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Gabriella
(ED: Welcome back our lovely Madeleine who has returned)
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Hello Fragrant Friends,
It’s great to be back reviewing here on APJ after such a long time.
Have you ever found that being away from your usual routine makes you reconsider your fragrance tastes? A perfume that you may have loathed becomes a new love or a style of perfume that you’d always considered not for you now captures your heart? This is what happened to me recently on the last night of a five-week European trip with my husband.
We were in Oia, a small town in Santorini, hoping to catch a glimpse of the gorgeous and much-photographed sunsets there. Sadly, it was too cloudy that evening and so we wandered around the little alleyways for a little bit before stopping for dinner. While wandering, we came upon a small apothecary full of Korres and other fragranced goodies, and of course, I went in to have a little spritz or two. Surprisingly, it was a gourmand, a genre I usually hate, that had me at first sniff…
Black Sugar Oriental Lily Violet by Korres 2015
Fragratntica gives these featured accords:
Brown sugar, Asian lily, violet, vanilla, caramel
Black Sugar Oriental Lily Violet starts out all sugary violet but it’s more parma violet or violet candy floss, very airy and light, rather than all syrupy and cloying. It feels gentle and soothing on the skin and shines softly. A burnt quality to the sugar note also prevents it from veering too much into toothache territory while a soft, salty and slightly milky lily note lends the composition a cuddly lactonic vibe. There’s caramel and vanilla here too, but again, an incense-like element to these notes cuts the sweetness and adds some depth to the overall vibe.
It’s this smokiness and incense, the salty-milky quality of the lily and the burnt aspect of the sugar that make the scent quite intriguing compared to your usual gourmand. It has an almost ethereal and other-worldly quality, which makes it both soothing and relaxing. Overall, it’s also a fairly linear scent that stays close to the skin, but different notes seem to peek out more each time I put my nose to wrist. Longevity is around 3-4 hours.
Due to its snuggly aspect, Black Sugar Oriental Lily Violet is definitely a comfort scent and one to wear after a hard day’s work or to soothe frazzled nerves. I’d love to have this in bath gel form, so I could sink into lovely violet milky bubbles and forget the world around me. Despite being more on the snuggly side, the airiness of the scent means it can be worn all year round and not just consigned to the colder months.
Korres has 50ml/€39
Sephora has 50ml/$US44.50
What’s a perfume or scent style that you used to hate and have now come to love? Has a trip or a holiday ever taken you out of your scented comfort zone?
With much love until next time!
M x
Australian Perfume Junkies 
YAY! So glad to have you back on board Gabriella,
We missed you.
Portia xx
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Hey Miss P,
It’s good to be back.
Xxx G
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I cannot do rose scents or very sweet scents even though I like the gourmand category. I just have to be careful and usually pick gourmands with a tobacco or liquor note to squelch the sweetness. When I first tried Sadanne by Slumberhouse, it struck me as way too sweet-candied, sugared roses. But something about it made me keep retrying it. I now love it and hope to own a FB someday. It is better in cooler weather though. Hot weather intensifies the scent too much for me. Along those lines, I will look for this next time I’m in Sephora. Sounds like it might just fit in with my other gourmands, none of which are as sweet as Sadanne.
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Hi Kandice,
I can’t do sweet scents either. I do like my roses though but they have to be dark roses with woods or patchouli in them. I must try Sadanne, I’ve heard so much about it. Do report back if you try the Korres, I think you might like it.
Gabriella x
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I couldn’t find it at Sephora today, but I will keep looking. I think I’d like it also 🙂
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