Yesterday Haze

So I had to rewrite my review on this because my opinion on this has changed drastically since my original review back in August. Originally, I wrote this off as smelling like whipped cream flavored vodka with a subtle tonka note to it. After wearing it multiple times through the fall and almost being out of my vial, I can say confidently it’s much much more than that. Yesterday Haze is the epitome of a classy gourmand. It’s a sweet fig fragrance with a very subtle (and I meant VERY subtle) powdery iris note that is undercut by subtle woodsy, fruity tonka bean notes. The tonka bean is what MAKES this, it helps cut down all the sweetness from the fig and fruity notes, and without out this would be unbearable for me but it truly helps give it that sophisticated feel it has. Yesterday Haze has SO much going for it. It’s long lasting, and I could still smell traces of it a couple days after wearing something that this was sprayed on, and let me tell you that leftover trace of it is pure tonka bean with the subtle trace of fig and it’s beautiful, it takes my breath away every time. It’s complicated in a way gourmands wish they could be, whereas A Whiff of Wafflecone (v1.0) is a straight forward sweet, caramel that is trying to emulate food, this is a very complicated, multilayered fragrance that changes with time, much like the character in the story the fragrance is based off’s life experiences. This is what I imagine your older, very charming, funny older coworker who happens to be more open minded than most women her age smelling like, especially after making her entrance into work with a very colorful scarf that gives with her more subtle toned down ensemble of an outfit on a regular Tuesday.

Summer night parties with your friends and strangers in a dusty field in god-knows-where. You don't know how you got here, or where you are for that matter, but you you know you're along for the ride. Life is good. I have had a 10 mL of this fragrance for about a year and a half now, and now that I've nearly used it all up I want to review this masterpiece. The opening of this fragrance is a slap of juicy, ripe fig with this super creamy whipped cream like quality and a sprinkling of freshly crumbled walnuts. I hesitate to call it gourmand and more gourmand-adjacent, as it never truly feels edible but certainly is very sweet and approachable. Then as it dries down, the whipped cream, slightly sweet yet nutty tonka, smooth iris, and dusty woods combine to create this creamy, dreamy, and somehow dusty wood that rides together with the fig. In other terms, it gains both the dusty wood shavings and creamy quality that sandalwood has without it being sandalwood, and it's addicting. The fragrance becomes this cocktail of creamy/dusty woods, ripe and sweet fig, and this wonderful walnut nuttiness. This has been and will be one of my favorite summer night/fall fragrances ever. If you enjoy creamy fig or woody fig fragrances AT ALL, this is one to check out. Great performance (8-10 hours on me), moderate sillage for the first half, intimate for the second half. This is a fragrance for someone who knows they look good, and feel good, and doesn't need a screaming good fragrance to let others know they feel that way. It is evocative and nostalgic for me, and I will sometimes spray myself with this during the winter to remind me of the summer nights to come. 9/10. A masterpiece.

My first review on here although it seems like I've been here forever. I bought this back in October totally blind because I loved the name, the brand sounded interesting (I'm such a bookworm) and I like fig fragrances. I looked it up on their website and was kind of scared that it's labelled as a gourmand because I genuinely hate overly sweet scents. BUT .. I ended up loving this at first sniff!! This is what cocooning feels like. It's warm, enveloping, feels like a genuine, gentle and comforting hug. It's sweet but in the best way possible for someone who doesn't like sweet scents. Very well balanced so that it's not cloying or headache-inducing and it doesn't make my stomach turn like most gourmand fragrances do. Perfect fall and winter scent but I can see myself wearing it through spring at night. The fig is very subtle and rather syrupy than green or fruity, creamy in a sophisticated elegant way, subtly nutty and woody. I'm so glad it's tonka not vanilla; I think that's what's making the sweetness grounded and tolerable/realistic and not synthetic. And although I can hardly get the iris in its traditional sense, I think it's pulling the sweetness back and balancing everything out somehow in the background. Sillage and longevity are SO there. I can still smell this in my room the next day like beyond 12hrs and it's on my clothes since Friday (it's now Tuesday). If only all gourmands are done this way, I'd then be able to call myself a gourmand girly like the girlies on TikTok. Lol

I got a bunch of samples from this brand and didn't expect this one to be anything special, but it ended up being my favorite! This starts out creamy and nutty - the walnut and tonka really pop on my skin - with a light, airy fruitiness from the fig that keeps it from getting too "warm" and makes me feel like it could be worn in any season. Very subtle sweet woody drydown that, while not particularly inventive, is really lovely. This feels like a gourmand for the woody fragrance girls who say they don't like gourmands. Like the signature scent of the witty misunderstood coming-of-age movie protagonist, or the young hip children's librarian you thought was the coolest person in the world when you were seven. The staying power and evolution on this is really impressive, 8-ish hours after applying I'm still smelling that drydown and I kept catching little whiffs of myself at work. Nothing crazy in terms of sillage - it's intimate, but it sticks around and keeps revealing its layers. The brand seems very into the idea of storytelling with fragrance and this captures that better than anything else I've tried from them. Absolutely a try before you buy - my woody-and-musky-scent-loving roommate tried wearing it and described it as "grandma's apartment," so it definitely won't work for everyone, but this was a total win for me. Picking up a full bottle asap and I'm sure it will stay in my rotation.

Yesterday Haze was one of my first loves when I got into fragrance back during the pandemic. With the note breakdown, I was expecting something straightforward, fruity, and honestly, a little basic, but this thankfully veers quite left of center for me. It's still an easy wear, but it's stranger and certainly more interesting that I thought it'd be. When smelling it for the first time, I thought of an old casino or motel where pleasant-smelling air fresheners are pumped into a space to cover up the scent of mustiness and stale cigarette smoke. I understand that sounds deeply off-putting to most people, but I found it so evocative and interesting. I didn't know perfumes really "went" there when I first starting sampling fragrances. It's probably the first wearable scent that gave me a profound (lovely) feeling of melancholy. Smelling it now, I definitely get the whipped cream; not like a sugary juvenile body spray, overly sticky and sweet, but truly like whipped milk. There's an almost human-like muskiness here that makes this super wearable and sexy to me, with the fig adding a touch of sweetness. The walnut and iris gives YH a dry, softly woody nuttiness that balances the whipped cream & fig. It's so nice. I've since sold off my FB of YH, but I still keep a sample nearby and sniff often.