as part of my Circle membership subscription for 2020 with Sixteen92, the third package for the year arrived just last month with my pre-release samples of the Winter 2020 collection. though on reflection "pre-release" is a bit of a misnomer, considering that this was one of the longest waits i've had to endure. while the shipping label was created on january 8 and the parcel picked up by USPS a week later, it only arrived in Singapore on february 23 after more than a month on the road (and in the air).
this particular package was also memorable for having catalysed a new friendship - right after the delivery status updated, a post requesting for help went up on the r/indiemakeupandmore subreddit because the original poster lived in the US and was shocked to find that the tracking number provided to her showed successful delivery in Singapore of a present that she had bought for herself to celebrate a meaningful milestone achievement.
i reached out to her to let her know that by some administrative error it turned out that we both had the same tracking numbers, and that it contained my Circle samples so it was possible that the brand had erroneously sent her the wrong tracking number for her parcel! as things would turn out, i was overjoyed when she updated me to share that it eventually did arrive safe and sound some time later.
as with the other Circle packages, the Winter 2020 collection comprised five 2ml sample vials which had been securely packed in a small ziploc bag and placed in a plain box, accompanied by a beautiful postcard listing all the scent notes. i was glad that the samples arrived in perfect condition without any leaks or spills.
usually i try to get my Circle reviews out as soon as each collection drops, but given how late in the year these arrived, i figured that it couldn't hurt to give them another two weeks and let them properly rest.
the Winter 2020 collection is inspired by the works of Henry James, the renowned American novelist. with a couple of exceptions (The Jolly Corner and The Real Right Thing), the scents had a low to moderate throw of about a foot, and lasted for about three to four hours of wear on my skin. each and every single one of the scents was an amazing experience that i was glad to have tried - out of the five scents, two were strong winners and the other three were scents that i could appreciate for their craft but didn't resonate enough with me personally.
first up, The Jolly Corner (Raw honey, iris, grapefruit, champagne, city lights, dark shadows, black leather, puff of smoke) which lives up to its website description of being a "bewitching, seductive and smoky atmospheric".
the first sniffs from the bottle open with a light sweetness from the honey, which combines with the acidity of the grapefruit and a buzzing bubbliness of the champagne and city lights. on my skin, a lot more of the tart acid grapefruit emerges, albeit tempered with the softness of the iris emerging and the sweetness of the honey being amplified further.
as the scent progresses into the drydown, it takes on a very realistic atmospheric almost like that of stepping into a noir film. the leather and smoke emerge to take the leading role in this phenomenal atmospheric, with a subtle sweet acidity around the edges. wearing this, i can almost imagine myself clad in hat and trenchcoat, holding a cigarette and leaning against a solitary lamppost in the dead of night.
9/10 Sixteen92 does some amazing witchcraft with their atmospherics and this is just one of their many fine examples. with a decent throw of about a foot and a surprising longevity of at least six hours, the vibe and feel of the whole scent experience really resonated strongly with me, so much so that i went straight to their website to pop a 6ml bottle into my cart.
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the other scent that i really really loved from this collection is The Real Right Thing (Winter saffron, rose concrete, caraway, roasted coffee, dried fruits, rare woods, inky musks).
funnily, even though the official description classified this as a "warm and comforting woody atmospheric with gourmand (rye toast) nuances", i didn't get much of the wood and found this to be more of a sweet yet sophisticated blend.
in the bottle, this is a well-blended combination of a delicately soft rose and fragrant spicy saffron, together with slivers of dried fruits, a pinch of roasted coffee beans, and a cool concrete beneath it all. on my skin, the coffee suddenly flares up with a strong bitterness before fading back to its original subtlety, and the perfume now comes across stronger with handfuls of dried apricots and red fruits. the gentle combination of the rose and saffron add an unparalleled level of class and refined excellence as everything comes together in a moving symphony of scent.
with the drydown, the rose and dried fruit remain quite dominant though the rest of the scent continues to evolve further. the wood and ink impart a sense of strong confidence which complements its refined demure beauty, like yin and yang. i usually don't like dried apricot scents but even though that's one of the dominant notes here, the blend as a whole is such a fantastic combination that i found myself consistently huffing my wrist all through the six hours or so of wear.
