don't worry, i haven't forgotten about my advent scent-lendar, although i do apologise that perfume reviews are now slightly behind due to real life commitments and other stuff like running the recent 1,000 followers giveaway over on Instagram. i'll be working hard to play catch-up with all my hand-scribbled notes (without compromising the accuracy and detail of my usual published reviews) and hopefully will get back on track in time for christmas!
my next gift to myself a few days ago for this fragrance advent season was an Ajevie decant of Possets Perfume's Bouquet in the Snow (Glorious osmanthus, primroses paired with the beauty of luan wood and an unusual tea).
this one is a unique experience indeed, marrying the creamy honey sweetness of osmanthus with a dark and somewhat forbidding woodiness. osmanthus became one of my favourite florals after i had the opportunity to travel to Guilin in China and smell both the fresh flower as well as the dried version used in osmanthus tea (gui hua cha). yet it's not a common note in many of the perfumes i've seen or my collection, so i'm always excited to try a good scent that showcases it as one of the main components.
in the sample vial, Bouquet in the Snow is like a cup of freshly brewed gui hua cha, osmanthus in its prime and blended with the soft and light primroses. the luan wood is completely non-existent among all these sweet floral topnotes, and there's also nary a trace of any green smells or bitterness from the 'unusual tea'.
on application, this perfume makes itself known with a huge throw - even though it was only a couple of dabs of oil with the wand, Bouquet in the Snow was detectable from over an arm's length for more than an hour before it began to fade. the sweet florals are still there but the sweetness amplifies significantly, reading like a honey syrup blend to me.
the luan wood also makes a significant appearance on the drydown ten minutes in, to provide that much-needed contrasting base to the sweet florals. this is a very dark and somber wood, almost the opposite of what i would have expected from the first nosing in the vial, and yet it works beautifully with the sweet osmanthus on the other end of the spectrum.
as the flowers fade after a couple of hours, the woodiness continues unabated, a perfume that stoically maintains an unapproachable bodyguard exterior that no amount of sweet florals can change. i can appreciate this particular stage of the scent's evolution though it's personally not my thing, and was glad when the luan wood subsided to a more wearable form around the three-hour mark or so.
overall, i managed to get about five hours of wear from this, though it did change quite a bit and multiple times over the course of its wear. my favourite of its forms has to be the sweet creaminess that i first nosed in the vial, and i'm glad that wearing this in my hair preserves it this way and is able to rein in the luan wood. will enjoy finishing up the sample vial this way, though it's not a scent that i need a replacement of. 6/10.
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this review is of a perfume that i had purchased secondhand with my own money. i wasn't asked to review this scent as a condition of receipt and didn't receive any incentives for writing this. i'm not affiliated with Possets Perfume or Ajevie and as always, all opinions remain my own.
Possets Perfume's catalogue is available here; though unfortunately Bouquet in the Snow has been discontinued and appears to be unavailable.
Ajevie's website is available here.
all information correct at time of publishing.
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