Faiza, The Lady of Serpents (2016)

[missnix]

Upon the next stage, a primitive cage has been erected. It is made of heavy, dark sticks bound with strips of deep brown leather. The stage is as dark as pitch, and from the shadows, you hear soft hissing, spitting, and an ominous chorus of weird rattling sounds. You approach with some trepidation, and peer between the bars. Your attention is seized by writhing forms on the straw bottom of the cage. As your eyes adjust to the gloom, you realize that the floor is seething with serpents, dark and colorful, languid and large, swift and small. You hear a sultry chuckle, and you see bright, unblinking emerald eyes staring at you from the corner of the cage. A woman crawls through the snakes, her scaled body as sinuous and lissome as the creatures that share her home. She reaches towards you languorously with her sharp-clawed hands and sighs.

A sensual blend of twisting, exotic, serpentine oils: black amber, oakmoss, green sandalwood, bergamot, jasmine sambac, gardenia, orange pulp, black cardamom, vanilla, blackberry, black musk, blackened vanilla husk, white honey, ti leaf, and ginger.

I picked up Faiza on a whim, and I never got to try her earlier incarnation.

She's lovely, and not at all what I expected. With all of the "black" and "blackened" notes listed, I was thinking this would be a dark and heavy scent. Instead, what I pick out the most are the lighter components; white honey, ti leaf, jasmine and gardenia (and fairly tame, gentle versions of those two florals to boot). It almost smells like a very nice, honey-sweetened floral tea, without being astringent like white / green tea scents sometimes are on me, and thankfully the honey does not go powdery or "off" on me like honey sometimes does. I think the sandalwood, ginger, and oakmoss are helping to ground it and keep it from being too sweet. This seems to me like a perfect warmer weather scent, because it's fresh and sparkling, somehow.

I'm glad I bought a blind bottle, even if she's not what I was anticipating. Faiza has a bit of an identity crisis - she may play with snakes all day, but she'd be more at home sipping tea in a beautiful garden.

[Blood onmy hands]

Faiza 2016 starts off sharp, clean, green and musky. Something about it reminds me of the lab's bamboo note - pulpy, wet, lush green. The original Faiza was sharp all the way through and sort of muddled & overwhelming to me. I like this one a lot more. I can actually pick out most of the listed notes from this year's version. Jasmine and white floral perfume (that's not going sour or weird on me at all), juicy orange, sweet blackberry and honeyed tea dancing through lots of musky vanilla.

 

Once this has fully settled, it's like a proper, perfumey white floral fragrance with a warm amber, sweetened with honeyed tea, vanilla, and a little dry spiciness. It retains that wonderful undercurrent of a pulpy green scent and some dark & slinky black musk (snakes slithering through your proper perfume). I catch hints of sweet berry and juicy orange wafting from my wrists every once in a while as well.

All in all, this is like a heavy, warm, classic white floral-oriental perfume with dark, green snakes slithering through it. I appreciate this and like it a lot more than the original, but the perfumey white floral aspect is always hard for me to pull off. I like my gardenia to be more creamy and sweet. I do love the sweeter notes in this, though, and the dark green vein running through it.

And I just wanted to mention that this blend is STRONG. A tiny drop smudged on to one of my arms lasted about 6 hours with tons of throw before it finally started to fade a little, and then it kept going pretty well until I had a shower around the 9 hour mark.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Little Bird

[aiobhan]

In the bottle: Damn this smells like soap. Fancy soap, but soap nonetheless. The jasmine, blackberry, gardenia, green sandalwood, orange, and honey are immediately obvious. They kind of drown out everything else. There is a little tiny bit of spice waaaaaaay behind all that tangy/sweet/super floral, though.

Wet on skin: SOAP D: NOOO! So much soap! But, the florals faded pretty immediately upon warming to my skin, and were more of a whisper than a can-o-whoopass like they were in the bottle. The berries/orange/bergamot are taking precedence, but the amber, vanilla/vanilla husk, musk, ti leaf, and cardamom are starting to become apparent. They're like a dark, warm, spicy foundation.

After a few hours: The florals are basically gone, but the oakmoss has warmed nicely without being too "green" or woody. I can still smell a hint of jasmine - which sucks, because I hate jasmine - but it's morphed into something a little sweet, very dark, and very warm with just a flash of citrus.

 

I'd wear this a lot if only I couldn't smell any of the jasmine. If you like jasmine, though, give Faiza a shot! I really liked her more than I thought I would!

[Aviatrix]

I am mostly getting blackberry, orange and honey, but it seems well-blended with all the other notes. If you are afraid of the jasmine, there is no need to be, because it is barely there.

An exotic, fruity-spicy blend that really evokes some kind of caravan journey for me - maybe a caravan where the Carnaval found Faiza originally?

[freyasfae]

I had to try this because it sounded like such a fascinating blend, but it ends mostly orange and oakmoss on me which results in something sour on me. Just did not work for me.

[LizziesLuck]

Most of these notes are sheer win on me (amber, sandalwood, cardamom, blackberry, vanilla, ti, honey, ginger) some are iffy (bergamot, gardenia, oakmoss) but the jasmine and orange have the potential of turning this into a disgusting mess on me. I am hoping this is complex enough that I can get away with wearing them.

 

Wet: Shit. Citrus. Of course. But then something else peaks through, not sure what, but it's lovely. A combo of ti and honey maybe? Hmmm.

