Stereoplasm General Collection Review

Edit: As of 2022, Stereoplasm has changed their permanent catalogue. 

If you're interesting in ordering from Stereoplasm, you may have come across their permanent collection before! All of the scents are created by Meghan, the owner of the shop, in Canada (which means cheaper shipping for the Canadians!) Typically the shop has a rotational list of seasonal scents, but as the permanent collection title suggests, they have a small offering of scents that make up their general catalogue. This usually means you can also order this at any time - and this current list was compiled from the feedback and votes on Stereoplasm's Instagram, which is usually run by the amazing Norah, who also does some amazing promotional art, and some scent roulettes for fun layering combos.

If you want to get more information about their releases, or pick up any of these scents yourself you can also check their website. Their Instagram also features new updates and seasonal changes, but as of posting, this is the current permanent collection. Surprisingly, I actually ended up with all the new additions as well (sans Pixie Beach) so here's my thoughts. 

In general, I find that Stereoplasm's scents on me tend to lean towards being brighter and sharper notes. They're kind of the equivalent of a tin whistle to me, you can almost always pick them out because of their distinctive timbre.

Divine - Gooey cherry cake batter, burnt marzipan, fresh cinnamon leaf, orange zest, warm chai cream and roasted hazelnut

Sharp almond, amaretto, ground almond meal, lightly spiced with chai powder and soft cherry extract. On my skin, the cherry basically disappears under the sheer presence of the almond. As a general rule I've become super wary about almond notes because they lean towards the boozy sharpness of amaretto, a thin and sharp stiletto in a blend, and on my skin this is all amaretto, with a touch of chai. This reminds me a little of Maitresse-en-titre (Siren Song Elixirs) with the almost floral sweetness complimenting the almond. 

Personally, this isn't quite as gourmand on my skin as I'd like, and I get almost no cherry with this blend, so it's not really one for me. I'd honestly like to see something more rich and gourmand replace this in the permanent collection. 

Perfect for: an Amaretto sour spilled on a graduation bouquet. It's suspiciously floral, but you can't let any amaretto go to waste... 

Lovesick Lake - Bright pink and heartbreakingly optimistic; cotton candy served with thick strawberry cheesecake and sour lemon squares on a hot rainy day

Tart lemonade, cups of grenadine, flat strawberry fanta and melted syrup. This is Stereoplasm's tune in all its glory, bright, sharp, like Sharpay Evans lying on a hot pink towels imported from Turkey, and turkey imported from Maine...The lemonade is sickly sweet, there's rings of sticky grenadine on the table, and those rings of cotton candy are all pink stains on your fingers. The 'humidity' in this blend adds an extra level of stickiness in this blend. It's a little more lemon heavy, with a touch more lemon candy, but it's relatively linear with wear. I don't get much of the cheesecake or the more dairy notes in this, for me this is a strawberry and sugar syrup lemonade concoction. It's hard to turn away from the demanding presence of Lovesick Lake. 

Perfect for: If you want to smell like Sharpay Evans in High School Musical. Whether you find her too sickly, sweet, loud, overbearing or not (which she can be), or kind of endearing and sweet despite her loud pink shiny car, you can't deny, she's pretty iconic. 

Orange is Technicolour - Orange blossom petals with shea butter, house-distilled tangerine oil and apricot jam.

Wet: 5 gum. You know, the tropical one? Lush? It's been discontinued now, but they had this super cool add which was where a man got pelted with tropical fruits while stuck in some cage sharp enough to slice the fruit. It's a thing. This is literally the taste of Lush bottled up, a crisp, tropical, tangy sweet scent. It was also my favorite flavor, and this scent gives me intense nostalgia for times long gone. I get a lot of orange and tangerine, but with a stronger note of juicy mango, pineapple juice and just a smidge of strawberry.  

My only complaint is that this has an intensely short wear life - it starts fading around half an hour in and is usually completely gone by an hour. If there was some way to make this last longer, this would be absolutely perfect. 

Perfect for: The bright tropical sun at a beach resort on your fifth fruit punch. It's everything. If you find yourself at a loss for what to add to your basket, this has my vote. 

