Saturday 28 June 2014

Darling Clandestine Floral and Sweet Perfume reviews

Darling Clandestine's floral and sweet scents are as original and unexpected as the rest of their line (except perhaps Tilt-A-Whirl), so if you prefer smelling typically feminine these scents will add more intriguing note than your standard perfume.



Floral:

Pistolas
Gardenia, lavender, city sidewalks, tobacco leaf
Gardenia, not a sterile, sweet petals-only white floral, but the whole living plant. The etherial fragrance of the flower against the backdrop of leaves and life. Beautifully feminine, innocent but not naive, a fragrance for a unicorn or fairy.


Sadly my local florists didn't have any gardenias in stock so...
Source: northernstarkidd on Photobucket


Bete Noire
Peppers, florals
This is what I'd call a dark floral - definitely feminine but in an adult and mysterious way. It's inspired; the essence a James Bond villainess would leave clinging to the pillowcase. 


Black and white iPhone photo from the florist's - so artsy


Blue Valentine
Hyacinth, violet, poppy, fig, whiskey, bitters, musk and mint
Blue Valentine is another scent I just can't place - it's halfway between a floral and something savoury, it's dark, slightly moody but with a crisp clean edge, tangy and maybe ever so faintly minty? This scent is one that's really grown on me as although it's pretty sweet it's very interesting, to be honest it's probably the blue note that I'm loving. 


Friday Night on Bourbon Street, New Orleans

Mad As Birds
Pear, mint, amber and marigolds
Opens the tiniest bit tart/green and blue but quickly dissipates to a soft clean sweetness like honeyed florals, I love this scent which holds solid for about 15 minutes - the lightness keeps the sweetness from being sickly or the florals overwhelming; this is a very girly yet adult scent. Especially straight from the bottle every whiff of this scent brings out different yet harmonious notes, however the glorious juxtaposition of a multitude of light and sweet scents is lost after the 15 minute mark and all I'm left with a a flat vanilla-like bland sweetness. If only the the 'original' scent stuck around on my skin this would be the first and only sweet floral perfume I've ever loved.

I wanted a bright picture of a gorgeous summer picnic for this scent, but it's equally appropriate to wear for girly cocktails on a roof terrace. Which, when you think about it is like the adult version of an afternoon picnic...


Tapadero
Sage, roses, smoke, leather
I wasn't sure where to categorise this scent - it's sexiest thing I've ever smelt, feminine yet strong. It's warm, sharp, deep, fresh, clean and comforting - it's everything, utterly unique and devastatingly beautiful. Hardly a floral but since Evonne rarely lists floral notes in her scents this seemed the most appropriate place for it.


 I wish I knew what type of flower this is: I probably should've asked





Sweet:


Pyrotechnik
Spiced cantaloupe, bold black sky, sweet woods, earth
Opens initially with cantaloupe - so distinct huge orange melon slices were dancing before my eyes. However a myriad of spices break though within seconds giving the candy sweetness depth and distinction. It appears to be a contradiction: the almost sickly sweetness with the smoke and the spices. However it really works, and almost feels like an instant classic pairing - like oranges and cloves or lemon and honey. Against all odds I actually really like this perfume, despite the fact I don't particularly want to - it smells too delicious for my taste.


Source: legendproduce.com/fruit/cantaloupe/


Tilt-A-Whirl
Citrus, passionfruit, sage
Opens sweet but tart, fading after a few seconds to tart but sweet and finally settling to equal amounts of sweet and tart. Really, that's all this fragrance is - it has a distinct candy-and-candle thing going on, and is probably DC's least interesting and complex fragrance. This is definitely a little girl scent - sickly sweet with a bit of sass. It's really just nice - nothing more and nothing less.


I had a pretty adorable duckling phase with shark teeth


Dewlap Valentine
Strawberry, banana, greens, reptile
After the initial gagging sweetness of artificial fruit it fades to an almost tolerable sweetness, overpowering something earthy, damp and ever so slightly green.  It's sickly sweet, cloying, and heavy with an air of decomposition. Although this is hands down my least favourite DC scent to date, I have to admire the fact that Evonne really has captured a little fruit and veg loving reptile's terrarium odour.


