Stereoplasm Review: Part 2
Hi everybody.
It's been a day. And i'm trying to make this day mildly less garbage, and keep on trucking, keepin' active, treating myself to nice things. I have taken myself out to a nice lunch. I have bought a big ol' steak to make for dinner. I am doing fun stuff. I might draw today. I might play Bad Bethesda Videogames today (you know which one i'm talking about). But, what I know for sure is that i'm writing part 2 of my Stereoplasm reviews today. Right here.
Right
now
So buckle up boys n' berries, i'll be reviewing Gone Gnome, Libatious Leprechaun, Green Gremlin, Scorpling, Lights Across the Sky, Kindling, Selasphorus Calliope, and Divine.
GONE GNOME (PERFUME OIL) || Top notes of cilantro and key lime rooted in fresh garden basil, english cucumber and melon blossom.
I've talked a lot about this one since I got this order, because it's made a pretty big impression on me. To put it simply: imagine walking into your local grocer, and walking up to the produce section. You look upon the fresh herbs, which have just been misted. Ultimately, you just... Take a fistful of them, indiscriminately, and just. Shove 'em straight onto your nose.
That's what this smells like.
This is the first herbaceous perfume that hasn't smelled dry and buzzy to me, and the first green perfume that hasn't, ultimately, left me uninterested in wearing it. It's smooth and fresh, very wetly green, with a hint of pepperiness, a hint of mintiness... It's lush, and delicate, and just. Good.
Looking at the notes, the the cilantro and the basil is definitely responsible for the smooth greens, the super-subtle pepperiness, I bet the mintiness is actually just the freshness of the basil - and I bet all that WET smell is coming from the cucumber, which is lovely. The key lime and the melon blossom come out more in the drydown, but they're both very subtle: the former just adds a little touch of citrusy zinginess, while the latter give the scent a very soft, smooth floral edge. And like.. That citrus is very realistic - like smelling the outside of a lime rather than its juices.
Wears lightly on me, and lasts about 3-4 hours before disappearing.
tl;dr: fresh, smooth, wet, exceptionally green herbs that, on the dry down, are joined by the barest hints of citrus peel and a soft floral.
RATING: 4.5/5. Solidly green perfumes aren't usually my ballgame - they're not bad, i'm just don't care about 'em too much - but this is definitely the best green perfume i've smelled.
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LIBATIOUS LEPRECHAUN (PERFUME OIL) || Aged whiskey and oak reveal prickly pear, spicy ginger and feisty bergamot.
I couldn't quite figure out what this smelled like to me at first, but now I have it: green apple candy, like a jolly rancher or something. It's a really warm, lightly spiced scent with a candy-tart edge. Dries down to a smooth, kinda tangy smell. Makes me think of citrusy tea.
And, looking at the notes... Yep! They fit, easy to peg everything to everything. The warmth comes from the whiskey, the prickly pear smells like apple candy, the ginger gives it that spiced quality, and what it's drying down to is a smooth, mellow bergamot. It's nice! Not so complex that I can't pick out notes, but it still has a little depth. And, in general, it just... Smells good.
tl;dr: Tart green apple candy with a bit of booziness that dries down to a smooth, sweet bergamot.
RATING: 4/5.
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GREEN GREMLIN (PERFUME OIL) || Juicy bamboo, slimy lychee skins, sour green apple cores and rustling tall dry grass.
I've tried this one on several times over several days at this point, and for some reason, my brain's having a hard time with it. I just keep expecting it to smell more complex, to dry down to something different than the notes immediately at the forefront, and when it doesn't, my brain just. Short-circuits. I have no fricken' idea why.
Anyways, this smells like fruit.
Specifically, it smells like tart green apple juice with something under it that gives the scent a bit of a bright, tropical twist. And... Reviewing this on a blind sniff, that's basically all I get, from beginning to end.
Looking at the notes: lychee skins n' apple cores. That's it. That Is The Scent. Primarily apple on me, with the lychee underneath giving that kinda tropical berry smell. I'm assuming the bamboo is contributing some wetness, thus the 'juice' quality to the scent. At no point do I get the grass.
This is one of Stereoplasm's scents that goes pretty light on me - I regularly have a hard time detecting it on my skin. No sillage on me. However, what I can smell, I smell for a good handful of hours.
tl;dr: Apple juice and bright, tropical lychee.
