Scent o' the Day ~ No. 24
My very anticipated The Return of Love 2008 Arcana Valentine collection arrived last week via
decantmonkey . Oh the loooooove!
Death in the Afternoon:
This is so gorgeously fruity sweet and different! I get just a light kick of aniseed and lemongrass in the background, overlayed with a light and sugary champagne and blood orange. I want to drink this! I don’t have anything like this that I can think of. As it softens a soft sweet aniseed mostly comes out, complemented by the other notes. I didn’t get a bottle of this one but managed to snag one from
whiskeryluxury .
The scent of decadence and delightful risks. We drew on an old recipe for an infamous cocktail to create this pastiche of absinthe, champagne, sugar, blood orange, tangerine, aniseed and lemongrass.
Soft Hearted
At first I’m not sure why this one is called ‘Soft Hearted’ as the lavender is a tad harsh, and quite herbal to start, although the green lotus (I’m guessing it’s that) adds an unusual lightly rounded and greenish floral touch. A short while later though and the smooth peppered grapefruit fills it out and really does seem to be the soft heart of this scent. It’s definitely different, and like Death in the Afternoon, I don’t think I have anything else like it, although it does remind me of something I can’t place. As it dries down, it seems to get a little stronger and powdery before softening again. I like, but not quite for me.
All tenderness and compassion. This gentle union of pink grapefruit, sweet lavender, green lotus and softest musk is touched off with an arterial spark of black pepper.
Pushpadhanva:
There’s that heavenly warm bread note! The one I’m familiar with now from The Body Perfumery Milk Bread and Heaven & Earth Essentials Samhain. So glad to have Pushpadhanva, in addition to H&E’s Samhain, as TBP Milk Bread which was my first encounter with bready love has faded a bit. Anyhoo, where Samhain is hot baked appled cinnamon bread, Pushpadhanva is less bread to start, and very gingery mango black tea to start with. The bread note comes out a little later and it’s spicy tea and crumpets! Nom nom nom. I prefer Samhain’s instand warmer and yeastier notes, but oooh, I do like the spiced tea and ahhhh now noticing more of the mango! The final drydown is mostly warm bread. Comforting.
Our tribute to Pushpadhanva,Kamadeva, Manmatha, Ragavrinta: god of love, stalk of passion, shooter of arrows, churner of hearts. Scented with sweet, sharp ginger, mango juice, black tea, baked crumpets and a hint of milk.
Frilly Underpinnings:
Mmmm, I thought this might be similar to Haint’s sweet light vanilla pepper, but no, Frilly Underpinnings is very creamy! Black pepper cream! Sweetened with sugar, vanilla and caramel. Lotsa pepper and the dusty woody bourbon vanilla and caramel are what I notice the most. Soft sort of rounded woody sweetness all up. Really lovely.
Pink, white, and black pepper lace delicately through sweet cream, bourbon vanilla, caramel amber, white musk, two sugars, spice, and everything nice.
The Sweet Trade:
I reaaaaaaly like this one! It makes its presence known straight away. The patch is a bit too strong at first, but ultimately, it’s the patch that makes it for me. It’s the grounding of the whole scent, like it usually is for me. It’s a dry airy patch, not down and dirty or too earthy. All the notes are there, blended so well that I can’t really differentiate them and they are in each little molecule of the patchouli, complementing it and making it so good. The sillage is gorgeous and a little sweeter than the close up.
The Sweet Trade is powdery but good powdery, a little stark, but not up my nose stark. It actually reminds me of good powederiness of BPAL The Tell-Tale Heart (although the notes are very different), which I was thinking of getting a full bottle of from LJ the very day that this one arrived, so I’m very glad I didn’t! Along with Frilly Underpinnings and Death in the Afternoon, The Sweet Trade also had a couple of favourable comments which is always good. :)
This laid-back tropical tangle celebrates the less black-hearted side of piracy. With heady notes of caramel, honey, orange blossoms, rich coconut cream and dark Indonesian patchouli.
Also part of the collection is my beloved Rapunzel, which I got last year, so didn’t need to nab again. Out of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Heaven and Earth Essentials and Possets’ Valentine releases, of which I found some to love or at least like in each one, Arcana has had the most wins by far!