I think I kill the roses

This week has been really hectic for me so I didn't have time to smell anything (let alone review it). I decided to remedy that today and since I loved Santal Blanc, I took out of my bag of samples Santal de Mysore by SL.

Notes: sandalwood, spices, cumin, styrac balsam, caramelized Siamese benzoin.

It opens very similarly to Santal Blanc (there's no way you can miss the sandalwood), but since I associate sandalwood after SB with white, the way I smell this is white, woody and vanillic. And warm because there's no way around cumin. But I don't mind, I love the warmth it brings to perfumes.

As always, I dabbed it and tried to guess what I smell, and I got the sandalwood, cumin, and benzoin, but the whole spices thing just went past me. I read the review of this at NST and realized Kevin was able to differentiate all these spices and all I got was cumin. Not that there aren't spices in there, but just I don't really know what they smell like. :( Well, one more thing to add to the list of things to learn...

Even though I enjoyed this very much, I am more happy with Santal Blanc. This one gets too sweet on me and although I like the sandalwood, I prefer the less sweet version of it. This one seems to be the middle ground for me between Santal Blanc and Spiriteuese Double Vanille by Guerlain. And although I do crave a bottle of SDV (and given the price, it's going to remain a craving), and have a bottle of SB, I don't really feel I need a bottle of this. Or want. If I had it, I would use it, but I don't really think at this point I'll be getting one.

Which brings me to the rose. Maybe it was my subconscious working (there have been many postings on roses the last week - Valentine's day being tomorrow) but when I chose Ta'if from my sample bag, I didn't know it was a rose scent.

Well, the initial smell set me straight on that point. :) Before I got interested in perfume, I had a bottle of Very Irresistible by Givenchy (the first and original one). I was totally in love with it and wearing it for some time before I learned it was actually a rose scent. And I always thought I didn't like rose scents...

So, when I smelled Ta'if and it reminded me straight away of Very Irresistible, I knew it was a rose. And what a rose it is! It smelled intoxicating and I realized why rose scents tend to be so loved by some.

Notes: pink pepper, saffron, dates, rose oil, freesia, orange flower absolute, jasmine, amber and broom.

So, after getting my initial, oh, it's a rose, I went in search of notes. What can I say? I didn't get much further than rose. Actually, no further than that. I couldn't smell any of the notes (this doesn't seem to be my day for smelling). It is so well blended, it seems like a fantasy rose story that starts with intoxicating you and then you just enjoy the ride. Unfortunately for me, it didn't last that long. I seem to have killed the rose in the drydown and it went somewhat sour on me. I still can't believe that happened! It was so great and I already say myself ordering a bottle and then this happened. It wasn't terribly bad but it wasn't what it was before. I am definitely going to give it more tries because it might just be a bad day for my skin chemistry (please let it be that).

What I liked about this is that it is much less jarring than Very Irresistible and doesn't feel like it enters the room before you but with you. I would say it is a terribly sexy smell and I wonder is someone going to wear it tomorrow? :) To tease their partner terribly with things to come hinted by the intoxicating rose...

I wish I could.

Pic by: www.pdphoto.org