It's been over a year since I did my first
Deep Midnight (DM) perfume review and that shows how much I've been procrastinating.....
here's a link to my previous review.
The following scents are from their
Christmas Vision set (5 scent) + Seven Veils & Firefly Valley, other DM scents I happen to have. All these scents have aged over a year, so they may be different from a brand new versions!
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Review Notes
As always, reviews are done blind until the TL;DRs are written. If any of the notes surprise me, I write an overview. I've also started adding a "Final Verdict" section to help me keep track of my perfumes and figure out what to destash, since my perfume collection is starting to get messy. Here are the categories I came up with for my "Final Verdict":
- Love: Most awesome perfume ever. Need endless supplies of it and will swap my first born child for the last drops of it if it's limited edition.
- Like: I like it and may buy a full size of it, but it's not urgent.
- Interesting: I don't really like it or I don't think I can wear it in public, but I appreciate the artistry of the scent. It's like a beautiful but unwearable runway piece you won't buy on your own, but don't mind owning.
- Ok: It's okay. I like it enough, but may destash for a good price to keep my collection manageable.
- Destash: Kill it with fire.
- Age it: Maybe it will smell good one day. One day. Just wait.
In this and the next reviews, you'll notice more scents I opt to destash rather than age. Since everything's been aged for a year, I figured they're not going to get much better so it's better to destash them and reduce my pile of perfumes.
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Comfort and Joy
"This blend is comprised of deep vanilla bean, sweet roasted chestnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, and rounded out with cedarwood, frankincense, and touches of sage and myrrh."
This smells like liquorice and cream. I hate liquorice so nope. Nope. Nope. I'm getting a coffee bitterness too. Still not making the scent better. I'm trying to power through this scent and I'm hoping it'll dry down to something nice, but knowing my luck with DM, I don't think it's happening. There's a fruity tartness coming into the scent after about 5 min, but it only smells like general artificial red fruits and it's still mostly creamy liquorice with a coffee bitterness. This is not good.
It's 12 minutes into the scent. I have root beer and liquorice. It's not getting better at all.
After 25 min, it's flat root beer float and liquorice. I'm talking about a root beer float that's been left out for too long, that it's lukewarm with the vanilla ice cream melted into a brown sludge. A few minutes later, the vanilla starts getting clay like too. Fortunately, DM scents tend to have low throw and fade within an hour on my skin.
TL;DR: Creamy liquorice & root beer.
Final Verdict: Destash
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Endris Night
"This blend is meant to evoke images of a long ago time, during a night of rare splendor and beauty. Sweet frankincense, Arabian sandalwood, a very rich deep red musk, orange blossoms, and kisses of cloves make this a magical scent for the holidays and year round also."
Oh wow, this is actually nice! It's this gorgeous, slightly musky luxurious wood scent. The musk is really light and just smooths out the wood. It makes you think more of a fuzzy blanket rather than an old lady's décolletage. Oh, and the scent has a light, clean scent that further lightens the scent. The resulting scent actually makes me think of a room in a romanticized Arabian palace. The kind straight out of a painting where the artist's imagination can go nuts with images of luxurious, vibrant cloths, intricately carved wood, glimmering gold and jewels, and beautiful people in sheer, translucent clothing lounging around or dancing seductively.
After about 10 min, the scent keeps getting lighter and lighter until it smells more like a modern ballroom in a Jakarta or Dubai, during a ball where all the glittering socialites are present. There's the scent of masculine woody cologne, feminine musky perfumes, and the impeccably decorated ballroom. Everything is luxurious, of course.
TL;DR: Room in a romanticized Arabian palace turning into an Indonesian/Arabian wedding.
Final Verdict: Like
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Firefly Valley
"Green clover, wildflower honey, hydrangea, sweet tree blossoms, and soft grass"
Oooh..it's that pretty white floral blue note –slightly tart, clean, light and elegant. It smells very familiar and reminds me a lot of how some hotel lobbies in Indonesia smell like, but it's still very wearable as a perfume. It makes me think of classically elegant women in impeccably pristine, white rooms, making final adjustments to the flower arrangements before all the socialites drop by for lunch. If this perfume has an ad, it'll look something like this:
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I wanted that robe as soon as I saw it, and then remembered I'm neither tall nor curvy, so I'd probably look like I tore down some old lady's curtains or table cloth and ran around with it.
