Sapphire

I got this for £3 - steal! Very spring like scent, cooler summers too. Very gentle sweetness if any. Unisex, might even veer of into feminine but men can rock it easily. Longevity and silage still untested. Buy this but be warned, it's a small bottle that might not last so long. E: the sandalwood is there, combined with the vanilla it gives a rice cream sort of vibe. Love this but it's probably a bit cloying for the summer. Longevity is a very good, solid 10 hours on the skin. Was getting good whiffs throughout the day.

This has a very loud, strong opening of cumin. Unfortunately, the cumin in this veers into the BO smell on my skin. After a little while, I'm getting that burnt tire scent. This is such a strange scent. I'm getting no vanilla, no bitter almond, no heliotrope. In fact, I'm getting nothing sweet from this. Too bad, I usually like the Arabian fragrances and Orientica's Ishraq Gold is one of my favorites but this is not good on my skin. I'll update if it does become anything I consider wearable for me. Update: The first time, it never changed from the burnt tire smell, just mellowed on it a bit. A no for me at that point. Then I decided to try it again and this time the vanilla, almond, and heliotrope came through and made me much happier! It's so inexpensive that I'm glad I bought it and tried it a couple of times before making the decision to get rid of it.

I read a review that said this was lavender, cedar and powdery vanilla,and being so cheap I thought I'd give that a whirl. But wow, no. Upon arrival, it was already not great. Sniffing it in the bottle, I got almond, vanilla and yes, powdery notes, with piercing cedar notes that smell like rubbing alcohol. I let it rest then tried it on my skin and got the same terrible screaming alcohol note (this in non alcohol perfume. So I let it rest for another six weeks and even in plastic wrap, I can smell that screaming, nose-aching alcohol note. I've been told it might be ISO E Super I'm smelling,b ut whatever it is, I can't stand it. I've found it in super high end frags too, so it's not Sapphire's fault.

Bitter almond and robust cumin are the stars of the show here. Toasty and inviting, if unusually savory. Thankfully, the cumin is polite in this iteration and lacking in the sweaty quality it sometimes has. The dry down reveals the slightest hint of vanilla and jasmine sweetness, but it's easy to miss.

This is gorgeous. Warm marzipan, winter heliotrope and sweet, spiced rice pudding.