Review: 13 Gypsies Perfumery (Part 2)

I realized in my last review, I forgot to write about my experience ordering with 13 Gypsies Perfumery.  They're currently still having a 44% off sale until July 1.

Packaging

This is a cute extra touch!

The package arrived beautifully packaged and smelling of patchouli. I'm not sure why because I can't spot any leaks, so maybe she scents her packaging with a bit of patchouli? I mean, these are definitely tightly sealed:

Nothing's getting out of that!

I like the little touches she adds like this box the perfumes came in:

The bottles are also gorgeous, so definitely impressed by the packaging.

TAT

Ordered: May 27
Shipped: June 6
Received: June 19

She did mention that orders may take up to 10 days to ship, or longer during sales, on her site. I guess I should take TAT warnings seriously.

Perfume Oils

As for the quality of these oils, I still stand by my previous review. They definitely have amazing longevity, but barely any throw, forcing you to get close to kissing distance to get a whiff. Unfortunately, all the oils I got in these next 5 scents have a sort of artificial smell that didn't agree with me.

Overall, I don't think I'll be purchasing again from them since the scents don't agree with me at all. Would I recommend it? I'm a bit iffy on this. If you want an oil that has longevity they definitely have it. Some people wouldn't mind the weak throw either, since some people don't want a perfume that stinks up the entire room. Honestly, the only oil I was impressed with out of the 10 I got was Xocolatl. Even though I hated the smell, I still admire it for smelling exactly like xocolatl. The rest smells artificial or off to me, but this is very subjective. Some people do enjoy the scents from Victoria's Secret & Bath & Bodyworks, and I find them artificial smelling. They're definitely not as artificial as some brand I've tried, where the smell just hits you in the head and gives you a headache or smell like air fresheners. At the same time, there's still something off. So I guess my stance on this is that the perfumes are worth checking out at 44% off, but definitely proceed with caution. 

As always, the scent reviews done below are done blind, and I only check the notes after I've done my review and before I do my post-description overview.

Desolation Angel

"Egyptian musk, vanilla bean, hint of walnut"

This smells very cottony and soft. This is kinda awkward but...this smells exactly like baby oil. There's even an oily smell in the background. I guess I can wax lyrical about how this smells like innocence and soft cotton, but if I'm being honest, it just smells like baby oil. There's even an oily smell in the background.

Post-description review: The next time my friend's putting baby oil on her baby, I'm going to go, "I smell the luxurious scent of Egyptian musk, delicately blended with rich, decadent vanilla beans. Do I smell the faintest whisper of another note? Ah, yes. Walnuts. There's also a hint of walnuts in it."

Carnivale

"Cotton candy, tobacco, smoke, sugar"

At first whiff, this smells great. It smells like tons of fizzy soft drinks. Awesome! Then it slowly becomes a pure grape soda smell which I find a tad artificial, but still not that bad. Unfortunately, a bitter smell starts to emerge and I'm not sure what's causing it. It's the insecticide sort of bitterness. It's like someone spiked my grape soda with ant poison and hopes I can't smell it.

Post-description review: I don't smell smokiness in this at all. Not the kind of smokiness I got used to from BathSabbath anyway. It just smells like bitter insecticide in the background.

Which Witch

"Light sandalwood, spices, woods, poppy"

Starts of smelling like lemon dishwashing soap but morphs into a slightly powdery white florals bubble bath scent, with a hint of lemons. I swear I can smell the soapy bubble scent that almost every bubble bath I've had has.

Post-description review: What is causing that soapy smell??

Annabel

"Sea salt/ozone blend that also contains dragons blood, earth, and musk"

At first, it's a sharp, sweet and cool florals. I can't identify it since it just goes straight into my head and slightly gives me a headache. It's overwhelming my nose & that's all I can smell at first. Eventually, it calms down a bit, and it becomes very heavy, musky florals, with an oily smell in the background. Just oil. It's not a fragrant oil, it just smells like scentless cooking oil that still has an oily smell. It took a while before that oil smell completely disappears, leaving just heavy, musky florals.  

Post-description review: Maybe the sea-salt/ozone blend caused the initial cool smell, but that disappears fast and this scent just gets very, very heavy.

