I recently ordered from Alchemic Muse because their scents sound sooo good! I got:
Karen tossed in 2 extra perfume samples for me! I'm still waiting to finish my current products before I try out the body products, so I'm only reviewing the perfume oils. I also got another sample, Zombee from a swap, so I'll just include that in the review.
Karen was really sweet and responds so fast! I felt so bad since I kept messaging her to figure out the most cost effective international shipping, but she was so friendly and helpful the whole time. The TAT's amazing too:
Their throw is ok, you definitely have to get to whispering distance to catch a whiff. They stay this way for slightly under 2 hours before getting relatively faint. By 5-6h, all traces of the perfume's are gone from my skin.
I smell a bit of a medicinal smell that could be patchouli. Most perfumers' "amber" notes are usually warm, musky sandalwood and vanilla, but this amber just smells like patchouli and wood resin. It doesn't smell warm and creamy at all, it just smells like very old, hardcover books. After 10 minutes, there's a bit of a powdery vanilla scent to this, but it's hidden in the background. The old books smell is definitely still the most prominent smell. It ends up smelling like sorting through old books in a library with an old, sweet librarian who wore a musky, vanilla perfume the day before. And as time goes on, she walks closer and closer to you until the musky, vanilla perfume scent is pretty prominent, but it's still fighting with the scent of old books.
The old books smell personally makes me feel nostalgic, but I know it's not for everyone. It's not exactly a scent I really want to wear out either.
Overview: I don't know why a lot of perfumers like to talk as if they can extract a scent out of a stone. Either way, if you want to smell like an old library, this scent is it.
It smells kinda like medicinal vanilla berries at first, and eventually, a powdery, musky smell enters. It ends up smelling like musky, vanilla sunblock with something that smells almost medicinal. As time goes on, it gets heavier and sweeter until it feels like you're wrapped up in a heavy blanket of sweetness and ants may start crawling all over you any moment.
Overview: After reading the description, I think I can smell a bit of the figs underneath the medicinal smell. I guess the coconut note they use is the type that starts smelling a bit like sunblock, so this might be something to watch out for.
At first, this scent reminded me a lot of Wild Hybrid's The Beekeeper. It smells like honey lemon, only kinda soapy and lotion-y. As time goes on, the lemon smells more like a floral orange. The soapy smell kept getting stronger until it starts smelling like a fancy dishwashing soap. Fancy. But still dishwashing soap. This dries down to a floral honey-orange soapy lotion.
Overview: I definitely can't smell any toffee in this. I had to smell The Beekeeper again just to check the difference. Now that I'm sniffing them side by side, they're definitely different. The honey in The Beekeeper is sharply sweet, while Honey Balsam is a more rounded, mellow sort of sweetness. There's also more of a soapy lotion smell to Honey Balsam, while The Beekeeper's lotion smell is more of an industrial lotion smell. The drydowns are obviously different. Beekeeper smells like honeyed wood..absolutely amazing.
This one I'm not a fan of. The smell bounces from smelling like a lemon & tutti frutti bubble bath or a lemon & tutti frutti dishwashing soap. The lemon smell gets old and powdery towards the end.
Overview: This doesn't smell like yuzu at all! I'm guessing the old and powdery smell comes from the patchoulli.
Warm, honeyed vanilla lavenders. This is such a relaxing scent. Lavender tends to smell cold and airy to me, but this is a warm, heavier lavender, with the perfect blend of creamy vanilla. As much as I adore BathSabbath, I think this scent captures their Moonchild concept ("a relaxing blend of vanilla, Lavender, Cinnamon and Brown sugar") better. This is gorgeous! This scent makes you feel like you're snuggled into a mountain of soft, goose-feather pillows.
Overview: I decided to go for a second sniff since I can't seem to smell the dark chocolate in this at first. I still can't smell it. Dark chocolate tends to smell like sweet wood on me though, so it may be what's causing the warm sweetness.
"A perfect blend of fresh, tangy pineapple enveloped in rich and creamy milk sweetened with raw sugarcane."
This smells like this chewy Japanese pineapple candy:
Well, like a milky pineapple. A tamed down, candy version of a piña colada. And the milk is an actual milk candy taste. It smells delicious and not at all cloying or artificial. I love this!
Overview: Since the name already gives out the notes to expect, I'm not too surprised here.
Starts of as pure, unsweetened coffee before a cinnamon bread smell enters. I'm really impressed, there's a "baked" smell to this to make it smell like actual baked goods instead of that fake play-doh-ish "cake" scent I often smell. I'd say it smells like cinnamon buns and coffee, only it's not sweet at all, so it's closer to unsweetened cinnamon bread and coffee.
