Hey friends!

I feel like I’ve been spending these past few months honing my sense of smell for my first Darling Clandestine order. I’ve heard this indie perfume company offers amazing, but interesting scents. It was a challenge I had to accept. Also there’s sharks. So I was down.

After months of strenuous nose training, (insert sniffing montage), I was ready. And the day finally came to place my first order, with the release of Darling Clandestine’s Valentine’s Day perfumes. 

So what did I think of my first DC order? Let’s put on “Eye of the Tiger” and find out!

My new boyfriend, Tony:

SHARKS. YES.

The technical stuff: This was my first time placing a Darling Clandestine order, and since it was a limited release I was prepared to internet fight some people. And by that I mean, I stalked the Etsy site until the opening time, and BOUGHT SO FAST. (I was actually in class at the time and I think my professor was concerned about my frantic clicking and then the triumphant expression on my face after I found VICTORY. It was an intense 2 minutes!)

So I placed my order on 1/26, it was shipped on 2/3, (along with the Halochrome perfume I had purchased earlier in January and had her hold on to until the Valentine’s release), and it arrived in my reckless hands on 2/7! (I say reckless because my friend did not like that I was opening my Shark package while driving. LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO NOT OPEN PACKAGES IMMEDIATELY! She’s slightly right, though.)

My package was packed perfectly with candy, tea, and cute shark drawings!

The good stuff: I ordered the Valentine’s Trio for $30, and then threw in a Coma Cluster solid for $12. Let me tell you about their ways.

Bouquet of Scorpions- Whereas Tiny Bees delivered grapefruit in a delicate wisp of silk, Bouquet of Scorpions serves it up in a ring of fire. Charred mesquite wood and torched sage smolder like a South Texas summer, finished with a splash of cool agave to dull the edge. True Unisex, Boss Level 9.

I’ve experienced a few South Texas summers in my time, so I was very interested in trying out this guy. At first, it’s super citrusy and cool, to the point where I was like, did this become mint? But it mellows out and smells very much like grapefruit and sage, refreshing and cool. I don’t actually get a lot of the charred wood scent, but I’m thinking I will when this has settled down in a month. Very interesting scent!

Noose Jewelry-Because my bff said so. I chose true raw carrot, mulberry, honeysuckle, wheat grass, and (yes, I went there), a nice dirty green patchouli.

I was a little scared of this one because I’ve never smelled raw carrot perfume, and patchouli is not always my friend. But the whole reason I wanted to try DC was to get out of my comfort zone, and you know what? I don’t hate this. I actually think I like it? It’s very green and herbal on me, (no carrot smells!) it kinda reminds me of some of my jasmine and vetiver BPAL scents, but much better. (And there’s no jasmine and vetiver, so whatevs, nose.) Like this is smoother and more appealing. A deep, smooth green scent, that’s how I would describe this.

Reddit Hug of Death- Intense black tea infused with a trio of fruits-strawberries, blackberries, and sweet red apples-grounded with vetiver and ginger and tonka bean.
I should hate this. I’m picky about vetiver, and fruit perfumes NEVER last on me. But I LOVE this. It’s the perfect fruit scent. If you love fruit, you need this. If you don’t love fruit, you need this. I get more berries and tonka bean than anything else, but I’m assuming the vetiver, (which I don’t really smell yet), is what keeps it from being too cloying and fruity for me. Definitely a fan!

Coma Cluster- an all natural botanical frangrance featuring classics like dark sweet coffee oil and cocoa absolutes, delicate essence of orange blossom, and an -oh-my-you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me dynamite Bulgarian rose otto. Hugs close to the skin, all night, all night.

 I threw this in my cart on a whim. I was like, $12 bucks, dang, I can’t afford this. But I was in class and panicked and HOLY COW. This is my favorite item in the whole Valentine’s release. I’ve been looking for a Holy Grail Rose scent and this is it. Drop the mike. Walk away. It stars off with a deep, almost boozy, coffee smell and then mellows out in this beautiful, perfect rose scent. I love it.

I smear this on everything. Everything. I really like the solid perfume formula, a little bit easily goes a long way. It lasts a few hours on me and then I smear more all over myself. LOVE. IT.

Halochrome-Tanika showed me a really pretty fluorescent germ-cell stain. It made me want to create something deep but bright. She told me she’s fond of the term “halochromism”—color changes that happen in certain substances and tissues because of a change in pH. I suddenly decided I wanted a fragrance with a “color shift,” one that would run the gamut of ROYGBIV. Thus was born a synaesthetic adventure for your skin. She’s a rainbow.

This is actually part of her Black Friday release, but it sounded so cool when she offered preorders of it, I went ahead and picked one up.

This is definitely an experience. This perfume has like 56 different shifts to it. It starts out very green and herbal, then it kinda turns spicy, then it gets kinda soft and sweet. I am rambling, but I don’t know how to describe this other than it doesn’t stay the same. Each time I sniff the perfume, it’s morphing into something else. It’s really a cool concept.

Overall: My experience with Darling Clandestine has left me a huge fan. Fascinating scents, cute packaging, and Tony the shark and I are in love. What more could I need? I’ll defintiely be trying to pick up some items from her general catalog and Spring release to try!

Questions of the Day:
–Have you ever tried Darling Clandestine?
-What are your thoughts on this Valentine’s Day release?
-Do you love sharks? What about gentlemen sharks?

Love

Rebs!