Sweet William

My favorite of Ineke's Floral Curiosities line, let it be known up front that this utterly unique scent will definitely be polarizing for some. But those who appreciate it will likely find it to be one of the most prolific in their fragrance library. The boozy, fruity top gives way to juicy spiced peaches that get warmer near the drydown. As trusted perfume blogger EauMG has pointed out, it gets quite "cozy...like baked spiced peaches." The ingredients almost suggest a Fall fragrance, evocative of cuddling on a couch wrapped in a knit shawl in front of a fire with dry leaves scattered outside. Certainly true, but this hidden gem served me in fine form during a moderate Spring and hot, humid Summer just as well, maintaining its resilient magic even when mixed with sweat and challenged by ones hot, frustrating day. Not an every day scent, and not a formal scent, but a casual-cum-professional wear unisex trooper that will perform well year-round, and is perhaps best suited for lighter complected dryer body chemistries. As polarizing as its notes may be, it has yet to let me down. The clever, quality "library book" packaging is perfectly befitting. Those on the fence may wish to try the 15ml EDP travel spray for $38 before going the larger 75ml ($78) route. But many will surely want to pick this up as it continues to catch on. ★★★ (out of ★★★★).

Sweet William reminded me right away of a sunlit perennial garden in late summer. There is a lovely hint of fruits in this scent mixed with woody greenness of twigs, branches and light aroma of outdoor flowers. What a lovely way to represent cheerful Sweet William flowers. Their bright clusters in every shade of red are always an eye-catcher and mood lifter for me. I find that Ineke’s imagination is spot-on with this flower, representing not only the cheerful character of the flower but a garden where it grows. The composition is spicy but soft and pleasant to wear. The peach is natural and a bit boozy but not candied. I think the peach gives this composition tender and charming quality. The spices mixed with carnation-like note work beautifully here. I often find that the scents with clove, cumin and cinnamon are a bit strong but Sweet William is warm and well-balanced scent that wears effortlessly. The composition is grounded in woods and earthy patchouli reminiscent of a natural garden warmed by the August sun. The sillage is similar to other Ineke creations – subtle but noticeable. The longevity is at least 5 hours. Overall score 8/10. The scent is interesting, unique, high quality and easy to wear. I was happy to add it to my collection.

Each scent I've tested from Ineke has been beautiful and unique in their own special way. This fragrance is spicy, herbal, and "wet." I think the easiest way to describe it is a peach-infused herbal tea or booze. There is some sweetness provided by the peach here, but its very natural. This scent invokes the comfort of sipping from a warm mug while you watch a storm rage outside your window. I've found it suitable for any time of year, save for perhaps the most humid summer days. It lasts about 6-7 hrs for me, then it becomes a milky/spicy skin scent after that. Unisex in my opinion, maybe leaning slightly feminine. A wonderful scent that I wish was easier to find.

Woohoo! I won this in a giveaway right here on fragrantica. :) I was taking a real risk by selecting the ONE single Floral Curiosities scent I hadn't sniffed before, but I think it paid off. I already own Briar Rose and wouldn't mind owning any of the others. The first note that I get from Sweet William is fresh peach... the fruit note is juicy and a bit boozy but not syrupy. The scent has a green stems and gently flowery quality to it which gives it a surprising freshness, considering how much the clove note pops through! To me it almost smells as if some violet and violet leaf was in this composition too. As it dries down the woody notes come out more. The dryness of cedar and sandalwood is softened up by a dose of crushed vanilla bean. The cumin and cinnamon warm it up a little more but do not make it dirty at all. In fact there is a clean skin, white musky aspect to this which plays very well off the peachy note, which gets less green and more jammy as time passes. After a couple hours it smells more gourmand, creamy, and musky on my wrists, but stays more carnation-fresh and woody on my shirt. Sillage and lasting power are both moderate. This is very easy to wear. I thought this might be a very fall/winter sort of fragrance with the spice and wood, but the peaches and wildflowers give this a taste of summer as well. It has a casual, sweetly bohemian vibe that pairs well with a lot of the clothes at Anthropologie.

109 I tested a 2.5-ml sample and sprayed the entire contents on my cotton top. It’s alcohol heavy and takes a while to settle. The result is an anemic watery floral, supposedly with peach and cinnamon and clove. Unfortunately, I cannot smell any of these and since it’s done with such a light hand, it seems pointless to me. A faint mentholated Patchouli peeks its head out at the very beginning and end. There is also a generic chemical fruit haze on the dry-down which is unpleasant. However, I do love the false book packaging on this scent... Oh Ineke, your fragrances would be so much better if we could actually smell them! Intensify them, make them more concentrated. I would love this. I suggested this before and I still think she should create stronger versions of all her scents because I find several of them very lovely or unique but so weak that I won’t bother with buying them. I am done with weak fragrances no matter how nice. I need at least moderate longevity and projection. Her scents are some of the weakest I’ve ever smelled from beginning to end. I actually think this scent has potential if the notes were stronger. It does not smell like Sweet William to me, as these flowers are actually sweeter, with a more noticeable clove note and other floral aspects. Still, this could be a very nice tart spicy fresh floral for the summer. 7/10-weak. Would not repurchase.

