#stereoplasm

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.

SAMPLE 1 (PERFUME OIL) || Black tea, pink sugar, tea rose, sandalwood, teak, heather, white grapefruit E.O., light grass, pink pepper, tonka.

The black tea at the very front of this one makes this scent start out very, very sharp, and pretty dang soapy, with an edge of sour grapefruit. It's not a 'hot' black tea note, either: i'd say it's more like black tea that's been cooled to room temperature, or maybe just straight tea leaves. The sugar's there, rounding out the grapefruit, and underneath it is a lush, smooth, floral sweetness, which I assume is the tea rose. It's nice - some rose notes can go overly perfumey or hairspray-ish, and luckily, this isn't one of them. No wood notes, though, but woody notes tend to get lost on my skin unless they're VERY strong or it's a real simple perfume.

After maybe an hour and a half of wear, this one begins to fade, and I have a hard time really picking out the particular notes from that point: it's a little fruity-sweet, very femme, and pretty leafy-soapy. The fruitiness almost smells... Tropical? Weird. Maybe it's the tonka working some magic.

tl;dr: Sharp and soapy tea and citrus with a hint of sugary sweetness and lush, smooth rose. Gets a fruity-tropical smell on the drydown.

RATING: 3.5/5. Not bad, but a little bit too much on the soapy side of tea for me.

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SAMPLE 2 (PERFUME OIL) || Ruby red grapefruit, white tea leaf, pink sugar, jasmine & tea rose accord, lotus, sweet grass, pink grapefruit E.O., blackberry.

G R A P E F R U I T. Hard grapefruit. Rich, sweet, juicy, sour, deep red grapefruit that's been sugared just enough to make this feel... Punk, almost. Hollywood cerise with neon yellow splattered over it. It's absolutely delicious. That ruby red grapefruit note is, seriously, to die for: if you're gonna get a custom with grapefruit in it, i'd probably suggest this particular note. The florals are there, but they're very light and delicate, and come out more with wear: they're very smooth, not powdery at all. There's a little bit of green-ness in this, too - it's well-blended so it's hard to pick out in particular, but my sister could smell it pretty well, and I think it's the tea leaf.

The grapefruit eventually fades away and just leaves that elegant and smooth jasmine + tea rose accord, with an undercurrent of that grass note - which is nice, sweet and green and very unmistakably grassy smelling - and just a little bite of bitterness from a very realistic blackberry note.

It's got hellllla sillage - i'll catch whiffs of it all the time while it's wet, and I know my boss could smell it from a good few feet away. It can last up to 6-7 hours on me, but probably starts to fade around the 3-4 hour mark

tl;dr: RICH sugared grapefruit with gentle florals that dries down to an elegant, smooth floral with a hint of grass and bitter blackberry.

RATING: 6/5. I love this. It's beautiful, rich, perfectly meets the mood I was trying to get, transformative, complex while not getting lost in its notes... It's just SO GOOD. This is the one I ended up getting a full size of. It's awesome. *kisses fingertips*

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SAMPLE 3 (PERFUME OIL) || Carnation, tea rose, earl grey, pink sugar, spruce, feminine-woods, white grapefruit E.O., teak, pink grapefruit E.O., pink pepper.

This smells like a rich, velvety, smooth flower that's been coated in powdered sugar, with some hints of citrus - it's not quite reading as grapefruit to me, so I think it might be bergamot from the earl grey note. As it dries down, the powderiness goes away, and that nice, juicy, grapefruit note comes out - not as rich as sample 2's red grapefruit, but probably a bit more realistic; you can almost smell the white filmy skin that covers the grapefruit, y'know?

...Aaaand... This has me craving grapefruit, so i'm gonna just, go, uh... Eat a grapefruit.

.....

.....Okay, back from grapefruiting. (This is not a bit. I actually did this.)

I tend to lose most woody notes on me, as mentioned before, but my sister tried this on and amped the spruce pretty hard: it gave everything a bit of that evergreen minty scent. This lasts for about 3 hours before fading down to a soft, candy-like sweetness.

tl;dr: Sweet-smelling powdery florals amped up with sugar and a citrus edge that dries down to realistic grapefruit, then a simple fruity-candy smell.

RATING: 4/5. I'm not huge on powdery, but this was nice, and that grapefruit E.O note is hella good. Very realistic. Realistic enough to put me on a grapefruit kick.

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SAMPLE 4 (PERFUME OIL) || Musk, dark plum, pink sugar, black tea, white grapefruit E.O., sandalwood, pink pepper, a drop of teak.

