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scent review
May. 2nd, 2026 03:18 pm California Chocolate is awful.
Scent description: A special edition made in honor of the 2013 San Francisco Chocolate and Fragrance Salon, it’s a luscious and seductive gourmand scent that reflects the bright, sunny atmosphere of California. You can’t help smiling when you smell it! Released 2013. Notes: wild orange, grapefruit, yuzu, white cognac, neroli, dark chocolate, patchouli, gourmand musk, and Bourbon vanilla.
On me: Orange, like orange peel or orange juice. Very bright, but immediately on top of that is something foul. Like when the dog comes in from the yard and it's rolled in something you can't identify as either a long-dead something or a very old piece of poop. Musty, foul. Eventually settles down into something that smells like an old church --old varnished wood and books and dusty carpet. Unpleasant. And also I am allergic to something, my head and nose became stuffed up and I got a wicked headache. The only good thing is that it doesn't last long on me, it fades to nothing after a short but agonizing time Tossing this one in the bin.
Kyphi is not much better.
website description: Based on the common themes that run throughout various ancient formulas for the Egyptian incense that was burned to welcome the night, this version of Kyphi is a 100% natural mix of resins, essential oils, and absolutes, a liquid version of the incense formula that can be worn as an uplifting and offbeat perfume and is especially well suited for meditation, yoga, or other activities that require concentration. 100% natural. Released 2011. Notes: frankincense, myrrh, benzoin, labdanum, beeswax, spikenard, henna, lemongrass, wild orange, calamus, cassia, cyperus, saffron, juniper berry, and spices.
On me: the long dead something the dog rolled in hits first. I suspect this is the perfume maker's 'secret sauce' that perhaps forms the base of many of their scents, regardless of what they say the 'scent notes' are. The 'musk' that they base the rest of the perfume upon, perhaps? Eventually it becomes beeswax and sawdust. Then just sawdust. I don't mind the smell of sawdust but it's a bit of a disappointment.
Mardi Gras is complicated, but in the end, unlikeable and unwearable.
scent notes from the website: Every year in late winter New Orleans puts on a grand party like no other. It’s a rainbow-hued, glittering, skanky, riotous, celebration of everything there is to celebrate, flowing in and out like a shiny snake amidst the flower-strewn, humidity-drenched, decaying streets of the French Quarter. Mardi Gras may present a polite, rich veneer of real orange blossom and vanilla, like a southern belle delicately munching on a beignet dusted with powdered sugar, but behind the pretty, festive costume are dark undercurrents of voodoo and hoodoo, midnight rituals and outrageous secrets that can only be unleashed under the protective camouflage of the innocent-looking mask. Released 2015. Notes: Orange blossom, neroli, cistus, benzoin, vanilla, civet, special musk blend.
On me: a blast of orange blossom, super sweet. Then the undead thing the dog rolled in rears its head. This must be the 'special musk blend'. sweetness, not quite real vanilla, something like a can of frosting, but still the unbearable sweet floral and the kick in the nose of the dead thing. the notes clash and confuse, refusing to settle down into an accord. I wanted to like this so much and I do NOT. I feel like it needs something else to bring everything together. Maybe patchouli or ?
and on to my freebie: Carolina.
A sweet floral-gourmand fougere-type scent reminiscent of the American South takes you from a day spent among sun-warmed pine woods, grassy fields, and roadsides sprinkled with wildflowers through lunch in a diner that serves iced sweet tea and fresh-baked banana bread, into a warm, humid night sweetened with the scent of night-fragrant flowers and the persistent undercurrent of tonka-rich tobacco curing in the wooden barns and historic red brick factories. Released 2010. Notes: longleaf pine, hay absolute, magnolia, kudzu flower, tea, honeysuckle, star jasmine, vanilla, tonka, and tobacco leaf.
