Dalliance

Note that I wear Alkemia scents with her perfume fixative. I got this as a free sample when I asked for a scent I could wear in hot and humid weather (I live at the Equator). When I sniffed the bottle, I got primarily watery cucumber, but not a crisp one, a sweet one. As I wore it, it became creamier and sweeter and I'm guessing it's the fig. I wore three drops if it, and sillage was rather heavy for the first 2-3hours. It's been close to 6hours, and I can still smell it. Apparently others can, too. It gets mixed reactions. Some people seem to like it, while others seem to be breathing out as quick as they can. To me, it's become a little too sweet, and it kind of makes me a little nauseated if I smell my wrist for more than 10 seconds. I'll try maybe 1-2 drops next time. Maybe I can layer it with Smoke and mirrors? Idk, I'm still a bit of a noob. I rather like it, but I wish it were less sweet, and that other scents, especially the tea, were more prominent. Still, it smells expensive, and of good quality. I'll try other scents by her. As my skin seems to amp up all the fresh plant-ey notes (floral, fruity, green notes) in her perfumes, perhaps I'll have more luck just sticking to those types. Edit: I bought a full bottle of this. It's easy to wear, smells good even when I perspire, and sweet in a green way. Most other girls in my country go with floral or gourmand sweetness. I wear a couple of swipes of this in the office.

When I had placed my first order with Alkemia many years ago, the notes in Dalliance caught my attention; I decided to order a 5ml bottle despite not being blind-buy prone. When I received it, it instantaneously wasn't for me. Despite not having any quintessentially "grandma" notes (powdery, musky, floral), something about it rang extremely... geriatric. I put it away in a drawer and forgot about it as I wasn't pursuing fragrance for a period of time after that. I recently found it tucked in the back of said drawer and was surprised to find that I actually really enjoyed this scent after some years passing. Maybe I needed a little more maturity to appreciate it. I don't get much fig in Dalliance, but rather peach. The tea note could be black or oolong, and the cucumber is refreshing and bright. Still, I see why a younger me did not appreciate it, as it does not have the youthful and innocent scent profile one might expect looking at these notes. No longer a flaw in my eyes, though.

I get plenty of soft cucumber and pale tea. Not much fig, but there is sweetness to the scent that may come from the fig. Strangely enough, it actually somehow smells like Prada Infusion d'Iris, halfway between the EDT and EDP despite not having any iris. It has the same mildly sweet and powdery facets but is kind of foodie and (non-vegetal) green. That really does not do it justice though, because that description sounds lame. Think more along the lines of cooling, spa-like, and almost-edible. Seriously, even for someone like me who loves dark scents, Dalliance is one of those that goes above and beyond generic "summer fresh" perfumes. It's also ridiculously potent- less is more or you will be tasting it.

I usually don't like aquatics, but there are some exceptions to that rule, and I can never resist the chance to try anything with a fig or tea note, so since Dalliance has both of them I decided to take a chance and add it to my Alkemia sample order despite my misgivings about the cucumber and "watery notes". Unfortunately it didn't work out for me: the tea note is quite nice, a bright and zesty green tea, but it only comes out for about ten minutes in the early heart of the scent's development, and the fig isn't recognizable as itself at all, at least not to my nose. So all I get is aquatics and a generalised kind of sweetness - not bad, but really not my thing, so I'll leave this sample behind without a second thought. I'm glad I tested it though, cucumber is definitely a note you don't encounter every day!

Oh, cucumber love! It's so fresh and reminds me just as it's described, "summer blend". It smells like a sweet flowery garden with fresh heirloom cucumbers growing within. I love it!