Terralba Masque

Desirability: Sample

Source: twistedlily.com

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." Khalil Gibran

Refreshing. Citrus. Woody. Aromatic. Herbal. Salty? Breathing in Terralba feels as stress-relieving and invigorating as practising ujjayi breathing. A cool salt-encrusted breeze carried in from the sea, tinged with sour citrus fruit, filtered through endless forests green and brown before reaching you sitting perched on a rocky ledge with an eagle's eye view of miles of unspoiled nature. I'll put a gin and tonic in the picture as juniper is egging me on to give it airtime. 

I would like this as a room fragrance or to smell it on another person but not something to wear personally. I need my intense brooding Orientals and this as pleasant as it is, is too vegetal! Still, I recommend at least sampling this. Uniquely weird yet nice. 

Quercus Penhaligon`s

Source: www.penhaligons.com

I will confess that I blind bought Quercus after having a bout of infatuation with Jilly Cooper's books where Tabitha Campbell Black was purportedly using the cologne and driving all the men crazy. I was curious as to what was so alluring about it. Answer. Nothing. It's not sexy and I assume the men were probably lusting after Tabitha so much that anything associated with her was taken as arousing. 

I don't tend to gravitate towards clean/fresh/aquatic/aromatic/cologne types. However Quercus has been a staple in my closet since the first bottle along with its accompanying liquid soap and body lotion. Not very original, it reminds me of so many other cologne types ranging from department store CK One to niche brands but there's something about it that makes me choose to replenish instead of replacing it. Talking about CK One I disagree with the pooh-pooh reviews that Quercus is a dead ringer for CK One, in a side by side comparison the former is softer and elegant and the latter loud and brash. 

I am ambivalent about citrus as it can get screechy on me but in Quercus it smells like a basket with various citrus fruit, not just one type, fresh, green and sunny. A bouquet of delicate white flowers. There's a tiniest bit of spice and the usually gregarious galbanum is muted here. In the drydown there is a sheer musk and mossy wood notes. It's as if all the ingredients were thrown into water and diluted to soft impressions of their usual selves. Average sillage and longevity. Natural smelling and well constructed. Lovely. 

Bambolina Hilde Soliani

Desirability: Decant

Juicy and bright, Bambolina smells youthful and is radiant with good health. 

Crochet wig. Source: http://www.hiddeninfrance.typepad.com/

I scoffed when I read the listed notes for Bambolina, what on earth are aquatic fruit? Sea coconuts? Now I know and no it's not sea coconuts. Bambolina smells...watery. It's as if you took some fresh fruit (juicy cherries front and centre), crispy greens and citruses, sliced them up and immersed them in iced water, letting their juices diffuse and create a delicious thirst-quencher.

I was puzzled when i smelt roses when there aren't any listed. Luckily my nose isn't wrong, it's the cherry blossom note. I was 3 years old when I enjoyed my first and since then last, Hanami in Japan so I won't be a reliable source for how cherry blossoms smell. However, Google says that cherry blossoms smell green and fresh with a similarity to roses. Puzzle solved.

The inspiration for Bambolina was purportedly a walk in the middle of June when a shower of rain caused Hilde Soliani to seek cover under a cherry tree.  This scent replicates that scene to a T, from the brilliant sunshine, the cooling raindrops trickling down, the smell of the fruit on the tree and the faint muskiness that rises off skin in humidity. Sheer bliss!

This elixir of relaxation does not project much but has excellent longevity. Another for the wish list!

After the Rain Arran Aromatics

This is my second fragrance from Arran Aromatics, Driftwood being my first acquisition, both reflecting the mission statement of the company:

"Your antidote to modern living. Apothecary draws on centuries of knowledge of essential oils and wellbeing; like lavender to bring a sense of island calm and aloe vera to heal, soothe and nourish."

An excerpt from the write up for After the Rain on the Arran Aromatics website is as follows:

 "... After the Rain was inspired by our founder Janet's desire to capture the unique, fresh scent of her Arran garden following a rain storm. An irresistibly fresh fragrance to make you feel awakened, cleansed and re-discovered, After the Rain contains essential oils of Lime, Lavandin, Mandarin, Juniper and Cardamom."

Fragrantica lists the notes as follows: Top notes are citruses and floral notes; middle notes are rose and jasmine, base notes are precious woods and musk.

So what does it smell like on me?

It smells cold. It reminds me of living in Ireland, of my weekends on the Atlantic coast with a bracing salty and icy wind clearing out my lungs and head. The grass and leaves are dark to emerald green, not the sun burnt yellow green we have here under a perennially scorching sun. The air there always smelt pure and invigorating, far away from the pollution of the big cities, with a sweetness I attributed to the nearby ocean and the flowers of the garden, flowers that can't survive in my tropical country, flowers of a thousand colours and smells. 

Irish coastline 

Where Apres l'Ondee smells of fragile dew drops balancing on delicate violet flowers, After the Rain smells robust, of trees and plants renewed after a big shower, their leaves all green and glistening with rain, the soil damp and brown, the heat rising from the earth, drawing a moist musky smell upwards, your wellies squishing in the mud as you take a deep inhale of the sweet wildflowers and watch the rays of the sun break through the grey skies above. 

The scent is linear and the notes are jumbled together but it doesn't come across as being discordant, it's refreshingly simple without being boring or common and it can't be dismissed as just another clean scent. I won't classify this as a floral scent as it is in Fragrantica, it is more of an aromatic woody scent and sits firmly in the unisex.

The sillage is good and the longevity is decent, it stays on me for about four to six hours. I highly recommend this for being unique, inexpensive and of good quality.