Final Thoughts on the Alchimia Apothecary Controversy

So…I’ve been avoiding commenting on the Alchimia drama because it got big and ugly. But I think I should just post my thoughts to clarify my position.

Rob from Alchimia posted this reply in response to all the accusations:

Screenshot taken Aug 15, 2014, original post here

While I think that they addressed minor annoyances customers may have, I think they didn’t address some of the more important issues as to why people are upset with Alchimia.

1. Knowingly selling Shaman even though they themselves know the oil is going wrong.

Their excuse:

"The screenshot depicting the emails about Shaman... Shaman has already been reworked, birch tar removed. We now use our other campfire note so it's not exactly as smoky as we had initially intended, but it doesn't morph in the bottle like it does with birch tar. This isn't a hot selling item so I didn't feel it necessary to make a huge announcement about it's change. Rest assured, we would never sell something that we know had such a problem. I'd also like to note that in the space of time between the first email about shaman and the second, no further purchases were made for shaman so there wasn't a need to change it immediately."

Why I don’t agree with it:  You re-worked it, great. But why won’t you let me mention in my blog that it’s being re-worked? Why didn’t you unlist it when you know there’s something going wrong? So what if no one bought it, what if somebody did? Are you going to tell them there’s something wrong with it and you’ll offer a refund if they didn’t like it? Did you proactively offer that to clients who already bought Shaman before you discovered the issue?

So many indie brands I know have issued recalls for products that they think is going wrong, or openly admitted there’s something wrong and offer the products on sale. I admire them for it. 

What Alchimia did is just sleazy.

2. Erin generally not being a nice person.

Their excuse: Paraphrasing them, it's all the internet. Tone just doesn't come across right on the internet.

Why I don’t agree with it: One or two problematic replies, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. I gave her the benefit of the doubt when her email replies to me started getting curt and rude. I thought it was just me. But many? With multiple customers complaining? There’s a pattern there. I don’t see any possible misunderstanding when she claims her make up needs to be removed from a price comparison list because her ingredients were better.

She has no problem coming off as friendly in the beginning, when I was discussing my future purchases. That’s why I offered to help her get the agarwood oil, at the personal discount I got. I didn’t charge her anything for the effort I took to get it for her, for the packaging I used to ship the oil or for the gas I used up going to the warehouse twice (first time to let her know how everything smelled, second time to get her the oil she wanted). I got paid the price I paid for the oil (using my discount) and shipping. That’s it. This is the treatment I got:

This is how she was in the beginning.

Blaming everything on tone is a cheap excuse. And for the record, I contacted /u/BNSquash to ask if Alchimia reached out to her friend since the mods claimed they’ve given his info to Alchimia to reach out to him.

Nope. Alchimia never did reach out to him. I have problems believing the authenticity of an apology if it’s only public.

3. Everyone who disagrees with us is mean.

I cannot put a better counterargument than /u/concreteroads’ reply:

Screenshot taken Aug 15, 2014, original post here

This is Rob’s reply:

Why I disagree with it: I definitely respect Rob for at least not editing the original post, but again, I think blaming everything on people misunderstanding your intentions is a cheap way out. In their apology, they haven't addressed several concerns people have. I'm glad it's not true that they try to silence bad reviews, and I won't hold crazy fans against the owners. Anything negative about Alchimia on IMAM does tend to get downvoted like crazy, and people end up self-censoring. It's bad, but I'm not going to hold the owners responsible for that. What I do hold them responsible for is their attitude, and how they personally treat bad reviews or anything remotely negative. Here's an example of a reply Erin left behind on a critical blog post:

This is probably my final say on this drama unless something else develops. I still have products to review, but I'm not sure when I'll blog about them. It's tiring dealing with all the drama and I rather prioritize reviewing brands with owners who deserve some publicity. 

Review: Alchimia Apothecary Makeup Products

I'll try to be as neutral as possible with this review despite my misgivings about this company. I'm not going to tell anyone to avoid it, but I know publicly stating that a company is in your personal blacklist is controversial and people would want my reasons, so I'll just leave screenshots of my reasons here and here, and people can make up their minds as they want. 

