A Day of Testing

Today was a day of testing. Yesterday a long awaited scent arrived, Possets' Cambienne - Bête Noire, and the recently ordered samples from The Perfume Garden. Because The Perfume Garden has a Spring Sale which ends tomorrow, I wanted to test these scents first. I did not remember the descriptions and I chose one without previously sniffing it.

Jewel

The first impression was a light waft of citrus against a sort of sweet resinous background. I thought I recognized perubalsam, so I looked at the notes and saw that it was not among them. The scent's description is:

A warm base of Sandalwood, Organic Vanilla from Madagascar and Patchouli, a floral heart of Damask Rose, Egyptian Orange Blossom and Indian Jasmine, and top notes of Bergamot from Italy and Sweet Orange.

So perhaps I took the sandalwood, patchouli and vanilla combination for perubalsam. The initial citrus notes did not linger long, which is as one expects for citrus notes. What remained was a warm rich slightly sweet resinous wood scent which I enjoyed very much. It had a rather good staying power. But I was curious, so in the evening I tried another scent:

Sacred Woods

I expected much from this scent because I love wood scents. But among the wood scents there was one note that disagreed with me. I think it must have been the jatamansi (not a wood although it was mentioned in the list of woods, but a plant from the family of Valerianaceae) because I can not imagine any of the other notes having this effect on me:

A blend of Himalayan and Atlas Cedarwood, Jatamansi, cultivated Agarwood from Assam, Ho Wood, Sandalwood, Myrrh and Frankincense resins, with floral notes including Pink Lotus, Rose and Ylang Ylang softening the strong woody scent.

I am very sorry this one didn't work on me and I shall try it again on another day.** For today I changed to:

Butterfly

Butterfly from the vial smelled exactly as described:

Like the flight of a graceful butterfly, this light floral fragrance is delicate and feminine, and perfect as a reminder of sunny spring days.

Main Notes: Lavender Absolute, Neroli, Geranium, Rose, Jasmine, Bergamot and Clary Sage.

But after it settled on my skin it changed. The lightness was lost and it smelled like a bunch of bottles of essential oils. Or like something I made myself and was not pleased about. It makes me think that some of my creations may smell better on someone else, because obviously Butterfly must smell differently on others than it does on me. This one too I shall try on another day.* I changed to another scent for the last time for today:

Cambienne: Bête Noire

The Possets' scent which I bought through eBay. The seller advertised it as 

one of the ever-changing bottles of Cambienne from the company Possets; this fragrance changes its name and ingredients over the course of the year, but it had an incarnation in late 2011 that was extremely popular and sought-after. 

I did some research and found that the creator of the Possets scents has a very interesting way of making the Cambienne scents. She creates a scent which changes with the season and/or when little is left. Or perhaps even when she is inspired to change it. At that moment what has not been sent out to customers yet is the start of a new scent. This particular edition was described as:

Blackest musk and blackest vanilla, black leather and black coffee, black pepper and black amber. Again a lashing of black vanilla (Bourbon).

I loved the way it smelled in the bottle, but again on my skin I liked it much less. However, it is a very interesting scent and I shall test it again on some other day. I think it is the pepper that makes it hard for me to like it on this day when I am tired.

* * *

This makes Jewel the only scent I immediately liked today. And of course it is the one with the highest price. I have an expensive taste.

* I did try Butterfly on another day and it smelled like lavender then. Which makes sense, because my skin seems to amp lavender.

** Sacred Woods I tested again the day after Butterfly and this time it was the wonderful wood scent I had expected. I do wonder what happened on my testing day, when both Butterfly and Sacred Woods did not smell as they should to me. What has not changed for any of The Perfume Garden's scents is that they are very light scents that stay close to the skin and that I tend to reapply more often than any other perfume I have used.