Overview: Huh..that's weird. I don't smell the ginger or coconut, but I wonder if the both those notes mixed together ends up creating that "baked" smell? Either way, this is a delicious gourmand scent and I'm in love!
"A thrilling concoction of sickly-sweet honey and warm beeswax over a layer of aged patchouli, crushed clove, and darkened vanilla pods."
This is amazing. It smells like woody honey with a bit of florals. There's also a soap sort of scent to this. Not soapy. It smells like you're smelling the scent off a soap bar. It smells warm, deep and old, yet clean at the same time. Makes you think of how this bed would smell like after someone (presumably a clean woman) slept in it:
Either way, I'm so in love with this scent! Out of all the scents, this has the furthest throw on me. I can smell it while I'm typing!
Overview: The honey is not "sickly-sweet" at all! It's just the perfect amount of sweetness! And the patchouli is the quiet kind that you can't smell at all, but it must have done something to make this smell so awesome!
So out of 9 scents, I'm in love with 3 (Sumatra, Nightshade, Zombee), hate 3 (Amber Crush, Blackstrap, Mystique), and are ok with 3 (Deadwood, Honey Balsam, Pinapple Milk). Not a bad mix!
- Nevermore - Mini Body Whip
- Fable - Mini Cream Soap
- Cocoa Bee - Mini Foaming Body Scrub
- Wassail - Mini Foaming Body Scrub
- Figgy Pudding - Mini Cream Soap
- 2 sets of 3 perfume oil samples
Karen tossed in 2 extra perfume samples for me! I'm still waiting to finish my current products before I try out the body products, so I'm only reviewing the perfume oils. I also got another sample, Zombee from a swap, so I'll just include that in the review.
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| The envelope's for the perfume oils |
Customer Service
Karen was really sweet and responds so fast! I felt so bad since I kept messaging her to figure out the most cost effective international shipping, but she was so friendly and helpful the whole time. The TAT's amazing too:
- Ordered: 5 June
- Shipped: 5 June
- Arrived: 24 June (I got the cheapest shipping option and we had several public holidays, that's why the shipping time was a bit longer than the usual 12-14 days)
Perfume Oil Reviews
These are definitely the oils to get if you like gourmands. A lot of their gourmand smells smell like actual food that makes you hungry, instead of artificial "food" smells that they often scent crayons with (kids seem to love those scents though..there has to be a reason why they keep trying to eat those cursed crayons).Their throw is ok, you definitely have to get to whispering distance to catch a whiff. They stay this way for slightly under 2 hours before getting relatively faint. By 5-6h, all traces of the perfume's are gone from my skin.
Amber Crush
"Precious golden amber resins crushed together with dark patchouli and sweetened with a veil of bourbon vanilla."I smell a bit of a medicinal smell that could be patchouli. Most perfumers' "amber" notes are usually warm, musky sandalwood and vanilla, but this amber just smells like patchouli and wood resin. It doesn't smell warm and creamy at all, it just smells like very old, hardcover books. After 10 minutes, there's a bit of a powdery vanilla scent to this, but it's hidden in the background. The old books smell is definitely still the most prominent smell. It ends up smelling like sorting through old books in a library with an old, sweet librarian who wore a musky, vanilla perfume the day before. And as time goes on, she walks closer and closer to you until the musky, vanilla perfume scent is pretty prominent, but it's still fighting with the scent of old books.
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| Looks gorgeous, smells like death. Image courtesy of nad11a on tumblr (no longer exists), found on weheartit.com |
The old books smell personally makes me feel nostalgic, but I know it's not for everyone. It's not exactly a scent I really want to wear out either.
Overview: I don't know why a lot of perfumers like to talk as if they can extract a scent out of a stone. Either way, if you want to smell like an old library, this scent is it.
Blackstrap
"Caramelized brown sugar, sweet blackstrap molasses and creamy coconut milk dripping over ripe Moroccan figs floating on a base of vanilla beans and soft white musk."It smells kinda like medicinal vanilla berries at first, and eventually, a powdery, musky smell enters. It ends up smelling like musky, vanilla sunblock with something that smells almost medicinal. As time goes on, it gets heavier and sweeter until it feels like you're wrapped up in a heavy blanket of sweetness and ants may start crawling all over you any moment.
Overview: After reading the description, I think I can smell a bit of the figs underneath the medicinal smell. I guess the coconut note they use is the type that starts smelling a bit like sunblock, so this might be something to watch out for.
Deadwood
"Wild bergamot, clover honey, and a light dusting of spice leading to a heart of warm amber and barley grass grounded in a rich base of black vanilla, musk, teak, and worn brown leather."
This initially smells like woody mushrooms, which freaked me out. But it quickly turned into a musky, baby powder scent. A leather bitterness makes an appearance a few minutes in, but mostly disappeared after another few minutes. The smell ends up bring a slightly spiked, musky baby powder. Kinda like someone from Hells Angels trying to babysit and ending up with baby powder exploding all over him.