I personally would prefer not reviewing these since I didn't like the products, but I got a blogger pack and it makes me feel obligated to do a blog post on what I got. I took some time reviewing since it came with skin care too, and I wanted to review everything at once. But looks like it's just make up now. For the skin care, I think it's going to take a long time since I'm still trying to decide if I had an allergic reaction, something was up with the products, or my skin just decided to break out & clear up at the right (or wrong) time coincidentally. So screw skin care, here are swatches for  the eyeshadows:

EDIT: Just to clarify, I paid for the blogger bundle. It was heavily discounted at $5 for a bunch of samples but it's not free. 

Against UDPP:

Left: Under artificial light
Right: Under natural light

Against bare skin:

Left: Under artificial light
Right: Under natural light

I didn't bother glitter glueing the mattes but here's Penny Loafer under natural light:

I can honestly say I like Penny Loafer a lot. The colour's gorgeous.

Formula-wise, these shadows seem..well, normal. I was kinda curious what "plant derived ingredients, skin specific butters and oils, and bio-ferments" would do, but I honestly can't tell the difference with other indie eyeshadows I've tried. The only difference is that they stain. Like really badly. Even on bare skin.

I'm used to pigmented indie shadows staining when you apply them with a wet brush or over primer, but staining my bare skin is rare. These are the stains left after my bare skin application.

Even Shu Umera can't do anything

The left is after washing and scrubbing with soap, the right is after I used my Shu Umera oil cleanser, which usually removes everything.

I usually do a look with the eyeshadows I'm swatching, but I noped and decided not to do a look with these. My eyes are very sensitive and anything that can stain it that badly freaks me out.

Here's a swatch of Coil on my lips:

I'm not a fan of the formula. It feels like rubbing eyeshadow on my lips and feels kinda dry.

Oh and a minor annoying detail, Alchimia's sample sizes are ridiculously packaged:

Someone on reddit mentioned they're "postage stamp sized"..it's true.

It feels a bit petty to whine about packaging, but these super tiny ziplock bags were so hard to work with. I'm ok with a tiny amount of product, since I'm getting these at a discount, but I really prefer the reasonably sized ziplock bags other companies use for their samples. First, these bags were hard to open since I have fat fingers. Next, it's hard for you to get the product out neatly. So you're really stuck depotting them. I normally keep all my samples in their original bags so I can travel with them, and have no problems with using eyeshadows out of little sample bags, but these I can't. 

Review: Alchimia Apothecary Perfumes (Part 2)

EDIT: I have had a bad customer service experience and so did some of my friends, so I personally will avoid them now. This will probably cause some controversy, but I feel that I need to put this out there.  There's also some owner sketchiness. Here's some public sketchiness, here's some I got privately. I'm also not a fan of her tone with people who give not so great reviews of her brand.

I finally got around reviewing the rest of my Alchimia perfumes, which are the new scents. My first review is here, my initial cold sniff impressions are here. I didn't change my cold sniff impression, and only looked at the scent descriptions just before writing the overall review.

… And Candy Bar Dreams

"This scent is pure decadence. Thick ribbons if chocolate and black ambrosia layer themselves onto sticky sweet and creamy chunks of coconut filling and crunchy bits of toasted almonds."

Cold sniff review: Sweet earth. It's definitely a really sweet smell, but I also smell a very earthy smell which could be a very strong dark chocolate smell. Not a fan.

First Application: Oh gods. This smells like really sweet chocolate-covered buttered popcorn. This is amazing! I'm hungry just smelling this.

You know this smells delicious...
Image courtesy of Hershey's you can even find the recipe here!

5 min in: The sweetness died down, leaving just a wonderful chocolate-drizzled buttered popcorn smell. There's a hint of something that reminds me of coconut body butter. The scent stayed constant after this. I'm not sure if it's because I had a hard time getting the oil out thanks to the rollerball jamming, but I noticed this scent seems to have less of a throw than what I'm used to from Alchimia. By 15 min, I have to sniff it close to the skin and it's pretty faint by 1h.

