apart from the four seasonal (and halloween) collection sets, each Circle membership subscription with Sixteen92 also includes 6ml of a limited edition fragrance that's only available to Circle subscribers for that particular year.
just like with the theme for the Spring 2021 collection, the Circle exclusive scent this time around was also inspired by constellations and the night sky.
The Book Of Stars (The smell of space (meteor dust, ozone, metal, ethyl formate) blended with grounding white sandalwood, papyrus, and earthy musks) really piqued my curiosity, since sandalwood and papery notes are some of my favourites, and the concept of "the smell of space" was novel yet intriguing.
notwithstanding the grand impressions one would imagine from its name, The Book Of Stars turned out to be a surprisingly mild atmospheric in the bottle, a light and subtle musk with papery sandalwood nuances. with each sniff, slight hints of metal would surface from time to time, though the dominant woody-papery nature of the scent was consistent throughout.
this one needed a good amount of rest (more than three weeks) before its true potential was revealed; even around the two-week mark (which was my standard for resting indie perfumes) it smelled like a relatively generic sandalwood-musk combination, which was slightly disappointing. it took at least three or four underwhelming wears before i finally was able to experience for myself what this scent really was intended to be.
even after resting, my impressions of The Book Of Stars in the bottle didn't change significantly, but it was on application that this perfume really shone.
on my skin, this perfume truly demonstrated that it was far from being one-dimensional, starting off with a not-unpleasant strongly metallic edge that faded and transitioned into a combination of rich old parchment and sweet raspberry liquor. the transition was almost addictive, especially with how the sweet boozy notes were the perfect accoutrement to the dry parchment, and provided the perfect backdrop for the metallic edge to resurface and restart the entire experience all over again.
performance-wise, The Book Of Stars had a moderate throw of just over a foot, with a decent longevity of five hours of wear on my skin.
8/10 a truly unique scent experience and another fine example of the skilled craftsmanship that goes into all of Sixteen92's perfumes. The Book Of Stars is one that i'm really happy to have in my collection, and will greatly enjoy wearing for almost any occasion.
i'd have bought a backup if not for its limited-edition status as a perfume that would never be released for public sale going forward. i sort of understand the draw of the 'exclusive' label to make the Circle subscription more special and attractive, though at the same time it feels like such a waste that outside of the subscription, more people aren't able to enjoy such amazing scents like this one.
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this review is of a scent that i had purchased at regular price 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 Sixteen92 and as always, all opinions remain my own.
all information correct at time of publishing.
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