On me: actually not bad. generic white floral with a little bit of the hay/vanilla to make it less cloying. Not bad. Clean, floral, simple. Not one I'd choose to wear often, it's not really 'me' but it's OK
Scent description: A special edition made in honor of the 2013 San Francisco Chocolate and Fragrance Salon, it’s a luscious and seductive gourmand scent that reflects the bright, sunny atmosphere of California. You can’t help smiling when you smell it! Released 2013. Notes: wild orange, grapefruit, yuzu, white cognac, neroli, dark chocolate, patchouli, gourmand musk, and Bourbon vanilla.
On me: Orange, like orange peel or orange juice. Very bright, but immediately on top of that is something foul. Like when the dog comes in from the yard and it's rolled in something you can't identify as either a long-dead something or a very old piece of poop. Musty, foul. Eventually settles down into something that smells like an old church --old varnished wood and books and dusty carpet. Unpleasant. And also I am allergic to something, my head and nose became stuffed up and I got a wicked headache. The only good thing is that it doesn't last long on me, it fades to nothing after a short but agonizing time Tossing this one in the bin.
Kyphi is not much better.
website description: Based on the common themes that run throughout various ancient formulas for the Egyptian incense that was burned to welcome the night, this version of Kyphi is a 100% natural mix of resins, essential oils, and absolutes, a liquid version of the incense formula that can be worn as an uplifting and offbeat perfume and is especially well suited for meditation, yoga, or other activities that require concentration. 100% natural. Released 2011. Notes: frankincense, myrrh, benzoin, labdanum, beeswax, spikenard, henna, lemongrass, wild orange, calamus, cassia, cyperus, saffron, juniper berry, and spices.
On me: the long dead something the dog rolled in hits first. I suspect this is the perfume maker's 'secret sauce' that perhaps forms the base of many of their scents, regardless of what they say the 'scent notes' are. The 'musk' that they base the rest of the perfume upon, perhaps? Eventually it becomes beeswax and sawdust. Then just sawdust. I don't mind the smell of sawdust but it's a bit of a disappointment.
Mardi Gras is complicated, but in the end, unlikeable and unwearable.
scent notes from the website: Every year in late winter New Orleans puts on a grand party like no other. It’s a rainbow-hued, glittering, skanky, riotous, celebration of everything there is to celebrate, flowing in and out like a shiny snake amidst the flower-strewn, humidity-drenched, decaying streets of the French Quarter. Mardi Gras may present a polite, rich veneer of real orange blossom and vanilla, like a southern belle delicately munching on a beignet dusted with powdered sugar, but behind the pretty, festive costume are dark undercurrents of voodoo and hoodoo, midnight rituals and outrageous secrets that can only be unleashed under the protective camouflage of the innocent-looking mask. Released 2015. Notes: Orange blossom, neroli, cistus, benzoin, vanilla, civet, special musk blend.
On me: a blast of orange blossom, super sweet. Then the undead thing the dog rolled in rears its head. This must be the 'special musk blend'. sweetness, not quite real vanilla, something like a can of frosting, but still the unbearable sweet floral and the kick in the nose of the dead thing. the notes clash and confuse, refusing to settle down into an accord. I wanted to like this so much and I do NOT. I feel like it needs something else to bring everything together. Maybe patchouli or ?
and on to my freebie: Carolina.
A sweet floral-gourmand fougere-type scent reminiscent of the American South takes you from a day spent among sun-warmed pine woods, grassy fields, and roadsides sprinkled with wildflowers through lunch in a diner that serves iced sweet tea and fresh-baked banana bread, into a warm, humid night sweetened with the scent of night-fragrant flowers and the persistent undercurrent of tonka-rich tobacco curing in the wooden barns and historic red brick factories. Released 2010. Notes: longleaf pine, hay absolute, magnolia, kudzu flower, tea, honeysuckle, star jasmine, vanilla, tonka, and tobacco leaf.
On me: actually not bad. generic white floral with a little bit of the hay/vanilla to make it less cloying. Not bad. Clean, floral, simple. Not one I'd choose to wear often, it's not really 'me' but it's OK