Overall Review: It's so delicious, I really want this in full size. I better check my budget for this. I'm so hungry after smelling this!

First in Show

"Straight out of the gates, this scent is a floral explosion with gardenias, tulips, honey suckles, a hint of roses and fruity violets rounding into plum, blackcurrants, wine and sweet tobacco. Hints of the most subtle bits of leather linger and combine into beautiful sophistication."

Cold sniff review: Powdery snow and brand new sheafs of paper. It's weird but I definitely get the new paper smell. Love this!

First application: This is a very cool, clean floral scent that has a bit of dirtiness to it. I'm trying to figure out what that bit of dirtiness is. It definitely makes this scent more exciting. Somehow, the smell reminds me of walking into the lobby of an expensive office building. I think is the traces of that new paper smell.

10 min in: My skin amps up the sweetness and I can't smell that hint of dirtiness that I liked anymore. It just smells like sweet, cool florals. Now it feels more like I'm in the lobby of a hotel or in a spa.

20 min in: The florals warmed up and the scent smells heavier, with a floral type of heaviness. I think I smell a hint of roses? smell reminds me so much of Midsummer Dreams Apothecary's Rapunzel, I think I'm going to sniff them together to see if they smell that alike.

Overall Review: Sniffed both of MDA's Rapunzel & First in Show together and I see the difference now. I'm guessing the honeysuckle & rose combination is what made them smell so similar. In the beginning, First in Show is cooler and sharper, while Rapunzel is a warmer, slightly heavier grass and floral smell. As they dry down, Rapunzel smells cooler, but it's a more soapy sort of coolness. First in Show became warmer and heavier, but it's still a floral sort of heaviness, which is different from Rapunzel's more amber sort of heaviness in the begining.

While Rapunzel makes me think of something from an old medieval, European castle converted into a spa, First in Show makes me think more of modern office buildings and spas. So this for Rapunzel:

Technically a monastery, but totally how I imagine a medieval castle to look like.
Tatev Monastery by Alexander Naumov

vs this for First in Show:

Kepinski Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia!
Image courtesy of kiwicollection.com/

They also have a different sort of sweetness to it. Rapunzel's sweetness has a warmer, vanilla creaminess to it, while First in Show has a lighter, floral sweetness to it.

Gladius

"This is a sophisticated blend of leather and black agar, sweetened by bergamot and lemon. It's sharpened by the hints of star anise, and all mellowed down by rich ribbons of sweet vanilla."

Cold sniff review: Leather and ice. All I smelt was leather at first, and then a cool scent emerges. This is such a sexy scent. When my bf's back in town, he's going to be forced into wearing this. 

First application: On me, this smells like sweet, musky leather. There's the slight bitter coolness to the leather, but the sweet muskiness weights this scent down a bit.

5 min in: I think I detect a hint of lemon in here.

10 min in: The lemon scent got stronger and this becomes a sweet, earthy and musky lemon scent, with the bitter coolness of leather. The leather note smells a bit too masculine on me though.

Overall Impression: I think I find the smell of leather pretty hot. I remembered this is meant for a men, so I tried it out on 3 guys who suck even more than me when it comes to describing scents. It's a "nay" from all 3 and they've described it as:

"Like something menthol and alcohol." Okay...
"Peppery almond?" Huh?
"Those balls in the toilet, you know, the ones you pee on." Wat.

These guys really suck at this.

Picnic

"On a lighter summer note, this scent blends together wonderful watery cucumbers, green tea, violet leaves, clovers, dandelions, and sunflowers."

Cold sniff review: Grass, dirt and a yellow flower smell. I'm still trying to place this. I really like it. 

