Summertime Sampling & a Lust for Ethereal Nymph Perfumes

My latest round of LuckyScent samples

After a long, gourmand winter hibernating in Bianco Latte, the first humid pink petal stuck to my windowsill marked the beginning of spring. The air is dense and sweet; dew collects on fresh sapling leaves. I find myself craving something otherworldly & soft. I'm picturing Japanese tea gardens, trellises climbing with jasmine & osmanthus, light breaking through the branches of a peach tree. Maybe a bubble bath in the countryside? Here are my picks.

The Fresh Water Spring Nymph

1. Zoologist Dragonfly

One review described this as a Monet painting in a bottle. An aquatic floral, featuring jasmine, moss, rice, & rainwater. I’m getting Softsoap. It is very clean and aquatic, I’ll give it that. Majorly cucumber. Some moss a little later. Light, fresh. It’s less Silvermist and more Target men’s body wash than I hoped.

2. Liis Studied

Pear, ambrette, cashmere. Really gorgeous crisp pear opening. Super soft and musky, like a freshly-washed cashmere sweater. The ambrette is like that of Glossier You, which I love. Will have to play around with her more.

3. Regime des Fleurs Glass Blooms

Riesling grape, peony, ambrette. My impression: bubble bath. Soft floral. Fades quickly. That’s kind of it.

My favorite of the three? Studied.

The Orchard Dryad

4. Liis Floating

Peach, wild orchid, crisp linen. An absolutely addictive scent. I've had a sample of this before and found myself constantly reapplying. The soft skin of a barely ripe peach, a bubble bath, light rippling through sheer curtains. Floating is a completely apt name. One of the few of this bunch that paints a mental picture for me.

5. Parfums de Marly Cassili

Red currant, frangipani, plum. My impression: fruity shampoo, the kind that is creamy and pearlescent when you squeeze it out. Round, smooth, fresh. Delicious. Vaguely peachy. Love.

6. Regime des Fleurs Crushed Fruits

Peach skin, orris butter, rose hips. Opens like a watered down Welch’s gummy. The dry down feels waxy, balmy, vaguely herbal? Like an oil painting fruit bowl still life, covered in a steady layer of dust.

For me, this category is a toss up between Floating & Cassili.

The Osmanthus Tea Garden Fairy

7. Le Jardin Retrouve Osmanthe Lin Yuan

Osmanthus, jasmine, peach, leather. Starts off smelling like my hair salon. Luxurious, kind of peach shampoo, really pretty. Immediate green earthiness. Bitter leather. Beautiful at first, confusing at last. Ends up being vegetal, like being out in the garden, surrounded by soil. But right before you started pulling up weeds, you washed your hair, and the spring breeze carries the faint trail of your Suave.

8. One Day Osmanthus Tea

Osmanthus, jasmine, tea leaves. I found this balmy. Weird. weirdly chewable. A few chewed up tea leaves. Perhaps a horse stable, up the hill? And a faint hint of soft osmanthus.

9. Chasing Scents Tea Service

Jasmine & oolong tea, Goji berry, white peach. Grape and white peach juice opening. Wait, that’s jasmine. Wait, that’s the inside of a boba shop. The image I get: blowing grape-scented bubbles inside of a Kung Fu Tea. Really pretty and evocative for me. I actually like it.

Of the three, I’m most intrigued by Tea Service. Who doesn’t love boba shops?

The Tropical Island Nymph

10. Narcotica Narco Oasis

Passionfruit, blonde woods, brown sugar. First hit is like opening a turquoise pack of Welch’s tropical fruit gummies. The passionfruit is prominent. Passionfruit always seems to have a bit of a stinkiness to it? Something just a little sour and tangy. The brown sugar here is very sweet and pulls back some of that tang. This is not a $300 perfume. I would absolutely eat it though.

11. Giardini di Toscana Bora Bora

Coconut milk, apricot, ylang ylang. The white florals (jasmine, tiare, & jasmolactone) are doing the heavy lifting here. The coconut milk is creamy and gorgeous, a little plasticky, like a tropical Bratz doll. The dry down is that classic Giardini di Toscana vanilla, furthering the babydoll effect. This is a fantasy perfume for me.

The Reflection

Maybe I am not meant to be a niche girl. Maybe I will forever be sequestered to the Sephoras and Ultas of the world, never finding my niche knight in shining armor. And that’s okay. I like what I like. So while I entered this sample lot with the hope of finding an osmanthus-y bubble-y floral-y nymph-y musk-y summer perfume outside of my usual tastes, I found myself solely enjoying that of my usual tastes. So what’s next?

Floating and Cassili, while on different sides of the pretty peachy spectrum, are too similar to both have a spot in my collection. The two of them, along with newcomer Ari by Ariana Grande, will be duking it out to be the fruity star of my summer.

Studied, Tea Service & Bora Bora - I will be watching your future careers with great interest. I can easily see myself finishing these samples, and we’ll see if any make the cut.

As for everything else, I think I’m good.

The quest for my one true niche love will continue again another day. Until then… happy sniffing.