This starts out like, 80% plum, dark and cold and lightly tart, with just a little hint of sugar and just enough of a 'drinkable', watery-smelling quality to identify the black tea. Sometimes I can catch whiffs of the musk - sharp and humid - but not too often. As it dries down, the grapefruit comes out, nice and sour but not sharp or astringent, kind of a delicate grapefruit, and the tea is WAAAY more noticible: smooth and green and like, vaguely soapy in the way that tea can be. Not as soapy as Sample 1, tho. I'm also getting the pink pepper, which i'm really excited about! It makes my nose tingle without smelling overwhelmingly, well, peppery. I've had much more experience with black pepper, and this is so much lighter. If I really huff at it, I think i'm picking up... The sandalwood? It's a dusty, warm wood, but very faint, under everything else. Makes a good base for all the other colder notes.

When it dries down, I get a smell that's kind of like tart, tangy bubblegum, and then eventually, an indistinguishable creamy sweetness.

The scent is pretty light - detectable, but not super strong or filling the room. It lasts for a pretty long time, though: I put some on last night and could smell sugary sweetness on my wrists come morning.

tl;dr: Dark, cold plum and sugar with a hint of musk that dries down to drinkable-smelling black tea, delicate grapefruit, a faint base of warm sandalwood, and a sparkle of pink pepper.

RATING: 4.5/5. My second favorite of the scents, but it doesn't quite match the mood I was going for, and a plum note that swings bubblegummy isn't my cuppa tea.

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SAMPLE 5 (PERFUME OIL) || Green tea, pink grapefruit E.O., bamboo, white grapefruit E.O., hot pink sugar (stronger), sunflower, driftwood.

I've already got a name picked out for my custom, but if I were to pick this one, i'd pick something else, and it would, quite simply, be 'pink tea' - because that's what it smells like. At the forefront, unmistakeable green tea - smooth, but decidedly herbal, and not particularly soapy - and pink sugar. I'm testing this wearing it on the inside and outside of my wrists, and it smells different - I assume because my skin on the outside of my wrist is drier, so it's fading more quickly. On the inside, i'm getting a gentle floral sweetness that I can't quite place. On the outside, a woody base, and very subtle... I assume white grapefruit note.

Lookin' at the notes... Yep, this smells about as Green with Pink as those suggest. I don't really have much more to add on it: green tea and green notes with sugar and grapefruit that dries down to a subtly sweet sunflower with a woody driftwood base. OH - it fades kinda fast. Within two hours I could barely smell it. ...But maybe that's because i've just gotten grapefruit juice all over my hands and it's overpowering everything.

I've been, uh. On a pretty big grapefruit kick while writing this.

tl;dr: check that last full paragraph, i've basically got it there.

RATING: 4/5. Nice, with some excellent notes, but not quite what I was lookin' for.

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RUBECULA - ROBIN (PERFUME OIL) || Wild blueberries, wet garden mud, nag champa and vintage musk.

At first: Blueberries, and it's a pretty good blueberry note. I don't like blueberries. Everything about them tells me they're gonna be nice and tart, and then they're way sweeter than I want. Even the sour ones are sweeter than I want. Every blueberry muffin i've ever eaten, i've wanted it to be delicious sweet vanilla complimented by tart zingy blueberries, and every single time it's been a heartbreaking too-sweet disappointment.

And, unfortunately, this is true for this too: it's just... *shakes fist* TOO REALISTIC

But, really, it's very warmly sweet as blueberries tend to be, but also with an edge of tartness that comes out after a few minutes that I big appreciate. It's a very true blueberry scent. Underneath it is a hint of that mud note, which is surprisingly clean for, well, mud - it's like... A gentle earthiness, and a WHOLE lotta wet, like wading through the cool water of a marsh. Every now and then I get something that smells sort of dank and spicey, which I assume to be the nag champa, and then there's the vintage musk, which... Alright, so, it's hard to tell whether it's the blueberries going powdery or the musk, but i'm getting something that smells like makeup powder. I'd say that that powderiness is sort of ever-present, all encompassing everything else. It dries down, basically, to powdery blueberries, and lasts for-fuckin'-everrrr. I was still smelling it into the next morning.

This is pretty, but just a bit too blueberry-sweet for me.

tl;dr: warm, sweet and slightly sour blueberries, powder, and a subtle wet earthiness, with very vague whiffs of spicy, dank nag champa.

RATING: 4/5. Once again, a well-crafted scent with great notes that just isn't quite my jam, because i'm a blueberry hater.

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