RATING: 3/5. It smells real good, but i'm a bit disappointed that it's got no lasting power on me and that I lose half the notes.
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SCORPLING (PERFUME OIL) || Hopeful and bright young tulip stems, green cactus, sun dried leather, burnt ironwood and tall flowering lilac grass.
So, without looking at the notes, I feel like i'm smelling aloe vera. I don't even necessarily know if this is actually what aloe vera smells like, but the smell of this makes me think of it: very green, and very wet, and a little... Not medicinal, but it has that, 'I could slather this on me to make me feel better' smell. Weird to say, but this makes me think of the smell of like, unscented skincare products. A moisturizing gel. Smooth, seriously wet I am not kidding, maybe a little eensy weensy bit sharp.
Looking at the notes... Alright, the wetness and green-ness coming from the stems and cactus, definitely. If the tulip stems are supposed to have a floral quality to them, I don't really get it, and i'm guessing cactus probably smells kinda like aloe vera, since they're kinda, y'know... *Gestures vaguely*... Similar. Succulents and cacti and cacti and succulents. Anyways.
The leather's there, but it's VERY faint, like all these greens are just piled on top of it. It's more of a new leather note than a worn leather note, but it doesn't encroach new car interior territory, thankfully. I don't particularly get anything woody, let alone burnt wood - but my skin is notorious for minimizing wood notes - and the lilac grass might be supplying a slight indolic quality to the scent, but it's not strong.
When I first tried this on it was so light I could barely smell it, and now it's decidedly detectable on my wrist, but doesn't have much sillage.
tl;dr: SUPER wet light green smell on a subtle background of new leather.
RATING: 3/5. Nice, but doesn't interest me too much.
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LIGHTS ACROSS THE SKY (PERFUME OIL) || Circles of sun-bleached wheat, twilight musk, English lavender and upturned fennel bulbs. Shaking saucers under steaming cups of Earl Grey sink into comforting vanilla cream.
So, I refuse to look at the notes yet, because I genuinely have no fricken' idea what's in this, and i'm gonna make a guess and see how close I get. Okay. Here we go
My guess on first whiff: Anise and Lavender. It's got a soft edge of kinda more herbal lavender, and that sort of earthy, gummy quality of anise, though it's not an overpowering anise... Which is good, 'cause I don't like anise. There might be something kinda... Fruity-orangey in there, too? But then again, I just ate a blood orange, so maybe i'm smelling orange juice from my fingers. Hm. It's very light, and if I had to make ooone more guess about what's in there, i'd think maybe ozone or petrichor.
And, looking at the notes - not anise, but fennel, which I hear smells very similar, aaand lavender! Not too bad. The orangey scent is probably bergamot from the earl grey note - why do I keep going 'oh, smells like smooth citrusy tea!' and still totally fail to identify it as bergamot? Anyways. I definitely pick up some well-blended vanilla, too - smooth and a little waxy, as some vanilla notes tend to smell to me. Now that I know the wheat note is there, too, I can detect it - but it's so subtle that if I hadn't known, I don't think I would've realized it was its own note. It kinda just gives the scent this slight cozy toastiness.
The way the notes in this blend makes it smell kinda like a creamsicle with a soft lavender edge. An... Earthy creamsicle, but a creamsicle nonetheless. I really like Stereoplasm's earl grey/bergamot note, dude. It smell so good.
Dries down to more just, soft creamy sweet orangey smell. Lasts for about 3 hours before it starts to fade, and wears pretty close to the skin.
tl;dr: a slightly earthy/gummy creamsicle scent that dries down to a not earthy/gummy creamsicle scent.
RATING: 4/5, because they managed to make a scent with fennel in it and I didn't dislike it. Also because I like creamsicles.
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KINDLING (PERFUME OIL) || Sweet jasmine incense, sunset musk, fresh sativa and strawberry wine.
Caaan-died straaawberries! They smell-a so good!
But seriously, I know I keep going 'this smells like x flavor of jolly rancher' in my various reviews but this smells like a strawberry jolly rancher. Or, like--actually--it smells more like those strawberry candies that every grandmother has that are absolutely delicious and come in the wrapping paper that looks like a strawberry.
You know the one.
This is very sweet and smooth and bright. Young, since it's a VERY candied scent, but I wouldn't mind smelling like this 'cause it just smells so good.
