Poesie: General Collection Review Part II

If the title wasn't a dead giveaway, this is Part II of our Poesie order - read Part I here if you haven't already to get a summary of the brand, prices, and shipping.

I'd only ordered a fizzy bath salt (un-featured) and one sample pack (6 x 1.15mLs); of which, I'd like to think I have a good mixture of scents:-

Crowned (inspired by Jane Seymour)

A very clean-cut and refreshing, no-frills kind of unisex spring scent (I’m sure it’s that citrus lavender/mint fougère-like combo that remind me of men’s cologne).

This really grew on me over a few wears. Some scents are so good that you just want to keep wearing them as soon as you get them, but quickly tire of, and some - like Crowned - just have great re-wearability.

Sandalwood here smells very smokey and incense-like at the opening before taking a creamier turn, while the grapefruit is fizzy and bright throughout. The lavender isn’t too noticeable and the mint (smells like bakha to me) is really quite fleeting, which is a shame, as I quite enjoy it.

There’s actually a lingering sweetness I get from this blend, and with a few closer sniffs - I do think that despite the initial herbaceous top, it definitely dries down as more of a tea scent for me.

Notes: a clean blend of lavender, mint and grapefruit, fluffy marshmallow, royal sandalwood

Lovelorn Wind (inspired by Cleopatra)

Liza describes this as the ‘jasmine one’ on our chats, but Lovelorn Wind doesn’t wear like a jasmine on me. Not when I’d expected indolic, intense blooms of arabian jasmines that litter across my balcony. In fact, I don’t get much jasmine at all.

This is all soft skin musks, ripened peach skin, and white sandalwood. In that order. Lotus here doesn’t have an aquatic quality, instead, it’s delicate and powdery, lending even more to the silk imagery the perfume evokes.

I’d expected a heavy, heady floral - but this wears close to skin - and it’s drydown is a musky fruit fragrance rather than floral. Overall impression is a bit like an autumnal Essence Eau de Musc (Narciso Rodriguez)!

Notes: intoxicating pink lotus, honeyed peach skin, sweet jasmine sambac, delicate rose de mai, crystalline musk, creamy sandalwood

Madar (inspired by Mokarrameh Ghanbari)

Love, Chloe was my favourite cosmetic powder and rice scent. Nothing came close. But I have a horrible habit of falling in love with scents released in department stores (i.e. mainstream), that aren’t really catered for the general consumer (a.k.a. everything I like gets discontinued), and I’ve been on the hunt for a rice scent to fill in that empty spot in my heart ever since.

I wanted to love this so much. It receives such nice reviews. Literally everyone loves it. Everyone speaks of the rice pudding note, yet, Madar is so sweet and floral on me. I’m hanging dry when I wanted gooey pudding - and all I’m getting is a dollop of pistachios, candied flowers (sweet orange flower, powdery rose), and honey. Reminds me a bit of a Turkish market candy store actually.

Madar becomes increasingly less foody, and more powdery and sweet as it dries down. Saffron giving it a slightly medicinal touch. The (cooked) rice comes through as the nuttiness retreats, but it’s easily overshadowed by the strong floral tones on me, with none of the spice ever making too much of an impression. Never did I get my creamy rice pudding. 

Update: Madar after two more weeks of resting (total: 1 month's worth of rest) has become a lot less sharp, and the cardamom notes are now much more pronounced when wet - however, it now wears as café blanc with a large splash of milk on me. I'm liking it a lot, and it makes for a very unique layering scent too! Mom mentioned that I smelled 'like a baby' by dry down, with loads of milk and powdery flowers coming through.

Notes: Comforting, creamy Basmati rice pudding flavored with orange flower water, saffron, cinnamon, cardamom, and dried rose petals, then piled high with sugared pistachios

Opening Chapter (Jane Eyre collection)

When I read Darjeeling in notes, I usually expect lots of bergamot since it’s a strong and recognisable scent; and when see ‘rainy day’, I think ‘petrichor’ almost immediately, because that’s what a lot of indie houses seem to think it smells like. Yet, this doesn’t smell strongly of either. In fact, there’s something lichen-y about this, and it smells very similar to the attic I lived in during high school.

