Florabotanica

The beauty of a subtly made, green, wonder. I am lost in a botanic garden, oozing vapor of delicate leafs and vegetation, of rare flowers of ephemeral beauty, and the warm breath of a stranger on my back. I have experienced this and more with Florabotanica. Opening is acquatic, aromatic, minty, leafy. Full of dew, in between refreshing and cold. If I take in to consideration the aesthetic of the brand when Florabotanica came out, it surely fits. It transports you in to a sort of tech forest, where vegetation is thin and wet, brilliant and reassuring. It calms the soul, the zen aspect is very present for me. You feel the modernity of the fragrance in the way the green notes are treated, their subtlety is their strength. In the midst of this thin veil of greenery there is a a distant echo of marijuana, the scent of the most tender cannabis when it is just starting to grow. And the flowers...they are suspended in those green vapors; the most breathtaking immature rose, its ephimeral and delicate scent almost unexpected. Now my imagination is flowing, I am really starting to picture a botanic greenhouse, the ones which in Victorian era aristocratic pepole used to visit for fun. If any of you has watched the TV show Penny Dreadful, inspired by Victorian gothic literature and starring Eva Green, well, there is a moving scene between Eva carachter, Vanessa, and a certain Dorian Gray! In that scene they were visiting a botanic garden, watching the most rare orchid on earth, fifteen years perfecting its flower only to bloom for a moment, and talking about the nature of beauty. This fragrance reminded me so much of that scene, but in my imagination this is a sort of Lovecraft-ian Victorian era, mixed with tech and steam punk elements. Maybe I am too imaginative but the green notes in Florabotanica appear to me as really treated with a modern, ultra tech, crystalline touch. The sense of intimacy of that particular scene (and the proximity of other people while observing in silence such wonders of nature in botanics garden) is rendered through the amber in the base. While a sort of minty sensation still lingers in the back, the fragrance has now reached an intimate warmth, this is almost a musky amber, it is clean yes...but it is more then that. It speaks of human skin, of human contact, of the warm vapor and subtle breath of the stranger behind you in a botanical garden visit, one maybe you whish to know. The clean part is consistent too, reminiscent of fabric softener, of clean clothes out in the sun. But I feel more warmth then that. Vetiver complements the composition perfectly, most well balanced, its light earthyness true to the modern and delicate nature of the scent. I really wish I could spray Florabotanica on myself with abandonment, I so want again to get lost in this imaginary, calming world, and its dry down is one of the most beautiful I have experienced in a while. Unfortunatelly the fragrance is so rare to find this days, if you do encounter it my advice is to give it a chance. It will surprise you. Now, why did they have to go and discontinue this one? And Rosabotanica. The brand seems to have abandoned completely the beauty world, and I am not sure how well they woukd do in light of recent unpleasent controversy. I have acquired samples of this designer wonders and I am completely smitten! I only have 2ml each, too little to judge a fragrance but decided to leave a few words anyway. Maybe, one day, destiny will spare a bottle for me!

Wonderful herby and unisex open. Top note is supposed to be mint but it's not particularly minty or spicy. It smells green but also aquatic - like water that's been infused with basil and mint and maybe even some cilantro or very aromatic herbs that's been dunked in crisp clean ice cold water. Equal parts masculine, women's shampoo-ey, watery and herb-y. I know there's supposed to be cannabis notes but as someone who's partaken in a toke or two in my rebellious younger years this smells like no cannabis I've ever smelled. This is too fresh and aromatic. It's got none of that sticky-icky stank. A note on the open: by "herb-y" I don't mean vegetal. Nothing about this smells like vegetables or chlorophyll. Also, elements of it remind me of the open of Hermès' Kelly Caleche. However it is not as well blended as the Hermès. Here you can easily distinguish notes from one another whereas in Kelly Caleche everything is just masterfully blended together into one gorgeous perfume scent. This makes Florabotanica skew younger while the Kelly skews more mature. >15 mins in I'm getting no florals. Just a lot of fresh lively aromatic greens. >30 mins in. No change. She's still going strong. > 45 mins in. The aromatic greens seem to be finally starting to ramp down. > Maybe I spoke too soon. 1 hr 45 mins in and it's still going strong. It's the projection that ramped down. It's now a skin scent but that's relative seeing as it's still projecting a good 3 inches between skin and nose. > Correction: Performance is stronger than I thought. I just had to run an errand and while walking I could smell the sillage and projection of this from at least an arm's length away. I also think maybe the flowers have already come out but they act more as bit players to help give the mint and cannabis some extra dimension. Anyway, this thing is a beast. > 3hrs in this seems like a pretty linear scent. Scent didn't change it just lessened in intensity and projection. > 15 mins later the greens appear to finally be dissipating. It smells soapy and it appears the flowers may finally be coming through. > A couple of minutes after the above entry I can finally smell flowers. The carnation and rose seem like they've been blended together. The flowers smell natural. > 3hrs 30 mins in the flowers have taken over. > 4 hrs in I'm still getting a citrusy rose. But intensity seem to be waning. Projection seem to be 2 inches out but judging by earlier, I'm guessing projection and sillage is stronger than what I think. The rose BTW is natural and dewy. Slightly powdery. Slightly. It's beautiful and not at all synthetic. It gives the frag a feminine lean but I think overall this is unisex. If you're a man unbothered by a slightly feminine rose, you can rock this. > 6hrs in the scent has faded considerably. It's now a proper skin scent. I have to be an inch away to get anything. Power has declined significantly. There some earthiness to the roses and carnation now. Like I can smell the soil on which they were planted. At this rate I expect longevity to be between 7-8 hrs. Not beast mode but a decent showing. 7 hrs in the rose has broken down into that sweet citrusy scent roses and some other florals break down into. I now have to push my nose up to my skin and inhale vigorously to get a whiff. 9 hrs in I can still smell it on me but very faint. I'm now thinking this is a 10 hr frag max.

