Sampaguita

[The Poison Queen]

In order to help alleviate the suffering caused by Typhoon Haiyan, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is releasing Single Note: Sampaguita a month early. Proceeds from the sale of every single bottle will go to support local recovery efforts through Community and Family Services International and the Philippine Red Cross.

SINGLE NOTE: SAMPAGUITA
Little sampaguita
With the wondering eye
Did a tiny fair
Drop you where you lie?
In the witching hour
Of the tropic night
Did the careless moonbeam
Leave you in its fight?
- Natividad Marquez (Ana Maria Chavez)

A symbol of purity, strength, and humility, sampaguita is the national flower of the Philippines, my mother's homeland.

Heady, yet cool and slightly green: jasmine sambac with a hint of tea leaf.

In the bottle: Sweet jasmine. A very very rich and strong jasmine, I love it.

Wet: Very much that sweet jasmine scent with just a little bit of that smokiness that I associate with gunpowder green tea!

Drydown: Not a lot of morph, this remains a very tropical, sweet jasmine on my skin, and the throw is huge. I love this. I've ordered a backup bottle!

[SophieCedar]

Sampaguita is so beautiful. Its very sweet and the best way I can describe it is: like jasmine, ylang ylang, green tea, and tiny bit of vanilla bean tea had a baby. Honestly it reminds me of Urban Outfitters circa early to mid-1990's, when they had all that incense, tapestries, and Suns Eye oils. Interesting thing is, it smells markedly different close up. Hypnotic and intriguing.

[puck_nc]

Origin: Straight from the Lab in record time!

 

Initial Thoughts: It's a floral SN. It's for Philippine relief. No-brainer.

 

In the Bottle: Incredibly sweet jasmine. It's like the star jasmine vine on our garage in full bloom and dipped in sugar syrup.

 

Wet: And for the first time that I can remember, I get the soap note. Clean, fresh Ivory soap with just a hint of flowers. Now I understand the phenomenon that I've seen so many reviewers complain about.

 

Drydown: Something tones down the worst of the soap impression and it has edged into white floral territory, just barely.

 

Verdict: I can see using a lot of this in a scent locket, and eventually it calms down from SOAP! If you're a jasmine lover who has no trouble wearing the scent, do consider a bottle!

[LadyMedb]

Beautiful rich and warm jasmine, complex and juicy in the bottle. However, I could tell immediately that this is the sort of jasmine that goes plasticky on my skin, so I had to pass. Someone else will really love this though!

[stellamaris]

this is awesome stuff so glad I got it!.

I have been twice to the Phillipines, a beautiful lush place, that this scent does bring to mind.

It's very heady, lush and white.

[mistressfizz]

Jasmine lovers, rejoice! This is lush and rich, a heady white floral with sweet undertones. It smells like the Indian jasmine my friend used to grow in her house - I can imagine burying my nose into branches of those little white blooms, heavy in the summer air. It dries very much jasmine, with just a hint of clean soap. Lovely and pure, I'm so glad I have a bottle of this!

[OctoberGwen]

I love this. Heady, sweet jasmine with a touch of coolness. Sambac seems to be a jasmine that works nicely on my skin, but I would have bought this even if that were not the case.

 

Sometimes I am just in the mood for a lush floral, and this will fit the bill perfectly.

 

The label is beautiful, too.

[tinyvulture]

Although this single note is for a good cause, I had to try a decant before placing an order, because jasmine can go either way on me. My skin either loves it or hates it. Fortunately, this is absolutely gorgeous, so I'll be making a purchase. It's exactly like the jasmine iced tea I used to get from the Vietnamese market when I lived in OKC -- cool, sweet, and exotic. Good throw, long-lasting.

[zankoku_zen]

Sweet, heady jasmine.

 

This jasmine behaves (ie - does not turn into immediate cat pee), but blooms bombastically on my skin.

 

If you enjoy jasmine, give this a whirl.

[suki]

This is what I would call an "Indian" Jasmine oil. In my personal experience, there are two types of Jasmine. One of them is light, sweet, floral for the sake of being floral. Breezy.

 

This is the other kind.

 

This jasmine is rich, heady. Many years ago, I went into a tiny shop in Little India and bought a vial of Jasmine oil. It smelled like this. The tea note is barely existent in here, it merely lends a little extra something to round out the note. But this is most definitely NOT a 'Jasmine Green Tea'. No. This is jasmine to be worn when meeting a lover under cover of darkness, tangling in sweaty sheets and parting before dawn.

 

This jasmine is beautiful.

[Sakura Tsukikage]

I love this. I love it so much I bought three bottles of it! This is my dream jasmine perfume, and it's just perfect. Sweet, heady, and rich but with that coolness, almost wateriness. It is a tea-like cool, wet jasmine, but very much a heady, thick, blooming jasmine flower, lush and tropical but not hot; this does strike me as very cool. It's clear and almost calm on my skin, but still rich and lush and gorgeous.

