Poesie: A Farewell Speech

It came as perhaps a shock (or maybe not) when Poesie announced a mass exile of a few of their old General Collection scents. Before you go out and stockpile these (no pun was intended here), you can be sure that these will either be returning seasonally, or are available for purchase during the April reissue event - which means that there will be a catalogue that will be open to pre-order, and you can purchase some of these favorites during that period. I don't have the full list of what will be returning seasonally or not so far, but what I do know I will note!

If you want to pick up these scents before they vanish - you can click here to see if they're still stocking any of your favorites! If they're all miraculously gone, you can always wait for the reissue event in April which will probably see most of these coming back for 2ml and more orders. 

As for the scents I'll be bidding farewell, I obviously, like most parents, have my favorite children from the bunch I've tried, but these scents have been listed in no particular order with very little rhyme or reason behind this inconsistent structure. 

Blanket - comfy vanilla musk adds a layer of softness and warmth; a “my skin but better” scent

When I initially bought this scent, I did a big toss up between this and Sucre Vanille, and to this day, it really genuinely bothers me that I didn't opt for Sucre Vanille. Although in a way, this did help me realize, much like a summer camp crush, I found that I'm just not that into musk. 

This scent isn't a sweet vanilla, it's one of those soft, comfy notes that's a little smooth and a little sweet, and it works its way into pocket tissues and fresh laundry. Coupled with that skin musk note, there's just a hint of sweetness that leans vanilla, but when the whole time I wore this, it kind of just reminded me a lot of damp Tempo tissues, and didn't really charm me at all. 

Verdict: I'll miss you as much as the first Suicide Squad movie. That is to say, not at all. 

Chiaroscuro - A flood of bright limoncello, milky figs, cedarwood, dark vanilla beans lashed with communion wine, a waft of church incense

I quite like this one and I’m surprised this is leaving, because I thought this was a super underrated scent. Over the time I've had this (a year and a little bit), I've preferred it during pre-aging process, so around the 1-6 month period where I got a lot more of that strong beautiful limoncello with all its lovely boozy astringent lemon, but it's definitely gotten much sweeter with rest (as most Poesies seem to). Now, the limoncello has a sweet, honey-lemon scent to it, and its blended in with the aromatic tartness of cedarwood, there's a touch of creamy vanilla that bubbles away in the heart of this scent. Aspects of this remind me of Sigh Away Sunday and All Mirth no Matter with the strong presence of Poesie's elusive, yet persistent base note - so maybe it wasn't meant to be.

Also I did try 'resetting' this scent, which involved blasting a hairdryer on the tube and throwing it in the freezer, but it seems the sweetness is here to stay - which is a shame. 

Verdict: I'll miss you but now you're just somebody that I used to know.

You know what though - I wouldn't mind a reformulation of this if it meant that I got more limoncello. This is also how I feel most Fridays. There's just never enough limoncello. 

All Mirth, No Matter - apricot blossom, white chocolate, butterscotch, honeysuckle, magnolia, amber, and a fillip of juicy blood orange

In the winter of 2019, I had a torrential love affair with this scent, frozen in my quick passion and urgent hands. We met in the dim glow of a February night, a night of whispered words and breathless promises, and when the seasons turned I left, and never saw her curled red locks again. 

What can I say about this scent? You know it's odd to me, because this scent kind of embodies a failed first love to me. When I first tried this scent, I was totally besotted with it. Intense, lovely white chocolate, sweet and creamy, dotted with floral accents of apricot blossoms and muted honeysuckle, a light zest of orange, lashed with butterscotch - and it's delicate, like a picture perfection rendition of a lovely dessert. Oh I wanted to full size it straight out of the bottle. I wore it for two weeks straight. Except everyone who I asked to smell it, didn't like it. 

A few months later, when I tried it, I couldn't bear it. I scrubbed it - and after that I put it away in a little dark corner, staring at it in earnest desire, tried it again and put it down. It was like returning to a lover you used to have, before you realized you hated everything about them, even though it was everything you used to love. I packed it off, and tearfully sent it off to a loving new home. To be honest, I don't really know what happened, but whatever happened between me and All Mirth, No Matter, like this very lengthy tangent, may have just been much ado about nothing.    

Verdict: Perhaps someone has fallen in love with the lovely maiden I left behind on that winter's night. But alas - I must make haste to my betrothed! For our memories, I will keep a token of her favor with me, but I cannot revisit or amend the past. 