First Application: Wow...light, sweet florals and grass, this is so pretty! Definitely a yellow flower smell. Makes me think of small bursts of wildflowers! Reminds me of something like this:

Image courtesy of wallpaperhi.com

10 min in: The scent finally settled on me and it's less sweet, but definitely a clean, soapy floral that makes me think of the linen in high end spas. It's definitely a gorgeous scent! If any of you have tried Midsummer Dreams Apothecary's Rapunzel, this is like a sweeter and more floral version of that scent.

Overall Impression: Oh wow! Such a coincidence the picture I picked has a dandelion in it!

I sniffed Picnic, First in Show and Rapunzel together and I see the difference now. Picnic is an even cooler scent than First in Show, and now I recognize that one of the clean smells I sniffed must have been the green tea. It smell's like L'Occitane's Thé Vert (basically green tea snooty-fied a.k.a en français) solid perfume.

Picnic has the same floral sweetness as First in Show, but it's more subtle than First in Show. Picnic's scent also strikes me as more wildflowers and grass, while First in Show is more of carefully selected flowers for a flower arrangement in a high end hotel/spa. There's definitely roses in First in Show, but not Picnic.

So more this for Picnic:

Image by kirsty_mcn in dpchallenge.com/

vs this for First in Show:

Image courtesy of wedding-flowers-and-reception-ideas.com

Between Rapunzel & Picnic, there's definitely huge differences. While both have a clean, soapy smell, Picnic has only hints of it. It's sweeter and more floral for sure, and also smells more blue. Rapunzel smells like a heavier and more rounded soapy smell.

Shaman

"Sage, lemongrass, lavender eucalyptus and other herbs combine with the delicate aroma of sweetgrass, blackened earth and a rich smokey campfire."

Cold sniff review: Betadine. Yes, Betadine, the iodine solution they put on your gauze when you get cut.

First Application: Gah...I knew I was going to regret this but I thought I should try it anyway. It immediately smells like iodine solution on me. Slightly sour iodine solution. My coworker caught a whiff of it and asked me if I'm ok, because it smelled like I just used Betadine.

15 min in: Still iodine, but there's also an acrid, Chinese preserved fruit smell.

40 min in: Wait, what sorcery is this? The iodine smell is receding and now I'm getting this sweet, dried flowers and dried grass smell. There's still a bit of the Chinese preserved fruit smell, but it's disappearing.

1h 30 min in: The medicinal smell is completely gone, leaving behind a sweet, slightly soapy dried grass with a spray of dried flowers smell. It's amazing now! Unfortunately, it's also pretty faint by now and you have to sniff hard to smell it.

Overall Impression: I wish the final smell showed up earlier. It does end up gorgeous, but way too late. UPDATE 08/14: Here's the reason why this smells weird.

Review: Alchimia Apothecary Perfumes (Part 1)

EDIT: I have had a bad customer service experience and so did some of my friends, so I personally will avoid them now. This will probably cause some controversy, but I feel that I need to put this out there.  There's also some owner sketchiness. Here's some public sketchiness, here's some I got privately. I'm also not a fan of her tone with people who give not so great reviews of her brand.

I finally have time to review the Alchimia perfumes I got in more depth! Since the perfumes take so long to review (they stick on your skin for quite some time), I've split my review of the 11 scents into 2 parts.

For all these reviews, I didn't read the scent descriptions until after I'm done reviewing and before writing my overall impressions of the scents. I kept the cold sniff impressions I wrote about previously, when I first opened the bottles.

Perfume Oil Review

The smell wafts around for about an hour and afterwards, you can only smell it faintly for about 4h, though you can smell traces of it for a longgg time. I end up only being able to review 2 scents/day. Some scents take a while to settle on my skin, so I decided to just keep updating until the smell settles.

Freezia

"Water flows all around the tough shards of ice and pears in this blend to break away and reveal the lovely delicate notes of freesia hidden just below the surface."

Cold Sniff Impression: Springtime rain on a flower garden. I want to prance around like a bloody unicorn! 

First application: My skin amped up the clean rain smell and oh my gods it's amazing. Definitely springtime rain in a carefully cultivated garden of mellow, sweet florals. A hint of something fruity in the background? I can't place it. It mellows out the florals and gives a hint of something sweet but tangy.