I just received Sweet William in swap and wow! I'm amazed that hardly anyone comments on the booze assault in the opening! But maybe it's just me...anyway I get the peach right away mingled in with the booze. Yes, it's that ripe peach, not too sweet and slightly tart - yummie!! It takes about 20-30 minutes for the alcohol onslaught to dissipate to acceptable levels and I'm left with a soft, cozy and slightly marinated peach in a bed of spices. I can't stop sniffing my wrist. It's delicious...I just have to see how I go with the alcohol infused bomb that attacks your senses in the opening. Having it tested now a few times the boozy aspect is not as strong as it was on initial spray. The peach in here is absolutely beautiful but the alcohol component - albeit somewhat lessened - is still too much for me. I will have to find a new home for this one.

To me, there is an unassailable peach note at the start. It feels out of alignment with the rest of the fragrance, so I nearly wrote off the whole experience with that opening note. Thankfully, the peach fades quickly and you are left with a magical scent. The fragrance calms down into an intensely sensual but fresh spice melange. The cloves and cumin come out and there is an almost citrus brightness that is a pleasure to behold. The drydown leaves a beautiful creamy, warm, enveloping scent that lasts throughout the day. While I have not had any compliments on this fragrance, I feel like it is a secret pleasure to wear it. I feel more beautiful just by wearing it. This having been my first foray into Ineke's fragrances has made me a fan and I look forward to sampling many others. This fragrance is a true experience.

This is very nice but very weak. I love sweet williams and they are pretty much a permanent fixture of my spring bedding displays. Their fragrance has far more power than this. This is all about spicey woody peaches. Like an oven cooked dessert. I feel it is very much a feminine fragrance. Soft, sweet yet not too sweet. I find the vanilla and patch become more evident after an hour or two if it lasts that long! The only spice I get is clove and as a lover of my chai Im pretty familiar with all the Indian spices by now. I actually make my own masalas. The clove is the note that hangs onto the bitter end. A nice fragrance to wear on an autumn day or summer evening. You certainly are in no danger of knocking anyone out with the sillage.

Sweet Wiiliam smells like a fresh ripe natural juicy peach that has been cut in half, seasoned with cinnamon and cloves and then baked in the oven until it's juices scent the air. Like with many peach scents, I sometimes get a whiff of a sour undertone as if the peach has been baked without adding any sugar. It is a very realistic spicy peach scent that I enjoy wearing in the fall and winter months. I usually wear Sweet William when I go out on weekend mornings. SW has moderate sillage and excellent longevity. If you like peach, this is a great scent for casual outings.

Sweet William is a spicy fruity floral, that has a somewhat green and fresh opening with a ripe peach note that remains central to the composition. Cinnamon, cloves and cumin in accord with vanillic woods developing in the heart and base warm and transition this fragrance into a simmering, boozy spiced peach accord with moderate sillage.

Beautiful spicy fruit scent warmed by sandalwood and dry patchouli. Very dry scent, even the fruit seems an accent note and not very sweet or juicy. Unique combination of notes. Good for spice lovers. Very versatile for day or night. Only drawback is it doesn't last long.

Sweet William is a melange of spice and wood with anise, cloves and a dashing of peach, sweet yet bitter. It drifts you away to some high-end clothing store stocked with vintage clothing. Male and females all welcome, perfect for the modern bohemian. It is the aroma of woods that everybody is accustomed to in this store. Nobody says anything, sophistication is spoken in silence. The scent offends nobody, it is by far an acquired and 'grown' type of scent. After searching tirelessly for wearable treasures in this hippie-esque store, a waft of bourbon vanilla layered between sandalwood arises in the drydown. A rather pleasant surprise, for the real treasure was not in finding the best piece around, but your most unique moment in scent. A different yet inspired experience Sweet William is!

Sweet William and dianthus - I love the spicy sweet scent of them. Unfortunately with this fragrance, all I get is a huge dose of sandalwood, which I loathe. I have fought the urge to scrub off, in hopes that something else will emerge. As I type this, I realise that even if something nice pokes its head out of this vat of sandalwood, I won't ever be able to get past the first half hour. I must confess that if I knew how much sandalwood was in this fragrance, I would not even have gone as far as spraying from the sample. I must go now, to find a scrubbing brush.

Everything I love and impossible to categorize: it's spicy (clove), fruity (peach), floral (but not as much as you'd think, considering it's named for a flower), and woodsy, all at once, but not too much any one. It's warm and kind of boozy, which makes it sound wintry, but I love it in the summer, which is after all when peaches are in season. I agree with the reviewers who said it was like a peach cobbler, but before then had really thought of it more as a spicy oriental, or a fresh bohemian cousin of that family, at least. Heady, mysterious, delicious. Ineke is clearly a perfumier to watch. I am sad this one was just discontinued but I look forward to seeing what she does next.

It took several minutes for me to pin-point what was so familiar about this scent. It finally hit me thst it's very similar to Lancôme Trevor. I do not smell peach and bourbon like everyone else but I agree it's warm and spicy. At first I kept thinking "coconut" or "coppertone" but it quickly changes into something better. This is not the kind of scent I typically go for but I do like it. It's cozy and alluring. I can see it being amazing on the right skin.

I took my kids to The Virginia Museum of Natural History, and was chased down by 2 security guards that wanted to tell me how good I smelled. The made over the scent for awhile and then we kept on our tour. As we were leaving the gift shop, 3 men, 2 security and one cashier came over and smelled me and begged me to please visit the museum again REALLY soon! I said to myself, " Hell yeah...I knew this shit would be good!"

Very spicy. This one smells like the base of le feu d'issey imo with peach instead of rose. I get a blast of anise upfront. Seems to stay close to skin.