I love it so much. And it has amazing throw, too.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Sakura Tsukikage

[mymymai]

ITB: Wow, that's a really heady, really strong jasmine this scent has. I'm not getting any tea at all.

 

Wet: It's very floral. I'm more than a little overwhelmed by the jasmine is it isn't sweet or subtle, but an in-your-face with significant throw kind of jasmine. I can't smell much else beside that, sadly.

 

Dry: Yep, still strong jasmine, like those Glade air fresheners from the 1990's. I wish other notes had come out, but this is just a bit too much for me as it is now.

[yakiguri]

Being half Filipino of course I had to get this. Hell, my mom's maiden name is basically sampaguita.

 

Unlike many on this forum I'm a major jasmine lover. I grew up surrounded by it: jasmine bushes around our house, sipping jasmine tea, jasmine rice with every meal prepared by my Filipino mother. Sampaguita evokes memories of the jasmine of my life; heady, lush, yet soft, not at all screechy and sneezy like some jasmines can be. If you're a jasmine-phobe you should at least give this a try.

 

This is the smell of my house when mom cooked dinner. This is the smell of hot cups of jasmine tea while watching the snow when we lived in Japan. This is...well, the smell of my heritage.

 

Thank you Beth so much for this.

[surlygurl]

This is an amazing lush floral! Tho I don't consider myself a floral lover, but when this came out I sniffed my Sampaguita candle and said "YES!!!!"

 

It didn't hit me that this was a type of Jasmine or in that family. It's so different. (I'm learning about different jasmines, thanks to bpal :-).) This is lush and heady, yes. But there is a sweetness, almost candied feeling. On the drydown a sweet powder comes into play. This winds up being sugared jasmine body powder on me - soft, sexy, lush but ladylike. I just may be turning into a floral lover......

[MCS4096]

This is it. This is the jasmine scent I could have as my only jasmine scent for the rest of my life. I've always been a jasmine lover, but for some reason the Lab's jasmine containing blends never hit me quite right... they dont smell how I think jasmine smells. They're always a little too high pitched, a little too sickly sweet. But THIS... it's heady, but fresh and juicy. Lush and realistic. Even if you think you don't like jasmine, you might ought to try this, because it's world's apart from any other bpal jasmine I have experience with. I hope I can snag a few back up bottles!

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Properly screechy indoly jasmine

 

Wet on me - A slightly green, slightly powdery jasmine

 

Dry on me - A soft slightly powdered jasmine

 

Overall - Jasmine and me just don't get along

[fisharescary]

This is exactly what it is supposed to be for me! I had a Jasmine Sambac plant once, a couple of years ago, before I lost it to winter. This is exactly what it smelled like. I suppose the 'tea' is the reason that it smells like the scent coming off the whole plant, and not just a handful of the blooms. And honestly the plant itself always had a hint of tea to it anyway....so maybe the tea scent comes from the blooms themselves? Anyway, the lab's SN is just really great and accurate, beautiful and not too cloying, stronger than average throw and longer duration. A real powerhouse of a perfume. So glad I bought this (and of course I'm glad it helped with the relief efforts!) Wearing it on its own is still novel and satisfying for now, but I look forward to experimenting with layering it (maybe with some leather?)

[milo]

From wet to dry, this is extreme heady of floral of the sickly cloying variety. I dislike the lab's jasmine note, I find it too sour and perfumey. This to me, this sampaguita floral is of the cat pee territory. I was wishing it would be like the lab's gardenia note, which I love, but it is not to be. I will pass this on to someone who will appreciate it.

[Katlyntje]

This is lush, floral, heady, succulent-sweet JASMINE. Yes, the capslock is necessary. This perfume shouts, "I am JASMINE! Love me or perish!" There is nothing subtle here, no hidden motives or secret agendas. This is like walking into a garden full of jasmine plants in full, delicious blossom. Displaying their pure-white blooms in a most lascivious manner whilst wrapping you in their seductive scent. Oh yes, lovely Jasmine. I shall lie with you in the dappled sunlight of your garden and dally away the afternoon lulled by thy sweet, sweet aroma.

[vanilla323]

Nope...Jasmine is not for me. Not at all. I get the bad soapy, dare I say cat pee scent. I wanted to try this because the reviews sounded lovely, but sadly my skin does not agree with this. It did have a tea note in there that was nice but the rest gave me a headache. Darn.

 

It had good throw and staying power though.

[dementia_divine]

In the decant: Extremely heady jasmine.

 

Wet: Heady, sweet jasmine with a bit of green tea leaves.

 

Dry: It's still quite heady, but it has calmed down somewhat, and it is sweeter now. It almost feels as if there is a cool, breezy quality to this, and I'm not sure if that can be attributed to the jasmine or the tea leaf.

 

Verdict: This is too heady for me. Still, it was far more pleasant than I had been anticipating – it's just way too intense for me. That said, jasmine lovers, rejoice! This is the single note for you.