9/10 a phenomenal perfume that takes you on a true scent journey, and i loved wearing it so so so much that another 6ml bottle found its way into my cart even before the final traces of sweet apricot and spicy rose had faded from my wrist.
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the third scent i tried was The Romance of Certain Old Clothes (Narcotic tuberose, moonflower, immortelle, heliotrope, gossamer vanilla, civet (vegan), lace) which was the sole premium fragrance in the collection.
this is accurately described on the website as a "cold and spectral white floral" - in the bottle and on application, the scent immediately reaches out with ghostly lace-draped hands to smack you upside the head with an intense burst of florals. the tuberose, moonflower, immortelle and heliotrope are all extremely well-blended together, such that it's difficult to pick out any particular aspect, yet their layered complexity only enhances the intensity of the the flowers as a whole.
5.5/10 an ethereal yet intense experience - it's really quite a lovely scent that i can appreciate from a distance, but pure florals just don't match my personality well enough for me to see myself wearing this regularly. i'm super glad to have tried this one and will finish my sample vial when the mood calls for it, but don't see it resonating enough with me to justify a repurchase.
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next up was Sir Edmund Orme (Strong black tea, sticky amber, labdanum, conifer, wool, spice) which bears a character not unlike that of its inspiration, the ghost of the same name in Henry James' short story.
"I speak of him as a personage, because one felt, indescribably, as if a reigning prince had come into the room. He held himself with a kind of habitual majesty, as if he were different from us. Yet he looked fixedly and gravely at me, till I wondered what he expected of me."
-- "Sir Edmund Orme", by Henry James.
with the first sniffs from the bottle, i get the gentlemanly elegance of a strong black tea combined with the benevolent sweetness of amber and an ethereal sense of nature through the dry conifers. a soft yet spooky fluffiness of the wool drapes itself over the entire scent, almost as if i'm smelling the other notes through a knitted sweater.
on application, it seems that my skin amplifies the sweetness quite a bit with the amber moving to the forefront, though the perfume (thankfully) loses a good part of that additional sweetness in the drydown as the black tea takes on a slightly bitter edge and the more resinous character of the amber begins to emerge.
6/10 a beautifully-crafted scent that really stays true to and provides a beautiful interpretation of its inspiration, though like with The Romance of Certain Old Clothes, it just doesn't gel enough with my own personality and mood to be a scent that i would wear often.
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last but not least, The Turn of the Screw (Leaded glass, churchyard brick, lush ivy, heavy fog, thick mud, dark water, extinguished candle) which is aptly described as a "somber, foggy atmospheric with dark aquatic nuances".
this is an extremely realistic atmospheric, with a thick green ivy creeping over the outer façade of an abandoned cathedral, empty save for the burnt-down stubs of long-forgotten candles and pools of dark water where the ravages of time had not been kind to the roof.
i've said it before and i'll say it again - the level of realism that Sixteen92 can distill into its atmospheric perfumes is something that you have to experience for yourself to believe. The Turn of the Screw is one of the best ones i've tried from this house, a scent that to me perfectly matches that scene from the animated movie Anastasia where Rasputin grows dense hedges to trap the Romanov princess in a courtyard of crumbling stone beside the rushing river.
6/10 this was really hard to rate, because it's honestly a truly amazing gem of a realistic scent. however, while i can really appreciate the realistic dark greens and aquatics in the bottle as a stunning work of art in itself, i just personally don't like smelling like that. this perfume will likely stay in its sample vial for a long time, one that i will treasure in my collection as a fine example of perfumery skills that i would take out to sniff from time to time, but it's not one that i would actually wear.
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this review is of scents that i had purchased at regular price with my own money. i wasn’t asked to review these scents as a condition of receipt and didn’t receive any incentives for writing this. i’m not affiliated with Sixteen92 and as always, all opinions remain my own.
all information correct at time of publishing.
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