Binxcat's Purrfect Fragrance

House of Matriarch – Woo Released in 2012, Woo is an oriental floral fragrance from the House of Matriarch. Woo opens with a floral-suede accord.   There is a salty marine vibe to the opening without actually being salty.   For me, it’s as if the essence of beachy skin has been captured and layered in with tropical flowers.   About an hour into wear, the initial notes settle a bit and a leafy, dried tobacco joins in.   There is a semi-sweet and smoky earthiness.   That nudges the scent into a dirty-sexy place.   A touch of vanilla bean seems to help round out and soften the tobacco and suede without coming near to being cloying. Woo wears on me with moderate projection for roughly 10 hours. Featured notes: exotic floral notes, sea notes, tobacco, leather, vanilla, ambergris Perfumer: Christi Meshell CRUELTY FREE VEGAN Photo Credit: House of Matriarch

Mirus Fine Fragrance - Ceremony Parfum Extrait If you love oud, or just want to try a good oud-based fragrance, Ceremony is a great place to start.   Nominated for an Art & Olfaction Award in the Artisan category (2017), this woody aromatic hits all the right notes (pun intended).   Oud can be a challenging note for Westerners but I find the blending of notes in this scent to be divine. When Ceremony opens there is no doubt you are going to be experiencing an oud fragrance.   The oud is deep and rich.   There is almost a plushness to it.   It is soon joined by a refreshing light fruity magnolia.   The magnolia adds a clean, lightness to the otherwise very heavy wood note.   As the fragrance wears, swirls of dripping tobacco add complexity.   The tobacco is much like a dried leaf tobacco and there is an air of sweetness to it. At roughly four hours of wear, the complexity of Ceremony is advanced with a soft jasmine that gently waf...

Olibere Parfums - L`Etoile Noire Launched in 2016, L’Etoile Noire (“Noire”) is a study of light and dark; the opposites that we each carry with us.   The notes classify this as an oriental fragrance, however, in my opinion, it is also very much a woody one. Noire opens on me with a contrast.   On the one hand I get an intense bergamot and sharp lemon and on the other I get an achingly intense peppery spice.   There is a heavy smokiness from the gaiac.   As Noire continues to wear I get more and more tones of wood.   I do not identify the wood as specifically being oud, as iterated in the Notes of this fragrance, but rather a general deep, dark woody accord.   At roughly 3 – 4 hours into wear, Noire takes on a powdery aspect.   There is still an echo of citrus, moderate spice, woods, and smoke but in comes a softened rose and what seems like patchouli.   There is a dried tobacco leaf as well as a very soft dried rose petal. In the...

Twisted Wonderland Perfumery - What’s In The Hookah I enjoy supporting Indie and Niche brands of fragrance.   When I first heard about Twisted Wonderland Perfumery I felt an immediate connection to the brand name.   For me, and many others, fragrance is a means of expression.   It’s a way to express a moment, a mood, a personality.   It’s a way to transport yourself to a different place and time.   The brand name alone speaks to the child in us – full of excitement and wonder.   I took the advantage of placing an order for several samples.   What’s In The Hookah (“Hookah”) is the first I’ll be reviewing. Tobacco is a favorite note of mine and Hookah is all about the tobacco.   The fragrance opens with a glorious woody pipe tobacco.   It is so deep and full of life you can almost feel it swirling around you.   If you love the smell of pipe tobacco, this is one you will want to keep inhaling…slowly and deliberately.   As Hoo...

Perfumology – Grange Grange is the follow-up fragrance to Perfumology’s first release, Blyss.   Grange is not a flanker to Blyss, which was created as a love letter to the creator’s wife, but instead embodies something entirely different; that of fragrance as memory. This citrus wood scent is named and inspired by childhood near the Grange Estate.   (You can read more about the Estate here:   http://bit.ly/2F8EX8R ).   The Estate sits on a hillside just above Cobbs Creek in Havertown, Pennsylvania.   It is here that the childhood memories were first created. Grange opens with a zesty lime and juicy orange.   These notes are almost effervescent.   There is a sense of movement that I get from the sparkling quality.   The opening seems to emulate the trickling of the water in Cobb’s Creek over the creek bed on it’s way to pass through the Heinz National Wildlife       Refuge to it’s destination in the Delaware River Water...

Kiss My Sass - The Poet I’ve decided to take a bit of poetic license (pun intended) with this review. The Poet sits alone in his room.  The scent of his plummy lightly sweetened pipe tobacco floats through the air.  The smell is deep and contemplative yet touched with a hint of caramel.  He wonders whether his muse will be with him today. As he reaches for his black tea, the steam rises up and joins the tobacco swirling and turning in an intimate dance.  He gazes at her portrait hanging on the wall.  He remembers that lovely Spring day they spent together picking blackberries growing wild.  He remembers laying side by side on that blanket bathed in the warm sun; her skin glistening like cream against the soft ground.  As he turns back to reality, his writing desk calls to him with it’s richly resinous woody voice.  It is a complex voice that is tinged with his wishes and dreams.  Full of wonder and spice.  And yet – he’s...