Wowza!!! I think this is it for me! Love at first sniff! Rosy, green, sharp, soft, strange... Everything all at once. It starts out riotous, sharp, pungent and very green. I smell the cannabis clearly, but it's not dried and skunky. It's like the time I visited Jamaica and we went on a tour into the Blue Mountains. Our guide wandered into a clearing and cut down several tall cannabis stalks with a machete. He brought them back to us to smell. Wow, I will never forget that green, pungent aroma! Then he made us tea from the green stalks and leaves. This is how it smells at first, with almost a bit of citrus like someone squeezed a lemon into that fresh cannabis tea. I think this may be the effect of the mint which I don't smell as a separate note, but I understand how it adds to the composition and I know it's there. After about 10-15 mins, this initial green punch mellows and I get a big whiff of unusual rose. Like a big dense heirloom rose that just opened, against a very green background of vetiver. This lasts for a few minutes and then the spiciness of the carnation kicks in and at the same time, it gets just a bit powdery. So interesting!. This is the point where I cant take my nose away from my wrist. When I do, it projects like crazy too and I get constant wafts of this gorgeous continuously shifting scent. It's fresh, it's clean, it's floral, it's green and forever young. This lasts for several hours. Then it mellows down and you can start smelling the amber base which makes it just a tad bit warm like the sun came out in the garden after a rain shower. The cannabis kicks back in just a bit again making it a tiny bit pungent against the pleasing rose, carnation and green leaves. This is the final stage that lasts, and lasts and lasts. I smelled it clearly on my skin when I woke this morning. Every time I move around and my skin warms up, it renews itself, but it's never, ever overpowering and it doesn't morph into something unpleasant which is a problem I have had with several scents after combining with my chemistry. I'm so impressed and so in love with this complex, unusual but incredibly lovable fragrance. I never want to be without it!

*FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND HOW ITS CHANGED OVERTIME:* NOT A SAFE BLIND BUY! I'm 21 and cannot tolerate very strong perfumes, specially because I live in a tropical and very hot country, so I'm a citrus, fresh, aquatic, fruity fragrances type of girl. This is the strongest fragrance I own and it's become my favorite so far (I'm just starting my collection). First few times I wore this I really thought this was a feminine perfume, but more mature and classy, you wouldn't expect a girl to wear this, but don't get me wrong, it doesn't smell old at all. My boyfriend loves it, his first impression was that it literally smells like a woman should smell, but after wearing it more and more... this is definitely UNISEX, I even told my boyfriend I would love it if he wore it because I find this fragrance so sexy for both women and men. I find myself smelling it when I'm stressed, I think the mint gives aromatherapy vibes to the fragrance, and I'm a sucker for aromatherapy. *NOTES:* As soon as I spray the first thing I smell is mint. The cannabis is a little noticeable (almost faint) if you've smelled it before, but its overpowered by the mint. I'm confident that the combination of both of these notes is what makes Florabotanica so magical and unique. Then the rose mixed with the mint makes a perfectly balanced herbal scent. The rose is aquatic, not soapy, which was the main reason I was afraid to blind buy because I can't stand soapy rose, so it's a win. All of these notes are present in the drydown but the vetiver gets stronger, so overall the fragrance stays beautiful in all of its stages.

The nature in the movie Avatar captured in a bottle... remember all those incredible plants and flowers? the pulsating jungle? I bought today, I couldn't resist... Really unique, don't believe the negative reviews until you try for yourself. Needs a distinguishing nose and subtlety to be appreciated fully. A matter of nuance and more than anything else. Beautiful in a natural kind of way. Flowers at their best, dewy, fresh, green, a garden after rain, full of life, squirming with creatures and plants... Very raw yet refined. ... haven't smelled anything like this recently. It could easily fit into the Jardin series from Hermes, it has a very similar character. Although clean and fresh, I smell absolutely no soap here. I hate soapy scents and luckily I cannot detect any... I wonder if this is skin chemistry, because I see many people saying that it's soapy. Well, not on me. The bottle is very modern, a little too urban for my taste; the box pretty, and I find that the scent matches the box design more than the bottle. The silage is average with average to good lasting power. Addictive and enchanting, it's like a fairytale that a child has heard for the first time and cannot get enough of it, there are little mysteries behind everything that happens. Definitely makes me think of innocence and a dreamy world.... it's a calm perfume and despite the fact that it lacks the "wow" factor, still manages to surprise in a delicate ways. Roses, orange blossoms, green spices and fresh herbs (mint, sage, basil maybe) , wet dirt and wet woods, fresh air, serenity. Total love for me!