Brand: Alkemia
Scent Description: A flirtatiously feminine enchantment of gourmand white sugar musk, creamy Madagascar vanilla, white sandalwood, tonka bean, white amber, and pale sugar cane.
A collection of indie perfume reviews
Brand: Alkemia
Scent Description: A flirtatiously feminine enchantment of gourmand white sugar musk, creamy Madagascar vanilla, white sandalwood, tonka bean, white amber, and pale sugar cane.
Pretty sophisticated, mild close to the skin scent
Thick, golden. Not quite honey or caramel, but it gives a similar impression. It’s warm and bright and cozy, like hot honeyed tea when you’re fending off a sore throat. I like this one a lot when I’m feeling a little sick. As a former barista who has used both the mass-manufactured stuff and made the stuff from scratch (including a raw sugar version), this does not smell like simple syrup. I think it’s the amber and maybe the sandalwood that makes it too thick and golden to smell like simple syrup.
Sorta fits into the “ambiguously syrupy-sweet” category with Alkemia Ghost Fire, NAVA Eternal Ankh, Hexennacht Loup-Garou and Le Chat Noir.
On me, it’s buttery vanilla cookies. Pretty straightfoward, the vanilla is there, but so is a nice, again, for lack of a better word, buttery sort of smell. It’s pretty gourmand on me. It’d probably be fine in all seasons, but it makes me think more of late fall into winter when most people are baking up a storm.
Cloyingly sweet, gourmand vanilla with strangely coconutty (and eventually PlayDoh-y) tones when combined with the sugar and tonka. Amber and sandalwood are detectable only if you hunt for them, clashing with the creamier notes to give off facets of burning wood and plastic (thankfully not burning plastic, but still unpleasant). The drydown is musky and rather resembles a sugared-up version of their Luminae scent. Much too saccharine for me.
My skin hates this one, and to be honest this isn’t really a sweet smell to me. It’s not offensive but from the notes I thought it was going to be wayyyy sweeter than it was
Very sweet, creamy, gourmand, perfumy, and warm. Perfumy white amber, gourmand vanilla, caramel, sugar cane, something almost nutty (similar to hazelnut), and a hint of white musk. The white musk is a high-pitched screechy type, but there’s only a whisper of it so all it does is temper the sweetness a bit (which is much appreciated). I do enjoy sweet scents, but I feel this is just slightly over the top for me. I still like it though.
Like and recommend to those who enjoy very sweet perfumy scents.
5/10 I loved the sweet notes but this was way too powdery scented on my skin. I wanted to like this, but it fell short for me.
10/10 One of my most favorite perfumes ever. On me it is a complex sugared tonka mixed with creamy vanilla. It is very comforting and delicious. I use it for a sleep scent even. I love it and use it constantly.
Very gentle and pleasant sweet vanilla. On me there is very little throw and the scent is fairly light.
My skin didn’t like this one. It was very pretty in the bottle; soft, feminine and sweet. The amber and Tonka did something a bit too caramel-y for me, so this would be good for caramel lovers and lovers if ultra rich sugar scents.
Sweet and nice vanilla sugar – it’s very soft and subtle.
6.5/10 Affaire de coeur – a simple sweet vanilla musk. Not very unique, but warm and pleasant