Hexennacht: Lavender Macaron, Raspberry Rosemallow and Elemental Review

Information about the brand: 

Hexennacht, originally the sister company of Sucreabeille, were both created by Caroline Blicq where Sucreabeille carried perfume dupes, whereas Hexennacht was a shop for the original blends. Since then, Sucreabeille has been sold to Andrea Fender who nows creates her own original blends, and Hexennacht is still owned by Caroline. 

The house also sells 15ml and 10ml forms of parfum extrait (alcohol based) and perfume oil, hair and beard oil, body oil and occasionally offer other items such as incense sticks and pins. 

Hexennacht is very much a one person business, this means that the TAT of the house often is longer than other brands (currently at 14 business days, or around 3 weeks), as most items are made to order and filled individually by one person - prior to the decanting partnership, the sample sizes were limited to 5 per customer as offering those increased TAT time. However, any potential customers may be happy to hear that the TAT may go down since the decision to discontinue the sample sizes on the main site. 

Sample sizes now will be given to Ajevie, a popular decanter (who I have bought from and can recommend!) but it will take until April or May 2019 and only carry around 40 of Hexennacht's more popular scents. This means there will also be no limit on the amount of samples you can order - (and stay well within the $14USD shipping bracket for any international customers. )

If you want to know more about the brand or reach out to the owner, I would suggest joining the Facebook group or following the Instagram (which does not respond to DMs) and asking your questions there. Other updates regarding some price increases and other questions or concerns may also sometimes be answered in the r/IMAM sub. It is possible to fill in the contact form as well - but I would advise not emailing during peak order periods as due to the increase in demand for the shop, Caroline has reported that this will drag down orders and TAT time.  

Shipping: 

This is calculated by the shop's shipping calculator - and all orders are shipped via USPS first class mail. 

Whether or not you live domestically or internationally, you can just plug how much you want to order into the shop and it will give you the price of your item. As always, packages are always calculated in weight or sometimes weight brackets (what Solstice Scents and Ajevie offers) and will be more expensive the heavier your items weigh.

The shop calculator seems to operate on weight base, so shipping has been from $10USD up to $22USD and everywhere in between (e.g. $14) due to the weight of the item, so if you do live internationally, the pricing of heavier items like body or beard oils will be hefty. 

My (actual) order: 

Due to the earlier policies of restricted sample sizes, I elected not to buy from Hexennacht directly. I can't justify ordering small samples of just 5 with shipping that is the same price of the order itself, so I elected to find the scents I was interested in from Sunday Swaps! Luckily, since Ajevie will be coming out with other scents, I'll be making another order when those are available for the scents I also want to try. 

I've always wanted to try Hexennacht - mostly due to the fact that Gremlin, a white chocolate and matcha scent, is one of their best seller and honestly, I am still on the hunt for a good matcha scent that will match up to the matcha lip balm I have. While I didn't get Gremlin (or any of those tea notes I want) this time, I tried some other popular scents from the house. 

I received my order from r/lumba2 who is also located in Australia, so the shipping for my actual package with a few other little samples was only $8.5AUD! It arrived relatively quickly (we're in the same state) and nothing spilled or broke. 

These were all drams, or 3.55ml, and they came in standard dram vial form. 

Lavender Macaron: 

Confectioner's sugar, vanilla bean paste, finely milled almond meal, ground lavender buds.

In the vial: Sharp! Vanilla and almond, and there's a slight hint of herbal lavender just hiding as a very faint afterthought. 

On my skin : 

Wet: The lavender and the sugar note are a lot stronger and there's this sharpness that doesn't quite smell like almond at all, it's almost like a sharp citrus note. After the lavender fades, it edges on lemon toilet cleaner, but the nice kind without the bleach note underneath. 

Dried down: On the edge of the scent cloud, and after the citrusy lavender note fades away, what I'm left with is a mellow sugary vanilla buttercream that smells very similar to the base vanilla note in Solstice Scent's Blackburn's Parlor. As I genuinely love everything about Blackburn's Parlor, I don't mind that this smells like the vanilla note in it at all, although the opening is not what I expected at all. 

I can't say this smells like lavender macarons, but this does smells like a nice vanilla thickshake with like a tiny sprig of lavender which is quite nice. This also lasts quite a while on me, 8-10 hours with medium sillage. 

Elemental: 

Lush green cloverfields, dampened soil, petrichor, sunwarmed moss, wet pavement, ozone, rain-soaked thunderheads.

In the vial: wet? soil? what I can only assume is the petrichor note? I don't know what it is, but it smells like a very heavy grassy wood note that reminds me of Riverside Sleighride (from Solstice Scents), maybe the sharpness from the birch and fir, where it shows up here as greenery. 

On my skin: 

It's pretty much linear and very much the same wet and dry, it's a very straight forward 'wet' and 'soil' note to me. When the top notes sort of mellow out a little bit - that sort of wet soil note persists - and the projection for this scent is really huge. You only need a smidge of this on your skin, because it will last for about 10-12 hours without disappearing. 

The best way I can try to describe this is, close up, it smells like wet soil if you had dumped someone's perfume collection on it. Further away, it smells like wet soil and a bunch of rotting leaves - which is alright. 

From my experience with 'atmospherics' I can definitely confirm that this feels like an atmospheric perfume - but to me this feels more perfume than magically bottling a walk through a forest after rainfall. I have sniffed a sample of Fallen Angel since trying this and enjoyed that a little more because it's a bit more 'petrichor' and not as green and heady as this. 

Perfect for: Standing in a forest next to dead trees, mold and moss. 

Raspberry Rosemallow:

Marshmallow, buttercream, raspberry-rose compote.

In the vial: Marshmallow! Vanilla buttercream! a smidge of something artificial underneath all of it, but not a huge deterrent. 

On my skin: 

Wet: Buttercream - just a bit of vague sweetness but then it starts to change! 

Dried down: Rapsberry! Suddenly, it develops into this Ispahan (the Hermes macaron) like sweetness comes out - a hint of rose buttercream and raspberry jam! mmm. This is what I desperately wanted Confit de Rose to be - I only wish this was heavier with some rosewater - then it would be my perfect scent, as it turns into a stronger raspberry (a fusion between the sour fruit and a jam like note) over time. 

Unfortunately, the projection for this one is a little less than the other two, and vanishes rather quickly - give it about 3-4 hours and I'll struggle to find it at all. 

I still really love this scent, it's strangely, exactly the rose raspberry macaron scent I wanted.

Perfect for: gourmand/sweet lovers! Despite it's short lived length of wear, it's still a very pretty rose/berry jam scent. 

Conclusion: 

With regards to the actual house- a recent review by r/clawsight noted that there was a bit of difference regarding notes - which I've had trouble with a lot of houses for. Personally, I feel dominant notes should be listed first, or bolded to show which notes are stronger so I can avoid certain things that feature notes I dislike (e.g. oakmoss.) I think I'm still figuring out whether or not I like atmospherics (I love the idea of them, that's for sure), but I'm still not sure if I've adjusted to the 'perfume' version of them (like tea notes). 

I do think however, the foodie/gourmand notes seem to be doing okay! I feel safe ordering other food scents, as the worse case scenario I get something sweet without being too plastic/artificial and harsh, and best case scenario, I get my amazing matcha? or tea? or scone? or any realistic dessert note I might choose to order. 

I really do love Raspberry Rosemallow and I don't mind Lavender Macaron although I wouldn't buy a full size of it. 

I can't wait for the Ajevie decants to try some other gourmand blends from them! 

And thank you again to my reddit seller for getting everything to me safe and sound :)