Sucreabeille: Ancient Teas Collection Review
Although I've really wanted to support Sucreabeille as a brand - I've never really found blends and notes from the house that I find myself really gravitating towards.
When they released their new Ancient Teas collection alongside their frequent international shipping promotions, I was definitely happy to see those come as a free dram gift with purchase.
Besides their in-house blends, they have also started an indie marketplace and forum, where there are one or two special products from all other small indie brands, ranging from perfume, makeup to jewellery.
The owner, Andrea Fender, took over the brand from Caroline in 2018, and has been running the store with some occasional help. She is also very active in the Facebook community, and generally due to her fantastic customer service, and business savvy, has been working non stop to create new products, making sure that all the customers are happy regarding issues with leaks and packaging problems, making a podcast, and giving a lot of opportunities for international buyers to try their products - and also includes a lot of samples and gifts for every buyer.
I have nothing but the highest of praise regarding the way she runs the business, and the direction of her business.
Regarding this collection: My friend very kindly decanted these for me, but you can buy these as sample sets or drams from the store itself. If they were not GWP, I would probably have opted to buy a 1ml discovery set of these, but I'm very lucky that these were on special and that I could try these.
This collection based off different mythical places, with "four containing brand new, never used before in any of our other blends tea scents."
These are available for purchase in EDP form, and perfume oil.
These also come in an amazing range of sizes, a 1ml, ($4) a dram ($8.50), 5ml bottles ($12), 10ml rollerballs ($15) and 1oz bottles ($30).
These are available for purchase in EDP form, and perfume oil.
These also come in an amazing range of sizes, a 1ml, ($4) a dram ($8.50), 5ml bottles ($12), 10ml rollerballs ($15) and 1oz bottles ($30).
As most of you will know, I am an absolute tea fiend, and I've been on the hunt to find the best and most accurate tea notes I can find in perfume - mostly unsuccessfully to my chagrin.
At this rate, the most realistic tea note I can recommend is Black Cat from Luminous Star Perfume - but only if you have worn this for 3-4 hours after the top notes have faded, which is a bit too oddly specific to be a great recommendation.
While there are a few people who have really expressed their enjoyment towards some of these notes, I haven't quite found any I'd love to purchase a full size of.
I almost find that Sucreabeille's blends shift very quickly, so they're very exciting blends to try out because they change quite a bit over the course of wearing them,
At this rate, the most realistic tea note I can recommend is Black Cat from Luminous Star Perfume - but only if you have worn this for 3-4 hours after the top notes have faded, which is a bit too oddly specific to be a great recommendation.
While there are a few people who have really expressed their enjoyment towards some of these notes, I haven't quite found any I'd love to purchase a full size of.
I almost find that Sucreabeille's blends shift very quickly, so they're very exciting blends to try out because they change quite a bit over the course of wearing them,
Scent notes: many strong cups of black tea, burnt sugar, a library of old books, leather.
This is a strange scent to me, first whiff is getting slapped in the face with a lot of burnt sugar... bellied with what smells a lot like an alcohol tincture I tried to make out of black tea and isocol (which is scented rubbing alcohol) - it's strangely sharp and alcoholic, to the point where I actually struggle to smell anything besides the weirdly strong alcohol in the blend. It smells kind of weirdly florally, a bit like antiseptic, and pitch black tincture.
This is a strange scent to me, first whiff is getting slapped in the face with a lot of burnt sugar... bellied with what smells a lot like an alcohol tincture I tried to make out of black tea and isocol (which is scented rubbing alcohol) - it's strangely sharp and alcoholic, to the point where I actually struggle to smell anything besides the weirdly strong alcohol in the blend. It smells kind of weirdly florally, a bit like antiseptic, and pitch black tincture.
After 2-3 hours of this sharpness, the leather peaks through a little bit, which is a sort of warm and dry kind of smell, which gets stronger depending on how much the tincture blend has faded - and the leather stays around just like shoving your nose into a leather wallet.
This may be a strong cup of alcohol based tincture, but this doesn't read black tea (or even books) to me at all.
Good for: anyone who might be into sharper notes - this is definitely a strong scent, and if you like leather base notes, this could be up your alley.
Scent notes: deceptively delicious bergamot black tea, fresh milk, honey straight from the hive, oat milk, freshly grated ginger and nutmeg.
The note in Byzantine here is completely void- here it's just grated ginger with a pinch of nutmeg, sort of like, a prequel to a Christmas pudding. The ginger note smells a lot like ginger essential oil, and as the wear life of those are relatively short, you get a few minutes where this smells like a Chinese dessert, ginger and milk pudding, which is relatively warm and nice for a short while before the ginger goes away, and turns into this nutmeg heavy, milk note.
