NCD: Bees 2024

A very belated review of the Bees for 2024! I'm always pleased to get a Bees' order because it always comes with my April blends, but also, I absolutely adore the honey accord from NCD. Without further ado. 

(And - Thank you as always to Forest and Josh at NCD for sending these press samples through! ) 

Honey Trap - Yellow snapdragon, white rose, early spring honey, candied lemon peel, clove bud, and Venus flytrap accord.

This is a gorgeous, super floral and light blend, featuring pale rose, with just a tinge of honey, and snipped thin green stems. For me, although I initially got a blast of floral, there's also a heavy element of soft grassy freshness here and a touch of watery green that intensifies over time. Although I enjoy the opening, the slow dry down of this scent goes from the more sugary sweet scent with bright petals and cut stems to more of a musky soapy floral, a little clean and a little like starched cotton sheets. I don't love the dry down of this one on my skin, but the opening is truly a lovely hyperrealistic flower market vibe. 

Honey, I'm Home - Snowdrops and fresh nectar from their first petals unfurled, golden sunlight, yellow crocus, and warmed honeycomb. 

I really love this scent, this is NCD's honey note at it's sweetest and most fragrant. Freshly applied, it's a stunning blast of sticky, aromatic honey, although it quickly seeps into the skin and allows for a gorgeous earthiness from the crocus to blossom forth. I love the balance here between the sweetness that slowly dries down into more of a darker, caramelized stickiness from the honeycomb, with just a touch of lemon zest, with the crushed petals of the crocus at the heart of this blend grounding it, adding a little earthy sweet floral quality to it. The first few times I wore this, I noticed more of a lemon honey sugar profile with blend, although it's gotten a little more syrupy and darker over time. I like this scent in both ways, but it's mostly the gorgeous warm honey note here that's really carrying this blend, and I would unabashedly wear this whenever I need something sweet. 

Parisian Apiary - Rooftop hives in the City of Lights inspire this sweetly chic huile de parfum. Cherry blossom, silver linden, white pear, and cafe au lait sweetened with French honey.

Admittedly, the first few times I tried this scent, I didn't love it 

this morphs and develops into more of a soft sweet honey speckled with poached pears and cream. the cafe au lait here was definitely stronger at first, but it ust adds liek a little bit of aromatic nuttiness, although for me, its more of a indistnct creamy sweet note. i dont quite get any of the florals as noticable notes, it's mostly just a swet blend of honey and cream with some added nuances 

i like it a lot more that its rested - but give it a few months 

Aphro-Bee-Siac -  Black vanilla bean, dragon’s blood resin, ambrette seed, wood musk, barely a spritz of blood orange, and spiced Beltane honey infused with orris root. 

really bitter and really resinous - it has a sort of witchy vibe to it from the dragons blood and the wood/cedarwood blended with orris root, i really dont think i like this very much 

it has a bit celery 

old honey cupboard 

its very dark and stricky with the resin but paired with other notes, it feels almost like too heady and almost 

not a fan of how musky and dark the scent is, it really gives me the bupboard vibes 

idk what else to say beisdes its just too heavy and woody for me i hate resin so its really not something im going to reach for at all 

Nocturnal Bees - Forbidden rice, honeyed black walnut, wild violet, moonflower, and night-blooming jasmine.

this is rancid 

indolic jasmine cat pee 

the black walnut is also kinda rotting 

i think i really dislike this one 

Bee Not Afraid - Angelic incense, cirrus clouds, glowing beeswax candles, bedstraw, and honey gathered from an ancient cathedral hive.

this is really dark and incense/beeswax with the faintest sweetness. this is very much a type of church blend - super dark and resinouns and

it has a sort of dry quality as well - 

creamy honey pops out after dry down 

it also has a really dark almost woody, mahogony quality 

Honeycomb Conjecture - Crystallized honey, sturdy oak, cedarwood, granite, ebony, and roasted roots.

 

blast of super sticky, rich, syrupy honey 

bolstered by oak, wood, really dark richnesses 

its almost molasses like 

It gets a little like, medicinal adjacent on closer inspection, but the larger scent cloud is far more sweet