Bad Witch

"Nag champa, frankincense, sandalwood, dragon's blood, tiny bit of aged Indian patchouli"

Er...it smells like smelly milk. Not sweetened or that cloyingly, play-doh-ish milk smell. It smells exactly like certain unsweetened milk powders that just smell bad -almost a game-y sort of bad. It smells like certain types of milk I've had in India. I learnt recently they may have been buffalo milk instead of regular milk (they did not taste like regular milk) and that may be why they had a game-y smell that I haven't acquired. That scent is the most overwhelming scent. There's a Hindu temple smell of incense, smoke and sweet offerings, but it's hidden behind that smelly milk smell.

After over an hour, there's finally a smell that smells exactly like the rooms of Hyatt hotel in Bali. My family and I used to stay there all the time when I was a kid, and I haven't been back there for close to two decades. But as soon as I smelled this, I recognized it. It's mostly a corporate-type of clean smell, with an incense bitterness that smells more like rubbing your hands on incense rather than burning it, and a whisper of Balinese florals like frangipani and jasmines hiding in the background. I love, love, love that smell. Unfortunately, the smelly milk is not completely gone. I think I'll pass on this.

Post-description review: Well, there's definitely something Indian there. I wonder if just the nag champa, sandalwood and frankincense will recreate that Hyatt hotel smell? I should customize a perfume in that combination.

Review: 13 Gypsies Perfumery

I got some oils from 13 Gypsies Perfumery and only received them a few days ago. They're currently have a 44% off sale until the end of June, so I thought I better get the review out ASAP.

Now, I know they have had some bad publicity, but I think everyone deserves a second chance, and I'll be as unbiased as possible when I'm reviewing these scents.

What bad publicity?

There's a blog claiming that she doesn't use carrier oils and her scents are just stock scents that can be bought for a fraction of the price, among other things. The blog contains bad reviews from other places she sold as well. This is just one person and I'm not aware of other reports. If you know anything else, please let me know.

What's her response to it?

Here's the link to her response. This is the screenshot as of June 23, 2014:

How's the brand owner?

Darla is really sweet and my interactions with her has been great. I went crazy during the sale and bought a bunch of stuff, but something came up and I realized I can't afford the crazy purchase right now. She refunded me immediately with no questions asked, so I'm definitely a fan.

How's the quality?

Full disclosure, I didn't find a single scent I'm rushing to get. At the same time, I haven't found any HoG perfume oil that I like either, and I still like their quality so I think I can be fairly unbiased.

Now for the quality of these perfumes. Well, this I'm torn about. On one hand, certain scents do have that artificial smell, and some scents have this weird oily smell to them, but most of these scents do not have that extremely hollow, cheap synthetic scent that I've gotten from some perfume makers. So even within my batch of 11 scents, there seems to be a range of different levels of quality.

These scents don't have much of a throw and you'll have to get as close as kissing distance to sniff them, even in the beginning. By about minutes, you'll have to practically press your nose against the spot you put the perfume on to get a whiff. But they last really long -about 12h.

So here's the scent reviews, as usual they're done blind, without me checking the notes until I write the post-description reviews:

Dorothy

"Peony, peach, grapefruit, and vanilla"

This starts of as an orange-berry soda smell, but gradually gets more soapy and bubbly. It starts smelling like a tutti frutti candy scented bubble bath. There's also a cotton-ish milky scent to this that reminds me of babies. It's like dunking a baby into a tub of tutti frutti bubble bath, and sniffing him/her after you've fished him/her out.

I love babies, I swear.
Image courtesy of hdwallpapers.in/

It's definitely too young for me and I'm not a fan of the tutti frutti smell, it smells too artificial for me. Gods..never thought I'll finally find things "too young" for me, but it's time. It's a cute perfume for tweens, but definitely not for someone who's 25.

Post-description review: There's definitely a bubble bath smell, and I can't figure out where it's from. I get this soapy scent from a lot of 13 Gypsies' perfumes.

Halloween Patchouli

The site does not carry a description of this scent, so I have no idea what it's supposed to be :(

This started out smelling like nothing at all, but then a wet, mushy pumpkin smell enters. The smell gradually gets sweeter and ends up smelling like sweet pumpkin purée on some minty herbs. I cannot smell patchouli at all, so that's a relief. Unfortunately, as time wore on, there's a bit of a sour smell emerging and the minty & herbal smell got stronger.

This will sound so bad, but...the only way I can describe it is that it starts smelling like certain old people -there's that icy, herbal smell of muscle relief salves, something almost like cabbage, a slight sour smell, and sweet mint candies.

