NAVA: Squid's Ink and Neon Cat

I've been taking some time to really delve into NAVA's expansive and complex catalogue, and the sound of some of their Halloween/Fall resurgence blends were definitely calling to me this year. I picked up quite a few of these and slowly working my way through them. I picked these up during the Ajevie pre-order slot, but they're available directly via their website - but they only ship domestically within the US. 

For full disclosure - I often find myself very frustrated and discouraged when trying to purchase from NAVA due a variety of reasons, including their expansive catalogue, their lack of international shipping, their full size only format and also the very limited window you get to purchase their seasonal collections (seven weeks if it doesn't sell out first), and they're admittedly quite pricey - limited collection scents come in at $29USD for 5ml bottles (5.8USD per 1ml). I picked these up knowing I definitely wouldn't be able to get any full sizes of these, but I confess that my curiosity for people's love for the classic indie brands won out. I'm definitely glad I picked some of these up, although my hit rate for NAVA has definitely been more of a 50/50 so far. 

Squid's Ink - Black Rose Petals, Lemon Zest, Raspberry, Strawberry, White Sandalwood, Moonstone (Studio Limited) Absolute, Bulgarian Rose absolute

From the vial, this one is a lovely sweet fruit soda blend, with a sharp lemon zest with a touch of sandalwood. On my skin while wet, I actually didn't immediately love this - it retains that fruity sweet soda vibe with a touch of candied rose. My first reaction when smelling this rose definitely reminded me more of a Turkish rose with the almost jammy aspect, but when huffing this a little closer, I definitely got that harsh potpourri/hand soap rose which clean and astringent. However, on dry down, this is absolutely everything I wanted it to be - the Bulgarian rose comes through as more of a crushed, green rose petal here, paired with the almost honey/candied syrups of the raspberry and strawberry. The sandalwood and moonstone absolute here are definitely more of a 'nuance' addition, something to add a little depth and character to the scent without overwhelming the blend but they're not noticable at all. For me, I really like this, it reminds me of a rose forward version of Chateau de Chambord (MoonaLisa) which happens to be one of my all time favorite scents, and although I'm not the biggest floral fan, I absolutely love a good rose blend. I like that this one has a really full bodied shape for a floral as well. I will note, this is probably one of the biggest changes between wet and dry down performances I've tried - and since my skin tends to pull out sweetness in scents, I can definitely see this being a very skin chemistry dependent scent. But for me, it just works. I will definitely be carefully using this slonk. 

On that note, I feel like Squid's Ink is such a wild name for this blend? I didn't come across any explanation for it and I know there's not a huge amount of context for some indie names, but the completely lack of association between the name and the notes gives me a mild amount of cognitive dissonance. Low key love a squid ink spaghetti tho. 

Neon Cat - Vanilla Cupcake with Buttercream frosting, Coconut Crème, Coconut Pudding accord, Studio Limited Crystalline Vanilla absolute with raw pumpkin shaving.

From the vial, this is a rich vanilla buttercream. On initial application, all of the notes play well with one another, with the creamy vanilla buttercream paired with the greenness of the coconut, and just a hint of savoury, nuttiness from the pumpkin flesh. On dry down, this scent actually reminded me a lot of Pyramid Vanille 2 (NAVA, French Vanilla, Tahitian Vanilla, Ember Vanilla and Bastet's Ice Cream Vanilla Absolute (Vanilla Crystalline Cream, Butter accord, Caramel Accord, French Vanilla Bean Absolute, Vanilla Milk accord, Vanilla Orchid, Crystalline Absolute and Vanilla Sugar) which ended up leaning quite coconut heavy on my skin - very much a vanilla/coconut scent with a touch of bakery warmth, although on me, it leans a little into playdoh vanilla when I huff it a little closer. I think the pumpkin note is what differentiates this from all their other vanilla scents, but it's largely absent after dry down, which is a shame because I think it gives this scent a much needed authentic foodie 'warmth' that I really like. 

Personally, my overall feelings on NAVA vanillas is lukewarm at best, there's definitely a huge range of different types of vanilla and NAVA has one of the most expansive catalogues, but a lot of them tend to turn a little plastic-y on my skin, and to be honest, end up with a lot of overlap in what they do smell like. NAVA also loves throwing a sneaky musk note in their blends, which I'm largely quite wary about. I'd say I don't mind Neon Cat, and will most likely be using up the slonk I've got, but as someone who's sampled most of their main Vanilla blends, I'd say this is one you can probably safely skip if you've already tried a few NAVAnillas.