NCD: Bees 2024

A very belated review of the Bees for 2024! I'm always pleased to get a Bees' order because it always comes with my April blends, but also, I absolutely adore the honey accord from NCD. Without further ado. If you're interested, click here for more NCD reviews! 

(And - Thank you as always to Forest and Josh at NCD for sending these press samples through! ) 

Honey Trap - Yellow snapdragon, white rose, early spring honey, candied lemon peel, clove bud, and Venus flytrap accord.

This is a gorgeous, super floral and light blend, featuring pale rose, with just a tinge of honey, and snipped thin green stems. For me, although I initially got a blast of floral, there's also a heavy element of soft grassy freshness here and a touch of watery green that intensifies over time. Although I enjoy the opening, the slow dry down of this scent goes from the more sugary sweet scent with bright petals and cut stems to more of a musky soapy floral, a little clean and a little like starched cotton sheets. I don't love the dry down of this one on my skin, but the opening is truly a lovely hyperrealistic flower market vibe. 

Honey, I'm Home - Snowdrops and fresh nectar from their first petals unfurled, golden sunlight, yellow crocus, and warmed honeycomb. 

I really love this scent, this is NCD's honey note at it's sweetest and most fragrant. Freshly applied, it's a stunning blast of sticky, aromatic honey, although it quickly seeps into the skin and allows for a gorgeous earthiness from the crocus to blossom forth. I love the balance here between the sweetness that slowly dries down into more of a darker, caramelized stickiness from the honeycomb, with just a touch of lemon zest, with the crushed petals of the crocus at the heart of this blend grounding it, adding a little earthy sweet floral quality to it. The first few times I wore this, I noticed more of a lemon honey sugar profile with blend, although it's gotten a little more syrupy and darker over time. I like this scent in both ways, but it's mostly the gorgeous warm honey note here that's really carrying this blend, and I would unabashedly wear this whenever I need something sweet. 

Parisian Apiary - Rooftop hives in the City of Lights inspire this sweetly chic huile de parfum. Cherry blossom, silver linden, white pear, and cafe au lait sweetened with French honey.

Admittedly, the first few times I tried this scent, I didn't love it - this one is a little bit of a shifter - on opening it's a little jarring, but fades into more of a soft sweet honey speckled with poached pears and cream. While the cafe au lait here was more of a stronger, rich coffee, it fades into more of an aromatic nuttiness, and then an indistinct creamy sweet note. I don't quite read any florals in this scent, not overtly, but I think the original conception and idea of this scent was a little bit of a clashing profile to me - I don't want fruity, floral, coffee and honey all mashed together, and I like that after letting it rest it does settle more into a honey forward scent rather than the original, hectic mismash of everything. I can't say this is a favorite though, so this might be better off with someone else. 

Aphro-Bee-Siac -  Black vanilla bean, dragon’s blood resin, ambrette seed, wood musk, barely a spritz of blood orange, and spiced Beltane honey infused with orris root. 

This is a lovely, dark, heady witchy scent. On opening, this is all dark, bitter and resinous, it has a dark sticky quality from the dragon's blood, and the slightly bitter vibe paired with the heavy wood is a lot. I also get nuances of celery here, but dry down lets the honey blossom forward a little more, and it reminds me of an old cupboard, with honey stains. For me, this scent is rich and evocative, but for me, I'm not a fan of the musk, and I find the heaviness in this scent a little too much for the weather I live in - it's too wood/musk/resin heavy for me, but I'm sure someone else will love this. 

Nocturnal Bees - Forbidden rice, honeyed black walnut, wild violet, moonflower, and night-blooming jasmine.

I don't love this - perhaps I'm just not a fan of black walnuts in general, and I'm ambivalent about jasmine at best, and the combination of both leans into scrubber territory for me. On application, it's a nice warm honey, but quickly dries down into indolic jasmine, and is paired with this savoury quality which I can only imagine is the black walnut which is both a little too much like overripe fruit and earthy, dirt covered hands. On certain beats, I get this lovely honeyed nut situation, but overall, this one never quite hits the mark for me. I'll be passing this one on. 

Bee Not Afraid - Angelic incense, cirrus clouds, glowing beeswax candles, bedstraw, and honey gathered from an ancient cathedral hive.

While I'm not usually a fan of darker scents, this one is a lovely aromatic atmospheric -  on opening this has a surprisingly zesty quality paired with a slightly nutty, herbal hay scent. For me, the creamy honey really pops out after the dry down and it has a lovely sweet light quality paired with the dry scent of hay and straw. While I originally felt like there was more of a darker, mahogany like woodiness in this, after letting this age, I'm surprised by how much I enjoy this one, with just the lightest touch of incense, a waxy edge and honey drizzled on a rich, dry straw/hay note, this is a really lovely and interesting scent. I love that this isn't too heady, and I love the sweetness here, and the dryness of the hay keeps this from being too gluggy and dense too. This one also reminds me of NCD's gourmands for non-gourmand lovers, this is a subtle one, but one to keep an eye out for. I really love this one, definitely one of my favorites in this collection. 

Honeycomb Conjecture - Crystallized honey, sturdy oak, cedarwood, granite, ebony, and roasted roots.

This is fine, it opens with a strong, sticky blast of rich syrupy honey, paired with a dark heavy wood note, definitely a mahogany, oak like accord here. I have to admit, I adore the honey here, it's so sweet and gorgeously rich, and it's almost molasses like, but I'm comparatively cold on the darker woody qualities which get darker, bitter and coffee-esque the longer this wears for. I think I'd just continuously reapply this one, just for the decadent honey, but the wood I can do with or without. However, I do enjoy this one - it's not my favorite but I'll use up the sample for sure.