Review: Sixteen92 - The Awakening
Perfume: The Awakening
Brand: Sixteen92
Format: Oil
Price: $14 for 6ml in a glass bottle. Also available in a 10ml rollerball bottle for $20. Note that I'm not 100% sure these are the prices since it's discontinued. Also, I am reviewing a 1ml sample.
Availability: Limited edition and out-of-stock (presumably will be available in the Resurrection event in January).
Description: (From the Sixteen92 website)
Ocean air, dark water, damp mosses, gulf mud, saltwater taffy
Background:
With Sixteen92's Resurrection coming up, I find myself revisiting a lot of my samples in an attempt to decide if there's anything worth putting my money into for a full size. For those of you who don't know, Sixteen92 does this really cool thing where once a year, in January, they offer up close to their entire catalogue of discontinued and seasonal scents for purchase. Since I just got into indies this year, I've never gotten to purchase from a Resurrection event, but I fear the hype has already passed me.
Let me explain. At the beginning of my 'scent journey,' if you will, Sixteen92 was my favorite house. For only $14-$15 you could get a whopping 6ml of fragrance, at 1ml more and $10 less than some of the more expensive houses, like Arcana and NAVA. While a little more expensive than a house like Alkemia, I had a pretty lukewarm first experience with that house (but have since turned around my opinion on it). Plus, Sixteen92 was where I discovered my first and still one of my strongest indie loves: Nereids.
The Awakening offered a similar story to Nereids, which is a gourmand aquatic, but translates at once very differently and almost identically. That is to say, it smells very different from Nereids, certainly much more atmospheric, but gives off a similar vibe. In fact, The Awakening was part of the general catalogue once upon a time, and you can argue that Nereids filled the hole it left for a similar sort of fragrance in Claire's lineup. However, I believe Nereids really nailed "gourmand aquatic" whereas The Awakening fell into some of the traps of aquatic gourmand perfumes that Nereids managed to avoid. I'll have to review Party At the Moon Tower sometime, because that's another aquatic gourmand from S92 that actually turned out to be more of what I was hoping The Awakening would be.
Review:
In the vial, it's a salty-sweet aquatic. I can smell immediately the saltwater taffy, and there's a still, almost stale 'fuzziness' to it (likely the gulf mud and damp mosses) that keeps it from being refreshing in any way, like you would typically expect aquatics to be. Sorry to beat a dead horse with this comparison, but Nereids has the same in-bottle experience.
Wet, the sweetness immediately starts to blend with the oceanic smell to become something that's really best described as 'soapy.'
This is, I think, the first 'aquatic gourmand trap' that this fragrance falls into. I mentioned this in my Pumpkins Crave Quietude review, but I really dislike soapy scents. Something about them just reminds me of grandparents—and while the soapy smell certainly isn't unpleasant, it does turn me off of the perfume almost entirely. The fragrance does start to smell cleaner/fresher at this stage (obviously), which is worth noting if you're someone who's particularly looking for a 'fresh' scent, or looking to avoid them.
Dry, unfortunately, here is where The Awakening hits another snag: it's no longer even slightly gourmand by the time it's dry. The yummy saltwater taffy smell is long gone. I have to wonder if maybe foregoing the saltwater taffy in this blend and replacing it instead with just salt and perhaps an unconventional fruit (like star fruit or watermelon) would have helped this fragrance retain its 'edible' quality a bit longer without turning it soapy. Of course, it would turn into a different fragrance... but I think that's okay.
Throw: Surprisingly strong for an aquatic. It boasts particularly strong throw when applied to the neck and the chest.
Longevity: I can smell this sucker on me pretty strongly six hours later. None of the fragrances that I actually want to last this long actually do.
Summary: A salty, sweet, and somewhat grimy aquatic atmospheric gourmand that decided one day it wanted to be soap and by golly, it did it.
Rating: 5.5/10, because I hate that it transforms into soap so soon after wearing, and other fragrances (even within Sixteen92's catalogue itself) accomplishes what I think The Awakening was going for, but better.
Song: Geowulf, "Won't Look Back"
Brand: Sixteen92
Format: Oil
Price: $14 for 6ml in a glass bottle. Also available in a 10ml rollerball bottle for $20. Note that I'm not 100% sure these are the prices since it's discontinued. Also, I am reviewing a 1ml sample.
Availability: Limited edition and out-of-stock (presumably will be available in the Resurrection event in January).
Description: (From the Sixteen92 website)
Ocean air, dark water, damp mosses, gulf mud, saltwater taffy
Background:
With Sixteen92's Resurrection coming up, I find myself revisiting a lot of my samples in an attempt to decide if there's anything worth putting my money into for a full size. For those of you who don't know, Sixteen92 does this really cool thing where once a year, in January, they offer up close to their entire catalogue of discontinued and seasonal scents for purchase. Since I just got into indies this year, I've never gotten to purchase from a Resurrection event, but I fear the hype has already passed me.
 |
| I don't own The Awakening, the novel this fragrance was based off of, so here's House of Leaves and 12 Rules for Life. |
The Awakening offered a similar story to Nereids, which is a gourmand aquatic, but translates at once very differently and almost identically. That is to say, it smells very different from Nereids, certainly much more atmospheric, but gives off a similar vibe. In fact, The Awakening was part of the general catalogue once upon a time, and you can argue that Nereids filled the hole it left for a similar sort of fragrance in Claire's lineup. However, I believe Nereids really nailed "gourmand aquatic" whereas The Awakening fell into some of the traps of aquatic gourmand perfumes that Nereids managed to avoid. I'll have to review Party At the Moon Tower sometime, because that's another aquatic gourmand from S92 that actually turned out to be more of what I was hoping The Awakening would be.
Review:
In the vial, it's a salty-sweet aquatic. I can smell immediately the saltwater taffy, and there's a still, almost stale 'fuzziness' to it (likely the gulf mud and damp mosses) that keeps it from being refreshing in any way, like you would typically expect aquatics to be. Sorry to beat a dead horse with this comparison, but Nereids has the same in-bottle experience.
Wet, the sweetness immediately starts to blend with the oceanic smell to become something that's really best described as 'soapy.'
 |
| I'm an asshole. |
Dry, unfortunately, here is where The Awakening hits another snag: it's no longer even slightly gourmand by the time it's dry. The yummy saltwater taffy smell is long gone. I have to wonder if maybe foregoing the saltwater taffy in this blend and replacing it instead with just salt and perhaps an unconventional fruit (like star fruit or watermelon) would have helped this fragrance retain its 'edible' quality a bit longer without turning it soapy. Of course, it would turn into a different fragrance... but I think that's okay.
Throw: Surprisingly strong for an aquatic. It boasts particularly strong throw when applied to the neck and the chest.
Longevity: I can smell this sucker on me pretty strongly six hours later. None of the fragrances that I actually want to last this long actually do.
Summary: A salty, sweet, and somewhat grimy aquatic atmospheric gourmand that decided one day it wanted to be soap and by golly, it did it.
Rating: 5.5/10, because I hate that it transforms into soap so soon after wearing, and other fragrances (even within Sixteen92's catalogue itself) accomplishes what I think The Awakening was going for, but better.
Song: Geowulf, "Won't Look Back"
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