Northmen - weathered leather, turbulent seawater, woodsmoke, oakwood, birch tar, a blood-stained shield

So a friend passed this onto me, because it's not really a scent that I'd pick out just in terms of the notes alone but this is actually really funny because it turns out that the "woodsmoke" note in this is pretty much the same one from Falcon Rising, Balmoral Fireplace and Thornfield, which is this lovely savoury smokey scent - and I genuinely really like it, which is why I have vials of all of those scents in big sizes. Have you ever had smoked almond? That's what it smells like. Boosted with a lil bit of tannic/leather, and like, the very barest bones of a murky aquatic lurking underneath. Honestly speaking, the woodsmoke/charred wood notes being one of the most dominant aspects of this blend makes it a pretty easy dupe, because you could probably wear any of the scents that I've listed above and get pretty much the same scent with very minimal nuances that you probably wouldn't pick out unless you were doing a side by side comparison - so if you've got any of those scents, unless you REALLY love that note, you're probably not missing out on much with this one.

Verdict: I'll miss you as much as I miss mediocre free snacks in the waiting room.  

Opening Chapter - a generous cup of steaming Darjeeling tea, a rainy day, a pile of old books all your own

Whenever people reach the r/imam sub, a lot of people tend to ask about Earl Grey/tea notes, and Poesie is usually straight up on that list - the three iconic tea blends, Twice to Tea, Opening Chapter and Myself Invisible. To be honest, it actually surprised me that any of the popular tea notes were leaving the catalogue at all, although I suppose between the raving success of Twice to Tea, Opening Chapter becomes the consistently overlooked sister who's just a little more mediocre at everything, and why would you go for her when you can go for her prettier and smarter sister, Twice to Tea? 

Personally, I do genuinely like Opening Chapter, and in fact I like it much more than Twice to Tea - who's a little sweet and milky, whereas Opening Chapter really captures the scent of dried paper, a touch of stylized petrichor, the crinkle of steeped Assam tea (the tea note is strong and super aromatic). This basically encapsulates the ideal, rainy day and a tea stained book. 

As far as I know, this also isn't coming back seasonally at all - which is a shame because I really did enjoy this scent. 

Verdict: You will be missed. I loved you. I'll wait for you on the pier every day like Aquaman's dad his solo movie.

Madchenland - floral Pacific Rose apples, luscious yellow cake, warming spices, a delicate drizzle of caramel

So, to my surprise, a lot of people like this scent. To be frank, I don't care for this scent.

This is sort of the scent awakening for me in which I kind of realized the concept of a 'scrubber'. I didn't scrub it off, but I really sat through this just to give this a chance.

This scent, from the day I've gotten it, till today, has been relatively straight forward, just a good old crisp green apple skin, with this "festive spice" note, with an edge of vanilla and caramel cake that's really just barely noticable. I originally described this cake as sort of, nuclear apple yellow cake - and it hasn't really changed. Something about this scent reminds me of poisoned apples, something lurking underneath the scent - and it hit me! It reminded me a little of BPAL's Poisoned Apple, which is apple with narcotic opium, oleander, and hemlock - except BPAL's apple is much sweeter and kinda nicer to smell, like apple syrup and apple soda whereas this apple is just kinda the bitter, sour edge of an apple.

In comparison to when I got this, this has definitely gotten much sweeter though, what used to be a harsh festive spice note has mostly mellowed out, and it's now even, somewhat tolerable and probably not bad if layered with something fruity - but I don't think I'll be wearing this alone and it really still errs on the side of something I'd probably swap away. 

For those who do love Madchenland though : This is apparently coming back as a seasonal scent, most likely during Fall, so rejoice! 

Verdict: I won't miss you - and you're coming back twice a year anyway.   

Blue Highway - a tender vanilla-scented muffin studded with juicy ripe blueberries

To be honest, this is one of the scents that kinda confused me personally in regards to how it got to the General Collection at all - mostly because of the reviews I've seen on the r/imam sub that experienced a weird plastic and artificial kick to the scent, although that isn't to note the amount of hits it got when it first came out on IndieScentLibrary - in which a lot of people did enjoy this. 

On me, while the initial lovely wet blast of cheerful blueberries warmed in their browned cake was soft and delicate, the dry down hit me like a shovel in the face. It's not to say this isn't a lovely blend, because it is, but there was something really odd about the way the scent dried down and kinda shrivels up into itself, and goes a little cough-syrup on me. Overall, an underwhelming experience for me. There are much better blueberry muffin scents out there. 