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| Your kids would love this dude! Image courtesy of ntnews.com.au |
Overview: I would expect something deep, dark and masculine from that descriptoon, but this smells very feminine. I tried this on my brother and it smells like musky leather. Slightly less sweet on him, but still very musky and powdery.
Honey Balsam
"Fresh honey with sparkling notes of bergamot and sweet orange accented by a layer of buttery toffee in a foundation of resinous frankincense."At first, this scent reminded me a lot of Wild Hybrid's The Beekeeper. It smells like honey lemon, only kinda soapy and lotion-y. As time goes on, the lemon smells more like a floral orange. The soapy smell kept getting stronger until it starts smelling like a fancy dishwashing soap. Fancy. But still dishwashing soap. This dries down to a floral honey-orange soapy lotion.
Overview: I definitely can't smell any toffee in this. I had to smell The Beekeeper again just to check the difference. Now that I'm sniffing them side by side, they're definitely different. The honey in The Beekeeper is sharply sweet, while Honey Balsam is a more rounded, mellow sort of sweetness. There's also more of a soapy lotion smell to Honey Balsam, while The Beekeeper's lotion smell is more of an industrial lotion smell. The drydowns are obviously different. Beekeeper smells like honeyed wood..absolutely amazing.
Mystique
"Succulent Japanese yuzu fruit and red mandarin grounded in a sensual, earthy base of dark patchouli."This one I'm not a fan of. The smell bounces from smelling like a lemon & tutti frutti bubble bath or a lemon & tutti frutti dishwashing soap. The lemon smell gets old and powdery towards the end.
Overview: This doesn't smell like yuzu at all! I'm guessing the old and powdery smell comes from the patchoulli.
Nightshade
"Some of the best things happen in the dark… sweet Bulgarian lavender over an intoxicating base of Madagascar vanilla with a most decadent touch of dark chocolate."Warm, honeyed vanilla lavenders. This is such a relaxing scent. Lavender tends to smell cold and airy to me, but this is a warm, heavier lavender, with the perfect blend of creamy vanilla. As much as I adore BathSabbath, I think this scent captures their Moonchild concept ("a relaxing blend of vanilla, Lavender, Cinnamon and Brown sugar") better. This is gorgeous! This scent makes you feel like you're snuggled into a mountain of soft, goose-feather pillows.
Overview: I decided to go for a second sniff since I can't seem to smell the dark chocolate in this at first. I still can't smell it. Dark chocolate tends to smell like sweet wood on me though, so it may be what's causing the warm sweetness.
Pinapple Milk
"A perfect blend of fresh, tangy pineapple enveloped in rich and creamy milk sweetened with raw sugarcane."
This smells like this chewy Japanese pineapple candy:
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| Image courtesy of ptotheenguin on Flickr |
Overview: Since the name already gives out the notes to expect, I'm not too surprised here.
Sumatra
"Let trade winds sweep you away with an exotic and inviting brew of hot, creamed ginger infused with Sumatra coffee and fresh coconut milk."Starts of as pure, unsweetened coffee before a cinnamon bread smell enters. I'm really impressed, there's a "baked" smell to this to make it smell like actual baked goods instead of that fake play-doh-ish "cake" scent I often smell. I'd say it smells like cinnamon buns and coffee, only it's not sweet at all, so it's closer to unsweetened cinnamon bread and coffee.
Overview: Huh..that's weird. I don't smell the ginger or coconut, but I wonder if the both those notes mixed together ends up creating that "baked" smell? Either way, this is a delicious gourmand scent and I'm in love!
Zombee
"A thrilling concoction of sickly-sweet honey and warm beeswax over a layer of aged patchouli, crushed clove, and darkened vanilla pods."
This is amazing. It smells like woody honey with a bit of florals. There's also a soap sort of scent to this. Not soapy. It smells like you're smelling the scent off a soap bar. It smells warm, deep and old, yet clean at the same time. Makes you think of how this bed would smell like after someone (presumably a clean woman) slept in it:
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| I want this room.. Image courtesy of neohl.com |
Either way, I'm so in love with this scent! Out of all the scents, this has the furthest throw on me. I can smell it while I'm typing!
Overview: The honey is not "sickly-sweet" at all! It's just the perfect amount of sweetness! And the patchouli is the quiet kind that you can't smell at all, but it must have done something to make this smell so awesome!
So out of 9 scents, I'm in love with 3 (Sumatra, Nightshade, Zombee), hate 3 (Amber Crush, Blackstrap, Mystique), and are ok with 3 (Deadwood, Honey Balsam, Pinapple Milk). Not a bad mix!
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