What beauty-related thing can I possibly write about this terrible state? Two perfume combination I put on in the morning throughout the week, with hopes that it will make me feel better but unfortunately didn't. The combination of these scents were indeed beautiful. I have perfume on my wrist, on my neck, sometimes in my hair so my pillow gets a good deal of chance to absorb these scents as I was hating myself for being in bed since noon. When I woke up this morning, literally breathing in these scents on my pillow (was sleeping on my stomach) and finding the willpower to get up and do work and not worry my Mum as I just did last night, I wanted to write about them.
A month ago, I shopped for some perfume on femme fatale and got my hands on Solstice Scents, a brand I discovered from Scents and Sea Spray. The scents I chose were Black Leather, Red Lace and Smoky Mountain Mellow. I was curious about leather and smoke notes and I have never had any in my perfume collection. It was probably smarter if I ordered a sample to test if I like these notes, but the thing about having to pay International Shipping is thinking "What if I like it and then have to pay shipping again." So I paid the $20 for each 5ml. Totally irrational btw.
Anyways, both scents made me do the wrinkly forehead thing, followed by a 40-60 chance between "hmm this is surprising" and "maybe I don't like this" face. They were new notes to my body chemistry and I am still trying to figure them out. Black Leather, Red Lace is said to be an erotic scent with a twist of masculine edge with its mix of amber, vanilla and leather. I get a strong leather oiliness on application and it doesn't dissipate for the next 2 hours, with a hint of amber on the skin afterwards, no vanilla whatsoever. Suffice to say, it was uncomfortable to wear. Smoky Mountain Mellow is more complex. It's expectedly very smoky on application and then turns into...something I'm not good enough of a perfume reviewer to write about. I grew up in a tropical climate without the chimneys, the cold of winter and the scents from fireside in a tropical forest is different than that of a Northern forest, I would imagine. What I'm trying to say is I don't recognise or understand the description Solstice Scents provided but I don't have an alternative description for it. In short, it's currently just ashy smoke in my head. It is slightly more organic than BLRL, and by that I mean my nose can accept how it is on my skin, but still an uncomfortable scent to wear.
In order to make them wearable, I opted to mix two scents I knew my nose is familiar with.
The first combination is BLRL and Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely, a distinct white floral perfume which made me discover that I am most comfortable with white floral as a daily scent. It reminds me of a very soft, sheer silk blouse (not that any blouse ever smelled that way, just that lightness y'know), not too powdery and lasts for about 3 to 4 hours. I start with BLRL and then sprayed Lovely, and oh boy they turn into something else. There is something amazing about combining the oily undertones of leather with a lighter floral, they tone each other down into something more earthy and animalistic. Was it a more pronounced amber that I got? I'm not sure. I just knew it smelled amazing.
The next combination is SMM and one of the longest perfume I have in my collection, The Body Shop Vanilla EDT. Vanilla is not a complex scent, it smells exactly like vanilla extract. It doesn't last that well on me and because it is not a strong scent, SMM definitely overpowered it. I got a more acceptable ashy scent, almost homey feel i.e. like if you spray a fall-inspired non-gourmand-vanilla air freshener in your living room. While I am not complaining, I don't think they are as incredible as BLRL & Lovely. So I'm gonna keep on mixing SMM with something else to experiment.
Part of me feels a bit sad that I discovered BLRL & Lovely at a low point in my life. But another part of me took this as a challenge, wanting to live through it. Life's hard, I get my ups and down. What if I get to go through both with this scent, wouldn't that be something? I am currently planning for a post-dissertation-pre-adulthood trip (hopefully an experience on the ups side of life) this coming summer and I know I'll be bringing these two. Also for any concerned reader (if I have any reader that is!), I feel slightly accomplished as I write this blogpost, so thank you for reading. I hope the day gets more productive for me and may next week be a better week. (It has to be, I pray that it will be. I've got my exams.)