Verdict: Won't be missed. Better gourmands will rise up and take the place of the weak. 

Watson - lavender in bloom, apples plucked straight from the tree, sweet dried tobacco leaves, a scattering of hay, polished mahogany & rosewood

I wouldn't call the apple note Poesie's strong suit - although I can firmly say that this is 100% my preferred apple scent if I had to pick between this and Madchenland. To be completely fair though, I don't really think I've tried any other scent with an apple dominant note, although this hasn't done much in changing my mind in wanting to try out more of them either. Interestingly enough, I guess this is now also the time to comment on how much these scents age - some scents I've owned I just leave them and come back and they're just richer, or more well tuned renditions of what I've tried before, but something really shifty happens when you just let Poesie rest - because this went from a sweet apple/tobacco earthy scent, to men's department store cologne.

More or less, the apple note goes poof the minute it dries down on my skin. After that, it's really just rich, fragrant tobacco and a base of bitter wood, and in comparison to most things from Poesie, leans very masculine. It has a stereotypical men's cologne scent to this, like the kind of scent you'd smell when you walk past a well dressed business man which a bit of stubble and shiny leather shoes and he's put on so much you can still huff the scent even after you can't see him anymore. It's overwhelming mainstream in a lot of ways - so it's not like I would ever wear this out anyway.

Verdict: Would I miss you more if you had never changed? Can I still miss you if everyone out there is like a better, available version of you? Can I miss you if I never loved you? 

Lovelorn Wind - intoxicating pink lotus, honeyed peach skin, sweet jasmine sambac, delicate rose de mai, crystalline musk, creamy sandalwood

When I first got this and tried it out the box, I originally thought this was going to be much more of a jasmine centric scent - because that's certainly how it smelt in the vial. Despite this, after putting this through a few more road tests, I wasn't huge on this. The blend is effortless, with a dreamy cage of white florals, slivers of peach skin and soapy rose, suspended above a river of runny sandalwood and shimmering musk. It's a delicate blend, and really has that 'Cleopatra' inspired feel to it, where it feels more the snapshot of someone's lingering perfume, and it's definitely got a well worn, intimate musky fruit profile. I'm sure that somebody out there will want more of this, and desperately will need to stock up on this one. Personally, I appreciate the artistry of the scent, but the musk haunts me like sleep paralysis during a really great dream. 

Verdict: I'll miss you in theory - but if ever a musk-less version sails down the nile to me and I have to pick between the two, I won't even remember your name. 

The Abbey - sweet rosewood, white and red sandalwood, four vanillas, a spark of coriander and cardamom

Oh boy - so this is not a scent that I would ever have picked out for myself. Yet, to everyone's surprise, including my own. I got this. I compared this to a previous review, because I remember trying this and really loving the sandalwood notes and the name sounds gorgeous, and the listed notes just sound so elegant. It did not let me down. Also, this is a bit of a shift-y scent on the skin, which Poesie doesn't really have a lot of. 

This scent is ridiculously elegant - opening is a huge blast of creamy soft and aromatic rosewood, it's woody and sweet and tinged with this lovely pink hue, before sandalwood bursts to the front of the stage, a lovely shade of sand and eggshell. It reminds me a lot of Molton Brown's Coco and Sandalwood body lotion - except the aromatic spices dance on top of the heart of the note, and the vanillas add a creamy richness. Now that spark of coriander, I absolutely despise coriander in food (for the Americans, this is cilantro). But there's something about the way that it adds this delicate, crushed herbal note that just adds this little dab of smokey, green, herbaceous element. Delicious. After about 4-5 hours, this kinda mellows out into a soft, warmed vanilla and sandalwood, very Oriental (with all its spices and light vanillas). Indie Scent Library has also given this some pretty mixed reports depending on what note you amp, although the general consensus is a positive one. 

I thought about how to describe this scent for a lot longer that I'd care to admit - but it's difficult to describe this scent. It's both getting dressed in front of a vintage wooden vanity, a Sunday afternoon in a sun warmed cathedral, coupled with the lingering scent of incense and expensive perfumes, a store with a wall of essential oils, and the upscale aisles of Harrod's beauty section with tester hand creams. This scent creates a rush of emotions and memories that's neither here or there, and it's impossible not to lose yourself in the waves.

Good news: It will be back for the reissue, and also for Fall if there are enough requests. 

Verdict: You will be missed. "The Abbey is the scent that taught your cold English wife how to feel." 

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