The Salon: Orpheus
Orpheus, Franz von Stuck.
Pale musk, green mandarin, neroli, benzoin, citrus peel, blue lavender, narcissus, stephanotis, crushed green stems, willow branch and cedar.
In bottle: green citrus blend. It's a bright, cheerful scent: I'm getting the citruses in equal measure, followed by the stems, all wrapped up in the lavender and narcissus. The lavender in particular isn't the sharp herbal lavender, so it plays really well with the rest of the notes.
Wet on skin: the citruses and narcissus kind of amp up on my skin, almost fighting for dominance. The result is a bit of a heady cacophony, and makes it difficult to keep sniffing...a little more of this and I'd probably get a headache. And it reminds me of the reasons why I don't particularly like mainstream commercial perfume.
Dry: all the citruses have run off, and it's actually a very pleasant cold yellow floral sort of scent. I like this final stage very much--low throw, stays close to skin, but very clean, very fresh, very cheering sort of blend. The benzoin and musk definitely come in and cream and soften the scent up a fair amount, but that pleasing brightness is still there, mostly lavender that is yellow-tinged. About an hour on, what's left is a pleasant clean floral.
Verdict: I am quite in love with the final stage of this scent, but I do have a few similar-feel blends and the wet stage just almost scared me off. I can envision myself thinking "why in the world did I keep this" every time I put it on. While I don't mind it staying around, I can afford to let this one go.
Pale musk, green mandarin, neroli, benzoin, citrus peel, blue lavender, narcissus, stephanotis, crushed green stems, willow branch and cedar.
In bottle: green citrus blend. It's a bright, cheerful scent: I'm getting the citruses in equal measure, followed by the stems, all wrapped up in the lavender and narcissus. The lavender in particular isn't the sharp herbal lavender, so it plays really well with the rest of the notes.
Wet on skin: the citruses and narcissus kind of amp up on my skin, almost fighting for dominance. The result is a bit of a heady cacophony, and makes it difficult to keep sniffing...a little more of this and I'd probably get a headache. And it reminds me of the reasons why I don't particularly like mainstream commercial perfume.
Dry: all the citruses have run off, and it's actually a very pleasant cold yellow floral sort of scent. I like this final stage very much--low throw, stays close to skin, but very clean, very fresh, very cheering sort of blend. The benzoin and musk definitely come in and cream and soften the scent up a fair amount, but that pleasing brightness is still there, mostly lavender that is yellow-tinged. About an hour on, what's left is a pleasant clean floral.
Verdict: I am quite in love with the final stage of this scent, but I do have a few similar-feel blends and the wet stage just almost scared me off. I can envision myself thinking "why in the world did I keep this" every time I put it on. While I don't mind it staying around, I can afford to let this one go.