#HPBScentOfTheDay Challenge Roundup 4/4 - final | Hello Pretty Bird! - A beauty and not-so-glamorous lifestyle blog

02 June, 2014

#HPBScentOfTheDay Challenge Roundup 4/4 - final

May is over so I thought I'd check in for the final roundup of my scent-of-the-day challenge. Many vials were opened, many perfumes worn, many scents were described as "fresh" or "neutral" (my boyfriend's default words to describe things with inoffensive odors). At last, this challenge has come to an end.


May 25th: Darling Clandestine - Mad As Birds

Notes: Sweet, cool, fresh dew with notes of pear and mint and amber and marigolds. A haunted garden.

Reviewed in detail here. This is a perfect spring/summer scent because it reminds me of the scent of flowers after the rain on a warm day. Very refreshing.


May 26th: Darling Clandestine - Circassian (oil form)

Notes: Carefully blended and infused by me in small batches in vintage green glass wine bottles, this is a warm chocolaty fragrance with intriguing notes of amber and blossoms.

Circassian is one of the weirder fragrances I own, in my opinion. It starts off as a distinct coffee/chocolate smell and then morphs into lilies after a few minutes—whaaaat? But the coffee and chocolate still linger in the background. It's one of those scents that's totally odd but I can't stop sniffing it ... that said I'm not sure I actually like it.


May 27th: Sweet Anthem - Caroline (EDP)

Notes: Bergamot, Champagne, Lemon, Jasmine, Ambergris, Oakmoss, Vanilla Sugar

I picked a sample of this up on a whim with my SA List voucher and it's gorgeous. Just gorgeous. A bit funky in the bottle but it quickly changes into a clean, bright champagne-y scent. I'm strongly considering picking up a larger vial.


May 28th: Sweet Anthem - Phoebe (solid form)

Notes: Maple Sugar, Snow, Lavender, Dirt, Tobacco, White Amber

This came as a freebie sample with my Sweet Anthem order. I mostly get amber and sweetness (maple sugar?) with a whiff of tobacco in the background—not bad, but not exactly my thing. I think I'd like it more in colder weather.


May 29th: Rosemine Perfume Touch - Blessing Blossoms

Notes: Not sure because the package is in Korean, but it says "Fresh Floral".

I got this in Memebox Hair & Body (review coming soon), and it holds the distinction of being the only perfume gel currently in my collection. It comes in a squeezy tube and has the consistency of thin Carmex—very weird. Anyway, this smells sort of like generic "fresh" cologne with roses and maybe some other flowers shoved in there for good measure. Pleasant enough but unremarkable.


May 30th: Sarawen - Sarah's Dream

Notes: Lily, rosewood, benzoin, amber, oud, peach

I have a bunch of Sarawen oil samples kicking around my collection, which I haven't really written about at all because they don't seem to agree with my body chemistry, sadly. This oil is an exception for some reason—maybe because it's so light. This scent is themed around the ball scene in the film Labyrinth, by the way, and I think it fits that theme well. Flowers swirling with woods and a hint of fruit. It's a nice scent, but not one of my favorites if we're being honest.


May 31st: NOTHING

Notes: Skin

On the last day of the challenge I decided I didn't want to wear any fragrances. Bare skin is the new Chanel or something. I smelled great because I took a bath and everything!


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I think what I've taken away from this challenge is (a) I don't need to buy any more perfume in the near future and (b) I don't like jumping from scent to scent so frequently. I appreciate having a large variety of fragrances to choose from, but I think my natural inclination is to wear one scent for a few days at a time then switch. So that's what I'm going to do from now on. I have enough unique fragrances in my possession at the moment that I could do another month of #HPBScentOfTheDay challenge, but I think it would be more interesting to wait six months or a year before doing it again. So that's also what I'll do. The end.


So, who else participated in the challenge? Share your choices and/or links in the comments!


PS If you missed my previous scent challenge roundups, you can read them here:

13 comments:

  1. ~tosses confetti~ Hooray on making it 30 days (and taking a bath)! You devised a fabulous challenge for yourself and we all won.

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  2. Thank you! That bath really made the whole experience worthwhile.

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  3. Sweet Anthem - Caroline does sound lovely!

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  4. a new fragrance everday was definitely a challenge! i think a trying a new one each week would be much more do-able on the go forward, especially with the insane amount of vials i still have.

    obviously you've read my post already, but just in case anyone else wants to read:
    http://hellorigby.com/fragrance-challenge-part-1/

    :)

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  5. I just put it on again! It's so effervescent! :)

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  6. Agreed! Though out of habit I now find myself rummaging through my perfume box looking for ones I haven't worn recently, haha.

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  7. I have 3-ish perfumes right now, none of which I'm in love with, unfortunately. I like having a go-to ~personal fragrance~, not least because I like the idea of imprinting it on my boyfriend's brain, haha. I used to wear this Benefit perfume that I ADORED but they discontinued that particular scent.

    This comment brought to you by random associations.

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  8. Mad as Birds sounds awfully nice. I like the name, too. Sometimes clean skin smells the best. Especially after dousing yourself in perfume for the past month.

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  9. Random associations are always welcome here. I think the reason I have so many samples is because I was searching for a "personal fragrance". What I've discovered instead is that I actually like mixing it up sometimes, but to be completely honest there are 5 or so fragrances in my collection that I reach for WAY more often than the others.

    I ask my boyfriend what he thinks of my perfume and he usually says "fresh" or "neutral" or "flowery". So in other words, he can tell I'm wearing perfume but can't tell them apart for the most part, haha.

    Which Benefit perfume was it? Just curious!

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  10. Mad as Birds is very nice. I would tell you to pick some up, but I think it's already gone for the season. :(

    Dousing yourself in perfume every day can be a bit challenging on the nasal passages... while most of the perfume oils I have tend to fade after a few hours, there are occasionally a few persistent notes that linger and get rubbed off on your clothes and mingle together onto one great "blech" scent. Of course I went back to wearing perfume after my clean skin day, haha.

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  11. I feel it. Gotta figure out what works for you, right? It was "Something About Sofia" which I especially liked because Sofia/Sophia and Sonya are related names =P

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