mishi-bear

I managed to get my hands on a bottle of this beauty, and I am thrilled. This is a beautiful rose scent. Sort of like a sweet cousin to Rose Red, or Snow White without the foody snow notes. A mix of dusty rosey rosehips and sweet girlish pink rose wrapped in a creamy but fluffy vanilla cloud. The jasmine isn't strong at all so jasmine haters have nothing to worry about here. It feels necessary to the blend in its own quiet way. Same goes for the bergamot, which really only is a drop, but provides a little something to this blend that keeps it unique and interesting. Overall a very gorgeous blend. Rose lovers, this is a must have if you can find it secondhand.

This one is absolutely lovely. I was thinking I'd know what it would smell like, but was caught off guard. It's much more a honey scent than the other notes. It's a creamy honey, not golden and resinous. This smells pale, sweet, and almost milky. Reminds me a lot of the honey musk in Lady Una. The rose is just a hint, a bit of tartness in the background, cutting the creaminess of the honey. The sugar is surprisingly delicate as well. Sweet, not at all burnt. Like a spun sugar note. This didn't have a super strong throw, it hung rather close to the skin. But it also lasted about 15 hours on my skin, and only went away at that point because I showered.

A mixture of the fig and rose quickly rise to the top on application. The fig is a lovely fruit note, a mixture of tartness and sweetness with a tiny bit of bitterness. It has a marmalade like quality to it. The rose is great too, more sour than sweet, and because it’s on equal footing with the fig it has an almost jammy and fruity feel to it. The almond in this is a BPAL almond that I do like. It’s bitter with a cherry like undertone, not at all that lotiony sweet almond. It does fade rather quickly on application to the background, where it loses that cherry like smell. It just adds a faint bitter nuttiness. The cardamom spices this blend up as a whole, but isn’t too distinct otherwise. The oudh mostly adds depth here. It has a musky, woodsy, and almost nutty quality of its own. So it is a very good fixative for the almond at the base and the spice of the cardamom. It also grounds the fruity fig and rose. Overall I rather liked this one, it's quite pretty! It also had excellent longevity for me, I was still able to smell it 18 hours later.

Definitely a very champaca forward blend. It is incense like but steers more towards the actual flower than just pure incense. There’s hints of greenery in here and a general floral undertone. The honey is sweet and lovely, golden and warm. It overlays this blend and gives it some oomph. The sandalwood is surprisingly nice here. I like sandalwood but it’s mostly just something I find nice and complimentary. Here it’s actually especially good in combination with these other notes. It hangs close to the skin but it’s a very warm sandalwood, woodsy and almost spicy. The honey in particular really suits it nicely. This one does have a pretty mild throw and becomes more of just a nice skin scent as it dries. However I don’t think a stronger throw would necessarily make it better. This one is well suited to just being a mild and close scent.

First a sweet-spicy ginger milk, then a sweet honey milk with a bit of ginger. Then the milk goes a little aquatic and a touch soapy, which I can live with. Then as this dries this suddenly smells exactly like the snow note from Snow White. I can see how this is going plasticky and too soapy on some people considering Snow White often does. On me, I don't mind it at all, but it's definitely an interesting morph. I'm assuming the 'Ambrosia' has the same floral as in Snow White, and perhaps some coconut milk. This is definitely the same smell, though while some people get almond in Snow White I get none of that here. So once dry it's basically the snow from Snow White, plus some gingerbread, honey, and extra milk. Honestly I like it quite a bit, and it's definitely comforting.

I initially get a strong surge of grass but that thankfully falls far into the background for me, then a scent almost like a weird banana candy comes forward and that too thankfully disappears. What is left behind when this stops morphing is a clean fuzzy musk that is similar to the canine musk in Canis Major without being overly sassafras smelling. There's definitely an almost soapy sweetness to it, which melds with the sweet chai-like warm cardamom, a cool menthol-like yew, and a note I can't place. Whatever the 'ivory white fang' is represented by eludes me but there's definitely something there that I can't wrap my head around. It's very pale, very sweet, not really gourmand smelling. Overall this blend leans very clean smelling and gets pretty close to soapy territory. It's very refreshing though, hints of greenery and clean furry musk. Sweet with a hint of spice. Very cool and pale in feel. I like it but I don't think it's really 5ml worthy for me, I'm happy I went with a decant first.

Shimmering chilly sassafras. Sweet vanilla hay. Fuzzy warm musk. Definitely has a dog like smell to it, and not in a bad way. Very lovely and interesting, but also feels a bit 'sad' to me in a way I can't exactly place.

This is definitely Sweet Pea heavy... very reminiscent of sweet pea body spray from chain bath and body stores, or even some candles. My initial reaction to this was knowing I had a candle that smelled like it somewhere. Just a good ol' pink Angel's Kiss candle or what have you. Honestly I still like it, because I like sweet pea, and the fruits do add some slight diversity, but this isn't the most complex or unique GC blend. I still might get a 5ml of it one day, just because I love sweet pea.

