Radiant Nectar

I didn’t think I would like this perfume because my first impression after sprayed it on a tissue was “Meh, another too sweet one”. I have a lot of perfume vials and it was not remarkable in my memory. But last night, after accidentally sprayed it on my skin before bedtime, I was supprised! It has a strange sweet smell, I thought it was vanilla or caramel at first but didn’t see them on the notes list. I really like the mixture of pear and tobacco - those two are stars in this perfume. Also changed my mind about sweet part, it’s not too sweet and very clean, well blended, and the scent isn’t mainstream. The sillage is weak but I’m a fan of intimate perfumes so I like it even more, and I quite supprised that it’s long lasting. I will use it in spring or autumn, but won’t wear in tropical summer days. Update 3/12/23: I found out the strange sweet part was tobacco, after I had a chance to smell my friend’s tobacco CO2 extract. In my nose, tobacco now is the leader in this perfume, and how I love it! This perfume became my favorite bedtime scent, made me feel pampered everytime spraying. I changed my vote from like to love :’)

Clean Reserve Radiant Nectar is quintessential late spring: juicy pear dripping in honey nectar, honeysuckle in the breeze, a picnic blanket warmed by dappled sunlight. There's something easy, vibrant, and luscious about this. It's almost heady at times, but dries down to a gorgeous soft and lightly fruity musk. I don't really get the comparison Glossier You, which is much more musky and peppery to my nose, but this does remind me of Ellis Brooklyn Sweet. Sweet leans more into a candied sugar pear, whereas Radiant Nectar feels like more of a tree-ripened pear drizzled with local honey, but I tend not to love the DNA of Ellis Brooklyn scents and tend to *love* the DNA of Clean Reserve, so take that as you will. Anyway, I really love this. Besides Clean Reserve Skin (my all time favorite every day scent, arguably my spring/summer signature scent), this is my favorite of the Clean Reserve discovery set. An absolutely easy reach for one of the beautiful, not a cloud in the sky, 75° spring/summer days.

This one is really a no brainer during the summer for me. I tried it on in the middle of Winter and I did not like it. However, came summer a few months later and this and Very Good Girl are all I wear (yes, I was told by my best friends that it very much smells like "me"). It opens up with a ripe juicy pear and after an hour, I get musky tobacco with a hint of sweetness. After the 3-4 hour mark, it's just a musk skin scent, which will last maybe another 1-2 hours. It does need to be reapplied, but for a casual summer day, I don't mind. However, there is no way I could make this into a nighttime fragrance even if I tried, which is another reason why I don't mind the shorter longevity. As for projection, I haven't had many compliments, apart from around 30 minutes after applying, but I haven't worn this out very much.

The Tobacco blossom in this scent really shines. If you grew up in the countryside like I did you will recognize the spring hay like scent of the blossom. That hay note along with the pear and ambrette give the the perfume a dewy honey note not unlike the single drop you can pull out of a honeysuckle blossom. As for why this might not fit the normal category of "Fresh", this one is the scent of walking through a field of early hay with a wreath of honeysuckle and dandelions in your hair. Most people define fresh as some sort of citrus or aquatic feeling, this is country air fresh. A friend just came into my cubicle at work and stated. "I like this one. It smells just like driving through the Great Smoky Mountains park with the windows down in the spring." That is a great compliment.

I get how people can pick up Glossier You, I think it’s the ambrette and ambroxan that are present in both bottles. The similarities are vague enough but I think this one has a little more depth and fruitier than You. Besides that, this is the only perfume from Clean Reserve’s Discovery Set that I can see myself easily reaching for. The rest of the perfumes besides maybe Rain and Solar Bloom did not work on me. It’s a very intimate close to the skin scent I like spraying on my wrists and smelling periodically through the day. Because of its lightness it’s a very easygoing summer scent. Easily my favorite of the discovery kit, unsure if I’ll commit to a full bottle with the reviews of perfumes turning rancid after a couple months.