sixteen92 Spring 2016

I should probably have picked a more seasonally appropriate backdrop.

And thus have we come full circle with our 2015 Circle subscribtion.  Yeah, that was terrible, but I couldn't help myself.  Terrible puns not withstanding, the Spring Collection marks the end of this edition of sixteen92's The Circle subscription service.   This time around, the theme was Women of Shakespeare.  On top of that, being the last one, this shipment also included the promised Circle exclusive scent, All the World's A Stage.  

Blanket of the Dark 

Narcissus absolute, two jasmines, yellow champaca blossom, coffee bean, bergamot, oakmoss, benzoin 

In the bottle: Floral... something? 

On my skin: Jasmine? Or I'm guessing it anyway. I finally get what people mean when they say something turns into Poop Flowers for them. There's a heavy tropical feeling floral with what reads like an animal musk running through it. It took me twenty minutes to decide that I do indeed like it. After about an hour and a half, it fades down to a slightly heavy musk. I got a total of three and a half hours from it.

Merely A Madness 

White sandalwood, clover honey (vegan), sweet orange, rosewater, blond patchouli, cedar heart

In the bottle: Daffodils? 

On my skin: daffodils or something like it and earth and sandalwood? When dry, I get a lovely honey note blending in with the wood. After forty minutes, it starts to smell less like sandalwood and more like a cedar chest.  Now that I'm looking at the notes, I don't know where I got daffodils from.  Maybe because it smells a lot like the flowers that came up first at home growing up.  We had a box out front with daffodils and hyacinths that came up, despite my cat doing his best to kill them.  Maybe I'm thinking hyacinths, but there's no hyacinths.  My nose is weird and my brain is worse.  By an hour, the honey and flowers are gone completely, leaving a warm cedar base.  I got two hours from this. 

The Primrose Path

Soaked earth, lichen, ancient oak roots, grass, water lily, heavy stone, a tangled garland of faded spring blooms

In the bottle: Green florals

On my skin: Rich fresh turned earth and spring flowers like hyacinth or daffodils. As it dries I get a little smooth stone too. Basically, this smells like Early Spring in a Bottle. Lasted an hour and a half. 

Storm of Fortunes 

Star jasmine, orange blossom, tuberose absolute, hyacinth, ambergris, Mysore sandalwood 

In the bottle: Kind of sweet florals. 

On my skin: White florals and hyacinths. Very nice throw. After about an hour and a half, it faded down to a heart of sandalwood. I kept expecting it to disappear at this point, and despite me sniffing my wrist every thirty minutes and expecting it to be gone, it hung in there for just past four hours out of this. That is pretty fantastic performance for a white floral on me.

A Thousand Times More Fair

Honeysuckle nectar, magnolia blossom, passion flower, white peach skin, ripe plum, bright vanilla bean, delicate musk

In the bottle: Fruity, candy sweet

On my skin: Sweet and fruity... I thought peach at first but maybe apricot or plums or some kind of stone fruit (I can never tell the difference between them) that has a lovely honeyed floral note to it. This is like sipping fancy fruit punch out on the garden patio on a warm evening. Faded down from very good throw to light/skin scent at an hour and a half. I got almost two and a half hours total wear time.

All the World's A Stage 

rum-soaked apricots, dark chocolate, hazelnut liqueur, praline, amber, bourbon vanilla

In the bottle: Edible vanilla. reminds me of sugar cookies.

On my skin: That same cookie vanilla with a floral note and something earthy or resiny that I can't put my finger on.  As it dries, I think the thing I thought was a floral note is really a candied fruit note, like the peaches in Lolita, but lighter. Throw is light to moderate. This is something you could wear to work.  I only got two hours, which is kind of a bummer as I really liked it.

I really enjoyed this collection.  They were a bit fleeting on me, but not so bad that any of them were automatic swaps.  The sillage for the most part was firmly on the Safe for Work side of things.   And miracle of miracles, Storm of Fortunes is maybe the second white floral I've found that lasts longer than two to three hours on me.  I'm probably using my coupon to buy an upgrade of it, I'm that impressed with it.  All in all, I'm very glad that I got in on the ground floor of the whole Circle experiment and I will definitely be re-upping for 2016's Circle.  

~M

sixteen92's Spring Collection launches February 11th at sixteen92.com