5 min in: The blue smell is amping up, but it still smells like a floral perfume with a hint of something fruity.

15 min in: The blue smell is much stronger than the floral smell. It's now flowers strewn across a calm, serene lake. 

30 min in: Somehow I smell melons & soap too. 

1h in: The smell mostly stays constant after this, but I'm picking up the slightly tangy fruit scent in the background again. I picked up that scent on the first application, but it got overpowered by the blue smells for a while. I'm trying to figure out what it is. Still smells of mostly melons & soap. It's definitely a very sweet scent and a but too sweet for me. 

Overall Impression: Oh wow, this is an awesome smell before it gets too sweet. May toss it into my swap pile. I don't know how I got melons & soap from freesia & pear. I'm trying to sniff out the pear, and I'm sure it's there since that must be the reason for the tangy scent in the background, but I mostly smell melons & soap. 

Gimme S'more

"Toasted marshmallows, graham crackers, raw cocoa and mouth watering black ambrosia surround the molten sparks of a smokey campfire."

Cold Sniff Impression: I was expecting s'mores but somehow got Indonesian coffee. As in coffee the way the locals drink it -drowned in sugar. We're famous globally for our coffee but we prefer drinking them in the form of milky-brown coloured sugared water with a coffee smell. On the fence.

First application: I smell the graham crackers now, though the chocolate smell doesn't seem to agree with me and ends up smelling bitter.

5 min in: The bitter smell is now overpowering. The bitter smell actually smells a bit like a chemical oil leak. This is weird. Hiding behind that smell is a delicious sweet graham cracker smell though.

15 min in: The oil spill smell is getting stronger. Why skin, whyyyy??? The smell sort of reminds me when I opened a bottle of vanilla essence that has gone slightly rancid -very sweet with a hint of something delicious, but all buried under the smell of rancid oil.

1 h in: Oh wow. The rancid oil smell finally disappears leaving a sweet, smoky wood sort of smell. It's actually delicious now. It's a very sharp type of sweet scent, instead of the creamy sweet scent I was expecting. Definitely a surprise. Unfortunately, the scent is too faint by now.

Overall review: I love how this scent turns out -sharp, sweet, smokey wood with a hint of delicousness -but I definitely need to remember that this takes an hour before it smells amazing and sultry on me, and by that time, it's pretty faint. 

Image Courtesy of Alchimia Apothecary

Native

"Sweet grass lies at the heart of this blend with the sharp notes of apples and cranberries hinting around the outskirts of your senses. Combined with bold, rich tobacco leaves and just a touch of wildflowers, this is truly a unique and wonderful fragrance."

*Note: The rollerball jammed for this bottle so I had a hard time getting the oils out. I may have "crushed" the scent.

Cold Sniff Impression: Springtime, soap and a hint of sweet fruits. The smell strongly reminds me of Midsummer Dreams Apothecary's Rapunzel, only this has something sweet in it. I love it.

First application: Oh, definitely reminds me of Rapunzel from Midsummer Dreams Apothecary. I wonder if that scent is sweet grass? While Rapunzel has a clean soap scent, this is a bit different. More wild and sweet on me.

5 min in: There's a hint of a Baygon entering (popular Indonesian brand of insecticide, similar scent to Alkemia's Prairie 66) and also something like a sweet wood scent.

15 min in: Thank goodness the Baygon scent didn't get stronger. There's a smell that's not exactly bitter. It's a scent that somehow makes me think of fire and cinders. I like this overall scent. It smells like dry grasslands before a forest fire. Fresh, wild, with a hint of danger. The scent pretty much stayed steady like this, though the "fiery" scent is the first to go as the perfume wears on.

Overall impression: I wonder if that "fiery" smell came from the tobacco. Overall, this definitely a unique scent. I'm not sure how else I can describe it except for "dry grasslands before a forest fire".