It's hard to distinguish the other notes in this, because ultimately I think they're just blending so well that it comes out to that one, singular scent of Strawberry Candy. The sunset musk, I think, might be responsible for the other half of the candied formula, lending a sweet, warm creaminess, and the jasmine incense... There's a little bit of a floral edge, but it's hard to detect. I definitely don't get anything that smells like sativa.
This has HELLA throw. Even dry, i'm catching whiffs of it from a foot away every now and then. Wears nice and strong on my skin.
tl;dr: STRAWWBERRY CANDY WHY YOU SMELL-A SO GOOOOOD
RATING: 4.7/5. Verging on too young for me, but I really like it regardless.
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SELASPHORUS CALLIOPE - HUMMINGBIRD (PERFUME OIL) || Foxglove Nectar, Honeysuckle and fresh maple leaves.
So, funny story with this one.
I took a whiff of it and was immediately hit with familiarity. It's very strongly floral - a rich white floral with a bit of a hard indolic edge to it and just a hint of sweetness - and I know that I know the scent, but god help me, I couldn't say why. I didn't bother looking up the notes - I just assumed it was the one I could remember, foxglove nectar, and wondered why the heck I would recognize that. I've never smelled foxglove.
I'm mentioning this to my sister - just that it smells very familiar - and she goes, 'doesn't that have honeysuckle in it?'
And I go, 'nooo.' I was, obviously, wrong.
I grew up around honeysuckle, but never really paid attention to what they smelled like - mostly, I thought about what their nectar tasted like. But now, here I am, smelling a honeysuckle note and recognizing it without even knowing what it is. I take it that's a pretty true note.
So, starting out, as stated before, this is strong, lush, true honeysuckle with a hard indolic edge. After about 20 minutes, I start picking up a green-ness from the maple leaf note; I'm so used to smelling dry or decaying leaf notes, so it's interesting smelling one that smells fresh and green. With continued wear, that indolic edge smooths out, and the scent becomes a light white floral on a fresh green background. It's very pretty, actually. A great springtime scent. I still have no idea what foxglove nectar smells like, or if i'm detecting it here.
It's pretty strong, and I can smell it from about 4 inches off my skin.
tl;dr: A strong, realistic honeysuckle note on a background of fresh, green maple leaves that smooths out on the drydown.
RATING: 5/5 for a fantastic honeysuckle note that can trigger my memory without me even realizing what it is i'm smelling.
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DIVINE (PERFUME OIL) || Gooey cherry cake batter, burnt marzipan, fresh cinnamon leaf, orange zest, warm chai cream and roasted hazelnut.
Mmm this is delicious. At first, I get smooth, almost creamy hazelnut, but it fades sort of quickly in favor of a dark dry cherry note - and this is on a blind sniff. Like, I know hazelnut's in there, but if there's not cherry in this bad boy, i'll--i'll eat my hat.
There's something warm and... Almost woody to this? And a muskiness? If I had to make one more guess at what's in here, i'd say a gentle creamy coffee note, but that might be because I drink coffee with hazelnut creamer so i'm getting coffee vibes from that. Overall i'd describe this as dark, smooth, lightly foody-sweet, spiced and sultry. This smells like something a busty femme fatale sort of character would wear.
Looking at the notes, not a lick of wood, but hey there cherry cake batter. Don't have to eat any hats today. I'm pretty sure what's giving me the coffee vibes is a combination of the burnt marzipan giving the scent that sorta bitterness that coffee has, the chai cream, and of course the hazelnut. I'm pretty sure what I was reading as 'musk' was the warmth coming from the chai cream note, as I tend to associate musk with giving scents a sort of humidity. The cinnamon leaf might be what i'm reading as wood - smells planty and spicy and earthy without going too green. Doesn't go red-hot.
With all these strong foody notes, you'd think this would be overpowering, but it's really not - in fact, this goes pretty damn light on me, but that might be less the scent and more my skin chem. I don't have the greatest luck with Stereoplasm's scents wearing strongly on me - about a 50/50 chance - but i've seen them work out real well on my sister.
tl;dr: Warm, creamy, sweet and spicy hazelnut tea accompanied by a dark cherry note. Smooth, spicy and sultry.
RATING: 4/5. I super like this. It made me like a cherry note, which is impressive! But, docked a point for going pretty light on me.