Source: flickr.com/photos/62438660@N03/5911538750/


Hellbender
Ginger, amber, vanilla
Initially Hellbender is all gorgeous warm ginger (not the nose-burning tingly kind) with beautiful deep sweetness conjuring a warm kitchen and baked goods. However the sweetness overpowers the ginger a few seconds out of the bottle and settles to a rather boring sweet scent. It's a lovely scent, but sadly not particularly exciting or interesting, and the final dry down smells almost identical to Mad As Birds' and Carny Wedding's without the smoke.


Source: hidethecheese.com/hide_the_cheese/2009/05/candied-ginger-scones.html


Carny Wedding
Butter, sugar, wood, smoke
What makes Carny Wedding interesting is the fact the creamy sweetness and the potent smoke intermingle with every sniff - it's not just sweet smoke or smokey sweetness, the two scent elements dance over and around each other with every inhalation like two separate scents carried on the same wind. However after a few seconds the opposing forces settle into something intriguing, unique, reminiscent perhaps of a 1930s circus, the air heavy with the push and pull of life. A strange scent, and not altogether appealing to me.


A fantastic book and entertaining movie
Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/12/preview-review-water-for-elephants-pattinson-witherspoon-trailer.html



These scents were particularly interesting to review as I don't have a particularly sweet tooth nor like gourmand perfumes, and find most generic and commercial floral scents distinctly boring  - thus it was more of a challenge. However I love all of Darling Clandestine's florals as they are infinitely more original and alive than the usual flat floral, and Tapadero is one of my all time favourite scents. Of the sweet scents Pyrotechnik is definitely my favourite, and Hellbender would be vying for that place if only the warm ginger scent lasted longer than a few minutes out of the bottle. I'm not sure if it's my skin chemistry that transforms a lot of Evonne's carefully blended intoxicating sweet scents to something akin to a flat vanilla after 15 minutes, but it definitely prevents me really falling in love with Mad As Birds.


Love,


Saskia X


Friday 27 June 2014

Darling Clandestine Green and Blue Scent Reviews

Pacific Crest/John Muir Trail in Yosemite National Park, California


Patrick Suskind's novel 'Perfume' is one of my all time favourite books, however when reading it I can't help but lament the fact that I will never smell perfumes as complex and alive as the protagonist created, until now. Since my last post I've fallen head over heels in love with Darling Clandestine - trying to decipher their enigmatic scents is so entertaining and satisfying as, unlike other perfumes, it's incredibly difficult to pick out individual notes or even general ingredients. Moreover scent notes cannot even begin to describe DC's perfumes, and frequently do them a huge injustice as they're often irrelevant to the unique harmony they create - it's like trying to describe a work of art purely by the Pantone numbers used to paint it.

Instead of photographing almost identical looking samples and bitsy vials for each review, and to add a personal touch, I've tried to find photos I've taken that express the essence of each scent - I hope it's helpful or at least entertaining!

And finally, as always, I sniff and write my reviews before I look up the perfume descriptions and scent notes so they don't influence me too much, although of course I do remember vaguely what each should smell like from when I bought them. So without further adieu, here is Part 1 of my mega scent review series:



Green:

Gram Negative
Orchid, soil, moss, lichens, tea
This scent smells exactly like a greenhouse: musty earth, fresh soil and damp greenery. As a scent I love it, but as a perfume it's pretty weird so I mostly just sniff the jar and smile.

This gorgeous snake's colouring perfectly fits the mood of the perfume, just imagine he's basking on damp earth.
Anyway, terrariums are sort of like greenhouses right?


Maudlin & Bedlam
Honey, herbals, wood, green leaves
Gram Negative's fresher sister - the greenery is brighter, lighter with an edge that isn't sweet like florals but... alive maybe. There's definitely fresh soil but without the mustiness that indicates damp and warmth. If Gram Negative is the ground in autumn/winter Maudlin & Bedlam is the same ground filled with news plants in spring.

A swamp just outside New Orleans, Louisiana


Limerence
Lilies, succulents, herbs, mitti attar
The "floral for those who don't like florals" - this was the scent I've been most eager to try as I both love and hate florals. It smells like a florist's when you first step in - green, alive, and bright with the sharpness of freshly cut stems without the sweetness of flowers: a pervading sense of bright, clean, green, light, fresh.

