La Reine des Fleurs

This is SO good. I've tried a lot from Dawn and this has to be my favorite so far. Admittedly with the name La Reine des Fleurs it wasn't even on my radar, I don't typically gravitate towards big florals, but I am glad it called to me. While fresh flowers are undeniably present, and I mean true to the garden fresh, it is so much more than that. It is almost skin like; there is such a natural glow. Like you put on a very expensive milky lotion underneath. The peach note is a touch bright and adds a pop of whimsy. There is also warmth. It is not spicy, yet almost suggesting it? Moss comes out the longer it sits, which again is not something I gravitate towards, but it makes sense here. It grounds and dirties up what otherwise might been too pretty of a scent. This is an untamed courtyard that reminds me of the movie "A Little Chaos". Youthful, attractive, natural, interesting; I love it and feel myself in it. Performance is a moderate 5-ish hours and arm's length through, but really quite good considering the highly natural composition.

La Reine des Fleurs is a great floral scent. Period. I hate the way balsamic and woody are added to almost every perfume description lately. The term balsamic must put people off, and La Reine des Fleurs has none of it that I can smell. Ditto the woody. It's a lovely rose and geranium scent, and I agree with another reviewer, it has loads of peach. Love the sandalwood and the moss in this one. It lasts about 7 hours on my skin.

Disclosure: I don't generally write reviews, but as there are none yet, and I feel that there deserve to be, I think I'll quickly type up my notes. Review: Mmmmm, yummy. Not in a gourmand way. But just in a plain old good way. It opens with rose, citrus, and fresh, sweet fruit- I wouldn't have said peach, at least not at this juncture. Instead I smell something more tart and berry-like, though it could be a result of the interplay of peach and citrus, particularly mandarin. I have only a small amount in a dabber (an extra provided with an order from DSH), but the silage, at least initially, seems fairly good. However, as the fragrance moves to the heart I seem to lose it almost entirely. It stays very faint, going in and out of notice for maybe 15-30 minutes. Then there's a development in the scent- it becomes less fresh and dewy, less tart. The peach gets deeper and plusher, I'm sure I smell some oak moss, in general a strong underpinning of base notes. It reminds me at this stage of Rose de Nuit (beeswax, apricot, and rose) and my vintage Mitsouko, by Serge Lutens an Guerlain, respectively. The peach is at least as prominent as the rose at this point, and the effect of the scent- well-blended and luxurious, is lovely. I question the sillage as it never quite returns to what it was in the top notes, but the longevity is superb. I put it on when I was at breakfast at 8 something, it's been 12 hours and I've got a very nice, though close to the skin, dark and fuzzy peach.

210 This is a fresh fruity floral “chypre”. The peach and rose combination drew me in and I’ve had a couple bottles over the years. I use “chypre” loosely, because it has oakmoss. It’s really a vintage style of scent, like a lady might wear in the Victorian times (but who knows). I have one issue with this lovely scent, the oakmoss(I hate it) and now it’s become more prominent in my bottle compared to before, when I first received it. This leads me to another issue, DSH scents in general. I’ve loved and liked many of them but some are just weak from the beginning, while others come on strong but are quickly gone. Also, I’ve noticed that if you don’t use up a fragrance from DSH within a year, it goes flat(notes weaken, notes fade) and some notes become overbearing(like oakmoss in this scent). I’ve never had this note fading issue with any other fragrance brand(cheap, mid, expensive) that is a fresh/new batch. The fading notes and weakness issue is my biggest disappointment with DSH. There are so many interesting, unique, beautiful scents here but so many of them suffer from these issues. 8/10-for fresh batch queen of flowers.

Radiant rose soliflore. Peach and geranium brighten the rose notes on a creamy sandalwood base. Sillage is delicate after first 30 min but good longevity.

Sweet balsamic roses. Sandalwood vanilla on top of balsamic roses. The sweetness is almost cloying like a candy cloying with balsamic effect, patchouli, sandalwood, elemi, and huge vanilla. Not really.