La Cautiva

I'm obsessed!!!!!! I mostly buy from niche perfumers, as I am generally drawn to unique scents. But I often find there's some sort of obligatory dissonant note in there just to sway the scent into 'niche' territory, without being particularly well blended, which I find so unnecessary. So I applaud Fueguia 1833 for making something undoubtedly unique but likeable, but without any polarizing go-f*ck-yourself notes undermining what's otherwise lovely, or without that two-faced quality that seduces one minute and then attacks you the next (I'm looking at you, Juan Manuel!!!). Call me nuts, but it smells a little like a pile of young, fluffy, golden, milk-drunk puppies (just fur and milk and warmth). Or a perfect shortbread cookie. If someone were to smell this on you, I don't believe anyone could identify any specific note, just that it's warm and magnetic. It's so expertly blended. The scent is quite linear. It wears quite close to the body, the warm, salty, skin-like musk radiates maybe 12" from the skin. It leans every so slightly sweet, but the sweet is perfectly balanced with a warm buttery musk, and neither ever overpowers the other. The longevity is good. I got maybe 8-10 hours. The vanilla and cassis "blackberry ice-cream" notes are undetectable to me unless I literally press my nose to my skin and inhale deeply. I'm happy it doesn't project because those layers are definitely too sweet for my taste; the cassis has no bitterness or sourness. Probably a safe blind buy for anyone who likes vanilla, cassis, but especially salt/skin/musk scents that lean a little fuzzy and sweet, or anyone who wants to smell like a puppy. :)

La Cautiva is a really beautiful fragrance that is great for warm weather. It is juicy, tropical fruity, and a bit musky, but in a soft refined way (not strong harsh musk). Fueguia fragrances do differ from slightly to quiet significantly between the editions from different years. This is the major reason why I do not prefer Fueguia as a house since it is always a gamble with each new bottle: you may like the new edition more than the one you had before or you can be left disappointed with the new edition. For La Cautiva I have a i-xxii edition and I also just tried the i-xxiii (I believe, it’s wherever the newest edition they have now) and i am a bit disappointed with the new one. The older edition is more concentrated, fruiter, and juicier, while the newer edition is more transparent, sweet, and vanilla is stronger. The newer edition is still nice, but compared to the older one it is not a love. The newer edition feels more watered down and less juicy. I may contact Fueguia and ask if they can make the older edition for me like it says on their website.

La Cautiva is a beautiful soft, fresh scent, very feminine. It's like a fresh sweet breeze from a garden with some flowers and berry bushes. It has some sillage and I had originally thought that longevity is lacking, but after wearing this for three days, I was wrong. The sillage lasts only about 4 hours, but the scent stays with you for about 10 hours. I wore it one evening and it was still there the next morning just as glorious. I know the notes given do not include florals but I swear there are some floral notes in the topnotes. I smell them. The vanilla is light and fresh as is the musk. There is a faint woodiness, also, and I do not find the blackcurrant too sweet when it enters in the drydown. I find it still retains just a bit of tartness to balance the vanilla. This is a light, ethereal scent that reminds me of the dry soft air in parts of Argentina and California. This is one of my 3 favorites from this line.

I’ve been wearing this perfume on and off for almost a year now. Fragrantica lists notes of blackcurrant, musk and even vanilla in the opening, but to me it doesn’t quite smell like that. On my skin, it’s more the scent of flowers from Argentina – White Guayabo, Queen of the Night and Blue Passionflower (as listed on the box). I haven’t smelled them in nature, but I can imagine them through comparison with some exotic plants I know. At first, I found the fragrance rather confusing, but over time I’ve grown to appreciate and enjoy these floral notes, and the way they feel so different from the flora of my Nordic homeland – especially now, in damp and chilly November, when these flowers bring back the brightness of summer. Source: 30 ml (Batch I-XXIV), purchased from an authorised niche perfume retailer. Concentration: Parfum.

Well you better love it because it ain't going away for roughly 24h. Shower included. Sprayed it on my arm, used another perfume the next day. Couldn’t figure out what was that smell I kept smelling from time to time...finally I stuck my nose into my arm and there it was calling me the day after. Elusive, sexy, carnal, tart, bitter sweetish... a lady with a dark, dirty secret...dressed in quite luxurious fabrics...looks clean, talks clean...until she doesn’t. Or maybe she is a wild woman in the jungle feasting on berries barefoot, hunting in the night. Taking a bath in the waterfalls naked... Who knows, maybe she is both...psychotic? Psychedelic? Dreamer? Fraud? Does it matter? To her it doesn’t.