Astrid: A Fragmentary Passage 1.0

Here are a handful of Astrid reviews! 

Before I get into the reviews, I have briefly spoken about the ordering process with Astrid for an international purchases (Ajevie, pretty much) and their add on process when they're doing open orders for decants. I confess, I still haven't had the pleasure of using the C/O form Ajevie offers, but I rarely ever choose to purchase full sizes without at least picking up some smaller sizes. As always, Ajevie's shipping processes are relatively very straightforward, and international shipping for the lowest weight bracket comes in at $19.29 USD. I've never had any issues, and Angi is always quick to respond to any issues. 

Truthfully, I find myself rather conflicted on Astrid's scent rotation - although samples/decants are readily available through Ajevie, the time lag between the decant processing times and the time you need to spend with a scent to see if you really do love it can be comparatively quite short. Astrid works on a limited edition catalogue with rare re-releases of scents from the 'Vault', but most of the collections do not return after they've been taken down. As a result, I think there is a real feeling of FOMO from the house, I've tried decants and wanting to upsize scents, only to find the collection having been taken down/sold out, and as a result, found myself just blind buying full sizes just because I don't know if I'll get another chance to try it, and definitely experiencing regrets because it was a scent I didn't enjoy. I wish there was a good balance to strike here, and I've definitely been informed that there are many work arounds to the system (eg, swaps/sells), but from my personal experience, these options aren't the most feasible. Previously, I've found myself relatively apprehensive about purchasing from Astrid due to this reason, and as I have found myself enjoying their blends and dipping more into their catalogue, this hasn't really changed. Personally I would really like the house to look into and respond to these issues (eg. voting on bringing back some scents from past releases every year, different sizes for offer, more accessible international shipping), but regardless, it is what it is, although I hold out hope that some of these might be improved on in the future. 

Price wise - Astrid has recently put up their prices for their perfume oils, making each 8ml vial $27.50 USD (around $3.44 for 1ml.). I picked up the slonk (0.92mL) decants for some of these at $5.75USD for each. 

Scents: 

31, Rue de Potiron - Brioche, baguette, apple tart, and pumpkin pies

I've always heard amazing things about Astrid's brioche note and never been able to get my hands on it. The wait is over. This did not disappoint. Oh my God. I don't really know what I was expecting, but this absolutely blew me out of the water the first time I smelt it. It's just the most, cozy, warm foodie gourmand I've ever had - with this gorgeous, freshly baked sweet butter brioche, the dessert kind, paired with this rich, indulgent handful of brown sugar, warm ribbons of caramel, sliced apple pies, crunchy tarts and the distant whiff of fresh baked baguettes from a bakery, it just melds into this perfect puff of sweetness and happiness for me. This is also such a perfect blend for the cold weather right now, it's just radiating warm bakery vibes in autumn, and whenever I smell this, I can't wait to stick my little fingers into some delicious baked goods. I don't know how else to explain, except to say that everything about this is the most perfect scent for my gourmand loving heart, and it's definitely one of my all time favorites from Astrid. Very happy I picked up a full size of this one, I'm fully enamored and charmed by this lovely treat. 

Dapple - Rice milk, tonka, myrrh, coconut, butter CO2, and cardamom

I love a rice note, and while I think the rice milk here is absolutely gorgeous, the other notes are not quite my favorite. From the bottle, it's a light sprinkle of cardamom simmered in rice milk. On application, this has a gorgeous, nutty soft waft of creamy rice milk, a spoonful of rice pudding, with just a hint of smooth rich butter and a mild punchy of zesty myrrh. After dry down, I got the heaviest, richest, intense melted butter accord, paired with the resinous earthy bitterness of the myrrh, with just a hint of spiced cardamom and the nuttiness of coconut hanging around in the background. Personally, I was really looking for a rice milk forward note with just a hint of spices, but it was more of a, slab of butter but make gothic church. This ended up being way more butter/myrrh heavy than I'd expected, and I generally do not enjoy butter or myrrh, but if you do, this is the one for you. 

Art and Sugar - Green tea, marshmallow, bergamot essence, tangerine, lemongrass

It's like I never learn my lesson about going for tea notes, but here I go again. Trapped in this neverending search for the perfect green tea. But this is close. I actually genuinely enjoy this scent, it's definitely not my FAVORITE green tea note, but I heard a lot of good things about Astrid's green tea mochi and I always pretend that I'm somehow going to be wearing light, citrus scents in hotter weather (it's not impossible, but it happens less than I'd like it to). Rambling aside, this is a nice scent - there's a nice dustiness from the marshmallow, paired again with the herbal aspects of the green tea, with a punch of zestiness. But you know what this reminds me of? Toasted Matchimellow (Stereoplasm). They're definitely not identical (you could very easily pick them out side by side) but they're similar enough that I wouldn't blink twice if you'd swapped the labels. This is a little heavier on the citrus/zesty notes with the bergamot, tangerine syrup and a little stalk of lemongrass, almost on equal balance with the dusty matcha marshmallow. With the addition of the heavy tangerine/orange syrup, this is almost a little too heavy and cloying for summer, but I imagine it's a nice treat for spring.