Sniffari Report, part 1!

I promised I would report back on my Saturday Sniffari, and — 3 days later — here we are! Forgive the delay, folks. These observations were written the afternoon after the hunt, while the scents were still fresh, but some comments have been added after the fact where pertinent. Needless to say, these are just my personal takes, not a scathing indictment of anyone’s tastes. If you’ve tried these, please add your thoughts in the comments. ❤️

Wulong Cha X — I might be a little in love, actually. What a banger! This captures that first inhale of perfectly brewed white needle tea with delicate jasmine (without jasmine somehow? Magnolia, you’re a witch!). This is delicate, refreshing, slightly sweet & wonderfully green. Perfect tea scent. ❤️ I would usually be more verbose here, but “I were but little happy if I could say how much”, y’know?

Queen of Silk — Another banger! There’s a bit of an edge to this one, which keeps it out of gourmand territory, despite the spicy sugar coating. This is blended phenomenally & is just gorgeous — there’s a hint of honey from the saffron, which melts beautifully into florals, spices & vanilla. It feels timeless & luxurious in a way that’s hard to place. It’s also incredibly *loud* — the projection on this scent is wild as hell, my dudes. Definitely one for open spaces & careful application — it fills the whole room very easily & lingers in your nose for the rise & fall of entire empires. I think this is the line for me between “old money” scents (tend to be sophisticated & quietly spoken) & bon-vivant scents (sophisticated & incredibly palatable, but much more the life of the party). This is a mythic bon-vivant scent, I think — and I can see myself quietly acquiring a decant.

XJ 1861 Renaissance — Speaking of “old money” scents! Very aromatic & citrus-forward, with a very fresh, cool-air vibe from mint. The opening notes of this feel like a really sophisticated garden cocktail in the summer. The mix of lily-of-the-valley (never my favourite note, unfortunately) with cedar is really interesting to me and brings an odd, musky-fresh green, almost airy note into the dry-down. The projection on this one is pretty phenomenal — I could smell it from my pocket in a spacious department store — and on paper, it’s lasted literal days at almost the same level of projection, which is frankly insane to me. Not for me, alas, but lovely for someone — herbaceous, green & citric, with an old-money sophistication that seems to come easily.

More to come, but I thought I’d scatter these across a few posts — I huffed kiiiind of a lot of these. Folks who have tried these — what are your thoughts?