Gorgeous photo by Jolly Roger Imagery |
It smells very familiar and it took me a while before I finally could figure out why. It smells a lot like one of my favourite Possets scent –Flight of the Bumblebee. The difference is that this scent is heavier on the white florals and sweetness, and doesn't have that green zing to it.
After about 15 min, the scent started getting a bit too sweet for me, and now it's kind of reminding me of a room spray that's been sprayed too close to my face and stinging my nose. I'm kinda sad since the initial scent was so good! I don't think aging would save this, so I think I'm going to use it in my bath or an oil burner. I think the sweetness will be less intense then.
TL;DR: Pretty, white floral blue note.
Final Verdict: Like
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Seven Veils
"This perfume oil is a completely intoxicating blend of earthy Madagascar vanilla, velvety orchids, white florals, the softest musk, sweet golden amber, spices and exotic resins."
This starts of nice! It a clean, creamy, vanilla musk with a paper-like sort of dustiness, and it smells like curling up in thick, fluffy blanket that's so comforting. It's definitely a heavier scent and gets far too heady for tropical weather, but I can see this being great for winter.
Unfortunately, after 10 min, it's starting to make me think of old ladies because the vanilla musk bit takes over. This smells exactly like a vanilla mainstream perfume I once had. That perfume gave me a headache because it was so heavy, and I have the same problem with this perfume.
Something sour appears as the scent dries down on me, and I suspect it's a vanilla going wrong. It's still really heavy and heady, and definitely not for hot weather. If you love heavy, musky vanillas, this is it.
TL;DR: Heavy, heady, musky vanilla.
Final Verdict: Destash
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Silver Bells
"Savor your memories of the season as you enjoy this lovely perfume blend of rich rum, cinnamon, nutmeg, deep vanilla bean, delicious cream, sugarplums, and a touch of a very sweet and light mint."
This smells like this medicine I used to have. It was red in colour, vaguely artificial red fruits flavoured, kinda pepperminty, and absolutely delicious since the flavour hid the bitterness so well, you only get mild hints of it. I don't know what it was for, but I used to hope the doctor would prescribe it to me....I also got into a near accident once, when I climbed up a table trying to get to the high shelf my nanny would hide it in after I got caught chugging it. I was a mini drug addict.
This smells exactly like that.
Not sure if I want to wear it as perfume though. The pepperminty part is gorgeous, the artificial red fruits part isn't for everyone but I like it, the cloying syrupy sweetness is a bit too much for me, and the bitterness makes me gag slightly.
TL;DR: Red medicine.
Overview: I'm not sure where the bitterness is coming from? The rum, perhaps?
Final Verdict: Destash
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Victorian Sleigh Ride
"This is a crisp and delightful blend of Candy Canes, hollyberries, sweet spiced whiskey, cedarwood, sage, frankincense, and a touch of cream."
Oooh...this is a gorgeous, slightly bitter vanilla-mint with hints of a fruity tartness. The bitterness is a minty bitterness –the kind you get from really strong mints. The fruity bit was going cloying on me for a bit (think Flintstones vitamins sort of "fruity"), but it got overpowered by the mint part.
After about 5-8 min, the scent has faded dramatically to the point where it's this thin, watery scent with hints of something vaguely fruity, vaguely woody, and vaguely icy. It looks like this scent has dried down already. I think aging has severely reduced its longevity.
TL;DR: Slightly bitter vanilla-mint with hints of a fruity tartness
Final Verdict: Destash
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Wassail
"...the aromas of red wine, apple wine, ale, sweet oranges, fruit and cloves, along with delicate touches of frankincense and myrrh"
In the beginning, this smells like the yellow Juicy Fruits bubblegum with mint. It's a nice scent, but kinda too young for me. Sometimes, I get hints of dusty wood and apples, but they don't really stand out and just melds into the overall scent, turning into minty Juicy Fruits.
After about 3-5 min, it suddenly becomes a slightly bread-ish apple cinnamon soap. I was so surprised how fast this changes. It's a pretty generic scent that's pretty nice, but it just reminds me too much of Bath & Bodyworks soaps and not really my thing. It just gets more and more soapy as it dries down.
TL;DR: Slightly bread-ish apple cinnamon soap
Final Verdict: Ok
