indie

Scent Trunk Box Review!

Posted on by elemonated

A fellow smelly had done a review of what they got from the baby company (May 2014!) Scent Trunk in a Youtube video a few weeks back, so I decided I’d try it out! I’m a sucker for the niche and the indie, and I was excited when the box got here so quickly after only about a week’s time. My referral code is 8522, or you can click here to sign up.

I did have a few technical difficulties regarding the site, but their customer service (aka Will Yin, who is also CEO; love that entrepreneurship) cleaned that up quickly, and I can see that they’re still going through a few design transitions, which doesn’t bother me at all. I kind of feel like they sent me the regular starter pack though; two of the fragrances sent to me were on their back-to-school blog post, and while that is admittedly my demographic, it’s not as though this was my first foray into niche fragrance. (I’m about to get to reviewing the glut of Imaginary Authors samples I have by the way!) But I mean, it’s not as if they knew that, and I haven’t tried any of the brands they sent, so that’s definitely a plus.

They did send Mr. Chokkattu almost explicitly feminine and floral scents though he ordered unisex and I helped him move his sliders to where we thought we’d get something in his ballpark of woody and oriental, so that was rather strange.

However, I’m holding on until the next box at least! Hopefully it works out a little better. On to the reviews!

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By Kilian: Imperial Tea and Love and Tears Review!

Posted on by elemonated

By Kilian won the Indie Fragrance Foundation Award for Amber Oud and Playing with the Devil, so perhaps I should have started with those two, but I’m on a jasmine kick at current, so this will just have to do until I go back.

Imperial Tea

Wet: magnolia, jasmine, green tea, water
Dry: jasmine, magnolia, violet, musk 

This one confused me when I sat down to review it. In the air, it turns into something closer to what jasmine green tea smells like. And I’ve sprayed it on other people and each time, I more or less received a black tea in a jasmine garden. Light, fragrant, tannic but not aquatic, and the jasmine took its place where it realistically would in a black tea: as a strong background character. Now it’s a green tea with jasmine and magnolia dropped in it, maybe a tablespoon of cream near a pond. I don’t take cream with my tea, so that takes the dry down away from the water and into the sun for me. It’s a great, uplifting scent, and not too sweet. I find it really comforting. This is perhaps for the librarian who doesn’t take sugar in his tea.

Love and Tears, Surrender

Wet: white floral, indolic jasmine, dandelions
Dry: jasmine milk tea, ylang-ylang, cedar, mulch

Mm, so I just read about the galbanum and petitgrain in this, and I’m almost positive they’re what leads to that realistic, piss-like under-bite to this. Does cedar, styrax and oakmoss together smell like mulch? Because the flowers I’m wearing are definitely still alive and feeding on something.

I feel like my head’s stuck in the roots of a jasmine bush in Asia because of the grassy and indolic facets of the jasmine, but it also reminds me of jasmine boba milk tea and I’m sure that’s due to the creamy ylang-ylang and soft lavender among other things.  It makes my nose feel funny. Now I’m light-headed, but it’s all good. I like it. Like really enjoy it. I sprayed this one a few times before as well, and this one was the one that earned me compliments like “That smells really good, is that you?” and “I need to give whatever that is as a present to someone.” It’s rather sensual and sweet, but still light enough not to trigger headaches. This is the type of scent you want to be rubbing into someone else’s sheets.