Playalinda

In the interests of total transparency Carter very kindly sent these samples to me (I was intending to support the project anyhow) he’s nice like that and he knows full well that my views, however insignificant, will be honest and forthright, and if I don’t like something or think it’s objectively or technically lacking (again if you believe I qualified to comment) then I will say so. I think he invites the critique and probably relishes it, I know I would. I’ll just start by saying all three exhibit a really attuned skill for a self taught perfumer and someone who I find to have a really interesting perspective on lots of things, not least on the art of perfumery and perhaps some notion of what it should represent. I wish I painted pictures with my words and got all poetic about these scents because they deserve it, but my reviews are usually relentlessly boring fixation with materials and ‘how did they do that?’ Sort of musings. So Playlinda to me the most compelling & perhaps the most comforting blurb explaining its origins and inspiration. I think it’s the most ‘commercial’ (that sounds terrible) but it’s more accessible one for folks I reckon, but completely free from Cliche as I’ve smelled nothing even remotely like it. The opening is like a somewhat fatty, lactonic, yellow floral. Playlinda is a seaside scent but it’s not obviously so, warm skin, even that ambergris effect of saliva on skin but not in a sultry or salacious way. It’s reassuring. It threatens a hint of coconut or shay butter for a moment but completely subverts that feeling with dusty, sandy, salty fruit vibes, and cozy musk. Peach is supposed to be the big playa (lol) in here but the fruity accord doesn’t immediately scream it to me, and that’s not a sign of failure because I’ve seen plenty of reviews mentioning it vividly, so what do I know. I haven’t spent enough time with Playalinda, but I felt it necessary to give my first impressions here. It’s very good, and just shows the effort that goes into an Indy perfume to create real art, that has a truly personal narrative. You don’t need to be told that it’s deeply personal, you can smell it.

Sheer curiosity was the main motivator when I ordered my sample. It arrived with a hand-written note from the perfumer, which was such a pleasant personal touch. Osmanthus and choya nakh are most noticeable on my skin. The osmanthus comes through loud and clear, smelling like sumptuous apricots in cream. This is my first time getting my nose on a choya nakh note and I am really enjoying its toasted, gritty, and marine qualities. The smell reminds me of hot plastic or latex in a surprisingly wearable way. Somewhere in the background, I detect the familiar dirty musk of ambrette seed (a note I tend to love in perfumes). I can occasionally perceive a biting metallic tang lurking underneath the rest of the composition, but it's not bringing a sense of sterility. No, instead this metallic note feels more like a lucky penny found on the boardwalk, warmed underneath the sun and plucked from its resting place by fingertips still sticky with dried seawater. There is an undeniable sensuality to Playalinda. It is fruity while equally indolic and musky. Its complexity and balance keep the scent playful and hard to pin down. My partner says it smells like rotting fruit, and I honestly see what they're talking about... but I love it! I hadn't expected to fall for this fragrance, and yet here I am waiting for a full bottle in the mail. Perfume is so much more fun when it surprises me.

Almost a Kool-Aid-esque fruity and floral top with a wet musky base. It took a few smells for it to click with me, but it really has in the summer. I mention Kool-Aid not as a means to devalue the complexity of this fragrance, but it does truly make me nostalgic to filling a plastic jug full of red powder... and then adding more sugar. The bright sweetness is brought out beautifully in the heat, and the wet skin inspired accord, plays extremely well with... well... wet skin. I know the inspiration of this is quite different than my association. However, this perfume reminds me of childhood summers spent playing outside to exhaustion, finally returning inside only to drink my weight’s worth of kool aid out of the fridge.

This was recommended to me when I was looking for a peachy scent, but this is overwhelmingly osmanthus- dry and woody, leathery, powdery. To me this is nowhere near peach, but maybe dried apricot. Patchouli and vetiver come through, doubling down on a dusty earthiness. There's a metallic note in this, but not sharp or sparkly steel, more like copper pennies. I'm not getting the beachiness implied by the name but it's definitely hazy and sun-beaten.

I smelled this on a test strip only. It's got a fruity fake peach thing, and a very metallic note. My husband said it smelled like putting on lip balm next to a metal pole on the bus.

Playa Linda is exquisite. I ordered the Chronotope sample set with the intention of sampling the more fall-based scent Buen Camino, which is also lovely, but I have been derailed by Playa Linda. It is certainly a summer scent. It’s floral and fruity at moments and initially, at least, there’s a hint even of something dusky, wet earth, maybe even mildew. I feel a strong memory of women’s locker rooms at the pool or a friend’s bathroom when I was teen. I think this is the peach and white floral. In the 1990s they were such ubiquitous components of body products marketed to teen girls. As the scent dries down, it shifts between floral and musk. At one point, I smelled sweet vanilla but couldn’t return to it. I adore when a fragrance acts like this. There is also the salty smell but it’s not aquatic. It really feels adjacent to the water. It’s what comes after the beach, the shower and moisturizer. I realize this all seems somewhat linear, but it’s not. There’s also something in the shadow here. It’s an accessible scent but there’s an edge, a sadness. For me it is nostalgia—the pain of it, the memory of optimism and disappointment. I think at times this is because I smell on my self a kind of fitting in, a normalcy and then immediately I sense a rejection of it. There’s something excessive, too-much that pushes me beyond normal. I feel very inclined to wear this now in the fall simply because it’s so delightful and strange but also because it feels like real exquisite sadness.

Playalinda opens with bright-honeyed osmanthus alongside woody, powdery facet. The aroma briefly leans toward dry vetiver, patchouli, and a peachy, apricot-smelling note (with a faint whiff of jasmine over there). Playalinda evokes your days at the beach. Smelling Playalinda is like smelling the skin on a hot day at a sunny beach in Florida—that, in my humble opinion, is the summer scent. The fragrance of Playalinda is akin to those gourmet, sensual Hellenic fragrances or something of the sort I sniffed last year. After half an hour, fruity with lactone smelled identically to Selperniku January Scent Project, yet drier, less sweet, more approachable, and with unique resinous choya nakh. Going deeper into the comparison, I can't shake the image of Playalinda and Elio (from the film Call me by your name). Do you still remember the scene of Elio lying in bed, masturbating with a peach out of curiosity and naivety? I'd say Playalinda is reminiscent of this scene, which represents youthful exploration, freedom, desire, and adolescence. In a nutshell, Playalinda is smooth, fruity, floral, and a little animalic-smelling in a good way. Carter Weeks Maddox perfectly depicted one of Elio's favorite momments through smelling by composing an apricot, metallic, and indole scent in Playalinda. Try it if you like Timothée Chalamet's role in 'CMBYN' and want to be Elio to some extent.

On my skin, the opening of Playalinda is what I can only describe as a furry metallic. The metallic note is rather warm, surprisingly. However, Playalinda dries down quickly into a scent that is both subtly fruity, largely sweaty, and intoxicating. The peach isn't juicy. Rather, it is kinda fizzy and dry. Playalinda is salty, nodding both to the beach and human skin. When I go about my day, the sillage is moderate. Whenever I enter a car, though, Playalinda balloons. I was flustered for reasons that wearers of Playalinda would understand.

Very interested in this as I live right by Playalinda beach and used to do my underage drinking there