Image Courtesy of Alchimia Apothecary

Juju Monster

"This fragrance is packed with a monster amount of fruit and berries. Sharp and bold scents of black current weave around the juicy trickles of mulberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and rich, wonderful cherries. This is a must in the fragrance collection of any fruit lover."

**EDIT 08/11/14:** I got this in full size and it smells very different. It smells highly artificial and headache inducing. It's significantly different from the  sample I got. Very disappointed and sad.

Cold Sniff Impression: A candy store with old school candies -the colourful gum drops, pixie sticks, jawbreakers, etc. I'm very impressed with this smell. A lot of candy smells end up having that hollow, cheap and artificial smell, but this smells like an actual candy store. The smell's so delicious!

First application: It smells like cherry candies. I've tried a cherry scent that ended up smelling like Nyquil before, so I was so impressed by how delicious this stayed. It doesn't have that hollow, artificial scent most candy smells have.

5 min in: Oh wow, an amazing sweet, sugary scent bloomed. It's smells like cotton candy, yet at the same time still smells rich and deep, instead of artificial and hollow. I don't know how Alchimia does it.

15 min in: The sugary scent mellowed and I think I smell a hint of apples? And something tart. Berries?

30 min in: It smells like an icy apple candy. Not minty. The kind of apple candy that smells deliciously of apples but you know will be icy in your mouth. And it still doesn't smell artificial. I'm just so impressed!

1h in: Aww..the apple took a backseat and now the icy sugar scent is stronger. It's still an amazing scent though. My mind is blown and I need to get this in a full size. Why did I only get a sample of this?

Overall Impression: Oh wow..no idea how this became a candy smell when it's supposed to be fruity. Maybe that's why it's such an amazing "candy" smell and doesn't smell artificial at all. This is so delicious, I'm buying in full size! I'm not even checking my budget. I can starve. It's fine.

Dangerous Dreams

"This is filled with juicy peaches, creamy tres les cake, brown sugar, and crunchy cinnamon filled crumbles."

Cold Sniff Impression: A box of fresh donuts in a brand new office. This scent makes me nostalgic and I can't figure out why. It definitely smells like an brand new office but I can't place what place or moment in time this reminds me of. Yes, I love the smell of brand new offices. No idea why.

First Application: Oh, it just smells like donuts on me! Yum!

5 min in: Oh gods...there's a grape jelly scent coming in. Nononononooo.

10 min in: Yes. It smells like jelly donuts. Which may smell good to some people, but jelly donuts make me sick. When I was a kid, I got bad food poisoning from jelly donuts and ended up puking all over my Pillow. Yes, I capitalized that. I called her Bantal (Indonesian for "pillow") and I had her ever since I could remember. I freaking love her and made my family bring her along whenever we travelled. I thought we'd be together forever and planned to grow old together with her, taking her with me to whichever nursing home/asylum I ended up in. After I puked all over her, my mom deemed Bantal a biohazard and threw her away. And this is why I hate jelly donuts. /endrant

I can't do this guys. After 30 min of smelling jelly donuts only, I scrubbed it off. I can't. I just can't. I'm giving this to one of my friends.

Overall Impression: SCREW YOU JELLY DONUTS!!!



UPDATE: I removed Myriad since I was told I may have received the wrong scent. Erin is popping a new bottle into my order 

Haul Post: Alchimia Apothecary + Cold Sniff Reviews

EDIT: I have had a bad customer service experience and so did some of my friends, so I personally will avoid them now. This will probably cause some controversy, but I feel that I need to put this out there.  There's also some owner sketchiness. Here's some public sketchiness, here's some I got privately. I'm also not a fan of her tone with people who give not so great reviews of her brand.

22 days ago, my favourite reddit enabler /u/ashhole613, posted about an Alchimia Manic Monday deal. With 3 full size bottles, you get 5 samplers! That sounds awesome!

Of course I had to go shop...

This is what I got:

Full Sizes:

• Dangerous Dreams
• Freezia
• Gimme S'more

Sample Sizes:

• Juju Monster
• Myriad
• Native

Free Manic Monday Samples:

• ...And Candy Bar Dreams
• First in Show
• Picnic
• Shaman
• Gladius

Additional freebies:

• Sniffer Sticker sample
• A dropper
• Candy!

