Mixed Emotions

Between this and Oud Immortel this frag house feels like it's literally mining my childhood for scent inspiration. This is only the second Byredo I've smelled but just as the first time with OI, it took me right back. It feels like they went to the exact middle and high schools that I went to and scraped every musky nook and cranny they could find and recreated the scents. Immediately upon spraying I'm getting more mate than blackcurrant. Eventually the mate gives way and let's the blackcurrant come through. This is a nice blackcurrant. It's not too saccharine like in Tiffany's godawful Rose Gold. This smells like Nestea Iced Tea actually. Oh wait, I think that's the tea note already. Will update as this scent develops. I'm not getting any violet leaf at all. I see there's birch and papyrus in the base so I expect this to eventually smell like the trees and library of my high school. I can see why this house is very popular with people my age (millennials) and younger (gen z) this house is literally bottling nostalgia for people like me. I kinda wonder if Byredo's perfumers were weird loners back in school because they seem to be drawing their inspiration from the oddest and muskiest corners of a typical American school. UPDATE: I think Byredo took the route of having one dominant note and one supporting note in each stage. I'm guessing the blackcurrant was the slight sourness I detected in the background of the mate during the opening. The violet leaf was undetectable. I'm guessing that was just there to back up and amplify the tea note. As for the base, I got a little birch and, I guess, some papyrus. It's hard to detect notes by this stage because this frag is unfortunately pretty fleeting.

I'm a simple man. If it's good enough for Charli XCX, it's good enough for me. I've had a sample of Mixed Emotions for a while but quickly categorised it as "yet another papyrus/berry/pomelo fragrance" by Byredo. Curious to know what the future of pop music smells like, I tried it on again. Something Byredo does very well is grab your attention from the start. So much that a lot of their recent releases feel like scams where you get blown away smelling a bottle in store and get completely disappointed with the wearing experience after you've spent your money. This is also relevant with Mixed Emotions, all the spectacle happens in the opening. The good thing is that what's left after can also keep up. Mixed Emotions is a bright, sharp blend of opposing notes. It's woods against tea, berries against citrus, you against this cold world. The result is a very crisp, very modern scent that, according to Byredo, "reflect the tumultuous nature of our times." I love the name, I love the back story and might love the scent because of that. Stripping away the fluff, it's an interestingly transparent wearing experience. Mixed Emotions diffuses very lightly but consistently. The opening is camphorous, sharp and will immediately wake you up. Without getting your nose up to your wrist, you mainly get effervescent pomelo and maté. This is also what it will smell like for the 5-ish ours after. With the woods in the background, the vibe is weirdly tropical rainforest but make it fashion.

Mixed Emotions needs the heat. This does not shine in anything below 25-deg C to me (though it does still smell ok, it's much more dirty ashtray-like in the cool), but I love it in hot weather, and it fares well in the humidity and lasts reasonably long on me, around 4h, which is good for a scent based on fruit and tea from Byredo. When it's appropriately hot, the opening mentholated quality is wonderfully cooling and refreshing and burns off fast, leaving a bitter tea. The tea note smells more like tea than ashtray. The blackcurrant smells fruity and sweet and tart rather than sour juice from concentrate heating up in the trunk of a car (and the blackcurrant I believe is very similar to Pulp for all you Pulp-lovers out there, just in less quantities). Basically, the heat accelerates the life of this fragrance and helps burn off the more "unpleasant" bits until you're left with a tart, fruity, softly sweet tea scent. The tea quality reminds me of Memo Paris Winter Palace - this is basically Winter Palace for summer to me. Mixed Emotions lives true to its name and is the perfect scent for people like me in the summer, who are picky and don't like overly sweet, fruity, citrus, or floral scents for the season. As a side note, I think people who enjoy LUSH's Breath of God might find ways to enjoy Mixed Emotions, or vice versa (but definitely sample first).

I can’t seem to get this out of my head. First try, I liked it. Second try, I thought it was okay. I carried the paper with me everywhere and caught whiffs about it whenever I sit close to the tester strip and it tickled something in my memories. Every other sniff I loved it and every other sniff I wasn’t sure if it was for me, I felt like the Kombucha girl -meme on a loop. It smells exactly like my childhood Midsummer in Finland. The very strong black currant is a lovely sweet that changes into a warm and comforting cup of strong Tea. After that comes the subtle smokiness from the birch. It’s not a raging bonfire that leaves your clothes smell like smoke, rather a gentle smokiness that brings the midsummers to my mind. The sweet black currant is still there and it is very strong, it could be a little less. This certainly made an impression on me. I can’t forget it, but it is a complicated scent and even though I love it, it has moments where it makes me think ’but do I like it though?’. I still need to do some testing with it, but I am quite sure that this is it, my new everyday scent.

Fruit and cigs. Mixed Emotions is sooo much fun. I grab it whenever I'm getting ready for a night out, and I'm trying to channel the energy of BRAT summer and Charli XCX. Funnily enough, I just scrolled through some other reviews, and realized many people have also drawn the connection. It's playful, sexy, not too clean, a lot of the things I like in a fragrance. It's fruitier than I usually go for, but I'm not mad at it. One time I wore it, it lasted over 9 hours― I still smelled it in the morning after a night out (which feels like the epitome of the vibe Mixed Emotions is going for). It feels less daytime/summer, more nighttime/party-vibes. I also noted it can sometimes smell like Bath and Body Works meets 25-year old girl smoking a cigarette in line for the club. I was looking for something more youthful and unique than Jazz Club, and this hit the nail on the head. It's what I imagine Whiskey 1969 smelling like (though I've never smelled it).