Hey friends!

How’s it going for you? I picked a bad week to stop drinking coffee. (Just kidding that would never happen. I meant to say I picked a bad week to stop abusing coffee.) It’s just been a very long and tiring week.

Good thing perfumes always make me feel better. (Specifically ones that smell like coffee, thank you Circassian, thank you.)

I’ve got a review of some of Darling Clandestine’s Spring scents and then a review of some of her Classic Scents from my Grab Bag purchase.

As a newbie to DC, I had a lot of fun with my little haul, so read on!

 

Technical Stuffs: Darling Clandestine is an indie perfume shop owned by Evonne, and run on Etsy. Her reputation is one for whimsy and sharks, and her perfumes tend to reflect that, some of which can lean toward the offbeat side.

For this order, I was very excited to buy a Grab Bag. These show up from time to time in the Etsy shop for $20 and you get five bitsys (sample sized perfumes and solids). As someone who is new to DC, this was a great way for me to start my collection and try some of her Classic scents.

My little haul comes from a series of orders I placed, and that I had all shipped together. This policy has changed a bit, but DC still offers a code for her Etsy shop to combine orders that have been made within a week of each other, (for domestic), and three weeks for international orders. You can find out more about this policy on her Facebook page.

Anyways, DC’s TAT time is usually around 8-10 days, but since I preordered I was subject to when my baby perfumes were ready. I ordered February 15th, and they shipped to me March 5th, which is totally what I was expecting for a preorder. If you place an order, I would just recommend checking in on her Etsy shop to what her current TAT is.

I had no problems with my order, and it came with the traditional shark and rooster combo.

Good Stuffs:

Let’s start with the Spring scents that were released this year.

Monstre Delicat Bitsy, $5 –Clean, spicy, rainy, moody, wonderful. Sweet blackened fig, rain water, spiced wood. The nostalgic longing for storms. It’s a haunting watercolor “blue” scent.
I know this is supposed to be moody and haunting, but I get a very bright and fresh scent. Wet, I’m smelling clean fresh flowers, which I think is the smell of the rain water with wood. I’m guessing that clean scent is my nose getting the green smell of damp plants and wood after a storm.

As it dries this does get spicier and the wood comes out more, but it still reminds me of damp wood. Really good smelling damp wood. I’ve only had this for a week, so it may need to age more for the darkness to come out, but so far I’m enjoying it as a fresh rain scent. It only lasts about 3 hours on me before it fades away, but again I’m hoping as it ages, I’ll get more staying power.

Mad As Birds Bitsy $5-Always in demand! Sweet, cool, fresh dew with notes of pear and mint and amber and marigolds. A haunted garden. Mad as Birds is particularly complicated, and its ingredients are scarce, so be patient with me.
This is a beautiful, a lovely, feminine Spring scent. It smells slightly floral, but also slightly fruity. I definitely get pear, and something else soft and feminine, I think that’s the amber. I would almost describe it as delicate, and it sits close to the skin. It smells like something a very fancy lady who has lots of lace might wear. Yep. I only got about 3 hours out of this one, but that’s typical of fruit notes and me.

Limerence Solid-(Full size, $10) A floral for those who hate florals. Not “oriental” or grandmotherly, but a green, tangy, moody blend of bruised Casablanca lilies, bittersweet succulents, full-bodied herbal essentials, a heady crust of sea salt, and a wonderfully fine mitti attar that’s the essence of first rain hitting sun-baked earth.

I really love DC’s solids. They are so silky smooth, and just melt into perfume oil on my skin. I actually feel they have a pretty decent wear time, too.

So this scent is a sophisticated floral, and it smells amazing to me. I definitely smell smooth, pleasant flowers. I’m training my nose, but I’m not good enough yet to pick out what kind yet, not jasmine or rose, that’s all I got. (Oh, it’s lilies. I guess I love lilies?) There’s maybe a hint of dirt and something herbal, but it all blends together so well. I feel so fancy wearing this. Like a lady who’s got her act together and has stationary. (I guess I consider that grown up?) This lasts about 5 hours, which is great wear time for a floral scent and a solid perfume on me.

 

Tapadero Bitsy Solid– (bought individually, $4) Bold and bright sage and roses, dusky sweet smoke and leather. Very clean, very cuddly, fresh but comforting—open spaces and worn saddles

I’ve really grown to love a good leather note (and I adore roses), so I really wanted to try Tapadero and see what DC’s leather was like.

And it smells like the real deal. Not the leather interior of a car or a leather jacket smell, but, like animal hide leather. And then underneath that there’s a sweet, pleasant rose, and I get a hint of tobacco. I absolutely love DC’s rose notes, and this perfume is no exception. Especially as the initial leather note fades and it becomes a mellow, soft floral mix. There is something here that definitely reminds me of my childhood, but I can’t place it. (I did not grow up on a ranch, etc.). It might just be the comforting sense I get when I smell it, it’s indeed a cuddly scent. This lasts about four hours on me before the leather note fades, and it’s a pleasant floral.