Somewhere in the Sierra Nevada, California, about half way through the John Muir Trail


Serpentina
Green tea, opium
Sepentina is a darker, warm green - it doesn't smell like living plants and is a much more comforting scent. It has an incense like backdrop which adds both warmth and depth but smells nothing like actual incense or smoke, this is what Mother Nature would smell like.

Aerial shot of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, from a light aircraft


La La La All Right
Breeze, fields, river and road
Intense fresh cut greenery - the smell of fort building amongst the bushes of your garden during the summers of childhood. Initially very sharp like a shot of wheatgrass but mellows to something warmer before settling to a softly sharp green, warm air and sun baked... something. Evonne is a genius - it's a sumer road-trip in a convertible driving on sunbaked tarmac surrounded by fields and blue skies!


Yosemite National Park, California



Green-ish:


Cloudswing
Lemongrass, vanilla, wood, marigolds
Lemongrass is one of the most distinctive scents for me having practically bathed in it as a mosquito repellant, Cloudswing however adds a whole new dimension (lemongrass is aptly named - it's citrus-y sharp and green) bringing a golden warmth and depth with what feels like the muted fire of ginger and hay. Imagine you're in a barn warm in your sleeping bag and covered in bugspray - essentailly, Cloudswing = summer camp.


Everyone loves summer camp! Blue Ridge Mountains North Carolina


Step Right Up
Blue-green, spicy, oceanic
The sharp freshness of greens mixed with the moodiness of blues give you a living but not earthy outdoors scent. I can't smell any pine in here but it has the same feeling as pines - green, but cold and sharp too. To me this is a mountain lake surrounded by trees. Cold air and chopping wood in the winter, very sexy.


Kings Canyon National Park, California



Blue:

Monstre Delicat
Fig, rain, spiced wood, storms
I had no idea a scent could be moody until I smelt this perfume - at first it's aloof and cold, but with a strange underlying comfort that is not warm or sweet but... solid. Almost like despite its indifference to you this scent will always be there for you. Really though this scent is beautiful - it's a rainy day in a bottle, at first cold rain on the window leads to melancholy, but opens up to the possibility of a day spent with an old book and a blanket.

Denali State Park, Alaska


Mishigami
Lakes, sand
Watery, without a shadow of a doubt. For the first second it smells almost green but that disappears almost instantly giving way to the melancholy of Monstre Delicat, but without the solid base. This perfume is in every sense of the word all liquid. Every sniff brings to mind something to do with water - the air before a rain, a breeze across a lake, damp skin on the dock, rain on the road, rain on the grass, rain in your hair. I honestly have no idea how a scent can be 'watery' but this one is - not 'watered down' or damp or moist, but huge and wet and deep. (I'm not sure how to edit that sentence to make it less... anyway). This is one of DC's lightest and subtlest perfumes, I can't sense anything solid to it like earth, leather, smoke or skin, but it's deep. It's a deep lake of blue.

Chobe River, Botswana


Vortex
Cold, blue, white
Mountain air - empty mountain air - when you've climbed so high every breath is deep due to its thinness. It's snow, it's cold, it's the biting wind. Brutally beautiful. Cold, clean, expansive. White but not sterile, with the clear blue sky beating down on you. I honestly have no idea how Evonnne creates scents like these - I can't pick out a single note of anything, but can understand exactly what the scent is trying to convey. If Mishigami is the blue of water, this is the blue of the air.

Goat Rocks Mountains, Washington



Overall, I adore every single one of these perfumes which is 
completely unsurprising as I love anything and everything outdoorsy, my favourites for myself to wear are Limerence and Serpentina, but I also particularly love the scents of Step Right Up, Monstre Delicat, Mishigami and Vortex. Moreover all of these scents are unisex as they contain no stereotypical gendered notes (like florals or 'Old Spice'-ness) and personally I'd be incredibly impressed to catch a whiff of a man smelling like mountain air instead of A&F's Fierce, unfortunately most of the time I'm in mountain air with men none of us have showered in at least a week...


On that delicious note, love,


Saskia X