Twin Flame

I just got a bottle of twin flame and after one sniff I was in love! I love the soothing, sweet smell of chamomile so mix fhat with jasmine (my favorite flower) and champaca?! Oh my! Creamy, floral, soft, happy. It equals the happiness I get while around a mimosa tree.

Twin Flame really grew on me. I tend only to review fragrances I'm rapturously passionate about, so I'll try to set aside the "slam poetry" about this one. I've had one of the travel/sample sized 3.3ml bottles of Twin Flame for a little over a year now, parceling it out here and there to test, but it's only been in the last couple of months that I've found myself reaching for it again and again. I've bought a bigger bottle, which I am eagerly awaiting as of this review, but I don't recommend this as a blind buy at all until you've had a chance to get to know her, or are already a confirmed chamomile enthusiast. House of Matriarch has an undeniable cool, rooty, mossy "earthiness" in its signature that can get rather samey on the drydown - I've noticed it in most of the samples I've tested - Eaglewood, Trillium, Kaizimi, Black No. 1, and even a touch of it in my beloved Violet Flame. Twin Flame has it too, but it's not inhibited by this quality in the least. While to my nose, the spicy rose in Kaizimi gets subsumed by that signature, Twin Flame absolutely blooms because of it. Perhaps even in spite of it. On my skin, Twin Flame is bright and sunny flowering chamomile, underscored by sunwarmed herbs, that earthy signature, and is periodically bolstered by a shy osmanthus and "yellow flower" impression. It's described as another example of "masculine floral" on her website, but it seems to me that the mark of HoM is doing florals seemingly macerated in their fulness - to include not only the petals, but the crushed stamens, the leaves, the stem, the pollen, the roots, the water and oils squeezed out when you roll and crush the bright yellow center of the chamomile flower between your fingertips. And while it may be easy to set it aside as just chamomile writ large, as I certainly did at first, it's a refreshing break from the sticky trap of pyramids, notes, and transformations. It's a floral acknowledging the totality of a plant plucked from dirt, incorporating not just the precious costly bits, but the whole damn thing. And I love that. And it smells good. And I feel like a happy little flower photosynthesizing in the lovely, fresh, rain-drenched mud when I wear it. Instant good mood. Instant calm. It's expensive. Everything from House of Matriarch is expensive. I don't chafe at that one bit. Each ingredient is honored there, and prioritizing a natural perfume process comes at cost. And considering how Twin Flame actually performs and persists beyond the 6-hour mark (a rarity with something so deliciously botanical) - I will happily invest in that time and again.

TWIN FLAME is a Unique floral fragrance that is set aside from the rest of them. This floral is creamy and smooth with huge notes of Jasmine, Neroli and Chamomile. The first spray reminds me of other Matriarch fragrances with the sweet aromatic sharpness and warm dry down that settles into a luscious fragrance worth the curiosity, a sniffer for sure. I wouldn't say this fragrance begs for the 50ml bottle, but this sample is great in my curios. I would place this uniquely next to The Longing. Both are strangely nice and at the same time, almost unwearable to me. I shelved The Longing and eventually mailed it off to someone more curious than me. Twin Flame is beautiful, but not for me as well.

Interesting perfume with a sweet-fruity-herbal theme. Quite sweet actually, a tart and cool toned strawberry/rhubarb (?) layered over chamomile and neroli with a mild base of musk and champaca. Something figgy smelling here too. Fleshy, a bit raw, citrusy, green and watery. Almost like chamomile orangeade. Forgive my clumsy wording.. The end product is unusual, bohemian.