There’s a savoury, buttery vanillin note; and the rainy day has been interpreted as a ozonic grass note that reminds me more of British summertime showers than dark skies pouring down. Opening Chapter is you staying in voluntarily on a rainy day to read because you would’ve been reading regardless of the weather, and not because the rain is so bad that you’re forced to stay in with no wifi.

Something is definitely smokey about the dry down (perhaps, that’s the tea?), and I love it. My skin really eats this one up, and the scent becomes very faint and sheer very quickly, but lingers around the whole day, drifting in and out. Beautiful.

Notes: a generous cup of steaming Darjeeling tea, a rainy day, a pile of old books all your own

Pemberley (Pride & Prejudice collection)

Rather than a prim and proper, well-cared for English garden, this reminds me more of a Welsh park in spring. There’s this National Trust property near campus that I’d frequently visit with my flat-mates which had beautiful vines of climbing ivy centered between a meandering stream, the walls of the castle were covered with wisteria amongst statues and rounded topiaries – Pemberly reminds me of that.

This is stemmy and dewy right from the opening, freshly-cut flowers never verging towards being overly sweetness (the peony isn’t strong here), while the oak is prevalent all the way through and not just at the base. There’s also a lurking dampness – like wet soil.

Sadly, Pemberley had absolutely no hold on my skin (disappearing right around the two-hour mark) and I’m crushed. (With a scent so pretty, I don't mind re-applying though!)

Notes: a stunning English garden where crushed tomato leaf, flowering woodbine & wisteria, peony petals, oak and ivy leaf blend seamlessly

The Abbey

Ooof. The Abbey has the biggest scent throw out of all my scents and I wasn’t expecting it at all. Not with all its creamy woods and vanillas.

My skin tends to amp up sweetness, but surprisingly this is a lot sweeter on paper and the sweetness doesn’t linger past the opening. In fact, there’s a savouriness I get with The Abbey as it enters dry down. Rosewood takes center stage before the sandalwood kicks in – and its creamy and resinous. The spices never really comes out, and to me, vanilla here is really just to round out the scent, smooth it out, but vanilla is much more of Liza’s area of expertise than mine.

Dry down is heavier on the sandalwood, and I’d definitely pick this one up if you’re looking to find a non-smokey sandalwood scent.

Notes:  sweet rosewood, white and red sandalwood, four vanillas, a spark of coriander and cardamom

Out of Liza’s eleven other scents (we overlapped with Opening Chapter*) there were also three I remember more distinctly than the rest (please note, this is all from the bottle):- 

Secret Boyfriend 

Reading the notes I took on my phone, apparently I’d used ‘baby leather’ to describe Secret Boyfriend, and it’s true! There’s something decidedly floral about the leather note, and the marshmallow does sweeten up the woods (in truth, not being good with gourmands - I just pick up ‘sugar’), with the perfume overall leaning quite feminine.

Growing up, I’m no stranger to the scent of leather as my grandpa ran a tannery until the government placed restrictions on a lot of the old tanning techniques and it ran out of business. To me, the leather here is just too unprocessed to have been a leather ‘jacket’. Still, this is a very pleasant rendition of soft woods with a touch of leather if such notes usually intimidate you.

Myself Invisible 

I love violet notes, and this one is sweet, cosmetic, and unobtrusive - which makes for a fantastic foil to the metallic inky notes. It’s an interesting scent with its unconventional ink note, that somehow still manages to smell very ‘perfumey’ and not at all strange.

Blue Highway 

This actually made me recoil upon sniff because I was so unprepared for the flurry of things I don’t usually gravitate towards all at once. On hindsight, going by the notes (vanilla muffin??? juicy ripe blueberries???), I’m not too surprised that I don’t enjoy this in the slightest.

Considering I’m god-awful with names, the fact that I remember them tells of how much of an impression they’d made, and Myself Invisible is really worth a sniff if you get the chance.

*compare our notes and you can tell just how different we read perfumes on our skin; everybody’s skin chemistry is different; and particularly with oil-based blends, this can really make or break a scent.