Review: NAVA'S Poppy Z. Brite collection

I got all 5 scents from Nocturne Alchemy VApothecary (NAVA's) Poppy Z. Brite collection from Ajevie's decants!

Ajevie's awesome as always!

This is my second time reviewing NAVA and my previous review can be found here. As always, these scent reviews are done blind until the TL;DRs are written. If the notes surprise me I write an overview.

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Christian

"Aged Blood Wine, Shiraz Wine, Red Musk Syrup, Russian Leather Accord, Tobacco-Musk and Egyptian Musk."

At fist I got the familiar smelly incense I've expected from NAVA, but luckily it disappeared. The scent I got left with is some watery, red fruit scent. It's the same red fruit I get from NAVA's Vampire Queen, only it's a bit more childish in this version.

There's also a masculine bitter musk to this that makes me think of cigar lounge with leather furniture. The scent makes me think of the owner of a cigar lounge hastily cleaning up the lounge for a "Take Your Daughter to Work" day, and spraying the place with one of her favourite scents –an artificial red fruit candy sort of scent.

So imagine the scent of this:

Image courtesy of kiwicollection.com

After it's been sprayed by this:

This is supposed to be a Strawberry Fragrance Hair & Body Glitter Spray. I've never sniffed this before, but I imagine it to have this artificial red fruit candy sort of smell.
Image courtesy of priceline.com.au/

It's a weird juxtaposition of old and masculine with young and girly, and definitely unique.

TL;DR: Cigar lounge sprayed with a kiddy fruity scent

Overview: So these are the notes in Vampire Queen:

"Black Honey, Blood Wine and Cardamom. Threads of Black Saffron, Nile Patchouli and Black Musk. A drop of Blood Musk, Temple NA and Crimson scent the Vampire Queen."

I guess the blood wine note is that red fruit sort of note.

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Ghost

"Ethereal tincture of five Vanilla Incense Accords (Absolute, 44, Pure, French and Tibetan), Spun Sugar, Skin Musk, a drop of Clove."

At first, I got a citrus-y vanilla, but the citrus part is the kind of citrus that makes me suspect a note is going sour on me. There's a cottony musk to it. The cottony musk takes over though, and now this scent becomes a watery, clear, cottony musk scent. If it stayed this way, it'll be perfect. It smells like a clean hotel room, in a hotel where they make everything very fluffy and soft.

Unfortunately, it keeps morphing until there's this extremely thin, sickly sweet yet bitter, chemical-ish smell that gives me a headache. I wonder if there's myrrh in this. BathSabbath's scent with frankincense & myrrh ended up smelling like whiteboard marker on me, and this is a similar chemical-ish smell as that.

When the scent dries down, it's mostly a musky cotton & vanilla scent.

TL;DR: Lab accident + vanilla

Overview: Ok, I have no idea what's causing the extremely chemical-ish note. 

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Nothing

"Strawberry Accord, White Patchouli smoke, Gothic Pumpkin Spice (Cardamom, Black Cinnamon, Clove-Tobacco), Vanilla Musk Cream, Gold Sandalwood and a drop of Nag Champa Incense."

At first, this smells like a slight nutty chai. The chai is the real Indian chai (not the weak Starbucks kind) that warms you up and has cardamom and a billion woody looking bits in it. As it wears on, there's a tart berry scent and the nutty bit gets creamier and creamier, until it smells exactly like Christmas. Warm, creamy chai, red berries something woody in the background. It smells like Christmas morning.

TL;DR: Christmas morning.

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Steve

"Five Skin Musks, smoke, a drop of North Carolina Red Maple accord, Honey-Amber Resin and Wood Sugar Musk."

My boyfriend sniffed this when I applied it and declared it smells like a "Thai hotel lobby". I can see what he's talking about, this smells like woody honey with a clean, soapy touch. The clean, soapy touch has a lemongrass sort of freshness to it, even though I don't smell actual lemongrass. I think the wood and lemongrass sort of freshness just makes me think of Thailand...or the elegant Thai women who smell like all they use is soap to scent themselves, but once you get to know them, you realize it's a crazy expensive perfume that's designed to smell like it's just soap.

The sweet bit got higher and thinner as the scent wears on, and by 10 min, it's very reminiscent of the sickly sweet, cloying chemically scent I got in Ghost. It's not as bad as Ghost though. 

TL;DR: Woody honey with a clean, soapy touch + cloying chemicals.

Overview: I'm not sure if that cloying chemical scent is coming from the sugar, skin musk or a combination of both. Either way, I'm avoiding combinations of sugar and skin musk from NAVA.

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Zillah

"Chartreux (Chartreuse) accord of blended herbs and honey, Green Musk, French Green Cognac (Parisian), Wormwood essential oil, Red Cedar and N4 Musk (Magnolia Blossom, Egyptian Blue Heather Musk, Blue Sandalwood, Muguet and Egyptian Musk)."

First, I got a musky honey, and the musk is that cottony musk in Ghost. Then, a fresh sort of green scent comes in. The honey is what I start thinking of as The NAVA honey note, which is a thin, sharp, woody sort of rich honey note that I personally love. I can see some people finding it searing, but for me, it smells like a honey I'd gladly slather on myself because it smells so good.

The scent is a warm, cozy sort of honey scent, and it makes me think of walking among tall grass in the soft, golden, morning light, while sniffing the most glorious honey scent. A perfect picture to accompany this scent will be this one:

Though a cottage will fit the scent more than that palace thing in the background.
Gorgeous photography by Alexander Vinogradov

TL;DR: Warm, cozy, musky honey with fresh grass.