Alkemia: Silken Tent, Gateaux d'Anniversaire, Cupid's Arrow Review

Information about the brand and my order: 

I made a small order a while ago with Alkemia - I've never directly bought from the brand before and was excited to try their scents as I'd only ever picked up a few scents here and there from swaps.  

In terms of my ordering experience, I previously made an order in September last year which unfortunately got lost in the post. I reached out the Alkemia and they got back to me and offered a choice of a refund or a replacement package, and I decided to opt for the refund instead. They were really quick and effective in their response which I really appreciated, and both orders I've placed with them had very short TAT (within a week), and their customer service is super responsive (which is great, especially when things go wrong). 

I decided to make another order this year during April as they had the Cherry Blossom Monthly Alchemy blend for orders over $50 - and I'm a sucker for sakura in every form (though it can really be said for most Japanese inspired blends). 

This review is definitely one of many to come, but overall I didn't have a very high hit rate with Alkemia - the general feeling of this house, despite being an indie oil based one, is very niche/mainstream. To be totally honest, due to the more well blended, mainstream aspects of these blends make it really difficult for me to really pick up anything distinct - one of the main reasons why I only exclusively purchase indies. 

Most of the scents to me reminded me a lot of scents you'd find in department stores. While it's not personally my thing, I'd definitely recommend Alkemia as a brand for people who like mainstream/niche perfumes but want to start branching out into indies.  

Cupid's Arrow: Sugar cubes effervescing in sparkling champagne, seductive pink orchids and white tuberoses, tempting vanilla toffees, and fragrant Buddha's Hand.

This wasn't one I was originally eyeing - I don't usually prefer florals but this one is oddly nice. It's a sweet, slightly fruity floral scent - I get sugar cubes, but I can't really pick up on any of the champagne, orchids or tuberose at all (and white florals tend to be dominant notes and super easy to pick up on). Overall it has a slightly musky, almost strawberry like sweetness with little touches of sweet florals. I want to classify this as a flourmand (technically it has the sugar/strawberry and floral), but due to the general veil of 'perfumery', it's not a very distinct scent to me. However, I do enjoy this one - it's got a light breezy feeling about it, and I think it would work really well for an office setting. 

Gateaux d'Anniversaire: Golden spiced birthday cake with strawberry-rosewater glaze icing

Opening with a burst of sweet rosewater - this is a lovely fragrant scent, and I really like this. After dry down, a more medicinal sickly sweet strawberry essence emerges and .... there it is - my festive spice death note. Despite the opening being really lovely, the combination of the harsh festive spices on top of a medicinal strawberry and no cake to be found, this did not work very well for me. I would say though - I did at least pick up on most of the notes with ease, so this definitely fits the gourmand profile, but didn't work for me.  

Silken Tent: Candied angelica, chrysanthemums, white flowering Nardo, clove flowers, jasmine-scented rice pudding, blonde caramel, infused with golden amber.

This is one of Alkemia's best sellers - due to the 'rice pudding' note, it's often mentioned alongside Madar (Poesie) as a popular rice note. That said, this scent is not similar to Madar at all - Madar is far more of a traditional indie, and actually channels the scent of real rice pudding, whereas the rice pudding in this scent is pretty much absent. On my skin, this scent smells more like spicy white pepper, amber and a touch of clove - the white floral notes of this are very faint on my skin. It's very mainstream on me - and another scent I find hard to pick out individual notes for, but I find the whole combination a bit too strong for me. 

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.