Delight, and Boudicca's Wode
First, a link.
Now, perfume.
Boudicca's Wode
My Luckyscent haul arrived this evening and I fell on the box with a squeal of delight and some other, even less appropriate noises. But because I am eight years old in my head, I had to smell everything, including my samples. Predictably, given the size of the sample vials and my general clumsiness, I ended up unintentionally coating myself in the Boudicca: Wode, so it's Wode I'll review first. For sake of comparison, Now Smell This reviews Wode here.
The NST review gives a list of putative notes: "the fragrance opens with herbal spicy notes of juniper berry, cardamon, nutmeg absolute, clary sage, coriander seed and angelica root. A touch of fresh hesperidic and lighter floral notes add airiness."
I trust the designers' intentions, but when I initially drenched myself, my first thought was: oh, that's nice: pepper, and a dark, dry sort of olfactory rustle, very woody and sere. But there was some niggling little tendril that pinched, and that I couldn't quite place, at first.
Boy howdy do I recognize it now: sparkler. I smell like an unlit sparkler.
Sparkler is definitely not one of the listed notes. But if I had to guess, I would say this arises from Boudicca's conception of the clary sage and juniper accords, and probably some of that "fresh hesperidic" note, too. I'm still catching occasional flashes of pepper, but that stage is largely gone, left clinging mostly to my clothes: what's on my skin smells like dry flakes of pine and explosive chemicals. The effect isn't actually unpleasant --we all remember that my taste in scents is odd-- but this definitely isn't something I could wear out in public without explanations and possibly a sign: Not on fire, please do not douse.
As for the other middling notes: the scent has had fifteen or twenty minutes now and I haven't caught a glimpse of the raw opium (not sure what that smells like; maybe sparkler!) or the saffron, tuberose or tonka bean. Or, well, I lied; suggestion of saffron there. The styrax and treemoss I can believe are under there somewhere, with the labdanum and castoreum, but if they show themselves it'll be only well after the party's over. I will check back before I go to bed, though, to let you know how it all resolves.
Now, perfume.
Boudicca's Wode
My Luckyscent haul arrived this evening and I fell on the box with a squeal of delight and some other, even less appropriate noises. But because I am eight years old in my head, I had to smell everything, including my samples. Predictably, given the size of the sample vials and my general clumsiness, I ended up unintentionally coating myself in the Boudicca: Wode, so it's Wode I'll review first. For sake of comparison, Now Smell This reviews Wode here.
The NST review gives a list of putative notes: "the fragrance opens with herbal spicy notes of juniper berry, cardamon, nutmeg absolute, clary sage, coriander seed and angelica root. A touch of fresh hesperidic and lighter floral notes add airiness."
I trust the designers' intentions, but when I initially drenched myself, my first thought was: oh, that's nice: pepper, and a dark, dry sort of olfactory rustle, very woody and sere. But there was some niggling little tendril that pinched, and that I couldn't quite place, at first.
Boy howdy do I recognize it now: sparkler. I smell like an unlit sparkler.
Sparkler is definitely not one of the listed notes. But if I had to guess, I would say this arises from Boudicca's conception of the clary sage and juniper accords, and probably some of that "fresh hesperidic" note, too. I'm still catching occasional flashes of pepper, but that stage is largely gone, left clinging mostly to my clothes: what's on my skin smells like dry flakes of pine and explosive chemicals. The effect isn't actually unpleasant --we all remember that my taste in scents is odd-- but this definitely isn't something I could wear out in public without explanations and possibly a sign: Not on fire, please do not douse.
As for the other middling notes: the scent has had fifteen or twenty minutes now and I haven't caught a glimpse of the raw opium (not sure what that smells like; maybe sparkler!) or the saffron, tuberose or tonka bean. Or, well, I lied; suggestion of saffron there. The styrax and treemoss I can believe are under there somewhere, with the labdanum and castoreum, but if they show themselves it'll be only well after the party's over. I will check back before I go to bed, though, to let you know how it all resolves.