The Phoenix At Midday

[Arielle]

The blazing fires of nona hora: blood orange, mimosa, gingergrass, golden amber, saffron, tonka absolute, pomegranate, neroli, and bourbon geranium. This Phoenix embodies vitality, ferocity, determination, passion, and strength of will.

 

 

 

This smells like afternoon sunshine. Citrusy, bright, but this truly reminds of the midday sun.

Exactly this. Decided to wear this in the morning for fun.

In the bottle: I don't get ingredients when I smell this, I get images. It's warm, bright, 2pm sort of hot sun. Very bright and delightful.

Wet on me: Still much the same, but I feel more awake, more alive with this. Like I'm carrying a vial of sunshine.

Dry: Now I can smell the blood orange, amber and tonka, I think.

The scent reminds me a lot of moving and not stopping. If there was a tarot card to it, I'd say it was the Chariot (it's not a scent that is likely to inspire stillness). I now wish I had a full bottle of this.

[allinmyhead0321]

This one still makes me sad. I had such high hopes for it when I first purchased it (so long ago) but it just didn't inspire me fresh. I decided to hang onto it because the bottle was so lovely and, well, I hoped to eventually get what everyone else got from it. Alas ...

 

In the Bottle: Oh! Bright citrus and spiciness *must be the gingergrass* But not orange juice citrus. This is a much bolder, jucier citrus.

 

Wet: Citrus and ginger and a touch of thick vanilla and ... no ... no please ... go away neroli. Oh don't bring geranium. I hoped ... I thought there wouldn't be enough. *sigh*

 

Dry: It's urinal cake. Fresh and very expensive and fancy urinal cake, but bathroom citrus nonetheless. Sad.

[Lucchesa]

These are all notes I adore, with the exception of saffron which can be problematic on me. And yet somehow, though I've tested The Phoenix at Midday twice, it doesn't work. Is it the saffron? Is my imp just past its prime? The blood orange fades right away, and I don't get a lot of the sharpness of either lemongrass or geranium, the warmth I was hoping for here. So disappointed.