Solstice Scents - Vanilla Pipe Tobacco I love the smell of pipe tobacco.  My only recollection of ever even smelling pipe tobacco was from many years ago.  When I was a child, I can remember my cousin lighting his pipe during family gatherings.  He never smoked it in full company.  Instead, I recall him retiring to his study, sitting back, and smoking.  There was something about the tobacco smoke, and his study filled from floor to ceiling with books, and him sitting relaxed in his leather chair.  My cousin stopped smoking pipes decades ago and it’s been many years since I’ve seen him.  It’s funny, the memories are not ones I think of often, but this fragrance brings them flooding back. With Vanilla Pipe Tobacco I get almost a caramel vanilla pipe tobacco with just a hint of smoke.  Maybe it’s the smoke that makes the vanilla smell like caramel to me.   The freshness of the vanilla tobacco has that coziness to it from the fragra...

Solstice Scents - Jack & The Devil EDP Jack & The Devil is described as an amber/tobacco/earthy/spicy on the Solstice Scents website.  It’s much more than that.  This is my first purchase from the company and they’re off to a great start. This fragrance opens with THE scent of Fall – pumpkin spice.  In a single inhale, you get the perfect replication of pumpkin spice.  The note is bolstered by vanilla which adds a touch of sweetness.  I get a beautiful tobacco (yes tobacco can read as beautiful) just behind the pumpkin spice accord.  Oakmoss, amber, and a clean patchouli help to round out this fragrance and give it body.  There is a decadent richness to this scent.  The drydown is absolutely stunning as the beautiful spice is retained and the oakmoss comes a bit more to the forefront. I applied this scent at 3 pm in an afternoon and was still able to smell it, ever so lightly, the next morning.  Notes: Vanilla, tobacco,...

Parfums Dusita – Issara Extrait de Parfum I have no problem admitting I’m a newbie to the fragrance scene.  The truth is what it is.  (That said I would put my love of scent equal to those long in the establishment.)  When I try a new fragrance, I try to get a sense of what the fragrance means to me personally and then convey that to you in the clearest way I possibly can.  I also, out of obligation and respect for the community at large, try to think about what olfactory group a fragrance most appropriately fits in.  I am struggling on an appropriate olfactory group with Issara and this is not a bad thing. Please excuse my “newbie confusion”  but when I see sites referring to Issara as an aromatic fougere, it baffles me.  My newbie understanding of this category tells me there should be lavender to meet the fougere descriptive.  I see no lavender in the fragrance notes nor do I experience it with the wearing of this fragrance.  So i...

Besame Cosmetics -  Decades of Fragrance: 1930 I purchased this as a blind buy with a Besame Cosmetics order.  I liked the sound of the notes and the rollerball (only way available) was cheap enough it was worth the risk.  This was a stellar purchase!  It's an amazing replica of a vintage 1930s scent.   1930 opens with spicy fruity notes; the mandarin, cinnamon, and clarysage play well together with the mandarin and cinnamon being the most prominent of the three.  You can quickly smell the wafts of tobacco which is more of a cigarette tobacco than say a green tobacco, a pipe tobacco, or a cigar tobacco.  The florals are quite light in this juice with the lavender staying pretty much in the background.  1930 is rounded out with a slightly sweet woody musk.  The vanilla is not present as an independent note but instead give a gentle sweetness to the cedar and musk.  The totality of the notes and their presentation takes the wearer...

Dua Fragrances: Honey Havane Honey Havane was a blind buy for me.  I was intrigued by the notes in this oriental vanilla scent.  Honey Havane opens with an absolutely beautiful, rich vanilla honey.  The honey is sweet but not overly sweet.  To my nose, it’s the cleanest and loveliest honey I’ve smelled in a fragrance.  If Winnie the Pooh were here there’d be no keeping this one safe! The gourmand honey gains a complexity by the addition of tobacco leaf.  The tobacco is present just enough that you know it’s there but not so much that you feel this fragrance is “about” tobacco.  The tobacco is a lovely green tobacco.  The base of this fragrance is comprised of a woody-musky-amber.  These notes also light and clean.  During the drydown, the spices, oud, musk and amber become more noticeable but the honey never disappears – it simply becomes lighter.  I get about 7 hours of wear from Honey Havane with a moderate projection whi...

4160 Tuesdays The Dark Heart of Old Havana.  I reviewed this fragrance in another group after I made the decision to purchase a full bottle based on the sample I bought. (So I'm not going to do another full review here.) I do want to say that I adore this juice. It transports me to what I imagine Havana would be like for me. The air heady with the sweet scent of the sugarcane crop; the fruit in the market stands; the wafts of coffee in the early morning; and the men sitting smoking their cigars and playing dominoes while the drinks flow like water. "Based on Sarah McCartney's memories of a 1998 trip to Cuba, The Dark Heart Of Old Havana is an all-night adventure through the winding alleyways of the city that has long captivated literary imagination. McCartney has loaded The Dark Heart with the fixtures of a Havana adventure: sugar, tobacco, fruit, coffee, warm bodies, alcohol, exuberance, and recklessness, for a scent that never sacrifices its adventurousness just to ...