I've been very slowly going though my Etiket samples, but here is my first impressions of the non-Amouage fragrances:
Arquiste boutonnière no 7 There's a brief citrus in the opening, and then it's glorious gardenia. Sometimes it's greener, sometimes it's sweeter. So far I don't detect the lavender. An hour in it's pretty linear and does not project much. It's also mostly a soft powdery sweet gardenia now, quite nice but not like the pure bliss of Chantecaille's Petals. It also does not fulfill the high expectations that I had based on Fleur de Louis. Will pass.
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Zoologist Nightingale Omg the opening smells very similar to Grossmith's Hana no Hatsu, not that much alike the Chinese mosquito repellent liquid, but otherwise so so similar. This is promising!! A couple minutes in, there is more of a powdery sweetness coming through. Uh oh. Mm then maybe some white florals? I'm optimistic again. There's also some soapy freshness, which I slightly like but think can also do without. There is a lot going on and I'm surprised that I'm unravelling the notes / accords. Perhaps there is something to show after about half a year of being into this hobby.
I wasn't paying attention while washing my hands and washed off most of the perfume off my wrists, so the floral heart was skipped over. But I'm not too sad since the base notes are the glorious oakmoss-y scent. Interestingly, when I look at the notes on fragrantica, I didn't smell any of the Rose (aw) or amber (phew). This is definitely on my full bottle list 😍
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Hiram Green Dilettante The opening has the greeness of a freshly cut branch of white flowers, but that quickly transitions from the branch into the heady white flowers. Almost like the flowers have fallen onto hot concrete. Perhaps this is the indolic smell typical of white flowers that people always talk about. There’s also some of the greeness in the back, it sort of helps the flowers project more...or sharper? Half an hour in the scent settled back into the freshly cut branch, this time more distinctively of orange blossom. There's not much more change after this. Overall it's enjoyable but not enough for me to want a full bottle.
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Hiram Green Lustre Yay another great fresh rose opening! There is a light veil of spice which surprised me, one because it exists and second because it’s light. All the other spicy roses that I’ve smelled all leaned heavy, with Penhaligon’s Duke being the previous lightest, but that’s like a medium texture compared to this. The spices quickly become strong, but still light, and the fresh rose becomes the structure for the spices to leap off of. Unfortunately, this scent effectively disappeared on me after about half an hour. Will have to test again but unlikely to purchase a full bottle even if performance is not an issue.
Second and third test both continue to disappear on me in about half an hour :( Hard pass.
Also an update on Penhaligon's Duke:
After trying Akro's Night with an overwhelming sweaty cumin note, the same note is all I notice in Duke now. Not sure if it's the cooler weather showing off the spice / cumin notes more, or it's because I'm super sensitized to cumin, but the overall result is that I no longer enjoy Duke at all.
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Ormonde Jayne Osmanthus and Osmanthus Elixir
The opening of both smells very similar, the original EDP smells like luxurious soap lathered up, and the elixir smells like the face cream from the same line. It’s sweet, but not overly so, and definitely creamy, but not a dairy creamy. There’s a hint of something artificial smelling, maybe plastic, that ends each whiff. It’s not necessarily unpleasant, and perhaps it’s a musk note, but it’s what gives this scent a skincare product connotation. I get more of a floral impression, leaning towards jasmine, from the elixir. About 15min later, both have stronger floral notes, with the elixir still having more. This continued for an hour or so, by then I went to sleep. There was none of the scent left by the time I woke up. Overall, a pass for both.