I am in love with these Halloween perfume oils from
Darling Clandestine. And I know, I know - Halloween was over a month ago, but I am still having much fun with these perfumes! There's also a few of these scents still available, so my post isn't way too late. I was lucky enough to win these in a giveaway at
Beauty Infinitum! Super exciting times!
Also, prepare for a long review...
{the perfume}
These perfume oils are splendid. I love the cool bottles they come in and the glass dropper/wand makes application easy. They are also very fragrant, but without being overpowering. The wear is about 6-8 hours and it fades beautifully with softly lingering sweet scents.
{the scents}
Falter
“All at once, the electric panic that lights up your inadequacies like constellations. Kill it.” Startling, misty, herbal, with notes including avocado and ozone and clary sage.
I think this is the one I'm going to have the most difficulty in trying to describe. Falter smells very interesting in the bottle - there's definitely a bit of an avocado note in there with other soft greens. Once on, it starts off smelling a bit like clay mixed with a sweet herbal scent that isn't too green.
There's also a bit of creaminess to it.
After dry-down, the clay smell goes away and it morphs into a lovely scent that is so well blended it's difficult for me to accurately describe it. It's sweet and creamy, but not in a candy-like way. More like the light scent of sweet fruits. There might be a bit of melon in here. It's soft and mellow, without being too light. It's almost a clean scent, but in the best kind of way, like a scent I might find in a spa. I wish I could better describe this fragrance. But really, it is beautiful and quite soothing. Very wearable scent, even perfect for bedtime! I find myself drawn to this scent quite frequently, making reviewing other scents quite difficult at times! Definitely one of my new favorites!
Squander
“Rich as cello, the furious moments you wasted, never recognizing the fire at your command. Taste them.” Deep and decadent, with rich fruitful notes including clove and nutmeg and sandalwood and ripe red apple.
Squander is definitely a fall-time scent! It starts out strong with the apple and spices. The clove is very apparent in the scent, adding that extra punch of spice. After dry-down, the clove mellows out a lot. The sweet red apple also mellows out, bringing the other spices to the front. The fall spices in this perfume definitely stand out and are sweetened by the apple, which keeps the spices from getting too out of hand. There is also a hint of earthiness in the background. There is a deliciousness to this scent without being too foodie. It adds a bit of coziness to chilly, fall days!
Spurn
“At each silence, the ache of the blade that released your indecorous wrath. Twist it.” Fierce and passionate, with bright bursts of pomegranate, tempered with aged wood and haunted by marigolds."
Honestly, I am not sure what marigolds smell like. They must be some kind of wonderful though! This perfume opens up with bright, sweet pomegranate. I don't get much of the aged wood in this, but I think that is because my skin tends to amp up floral notes in any scent. I tend not to like florals for that reason, but marigolds are another story all together. They do not have a sharp, perfumey scent that most florals have. It is a deep and rich scent that is almost a bit heavy, but in a delightfully sweet way. Quite intoxicating!
Wither
“One Draconian day, the fissures into which your voluptuous youth dissolves. Welcome it.” Unsettling, ethereal, with notes including ozone and blueberry and trampled leaves, soaked in black rum.
Wither starts off bursting with blueberries. I'm not usually a fan of blueberry fragrances because the blueberry tends to be too sweet and candy-like. But the blueberries in this perfume have a real blueberry scent that isn't headache inducing. Yay! After the initial blueberry pop, the leaves quickly follow adding a bit of crunch to the scent. After dry-down, the earthiness of the leaves comes forward with the blueberries adding some sweetness to the scent. I detect a faint note of sweet florals in the background, but I could be wrong. To bring it all together, the ozone adds some freshness to the scent, like cool fall air carrying the scents of blueberries and fallen leaves. I really love how the scents play off one another in this fragrance - it never fails to interest my nose!
A few other things about Wither... from a distance, it has an alluring scent that is sweet and creamy. When it wafts my way (and I'm not sticking my nose up against it), there's a delectable quality about it. Also, I left the bottle open for a bit and I noticed my room smelled lightly of blueberries. Enjoyable all around!
{scents + peppermint}
I made a discovery with Falter while testing these out. I couldn't wait to try it, so I put it on even though I was about to shower. During my shower I used my peppermint scrub (reviewed
here) and afterwards I noticed how beautifully the scent mixed with the perfume. I messaged Evonne at
Darling Clandestine to tell her about my discovery and she suggested I try all of the scents with peppermint. Brilliant! And since I have a bottle of peppermint eo, that is exactly what I did! (Well not completely - I failed to test this out with Spurn, but didn't want to wait to post this review!).
Falter + peppermint
At first, the peppermint adds a bit of minty freshness. What I found interesting though is that when blended with Falter, the peppermint goes straight to being a sweet mint. There's no icy spike of minty coolness that peppermint usually has at first. The mint enhances that clean quality of the scent, while also adding some sweetness. It also brings out the ozone more. It is like the smell someone brings in with them from outside, but not when they first open the door, but as they come in and it slowly starts fading away. And they smell of something sweet but indeterminable, just a mellow and soft sweetness. Maybe sweet herbs with lovely creaminess. I really cannot get enough of this scent!
Squander + peppermint
This starts out with an interesting blend of peppermint and spices. They seem to balance perfectly - it's not too minty and it's not too spicy. They meld together enough to make you question and consider what you're really detecting in the scent. After dry-down, the peppermint brings out the sweetness of the apple while also adding a bit of tartness to it. It mellows out the clove in the scent and brings out the other spices. It also enhances the ozone. And put all that together and what do we get? Being outside on a cold winter night, when the skies are clear and the air is crisp, and there's a thermos full of hot apple cider at hand. It is a bit magical.
Wither + peppermint
This starts out with two strong scents - the icy peppermint and the sweet blueberries. It makes me think of biting into frozen blueberries. After it mellows out, the peppermint seems to enhance the sweetness of the scent while bringing the ozone scent to the front and making the airiness of it more crisp. The leaves are faintly in the background, but they start to emerge more with a bit of an earthy crunch that is slightly bitter. I love how the peppermint brings out these scent notes while also adding a bit of a twist.
{final thoughts}
I seem to fall more and more in love with
Darling Clandestine perfumes! They are so unique and and completely beautiful! Never has a shop become one of my absolute favorites so quickly! I love
Darling Clandestine so much, I can't stop exclaiming everything! Evonne, I <3 you! Highest recommendation from me and expect many, many more
Darling Clandestine reviews from me!
