Spring Dreams Oil Perfume

Liquid Dreams strikes me as a peculiar title for this scent as the phrase implies something amorphous and theoretical when, in fact, this scent evokes very precise images, environments, and seasons. At the start, you’re hit with the lemon rind that’s sweetened to the point of smelling a bit like a bag of sherbet lemon drops. However, it’s neither excessively sugary, nor is it bitter and tart. Instead, it’s more of an intense, yellow, candied lemon chord that’s lavish and full, yet doesn’t exhaust you with its presence. There’s also an ambiguous apricot facet that smells brighter than that fruit’s typical dusty lactonic silhouette, harmonizing well with the lemon to produce a distinctive twist on standard-issue citric notes. Combined, the opening reads like a bag of gummy candies but with a greater fidelity the natural source—a sort of epicurean dessert that wavers between edible and inedible. I’m enjoying more than I feel like I probably should. Thirty minutes in and the whole thing starts to morph. By this point, the energetic opening has worn itself out and is now taking a nap while the most noteworthy phase fires up. Leafy florals bloom, and colors shift from yellows to greens with an unusually translucent chord that smells both watery and cucumber-esque, but also fleshy and grassy at the same time. And as it heads toward the final stage, the profile settles into something that could only be described as an expanse of verdant hay. It’s entirely evocative of a field of wild grasses—slightly buttery, soft, with a touch of powder. At this point, it reminds me quite a bit of Eau de Polder’s oily meadow effect. Here, it’s neither sharp nor sweet, sitting elusively close to the skin. At the one-hour mark, it really is just a trace—but it’s a really good trace that goes on for some time. Green, fresh, faintly soapy and faintly powdery—whatever the material is that’s rounding out the base of this scent, it’s fascinating and intricate. It smells like it could contain benzoin, labdanum, or orris, but it exists in whispered suggestions. Despite the high decibels of the opening twenty minutes or so, this is ultimately a light scent. And due to its structure, it’s probably not the kind of thing you could count on keeping you company for more than a few hours. Spraying on clothes will likely make it last a little longer, but overall, the scent appears to be an exercise in skinniness. Picture a figless-Philosykos and an incense-free Passage d’Enfer, and you’ll get the sense of the way this scent wears. Airy and spacious, but with a confident presence, I find it surprisingly fulfilling.

A great friend brought me this as a gift from Berlin, and I am hooked. It smells like spring, and is very soothing and relaxing at the same time. It develops beautifully and brings out the apricot note of osmanthus in a way that I thought only Ellena could (s. Hermessences Osmanthe Yunnan and Osmanthus by The Different Company). Apparently the perfumer who does the April Aromatics fragrances used to be a Yoga teacher, so it's all the more fitting that she can do something as ethereally and spiritually uplifting as Ellena's Zen-like fragrances.

This was ok, smells like a combo of citrus and linden (not listed in the notes, but it's so strong in the perfume that I have to assume it's in there). It's fresh, bright, and sweet. Good for spring days. Nice, but maybe not for the price tag. For +$200 I want more complexity.

Liquid Dreams is the new name of Spring Dreams! :-)