Review: Solstice Scents - Black Mallow
Perfume: Black Mallow
Brand: Solstice Scents
Format: Oil
Price: $15 for 5ml in a cobalt glass bottle
Availability: Limited edition
Description: (From the Solstice Scents website)
Bold notes of anise and licorice root, a touch of sweet fennel, fluffy marshmallow and vanilla. Simple, sweet, chewy and spicy. Slightly reformulated in 2018 from the previous version.
Background:
They say that black licorice is an acquired taste, and I've personally not eaten it in a high enough quantity to, well, acquire it. The smell is a bit of a different story. Licorice just smells really nice. Though, arguably, it's an acquired smell, too; I had my fiancé take a whiff and he immediately pushed it away, without being told it was a licorice scent.
Review:
In the bottle, it's exactly how you may remember black licorice smelling: sweet, perfumey, perhaps a bit medicinal, and with just a touch of powderiness. Wet on the skin, it's more of the same, only amplified. The sweetness really starts to blossom here. It gets to the point where, if you smell it too deeply, you could forget there was any licorice in this blend at all (or perhaps that's just me—it's just that licorice isn't a very ubiquitous scent today).
Dry, the marshmallow slowly begins to creep forward, and, as the hour goes on, eventually starts to overtake the licorice. By the end of the hour, the faintest whisper of licorice, which people absolutely would not be able to identify as licorice unless you told them outright. Frankly, I wish it took a bit longer to hit this stage. Licorice and anise are just such unique and distinguished notes, and the addition of marshmallow to temper the bitterness was brilliant, but the perfume hits this sweet spot of equal parts licorice and mallow about a half hour in that disappears in ten minutes.
I went nose-blind to this scent after about an hour and a half, which is a crying shame, because, really... that sweet spot I mentioned before is incredible. As for the notes, the anise/licorice root (don't these just smell the same?) and marshmallow are all very apparent at different points in this scent journey, but I don't get any fennel from this, and the vanilla probably just melds into the marshmallow.
Throw: Fairly weak on my dry skin; I imagine it would be closer to average on a well-hydrated person.
Longevity: Takes about 2.5 hours to fully disappear from my skin.
Summary: We're at a party with Licorice, best friend of few and enemy of many. Sweet and well-liked Marshmallow arrives and locks eyes with her across the room. There's an immediate attraction there, but Licorice's idea of a good time is lighting firecrackers in her neighbor's garbage can, while Marshmallow volunteers at a soup kitchen in his spare time, so they both believe there's no future there. One short hook-up later, and Licorice leaves the party and leaves Marshmallow, but leaves behind a single black choker that Marshmallow pockets with every intention of giving it back the next time he sees her. It's Anise story, right?
Rating: 7/10, but only because this fragrance could really benefit from a nice fixative.
Song: Silversun Pickups, "Catch and Release"
Brand: Solstice Scents
Format: Oil
Price: $15 for 5ml in a cobalt glass bottle
Availability: Limited edition
Description: (From the Solstice Scents website)
Bold notes of anise and licorice root, a touch of sweet fennel, fluffy marshmallow and vanilla. Simple, sweet, chewy and spicy. Slightly reformulated in 2018 from the previous version.
Background:
They say that black licorice is an acquired taste, and I've personally not eaten it in a high enough quantity to, well, acquire it. The smell is a bit of a different story. Licorice just smells really nice. Though, arguably, it's an acquired smell, too; I had my fiancé take a whiff and he immediately pushed it away, without being told it was a licorice scent.
Review:
In the bottle, it's exactly how you may remember black licorice smelling: sweet, perfumey, perhaps a bit medicinal, and with just a touch of powderiness. Wet on the skin, it's more of the same, only amplified. The sweetness really starts to blossom here. It gets to the point where, if you smell it too deeply, you could forget there was any licorice in this blend at all (or perhaps that's just me—it's just that licorice isn't a very ubiquitous scent today).
Dry, the marshmallow slowly begins to creep forward, and, as the hour goes on, eventually starts to overtake the licorice. By the end of the hour, the faintest whisper of licorice, which people absolutely would not be able to identify as licorice unless you told them outright. Frankly, I wish it took a bit longer to hit this stage. Licorice and anise are just such unique and distinguished notes, and the addition of marshmallow to temper the bitterness was brilliant, but the perfume hits this sweet spot of equal parts licorice and mallow about a half hour in that disappears in ten minutes.
I went nose-blind to this scent after about an hour and a half, which is a crying shame, because, really... that sweet spot I mentioned before is incredible. As for the notes, the anise/licorice root (don't these just smell the same?) and marshmallow are all very apparent at different points in this scent journey, but I don't get any fennel from this, and the vanilla probably just melds into the marshmallow.
 |
| That's fennel, if you were at all curious. |
Longevity: Takes about 2.5 hours to fully disappear from my skin.
Summary: We're at a party with Licorice, best friend of few and enemy of many. Sweet and well-liked Marshmallow arrives and locks eyes with her across the room. There's an immediate attraction there, but Licorice's idea of a good time is lighting firecrackers in her neighbor's garbage can, while Marshmallow volunteers at a soup kitchen in his spare time, so they both believe there's no future there. One short hook-up later, and Licorice leaves the party and leaves Marshmallow, but leaves behind a single black choker that Marshmallow pockets with every intention of giving it back the next time he sees her. It's Anise story, right?
Rating: 7/10, but only because this fragrance could really benefit from a nice fixative.
Song: Silversun Pickups, "Catch and Release"
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