically the alyssum along with a pillowy, marshmallow like vanilla musk. The Crystalline note is used fantastically here- it melds with the flowers so I don’t get the delineated notes, I get a musky floral enveloped in creaminess. All the laundry scent is GONE as the linden-type scent has decreased, which is awesome. It’s so soft, so sweet, romantic but innocent. This is probably my favorite floral I’ve tried in months.

The florals are later joined by a beautiful fluffy creamy vanilla

After several hours: More of the same, the pillowy white vanilla musk and beautiful white florals are seamlessly intertwined and neither takes over the other.

Longevity: Crazy high. I can smell this on my wrist (where I applied then washed it off) and on my hair (where I didn't even specifically apply it) more than 8 hours later.
Sillage: High. I can smell it when I'm walking around, which is my favorite. I know a lot of people like subtle scents, but I love to smell my perfume.

Would an [X] lover love this? A white floral lover would LOVE this. It's something slightly different- less polarizing than jasmine, less traditional than gardenia or tuberose. I think the initial laundry scent might be off-putting, but that phase is gone after a few minutes, and what it turns into is worth it.

Would an [X] hater love this? I think a white floral/sweet floral hater would find this too sugary. I think it has less potential to be cloying than, say Solstice Scents Nightgown (one of my favorites) but it could still be too sugary on someone who likes earthier scents.

Where am I? I'm in a secret garden surrounded by white flowers

Where would I wear this? Everywhere...I would wear this daytime, nighttime (it's sexy in a purring way), and though it would be perfect for spring and summer, I know I'll still break it out in cold weather because it's just that gorgeous.