Brand: Cocoa Pink
Availability: General Catalog Fall/Winter (N/A Spring/Summer)
Notes: Raw sugar crystals, white rum, sweet fennel and orange blossom met with dark exotic myrrh.
First impression out of bottle: Rum, orange, and herbs.
Freshly applied: Powdery resiny myrrh and rum.
Drydown: Mmm the herby fennel really pops out here. I think the orange I smelled before was orange blossom mixed with fennel and making me think of an orange-fennel salad my friend once made. This is fresh, herbal, and sweet in a surprising, vegetal way. I like the combo of food-sweet from the sugar crystals and the earthy sweetness from the myrrh. Weirdly, and maybe again it's the scent association, but it almost smells savory like herbs in olive oil dressing.
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| Yummy fennel salad |
After several hours: This loses some of its complexity and becomes more straight fresh/sweet.
Longevity: Medium
Sillage: Low Medium
Would an [X] lover love this? I think if you like licorice, anise, and fennel notes then this would be an unexpected twist. It smells like...salad...but also kind of sexy and earthy.
Would an [X] hater love this? I think if you hate herbs/fennel especially you will hate this. It's very unromantic, and honestly
Where am I? Eating fennel orange salad at a summer party.
Where would I wear this? Daytime, summertime, springtime.
Brand: Nocturne Alchemy/NAVA
Availability: Limited Edition Halloween 2015
Notes: Rich Black Crystalline Vanilla haunts this perfume while decadent Egyptian Black Fig permeates likes a phantasm within. Black Cardamom EO rises throughout the perfume like a ghost in the night treading across wooden floors but never touching the ground. A drizzle of sweet cream and black sugar are left where footprints should have been and an ethereal drift of White Fig haunts the spaces in-between
First impression out of bottle: Greenish fig, a hint of spice
Freshly applied: Still a VERY unripe fig, like the light green ones, not the nice ripe purple ones. Smells like fig skin and fig leaf, not the inner flesh. There's a hint of vanilla'd-spice but it's not like the typical strong NAVA vanilla, it's quite subtle. More spice with a whisper of vanilla.
Drydown: Whoo, the musk really comes out. This smells a bit old-fashioned, like a floral musk perfume worn by an older woman, or maybe the fragrance of midcentury face cream. There's a nice earthy spice that keeps it from going full Nivea/Avon but yes, it smells a LOT like an old lady's powder room. The hint of spice is from the fig (I noticed NAVA's fig perfumes often smell more like black tea than ripe fig) and a bit of sweet vanilla. But predominantly sweet musk is what I get.
After several hours: Still the same sweet, old-fashioned sweet musk. Not unpleasant but this is not the ripe blackened fig I was looking for. It's very "pretty" but it's not distinct enough, and I am one of those people who, once I have a couple musk perfumes, I get very bored of just musk.
Longevity: High
Sillage: Low-Medium. This is a strong-ish skin scent, which is to say I notice it, but only right against my wrist. It doesn't do a lot of wafting or traveling, rather it stays right up against my skin.
Would an [X] lover love this? A fig lover would be disappointed, the fig is super subtle here. A musk lover would be all about it, it's stronger than many skin scents, and a bit different and wicked from your usual pale musks.
Would an [X] hater love this? A musk hater would probably run away screaming from this. It has all the negative AND positive attributes of what musk can be. By that I mean it smells a bit powdery and grandma-ish, and it's purring and silky. So if you hate musk, no this is probably going to be a no for you.
Where am I? Remember when I said this reminds me of an old lady's powder room? You know, floral wallpaper, clean vanity, old jars of cosmetics? It's like that with a wicked twist. So maybe like an old witch's powder room.
Where would I wear this? Work, sleep. It's a bit boring. I may layer it with something like Ava Luxe's Figue de Sucre to pump up the fig notes, but otherwise I think I may destash this to a more avid musk-lover.
