Discovering Haydria perfumes

There are so many perfume houses out there waiting to be discovered and some of them are never going to be (by me I mean). I don't think I would have ever come across Haydria perfumery by myself but that's why there is this lovely perfume blogosphere where one can learn great things. I learned about Haydria from Divina's post on them.

For now I only tried 4 and of those 4, I really like 3 - and for the price they have, I believe I'll purchase at least 2. Still not decided which two though.

The description for Gypsy Queen is lush florals and rich spices with deep woody notes. Divina had better luck deciphering individual notes. What I thought it smelled like in the beginning it reminded me of a syrup I used to have to drink when little that was made from some sweet plant and a bit of alcohol. The syrup my mom made actually tasted and smelled great and this reminded me in the beginning of that boozy - syrupy combination. Then it turned into something having a distinct bitter dirt-like feel. And then the florals came. I thought I smelled iris and jasmine but it's not like I can say for sure. I seem to have discovered that iris turns salty on me which is something I like very much. In the end, what I thought of it is that is a no frills, serious floral and I enjoyed smelling it.

I got my dose of cat piss - finally. :) I've been wondering how is it possible people smell it in some perfumes and I never came across any. Well, now I have. But before I go on, I have to say that Mrs. Haydria Bish (the perfumer) seems to know what she is doing. She certainly has the background. Anyway, all of the perfumes I tried seemed very well done to me and Pure sin seemed more like an exercise in perfume than something actually wearable (at least for me).

The description said it was passion fruit, champagne, dark chocolate and white musk.

It started wonderful - like a coffee caramel that smelled so comforting. I seem to associate chocolate in perfume with other caramel-like sweets. Anyway, there I am, smelling this lovely opening when something strange happens. At first I thought it was only going to be a hint of dirtiness. But did it roar afetr that. :) I have no idea what's the matter with my skin chemistry but the dirtiness turned into something smelling of cat piss (for real!) with bare hints of the coffee caramel underneath. And it lasted. And lasted. Finally subsided with the drydown (some 3 hours later) but was still quite noticeable. I didn't want to wash it off beacuse I coulnd't believe it and just had to smell it again and again (although I could smell from afar as well). :)

Now, on to one that I would have never have guessed would be wearable for me (containing violets). Tainted love was quite a surprise. The opening reminded me of Gypsy Queen with that bitterlike, nettle smell (my association). Are there perhaps some violets in there as well?
Anyway, the description is:violets, berries, light amber and honey.

Now, I've been reading a bit about the smell of violets and Im confused. I finally detected the violet smell and liked it (it does not remind me of old ladies violet smell), it was more stringent smelling (probably the berries influence). It seems violets contain this compound called ionone "which temporarily desensitises the receptors of the nose, thus preventing any further scent being detected from the flower until the nerves recover" (by wikipedia). I guess when listed as a note it might not contain ionone because I didn't realize I couldn't smell it whenever I tried. Maybe that's the catch, I smelled it every once in a while so I didn't have time to desensitise myself?!

Since this is the first violet scent ever I liked very much, I definitely need to include in my collection. Any excuse for shopping is a good one. ;)

And the last one was Harem girl.
Description: powdery iris, musk, opoponax, incense.

Again the opening reminded me of both Gypsy Queen and Tainted love. Unfortunately, I can't say much on the subject of this one. I liked it. :) It's a lovely oriental with hints of incense (I'm pretty much falling for smoke and incense these days wherever they appear). I don't know how opoponax smells, I barely found the iris, but the whole picture is great.

Btw, has anyone else noticed the latest uproar regarding the L'Artisan's Vanillas? :) Some like the original more and are not happy it's getting discontinued, some like the Havana V. more and are completely in love with it... I'm going to try and locate them here so I can see what the fuss is about. I'm not a vanilla fan but it turned out they are not the gourmand vanillas - I read that in a post by Diana on Feminine things so there might be something there for me to love.

Picture by: www.haydriaperfumery.com/