The goods.

I need to give it to Alchimia, the Sniffer Sticker sample is just so adorable! It's cute but it must have been a pain to fill these up. I definitely appreciate the effort. Look how cute it is!

With my eye for scale

Customer Service

I have to rave about their customer service. Being the idiot that I am, I got the time difference wrong and ordered on Monday my time, which is still Sunday in the US. I freaked out and messaged Alchimia, and Erin replied just moments later.  She still gave me the deal!

I LOVE YOU ERIN!!!

Packaging Review

Alchimia's perfumes come with safety seals so that's great. The full sizes just comes in this bottle, with no rollerball though.

Safety seals are awesome

I'll describe their full-size packaging as purely functional and no frills.

Meanwhile, I'm in LOVE with their sample bottles. It comes with a mini rollerball! Look!

So adorable!

They're so cute! I love them! Will Alchemia hate me if I ask them to send me my perfumes in these sample bottles? The sample sizes came in bottles that were leaking, but Alchimia is aware of this and the issue's been fixed.

If you've gotten the new sample bottles, let me know how you find them! I personally think the old bottles are cuter, so I've emailed Erin asking if she can sell them to me if she has leftovers. They'll be perfect for creating travel-size versions of my full sizes.

Turnaround Time

Ordered: May 12

Shipped: May 20

Received: June 3

I did order during a sale, so her TAT may have gotten longer.

Cold Sniff Scent Review

Now for the scents. I don't have the time or enough arms for a full review yet, so I'm just doing a cold sniff review from the bottles. I don't want to check out the notes before I do the review since that may influence what I smell, so I won't put the scent descriptions here.

Here's a quick cold sniff review of the scents:

...And Candy Bar Dreams: Sweet earth. It's definitely a really sweet smell, but I also smell a very earthy smell which could be a very strong dark chocolate smell. Not a fan.

Dangerous Dreams: A box of fresh donuts in a brand new office. This scent makes me nostalgic and I can't figure out why. It definitely smells like an brand new office but I can't place what place or moment in time this reminds me of. Yes, I love the smell of brand new offices. No idea why.

First in Show: Powdery snow and brand new sheafs of paper. It's weird but I definitely get the new paper smell. Love this!

Freezia: Springtime rain on a flower garden. I want to prance around like a bloody unicorn! 

Gimme S'more: I was expecting s'mores but somehow got Indonesian coffee. As in coffee the way the locals drink it -drowned in sugar. We're famous globally for our coffee but we prefer drinking them in the form of milky-brown coloured sugared water with a coffee smell. On the fence.

Gladius: Leather and ice. All I smelt was leather at first, and then a cool scent emerges. This is such a sexy scent. When my bf's back in town, he's going to be forced into wearing this. 

Juju Monster: A candy store with old school candies -the colourful gum drops, pixie sticks, jawbreakers, etc. I'm very impressed with this smell. A lot of candy smells end up having that hollow, cheap and artificial smell, but this smells like an actual candy store. The smell's so delicious!

Myriad: Tropical fruits and smoke. And I really mean smoke. The smell almost makes my throat itch instinctively. Not sure how I feel about this one.

Native: Springtime, soap and a hint of sweet fruits. The smell strongly reminds me of Midsummer Dreams Apothecary's Rapunzel, only this has something sweet in it. I love it.

Picnic: Grass, dirt and a yellow flower smell. I'm still trying to place this. I really like it. 

Shaman: Betadine. Yes, Betadine, the iodine solution they put on your gauze when you get cut.


Just a tl;dr:

Love!

• Dangerous Dreams
• First in Show
• Freezia
• Gladius
• Juju Monster
• Native
• Picnic

Ok...

• Gimme S'more
• Myriad

Ewww.

• ...And Candy Bar Dreams
• Shaman

Looking at my long list of loves, I'm off to a great start with Alchimia!