Nymphéas

This was the first Kismet Olfactive sample I tried. I pulled it at random from a pack I received in the mail and it proved to be the Kismet promised. I sprayed it on and was instantly struck by this magical dew. The light watery facets made me feel like I was swimming through air. It drapes over the skin like silk chiffon, cool to the touch and so soft as to elude a true grasp. Ineffable. There's real depth to this softness, which unfolds with time and the languid movement of molecules in space around you. The experience of wearing this scent is refreshing and transporting, perfect for a languorously hot and humid day. The reference to Monet's water lilies in Nymphéas is palpable. When you first look at this series of paintings, you may get only the general impression of blue water or green lily pads, but the magic is in the splashes of shocking fuschia, serene lavender, pastel yellow and rusty red. During Monet's time, an impressionist painting was something avant-garde and shocking. This is where the small sun-faded print in your dentist's office sadly drains the lily pond. In person, the paintings are large panoramas spanning the length of an entire wall. It's an immersive experience that's anything but watered down. Translating that experience into olfactory art is the alchemy I wished for as a child when I gathered rose petals and steeped them in water attempting to make my own perfume. I have tried many perfume samples, but this is one of only two full bottles I own. It's also the most complimented perfume I wear. Shabnam Tavakol is a true artist!

I imagine a water nymph wading in the pond, draped in white flowers stolen from a wedding. Thick buttery petals remind me of Do Son. It has a greenish element, like snapped stems or under-ripe fruit. There's something, not synthetic exactly, but addictive-fantasy about the watery profile. The water nymph is actually made of plaster, the pond she wades through is housed within a mini-golf park. Through the memory of a child it is all UNBELIEVABLY gorgeous!!

i will be purchasing this as my spring scent, it is a heavenly white floral that is gives me a fizzy effervescent feeling of excitement and anticipation. all of Shabnam’s creations give me a feeling of hope and they all give off a bubbly giddy delightful vibe to me.

a beautiful aquatic floral, my fav lotus scent i’ve tried! very pretty and clean but floral. excited to wear this a lot more in the spring! haven’t been wearing it much lately because i associate so strongly with spring lol

This reminds me so much of the perfume my mother wore when i was little: 90s georgio armani Aqua di Gio. Aquatic and fresh and womanly. Nympheas has a very pleasant / enchanting innocence about it too. A young, dewy spring scent.

The perfect Spring fragrance. Light, breezy, heart stoppingly floral. I can feel the colors of Monet whirling around me when wearing this.

To me this smells like fresh slightly aquatic olive oil. Not bad but definitely not what I was expecting!

It's a pleasant aquatic floral, but a bit too lipstick-y for my tastes.

This fragrance really reads as hairspray for me, fancy hairspray but still hairspray. There are notes buried in it that interest me--the hidden floral notes. But the aquatic notes seem too artificial or too potent, like vigorous. It is very girl in the sense that it smells like hairspray, like a woman's locker room or a theatre dressing room, but it does not read much fresh or aquatic to me. It is fierce but it does not work how it was meant to, it is not a gorgeous water lily in a secluded pond but instead a young tenacious woman covered in glitter and rhinestones.

Fresh, clean, sharp lily of the valley. Has a hint of that solar floral sunscreen vibe. It is pretty but a bit sharp for my taste.

Smells like hairspray to me, and my brother said it smells like bug spray. I wish I got the same effervescent experience as others did! The notes would be a dream come true.

If Silvermist from Pixie Hollow wore a perfume, it would be this one. It smells like an ethereal fairy dancing and skipping on lily pads of a freshwater pond in a dream world. Or she’s a water nymph that likes to splash around with her friends and brush her hair with stolen objects from the human world. She likes to wrap herself in seaweed and enjoys collecting seasshells on her free time. This fragrance has so much character, and it has a beautiful back story inspired by Claude Monet’s lilies. Perfect for Pisces women but also unisex friendly. Layer it with DS and Durgas Jazmin Yucatán and thank me later. 10/10

this one is sort of like penhaligon’s bluebell with a really straightforward wet (as opposed to damp petrichor) white floral without the clove, citrus, or cemeterial melancholy. not what i’d normally reach for this time of year but the seasonal depression has been suffocating recently and tricking my brain through olfaction with spring and summer coded fragrances has been surprisingly effective. i’m an earth sign’s earth sign this makes me feel like a water sprite gazing at my own reflection 🪷

This is a very beautiful and interesting aquatic floral - it has so much depth, I think from the mate, oak moss, and vetiver, but also the lovely pairing of lotus and lily of the valley. From what I’ve tested, Kismet’s creations are stunningly blended, each one a masterpiece in its own right. Nympheas just feels special to me because it is so unique for its category. Makes me feel like a water nymph in the most romantic way.

at the risk of sounding juvenile.. a freshwater mermaid, and she's the freshwater mermaid equivalent of a human princess in whatever social hierarchy they belong to. deep green water. synchronously foreign and comforting beauty also maybe too niche but this smells pretty damn similar to voluspa's grapefruit and magnolia candle which smells like neither of those things and upon checking also has a lotus note

I was hoping this one would smell like the water lily farm I used to work on and it doesn’t but it does have a beautiful floral smell first off that is very lotus-y. I don’t get the water notes but it does make me feel like a fairy hanging out by a lotus bloom! 10/10