The Velveteen Stranger - Stolen peaches, yellow marshmallow, chopped cedar, blackberry aftershave, and cigar smoke

A sweet and green peach opening, reminiscent of Mossypeach (Hexennacht). It's endearing, sweet with mossy, earthy and woody nuances, which unfolds into a slightly more rich blend of mainstream men's cologne and tendrils of smoke. It fades into an equal balance of peach candy and woody cologne. Aging has really turned this scent from more of a mainstream cologne with a touch of peach into one that leans a little sweet, but the underlying notes of aftershave and smoke really give this a "unisex" vibe. 

Perfect for: Do you like the idea of spraying mainstream cologne onto a peach? Do you like the idea of smelling like you've been dipped in peach marinade but in a socially acceptable manner? This is a good one.  

Rubies from your Lips - Twilight musk, smoked woodsage, carnation corsage, holy water, green clove, damp soil and grave moss

This is one of Stereoplasm's more atmospheric blends - although there are a lot of elements in this blend which reminds me of a stereotypical cologne you'd find in the department stores, there's a slightly savoury aspect from the smoked woodsage, a touch of petrichor, damp and rotten wood, with an edge of climbing ivy. This really calls to mind a chilly, flooded underground tunnel next to a grave. This isn't quite the scent my gourmand loving heart would pick out, but I have to admit that I'd be awfully tempted to wear this to any events in October. 

Perfect for: Anyone looking to smell like the spooky chill of Autumn will enjoy this one. This has a real Edgar Allen Poe feeling, like The Cask of Amontillado, like smelling the narrator's cologne walking through damp catacombs of the Montresors. 

Moon Milk: Crumbs from almond tuiles and lavender sugar dust, one last sip of Fortuna tea leaves left behind in a porcelain cup reveal chilled chiffon cream illuminated by a single flame glinting off the gold filigree.

Amaretto floods the senses, dusted with sugar and a light dab of lavender. The lavender here is a sharper and a little cold. Paired with a slightly dusty teacup and almond buttercream, there's a distinct note of musty sharp perfume that just hangs around in the distance. It's not quite a tea or a gourmand scent, but it leans toward a herbal tinted atmospheric. It starts off cold, but it gradually warms up on the skin to reveal soft lavenders and almond cream. 

Perfect for: A cup of tea in a mysterious house, surrounded by esoteric trinkets while a ruthless, scathing and sharp woman smiles thinly at you. She's wearing a high collared dress and her hair pulled back into a tight bun, the moonlight staining the walls with cool blue, and candles flickering on the ceiling, but whatever she saw in her cards weren't wrong at all. 

Scaredy Cats: Sheet white marshmallow, midnight sugar cookies and an extinguished candle.

Dusty marshmallows, soft, puffy and powdery, a handful of cookies sprinkled with glistening sugar and the warm wax of a candle and the vague edge of savoury smoke. The marshmallow here is lovely, and the cookies here contain a little bit of desiccated coconut, but there's nothing more I can say about this scent except that it's really pretty much exactly what it says on the label. Give this a bit of rest too if you're getting this fresh out the mail - it's worth it!  

Perfect for: Late night cravings, trying to roast marshmallows over a single candle, and smushing whatever biscuits you have at hand in order to approximate the feeling of a campfire s'more with nothing else but sugar and a dream. If you love gourmands, this will fit into your cart very nicely. 

Lights Across the Sky - Circles of sun-bleached wheat, twilight musk, English lavender and upturned fennel bulbs. Shaking saucers under steaming cups of Earl Grey sink into comforting vanilla cream.

This scent is almost transfixing in its ethereal quality. It opens with a burst of bright and cold lavender (a sharper version of your normal, essential oil lavender, very similar to Moon Milk's), which slowly dies into the tell tale herbal bite of fennel. It's a little savoury, like a mortar and pestle combo of harvested herbs, thrown against a background of soft vanilla cream and soft musk. For me, it don't get much wheat or tea at all, and if you apply too much it can run slightly soapy, but sniffing this does feel a lot like the beaming light of a unidentified flying object in an empty field of fennel and lavender. 

Perfect for: Weird flashing lights in the sky are really concerning but it's probably your fault that you went into an empty field with a mysterious symbol etched into it. Maybe you're staring into a bowl at your kitchen after crushing herbs for a new spell. Either way, it feels a little like an out of body experience. 

Disclaimer: All of these products were purchased with my own money. I was not sponsored for this review or affiliated with this brand, and all opinions are my own, and do not reflect the brand's opinions or interests.