 

 

Dry: Well, it is very citrusy, but surprisingly it didn't turn to horrid powdered bathroom cleaner on me, as orange almost always does. It's pleasant, but I was really expecting more from this, with all of those killer notes listed. It just smells like a mildly pleasant citrus perfume. No ginger, or honey, or vanilla, or cardamom. Nothing that I hoped. However, if you like bright, warm citrus scents, this is quite nice. I can pick up the amber, which lends sweetness. It's not bad at all, it's just not what I envisioned.

[zankoku_zen]

I'm amping up the bergamot, gardenia and oakmoss. And get some honey, ginger and a touch of amber. This smells like a citrusy floral on top of a bed of amber. Very feminine, not at all slithery.

 

The original Faiza was much smokier, dangerous floral than this. This is more like a snake lying sunning itself in the grass.

[Kay Torres]

I can't pick a single note out of this, it's THAT well blended. My impressions of this are confused...

 

It starts off sharp and green. There's something slightly ominous about it, like danger lurking in the darkness underneath wet leaves. Then it gets sweet (probably the musks because musk loves to turn into a heavy sugar crystal smell on my skin, and this one is heavier and sweeter than any other I've ever tried). But here's the thing, even with all that sugar, it's still SHARP. It starts smelling a lot like a man's cologne to my nose at this point. But there's something there that says woman. Feral woman. Predatory woman. After about two hours, it dries down to honeyed floral musk.

 

I can't say that I like it. I don't dislike it either. I think this one is really a mood scent. I'd have to be feeling like a huntress to wear this and love it. But for day to day wear? No.

 

** edited to add* 8 hours later and I'm left with sugared honey and floral I still wouldn't wear this as an every day scent. Its initial stages are somewhat unsettling and best reserved for a more *primal* mood.

 

*also edited because sometimes my brain doesn't work and I think I'm editing a different post. lol*

Edited May 16, 2016 by SunsetKay

[Casablanca]

Bottle: An airy, fruity floral, so light I barely catch it.

Wet: Honey and orange combine with other parts to almost smell like neroli, but lighter and flightier. For all the darkness in the notes, this is mostly a fruity white floral -- though I get a little hint of vetiver casting a shadow through the musk.

Dry: Lasted about a half day on me, but had almost no throw. There's nothing especially snake-like in this, but it's a pretty garden scent.

I'll enjoy this bottle, but I don't anticipate getting a second one (if it were to come back in stock).

[Convallaria]

I never tried the old version.

 

Very well blended and morphs a lot. Of what I managed to pick out, the opening is oakmoss, tea leaf and blackberry for a few moments. Gardenia and jasmine sambac come through soon. I'm a bit iffy about oakmoss in general, but I think the tea takes some of the edge off and I'd be interested in trying more tea-moss combinations. It goes sweeter after an hour of so, with blackberry, orange and honey. Later, it slides into rather tame vanilla and jasmine. Despite intensity of the components, I found it surprisingly short-lasting. I think it will take time getting used to.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: A surprisingly light, well-blended scent! I have a lot of trouble picking out individual notes - the closest I can get is soft, fresh citrus (with maaaaybe just the faintest sliver of ginger?) and some airy white florals. But unlike a lot of lighter scents, this one has some real grip to it. I can't smell the sandalwood, oakmoss, amber, etc. on their own, but they anchor the scent and keep it from drifting away.

 

Wet: Still primarily a zingy citrus scent with some floral accents, but... WTF is that? There's something lurking at the base that I can feel as a physical presence in my mouth - something smoky, almost nutty? It could be the oakmoss, the "blackened" and "husk" parts of "blackened vanilla husk" (although I've had a few other scents with this ingredient, and it's never done this before), or maybe the cardamom... yeah, probably the cardamom. There's initially quite a divide between the airy top notes and the earthier base notes, but after only a few minutes, they meld into something I can only describe as voluptuous. It's sensual and a little unsettling - very Faiza!

 

Dry: A light musky citrus with some very faint floral overtones, somewhat similar to Philostratus' Phoenix, albeit fainter and a little more anemic. It's still too well-blended to pick out individual notes, but the white honey, tea, bergamot, and black musk and/or amber seem like likely candidates. Muskier and more mysterious from further away, and a little sharper up close (the sandalwood, perhaps?).

 

I don't know if it's just because they're both CDs, but this reminds me strongly of Iulia, L'Artiste du Diable - light, summery citrus scents with a surprising amount of depth. This one is less sweet and more musky-herbal, but at least cousins if not sisters.

[dementia_divine]

In the decant: There are so many notes in this that I don't think I could pick all of them out, but I do get a lot of oakmoss and bergamot from the decant.

 

Wet: The oakmoss and bergamot are the first notes to jump out to me, along with the ti leaf. As the scent begins to dry, the ti leaf note dominates.

 

Dry: The ti leaf reigns, but I can still smell a lot of oakmoss and bergamot behind it. After a while, I do get some of the blackberry, orange, and florals, and a bit of the black amber, black musk, and vanilla, but the scent is very faint by that point.

 

Verdict: I didn't know what to expect from this one. I thought it might be dark and heavy with the resins and jasmine, or possibly really fruity due to all of the fruit notes, but the ti leaf and oakmoss made this much greener (and cleaner!) than I had anticipated. It's not bad, but not something I could see myself reaching for.

Edited February 23, 2018 by dementia_divine