The nutmeg is sort of the top note- but about an hour in, the strongest note in this is just milk. Fortunately, milk does not turn on me, but if your skin doesn't like milk- beware this.
The nutmeg is sort of the top note- but about an hour in, the strongest note in this is just milk. Fortunately, milk does not turn on me, but if your skin doesn't like milk- beware this.
Good for: anyone who likes milk and milk notes - with a dash of ginger and nutmeg like sprinkles of a quickly eaten gingerbread.
Atlantis
Scent notes: grassy green tea, vibrant purple orchids, blooming cherry blossoms, rice milk.
I like green tea! I am obsessed with finding a green tea note- but this green tea is very much just Green and Floral - not much tea, more grass. If you've ever smelt a floral soap blend, this is exactly what it smells like. I'm not familiar with florals at all, but I can't detect tea or rice milk - it just smells like a sakura/orchid shampoo mix up. The scent profile remains relatively the same throughout and wears around 4-5 hours on my skin.
I like green tea! I am obsessed with finding a green tea note- but this green tea is very much just Green and Floral - not much tea, more grass. If you've ever smelt a floral soap blend, this is exactly what it smells like. I'm not familiar with florals at all, but I can't detect tea or rice milk - it just smells like a sakura/orchid shampoo mix up. The scent profile remains relatively the same throughout and wears around 4-5 hours on my skin.
Good for: lovers of shampoos and florals. If you like your soapy scents, this is a really nice squeaky clean scent.
Scent notes: fragrant white tea, grated ginger, saffron, a field of lavender swaying in a cool breeze, carrot seed oil, damp pine needles.
This boggles my mind, this is the strangest scent out of most of them - I can smell ginger, and a bit of carrot cake? Then there's a heap of Pine, like in a Christmas candle - which becomes one of the most dominant notes in this blend. After that, the carrot seed oil note and Pine is basically what gives it the body - it's this earthy, slightly green, "seed' oil blend - without any touch of oil or lavender. This reminds me a bit of the winter tree blends from Riverside Sleighride (Solstice Scents) and The Fall of the House of Usher (Sixteen92).
This boggles my mind, this is the strangest scent out of most of them - I can smell ginger, and a bit of carrot cake? Then there's a heap of Pine, like in a Christmas candle - which becomes one of the most dominant notes in this blend. After that, the carrot seed oil note and Pine is basically what gives it the body - it's this earthy, slightly green, "seed' oil blend - without any touch of oil or lavender. This reminds me a bit of the winter tree blends from Riverside Sleighride (Solstice Scents) and The Fall of the House of Usher (Sixteen92).
Good for: those who are looking for more 'atmospheric' blends which are heavy on pine, or woody/green notes.
Scent notes: blooming gardenia, lychees, red tea, fragrant jasmine, rosehip.
Out of all of the tea blends - the red tea note is probably the most prominent one. It has a slightly robust character to it, it's a nice sort of mellow slightly roasted kinda tinge, but unfortunately it's overshadowed by the stronger notes in this blend.
The lychee here is very pleasant - it's a bright sweet juicy lychee, but it's been paired off with a soapy floral note - mostly of gardenia, and a sort of powdery jasmine. The result is one that reminds me a lot of Atlantis, but less sweet. It's overall quite a soapy, slightly powdery floral blend. This stays a straight foward linear blend where the notes tend to act as one blend rather than being able to pick out distinct notes in this.
Good for: shampoo/soap notes - if you like those mixed floral/fruit blends in body wash and body lotions from the supermarket, you will really like this.
Conclusion:
To be honest, while I am a huge fan of Andrea's direction with running the company, I find myself really uninspired with a lot of her perfume blends- especially with this tea collection.
There's nothing I've tried that's really grabbed my attention, and I imagine that some of these work amazingly for people - I really like and admire everything about the brand... except for the perfume (and I've tried a number of them from the best sellers discovery set.)
There's nothing I've tried that's really grabbed my attention, and I imagine that some of these work amazingly for people - I really like and admire everything about the brand... except for the perfume (and I've tried a number of them from the best sellers discovery set.)
This is absolutely not a criticism towards the brand either, but mostly I've held off buying due to my lack of interest in the description of most of the blends and this just hasn't been my cup of tea (pun not intended.) As I've mentioned before, my biggest priority with perfumes are a realistic scent profile, and these do not stack up to what I prefer- but this is a personal preference rather than a representation of everyone's taste.
I do hope that in the future that I do end up loving a blend of Sucreabeille because I really love to support such an innovative and hands on house that really caters to its customers and cares about its products - but I guess I haven't found the right one just yet.
Those who are looking at this for a good 'tea' experience- if you are someone who loved 'perfume' interpretations, this is definitely worth checking out. If like me, you lean towards realism, you can stay posted as I continuously try to find 'The One'.
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