Grab Bag Scents, ($20 for the grab bag):

Maudlin and Bedlam Bitsy Solid: Dark, warm honey and herbals and wood frosted unsettlingly with weeping green leaves. Something deep and different for you honey lovers, with a fresh verdant bite.

Green, with a bit of herbal-ness. I smell wildflowers in a field, fresh and green, but sweet. As it dries, I get more honey and woods. (I don’t know if solid perfumes work that way, but I swear the longer I wear it, the more woods and less green I get). This lasted about four hours on me before the sweetness faded, and it was just a soft herbal scent. Wearing this totally makes me feel like I’m a forest fairy. Or like this:

Supernova Sway Bitsy Solid-If “black metallic” had a fragrance, it would be this. I’ve been working on Supernova Sway for an age, under cover of night. Dark and bright and dark and bright again, deep musks streaked with mint, black resins with subtle flashes of orchid and buttery honeysuckle.

Cool, metallic, and minty. This smells soft and deep, and this may sound weird, but it does seem like what I imagine outer space would smell like bottled up as a perfume. The metallic smell is smooth, almost herbal, and the mint is not toothpaste mint, but a bright spark in the darkness. It’s so unique I had to have Mr. Danger smell it, to which he agreed it smelled like space and declared it, “Awesome.” He has now been requesting I wear the “Cosmos” perfume as often as possible. (He’s very bad with names.)

Though I can appreciate this scent, it’s not really my type of daily use perfume. It’s a bit too…serpentine for my taste, if that makes sense. It also only lasts like 1-2 hours on me before fading.

Circassian- Bitter black coffee, spiced chocolate, ceremonial resins, with an intriguing floral note. MUST be sampled on the skin and not just sniffed from the bottle or tin.
I sigh happily every time I smell this one. Wet, it smells like the most delicious, put-hair-on-your-chest coffee and a dark, dark bar of chocolate. (Which sounds like what I want for a snack everyday).There’s a hint of something a bit darker there, too, maybe the resin. As it dries, it starts to smell a bit more woody, so it’s not straight up foodie. As deep gourmands usually do, this one lasts quite awhile on me, eventually fading to a soft sweet scent with a subtle burnt wood smell. I loveeeeeeeee it.

Inked-A sting of sea salt and leather, splashes of communion wine, the essence of raw skin. Inked is one of my favorite little sex machines. It MUST be experienced on the skin and not just sniffed from the bottle. Inked is an acquired taste, to be sure, but folks who love Inked LOVE LOVE LOVE Inked.
Um, I feel slightly uncomfortable wearing this? Maybe I have some emotional issues to deal with? But to be honest, it kinda creeps me out. It smells too much like skin! Too much! I can definitely see where some people might find this sexy, though. The slight salty-ness, a bit of sweetness from the wine, and just a hint of leather-it can lead your mind down some risque paths! (I am so hoping my mother is not reading this.) It mellows out a bit over time, but my nose finds it too jarring to love. Naturally is lasts foreverrrr on me, so it definitely has a good staying power on my skin.(Mr. Danger says it smells like a doughnut and now I’m worried my husband is a cannibal.)

Serpentina-  Green tea with a smoky opium bite. Unisex to feminine. This is a hands-down favorite with customers, and a great primer for folks who are cautious about plunging head-on into the weird world that is DC. It’s fresh and invigorating, and comforting, but has just a little bit of snarl, “a flash of a dark underside”, as one customer put it.
I should hate this. I’ve tried some opium scents and they were not for me, too sharp on my nose. But all I get from this is a lovely, outdoorsy scent. . At first it’s sweet and grassy, and it smells like a very fancy green tea, like one that’s been hand crafted by monks. This ain’t no Lipton, friends. As it dries there’s just a hint of woody smoke, which I assume is the opium. It’s very faint, so no worries if you aren’t a big fan of smoke scents. This is definitely a great intro to DC. It’s beautiful, well blended, but still unique. If you have any nonbeliever friends wave this in their faces. Seprentina is definitely going to be in my rotation for the Spring because it’s just such a lovely green scent. It lasts about 5 hours on me which, is great for my skin chemistry and lighter scents.

Overall:

I was ridiculously pleased with my order(s). Even things I didn’t love, I enjoyed trying. I felt all the perfumes were extremely well blended and artfully crafted, each was a unique experience. In the end I ranked these bad boys as follows:
1. Limerence
2. Ciccassian
3. Serpentina
4. Tapedero
5. Monstre Delicat
6. Maudlin and Bedlam
7. Mad As Birds (only near the bottom because I wished it lasted longer on me, boooo evil skin)
8. Supernova Sway
9. Inked

That was too hard. Given that I’m a moody perfume user, I feel like this order could change at any given time. However, I loved 1-4, really liked 5-7, and appreciated, but probably won’t wear 8-9.

Hopefully that ranking order might make some sense if you’re trying to make your own informed DC order.

Anyways, huge fan of DC now. I feel like GOTTA CATCH EM ALL! So we’ll see how that goes.

Questions of the Day:
-Have you tried any of these scents
-Have you had a DC experience?
-Do you have any perfumes that you feel compelled to collect like Pokemon?

Love,

Rebs!