Arctic Jade

I'm firmly in the middle here to be honest. Opens really well for me I love sweet scents and this one instantly reminds me of some sort of fruity sweet thing, can't for the life of me think what it is. maybe like fruit bon bon sweets or something? That natural orangey, ylang and yes raspberry opening is then suddenly met with (and I don't mean to be crude here) a kind of pissy note. As it settles the vanilla is right there throughout which this creamy complex array of sweet notes. I really like it! It's kind of contrary to my common sense which kinda makes me think this is a bit of a stupid fragrance or a mess of notes! Marshmallow!!! That's it smells like marshmallows for a split second then swirls through some other notes...what an odd beast. Another wear is on the cards and it could go either way to me honest this and judging my the votes this fragrance is the epitome of polarizing!

I am very fascinated by this Sweden brand because I adore Scandinavian countries. I got VM, so a few days ago I planned to test AJ at my beloved niche perfumery store. The first sensation I got was a freshness which in a few seconds turned into a sort of a disappointing medicinal smell... 'What a shame' I thought to myself 'The name of the frag really intrigued me'... but one or two hours later it turned into a wondeful, warm womanly scent. I enjoyed the contrast between the breezing 'artic' opening and the comforting drydown. This stuff is on my wish list.

To me, this starts off like an orange creamsicle. Quite fun. Then it goes through a cedar, sandalwood, and what I believe is musk phase before taking on an airy, orange cider type vibe. The last third of the drydown is basically a lightly sugared, fluffy patchouli. It's fruity and sweet without being heavy or syrupy. I'll be getting a few more wears out of this. 11/01/15: There's a definite "toothpaste" vibe going on here, particularly in the early stages. It's still pleasantly wearable, though.

Trying this, it reminded me of something else. For a while I was puzzled until it struck me...Aveda's Shampure! I really like Shampure and all the products in that scent, but I don't like it so much that I need to pay nearly $200USD for a perfume in that scent. Nevertheless, this is a beautiful scent, just not something I need.

Let me preface my comment by stating that this is very distinct and dare I say contrarian. I have a rule: if I can't compare a fragrance to another then it must have some value. I believe in my mantra wholeheartedly but the "value" aspect of Agnostic's contentious creation is more than challenging. With the array of beautiful notes, I thought this would be a house party. This fragrance turned out to become a haunted house instead. This is a pungent little creature. I probably grimaced 17 times during this sampling. Someone said toothpaste, I'm thinking more like sour green chlorine. I think the problem with AJ is that it has one too many controversial notes. (Patchouli, Jasmine, Ylang Ylang, Orange blossom, Cedar). It's almost like if you love the Jasmine, then you'll hate the ylang; if you love the ylang then you'll hate the patchouli....and so on. In closing, is Arctic Jade a scrubber? Hell Yeah, it's a scrubber! But we can learn from these scrubacious moments(I just made up that word haha). Don't wash it off, endure the pain, the torture, the agony and annoyance. It brings out raw emotion. When emotion is involved it makes for better reviews. Stay smelly my friends.