Review: The Strange South - Heat Lightning
Perfume: Heat Lightning
Brand: The Strange South
Format: Oil (Meadowfoam version; also available with fractionated coconut oil)
Price: $10 for 5ml in a rollerball glass bottle. Also available for $16 for 10ml.
Description: (From The Strange South website)
Coconut, hazelnut, clove, night blooming flowers, benzoin, and humidity trapped under a tin roof.
Background:
Heat Lightning is such a weird little beast. There's a good reason it's gained such a reputation from Strange South lovers, but not for the reason you would think: sure, it's a pretty little scent, but more than that, it's just... so... weird.
When you read the notes list, you would expect this to be a sort of gourmand atmospheric, and maybe some people read it that way, but it doesn't translate much like this at all on my skin. Naturally, being a coconut and gourmand fanatic, that's the reason I picked up a full size from her 1 year anniversary sale blind (and, you know, the 40% off was definitely an incentive). I also purchased a gorgeous custom from J that I'd love to talk about if there was ever any interest.
Review:
In the bottle, this was nothing at all like I was expecting. Granted, it's impossible to accurately describe the scent of "humidity," but all I could think upon smelling the bottle was "mint." No, there is not any mint listed anywhere in the notes. No, I couldn't even tell you exactly what kind of mint I'm smelling. Perhaps it's a combination of wintergreen and some natural mint, but there's this sugary sweetness behind it that has me hesitate to describe it as peppermint or spearmint.
Wet, it's just the same, but you can more clearly see what that minty smell is trying to do here: it's sharper, sanguine, and almost metallic. The whole scent, while wet, is a sharp, vaguely sweet and minty scent that can only be the tin roof scent mentioned in the notes list. You can almost imagine rust lining the edges of the tin roof. Dry, the minty tang finally disappears and leaves behind a faintly metallic, almost powdery scent. By the time it's been on my skin for hours and long past the dry-down, only a whisper of sweetness remains on my skin.
I don't get any coconut or hazelnut out of this, and I imagine the night blooming flowers must be that powdery sweet smell. It's insane how this scent actually smells humid, even when taking into account that bizarre mintiness (am I alone in this detection?) that follows it through most of the wear. Since it smells sort of muggy and summery, I'd label it an aquatic atmospheric.
Throw: Low
Longevity: About five hours, but it varies.
Summary: A muggy atmospheric made feminine with the inclusion of nondescript, powdery flowers that dries down to a pleasant, vaguely-sweet, close-to-skin scent. May contain mint.
Rating: I have to give this one a 6/10. It's definitely artful and a scent I can appreciate, and while it's wearable, it's just not something I'd personally prefer to wear as a gourmand-lover and aquatic-and-floral-neutral, and the inclusion of coconut and hazelnut is a bit misleading. Would love it as a wax melt or linen spray, though, especially in the late spring.
Song: Joji, "Test Drive"
Brand: The Strange South
Format: Oil (Meadowfoam version; also available with fractionated coconut oil)
Price: $10 for 5ml in a rollerball glass bottle. Also available for $16 for 10ml.
Description: (From The Strange South website)
Coconut, hazelnut, clove, night blooming flowers, benzoin, and humidity trapped under a tin roof.
Background:
Heat Lightning is such a weird little beast. There's a good reason it's gained such a reputation from Strange South lovers, but not for the reason you would think: sure, it's a pretty little scent, but more than that, it's just... so... weird.
When you read the notes list, you would expect this to be a sort of gourmand atmospheric, and maybe some people read it that way, but it doesn't translate much like this at all on my skin. Naturally, being a coconut and gourmand fanatic, that's the reason I picked up a full size from her 1 year anniversary sale blind (and, you know, the 40% off was definitely an incentive). I also purchased a gorgeous custom from J that I'd love to talk about if there was ever any interest.
Review:
In the bottle, this was nothing at all like I was expecting. Granted, it's impossible to accurately describe the scent of "humidity," but all I could think upon smelling the bottle was "mint." No, there is not any mint listed anywhere in the notes. No, I couldn't even tell you exactly what kind of mint I'm smelling. Perhaps it's a combination of wintergreen and some natural mint, but there's this sugary sweetness behind it that has me hesitate to describe it as peppermint or spearmint.
Wet, it's just the same, but you can more clearly see what that minty smell is trying to do here: it's sharper, sanguine, and almost metallic. The whole scent, while wet, is a sharp, vaguely sweet and minty scent that can only be the tin roof scent mentioned in the notes list. You can almost imagine rust lining the edges of the tin roof. Dry, the minty tang finally disappears and leaves behind a faintly metallic, almost powdery scent. By the time it's been on my skin for hours and long past the dry-down, only a whisper of sweetness remains on my skin.
I don't get any coconut or hazelnut out of this, and I imagine the night blooming flowers must be that powdery sweet smell. It's insane how this scent actually smells humid, even when taking into account that bizarre mintiness (am I alone in this detection?) that follows it through most of the wear. Since it smells sort of muggy and summery, I'd label it an aquatic atmospheric.
Throw: Low
Longevity: About five hours, but it varies.
Summary: A muggy atmospheric made feminine with the inclusion of nondescript, powdery flowers that dries down to a pleasant, vaguely-sweet, close-to-skin scent. May contain mint.
Rating: I have to give this one a 6/10. It's definitely artful and a scent I can appreciate, and while it's wearable, it's just not something I'd personally prefer to wear as a gourmand-lover and aquatic-and-floral-neutral, and the inclusion of coconut and hazelnut is a bit misleading. Would love it as a wax melt or linen spray, though, especially in the late spring.
Song: Joji, "Test Drive"
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