Lulu

"Mexican vanilla, brown sugar, sweet cream"

It smells like gumdrops and caramel. The caramel is that slightly cloying, artificial caramel smell, but luckily it doesn't turn into a curdled milk smell on me, which is what happens with a lot of those cloying milky/caramel notes. The gumdrop scent started smelling medicinal after a while, and it ends up smelling like one of though gumdrop-flavoured cough syrups. The kind that you know won't taste like gumdrops, and can still smell a bit of the bitter medicine in it, even though the manufacturer tried their best to lay on the gumdrop smell hard so kids can stomach it. The caramel smell did get stronger as it wears on, but the gumdrop-flavoured cough medicine smell still lingers.

Post-description review: Can't figure out what note will smell medicinal in here. Maybe one of the notes just morphs on my skin?

Opium Eater

"Tobacco, light amber, poppy"

I don't know what opium is supposed to smell like, but this smells exactly like a Chinese temple. Not the tourist-friendly type. The ones that are actually still in use and smells like the the scent of thousands of joss-sticks burnt daily. A very bitter-sweet burnt smell.

My grandma's altar smells exactly like this. If you like that burnt joss-stick smell, you'll like this. Personally, the smell reminds me too much of my grandma's altar. That altar used to scare me shitless as a kid. It glowed red. At all times. Even at night. And had scary-looking angry bearded men statues & dragons on it. Try walking past that as a kid.

This is the closest image I can find to my grandma's altar, only this is in a cheery, brightly lit room:

My grandma's was more menacing looking.
Image courtesy of thaiworldview.com

And it glowed red like this at night:

It's scary as hell at night.
Image courtesy of phillyfellows.org/

Needless to say, I'm not a fan of this scent.

Post-description review: I don't know how opium smells like, but I know how a Chinese altar smells like. It's a Chinese altar. Unless my grandma's burning opium in her altar

Pomona

"Apple blossom & orange blossom (florals, not the fruit), with a touch of sweet frankincense and cinnamon"

This smells exactly like Lux soap bars - a slightly heavy powdery, white floral scent with soapy cleanness to it. It's a great smell, but it's the soap that's usually found in every cheap restaurant and shady motel because they're just so cheap, so I can't shake off the feeling that it smells like an ordinary cheap bar of soap. After about 10 minutes, a cinnamon smell comes in, so it starts smelling like vaguely cinnamon-scented soap. But mostly just a normal bar of soap smell. Only after about 40 minutes, it starts smelling like this jasmine rice soap I once got (the soap is supposedly rice-based, not sure how they did it...it's very drying for my skin though). Not a bad scent but smells too much like a normal bar of soap to me.

Post-description review: What causes the soapy smell? I get that soap smell from a lot of these perfumes.

Xocolatl

"Intoxicating blend of chocolate, patchouli, and coffee."

Initially it smells like a chocolate liqueur I once had. Eventually, it smells like a raw cocoa hot chocolate I once tried, complete with the sour-ish dark chocolate smell. That raw cocoa hot chocolate was also called xocolatl, and it's supposedly raw, Aztec chocolate that's better for you than normal chocolates. The guy selling it was this stereotypically hippie looking guy who operated his blender with what looks like half a bicycle attached to it. Obviously I had to try it out.

Raw cocoa sucks. It's sour and bitter and I immediately saw why chocolate making is an art. You know what xocolatl means originally? It meant "bitter water". That's a good description for that drink. I'll leave you guys with the description of the drink by Jose de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit missionary from the later 16th century:

"Loathsome to such as are not acquainted with it, having a scum or froth that is very unpleasant taste."

What I was expecting
Image courtesy of bankadviser.com/

What I got. Yes, the texture and consistency's like that. It has a dusty, fiber-ish texture to it, and it's so bitter & sour.
Image courtesy of amyshealthybaking.com/

This smells exactly like that raw cocoa hot chocolate I choked on.

The sourness eased up a bit, but it still smells like sweetened raw cocoa. It actually smells good if you don't have to drink it. Cocoa notes tend to turn into a sweet wood scent on me after about an hour, and this did the same. But the sourness of raw cocoa remained, and there's also a slightly metallic aftersmell. I often get that metallic aftersmell with a lot of gourmand perfumes for some reason. I like it, but I'm not sure what causes it.

Post-description review: Good news! You can't smell the patchouli! But it's still a xocolatl smell.