This one starts out a bit plasticky and strange but that scent does thankfully tone down after a short time. I feel like in order to make this rose a ‘golden’ one there is some sort of amber(s) in this. Alongside the frankincense it results in a very glowing and bright resinous/sweet smell with a touch of an almost lemony scent to it. The lemony aspect is very mild and compliments the barest hint of the rose’s sour note. Meanwhile the rose is actually not the star of the show in this blend, the frankincense is honestly much stronger than it. I get that distinct sweet-and-sour rose smell on closer wrist sniff but in the throw the rose feels more complimentary to the frankincense and (possible) amber(s). The vanilla bean in this is lovely and complimentary, it's not at all a gourmand vanilla, more a perfumey bean. Medium throw but long wear length.

The orchid is the strongest floral in this to be honest, kind of soapy, pale, and oddly bitter. Not at all vanilla smelling, it's not my favorite. The rose does peek out given time but it's surprising light in this blend, and kind of powdery, not helping the soapy feel from the orchid at all. The sandalwood continues to make this smell soapy, lending a sort of clean smell.. I feel like the 'pink' aspect of it has to do with some more rose or another powdery floral. The hay in this is kind of nose tickling, bitter and grassy. Medium throw but low wear length. This one was a dud for me. Something about the orchid smelled really off and overall this blend made me feel kind of sneezy.

In this blend the peony and bamboo are really fleeting top notes. I get them briefly at first but then the bamboo disappears completely and the peony wants to play hide and seek. I get occasional light whiffs of it but it's barely there. I mostly get a fair amount of citrus: the orange, tangerine, mandarin, and even some sweet lychee. I honestly don't know what kumquat smells like so I can't really judge if it's present in this. The pine is actually a really nice note in this, probably because it's resin and not wood. It mostly lends a clean feeling and isn't too astringent. The sandalwood is really the only thing in this blend lending anything truly woodsy. I get only a tiny hint of patchouli, thankfully, adding an earthy green note. With more drying time the fruity-florals come out, plum and peach blossom. Sort of in between fruit and flower. The pine resin + patchouli + dragon's blood combination adds an incensey layer at the base. I get no lotus. This one I actually found pretty interesting and as it dries down it has a very neutral clean scent to it that I did enjoy. Unfortunately this has an incredibly low throw and a very short wear length, the entire scent vanished after about an hour.

This is predominately a narcissus scent. An interesting floral, definitely white, but it lacks any of that soapy-sneezy quality of white florals like jasmine. It's pale, sweet, and also a touch bitter. The white amber lends a layer of powdery sweetness at the base of this blend. The vanilla takes a bit to come forward, but it's nice when it does. It's a sweet vanilla but definitely a sheer one, a light misty vanilla, more like a musk. The orris butter adds a light sweet powdery smell here alongside the amber, but this is very similar to the smell of make up. The bergamot adds just a hint of a spice note, really more on wrist sniff than in the throw though. Medium throw and wear length.

Based on the imp sniff I was wary of this one, the almond and currant made it smell somewhere in between medicine and cleaner. I also don't have high hopes for almond in general. However this one did end up surprising me. On application it is a very cohesive blend. It smells very clean, but not in a laundry or aquatic way. Something about the almond and white tea just make it feel clean. The white tea is stronger on wrist sniff than in the throw, but in the throw it really lends a nice clean leafy base. The almond blossom is lovely. Sometimes almond can smell too 'lotiony' to me but in this it smells clean but not too fake or off. Because it's almond blossom and not straight almond, it's sort of a mix of a sweet almond and a sweet clean floral. The rice milk is nice in this and works well with the almond, kind of a milky-starchy sweet smell that just works here. The red currant in this was thankfully pretty light. I haven't had too much luck with red currant, something about it goes funky on me, but in this blend it stays pretty light and honestly just kind of a vague red fruit smell that adds a bit of diversity to this blend. As it dries on skin it just feels kind of simple, clean, but quite pretty. Very non-offensive. Medium throw and wear length.

This starts off strongly smelling like a peach candy, but that scent quickly moves to the background. Then the champaca comes forward. In this it's kind of a powdery champaca, more like nag champa incense than champaca flower. The neroli is definitely present but it's buried underneath the champaca. Just the barest hint of an orangey floral. I honestly don't get any ambergris here which is strange. This one does seem to vary a lot based on skin chem. On me this ends up being champaca on a light peach candy musk. Good throw and long wear length.

Based on sniffing the decant of this I was worried it wouldn't work out on me, it smelled very bitter and a touch herbal. This does sweeten and lighten up considerably on skin though, which was a relief. The kadu leaf was a new note for me. In this it's sort of a green leafy smell which is a touch bitter. It's not very strong at all though, serving as a lovely base. The white lavender works alongside it, providing a light sweet herbal note. Different than your typical lavender perfume note, this one definitely reads as 'pale'. It's a touch less sweet, a lot more herbal. It also isn't super strong and is part of the base alongside the kadu. Most of the actual throw is a mix of the plum and ume blossoms with a perfumey crystal musk. The plum blossom and ume blossom are actually somewhat distinct from each other. One is a lot more fruity than the other, very purple and tart, while the other is a lot more of a light sweet fruit with a stronger flower component. The crystal musk is quite perfumey, it gives this whole blend a lot more of a commercial feel and is a great fixative. I get no cedar whatsoever. Medium throw and wear length.