Pyxis

"The Lost Fragrance of Pompeii", a Mediterranean melange of citrus, fruity herbal head notes softened with a rose-jasmine accord embedded with powdery, sensual notes of incense varieties intermingling with a blend of woody notes. A combination of flowers and fruits from his garden, bathed in the warm soil of his native Campania, and the spoils of Empire. Sperato’s love potion based on Venus’ gift to Eros. Dwell in the mysterious fragrant elixir, created for Aphrodite, the goddess of Love, and lost to the fierce volcano that destroyed Pompeii. I blind bought this about 6 months ago, squirted it once on my arm and recoiled in horror at the smell. It was duly scrubbed off and sent to solitary confinement until I decided what I was going to do with such a horror as this. Fast forward 6 months and I stumbled upon the box and took the bottle out with a view to using it as a dressing table ornament. The bottle is stunning, but stunning! I just love the gorgeous heavy simplicity of the thick glass flacon. I now started to look at this in a different light, it was like looking at someone to whom you had never given more than a thought, but now they seem somehow more interesting and desireable. I tentitively decided to spritz myself again with this, just to be perfectly sure and draw a line in the sand. How could I have got this so terribly wrong?? This is such a beautiful perfume. Initially there is lavender and then a combination of herbs freshened with bergamot. There is supposed to be mint in this but I cannot smell any mint. Indeed, I think that the initial spritz of this may have been too herbal for my tastes the first time and I didn't give it enough time to settle. The perfume settles into a heart of beautiful sweet jasmine and a touch of rose and then the whole thing morphs comfortably with the well behaved and shy patchouli, woodsy notes and a touch of amber which enhances the sweetness. This is sweet, elegant and beautiful. I think it would be better suited in winter rather than summer and the longevity is astounding! A few sprays this morning and it's still sending heavenly wafts of sweet loveliness around me hours later. An enchanting fragrance, excellent blend of ingredients. To think I nearly discarded this! That would've been tragic!

Pyxis is a smash hit for me, right off the cuff! IMO this is a perfect example of a modern chypre. Rosemary, basil, it has a very herbal & fresh opening. Even a very juicy orange for just a moment. Then the magic starts to happen.. The peach is not sweet, or cloying, but a fresh, tart peach. The composition stays mostly on the "dry" side, and on my skin the oak moss comes forth strongly throughout. Not in a heavy manner, this fragrance is almost impossibly light, fresh, delicate, and elegant. The longevity is superb, that is without question. I applied before a hot, non air conditioned summer wedding and I smelled divine all day! It was even a bit cooling, although in the winter I find it reminds me of spring. A very well done fragrance, and for a chypre lover like me, this hits all the right notes! This is backup worthy!

Really lovely and beautifully made, to me Pyxis is a chypre in the old tradition of vintage Mitsouko,Miss Dior, etc, but with a soft modern feel to the floral component. A very elegant, "evening out" perfume, Pyxis also has nice sillage and good lasting power, and after sampling, I definitely consider it full bottle worthy. Funny how a perfume inspired by a Pompeiian perfumer's garden would put a modern, softer spin on the very 20th century "Chypre" genre, but it does. A 9/10, wonderful!

Pyxis is very vibrant, beautiful perfume. Very nice balance between green notes with a hint of flowers and fruits. Remind a Mediterranean garden with a light sea breeze. Now its available in US at www.aquadeluna.com You can even order a sample before you buy it!

I'm broken hearted, does anyone want to part with a bottle? Partial bottle? Please PM me.

I don't view Pyxis as a chypre. It seems more like a floral because it seems to consist mostly of dried rose petals with extremely subtle hints of peach. Oakmoss is not prominent, not in the way I was hoping for. I find the rose to be a little too overwhelming, dry, and screechy for my personal taste. Benzoin seems to come out very strongly on my skin, adding a honey-like sweetness as the perfume wears down. I love this stage because it tames that screechy dried rose. Sometimes when I wear it I smell a bit of spice, which is strange since there is no spice in the notes. And there is sometimes an herbal effect that is usually present in a fougere, so it sometimes smells like men's cologne. This I like! It reminds me a little bit of D&G with the red cap because of the slightly herbal, masculine quality. Sillage is enormous and it lasts forever and a day on my skin. Update 2015: I keep trying to like it, but it smells like hairspray. Super screechy.

This should be perfect for me. But it turns to messy on my skin. Wrong kind of roses in the wrong kind of company. But I haven ́t quite given up yet. I ́m still hoping for the magic to reveal itself. Maybe next time...

It is unfortunate that this fragrance house no longer exists as those that I have tried from this line are truly exquisite and unique. Pyxis is a clean chypre with a dominant oakmoss note. Oakmoss is quite a polarising accord, as not everyone enjoys its intensity or its greenness. Admittedly it took me several years to appreciate oakmoss heavy chypres as it is an acquired taste, much like coffee and wine. I am now quite smitten with fragrances like Pyxis, as they smell of money, sophistication and class. I feel this same way about other well-known scents like Guerlain's Mitsouko, La Prarie Life Threads Platinum and Christian Dior's vintage Diorella. Despite the dominant note of oakmoss, Pyxis also features dusty peach, soothing lavender, aromatic basil and sweet pink roses. It doesn't resemble anything in modern perfumery; Pyxis smells like a beautifully preserved vintage chypre. The oakmoss used in this fragrance is pre-IFRA restrictions, and you can tell the difference immediately. As a lover of green, mossy chypres, the current restrictions cause great anguish and I have to resort to tracking down vintage, discontinued chypres to get my oakmoss fix. Newer oakmoss dominant fragrances feature a tonne of synthetic musks and chemicals that barely project off the skin. The entire Scents of Time fragrance line are now unicorns of the perfume world. I am fortunate to own a large decant of Pyxis and a full bottle of Maya. I look forward to wearing Pyxis more during the upcoming Spring months.

Beautiful, beautiful fragrance... sadly discontinued! Pyxis by Scents of Time is inspired by the Roman city of Pompeii, and the celebration of life that the city had to offer, before it was cut down by the fires of Vesuvius in 79 B.C. The genre here is (to me) some kind of floral chypre with hints of fruit. Even though Scents of Time have officially labelled this one as a "floral oriental". It is a chypre. It's also a success in my opinion! Why something like this would be discontinued I have no idea! It's a beautiful soft floral with oakmoss and some depth, in fact more depth than a lot of designer perfumes out there. I detect a hint of the "Mitsouko" vibe, with the peach, oakmoss and rose combination. It's very nice. Pyxis is a very beautiful and I would say elegant perfume, I like it very much and really wish it was still in production. But like many things in life, some things just weren't meant to be. I know I will cherish the bottle I have. I do know of a website in Hawaii that still sells and ships this stuff, but they are old stock, and no longer being made. R.I.P!

Surprisingly, Pyxis happened to work the best for me out of all Scents of Time I have tested. Surprisingly because I usually do not like chypre fragrances, and somehow, before I tried it the notes left me quite cold. What I was however surprised by was the very unique combination of lavender which I started loving recently, basil and mint, followed up by rose, amber and moss. Pyxis is by no means a loud fragrance, on the contrary, it is quiet, keeps quite close to the skin. I dont know how much of acient times it smells. For me it is a fragrance that in my head matches up an image of a forest nymphs. There is tranquility of the forest, aroma of herbs, beauty of a wold untouched by industry. A very refreshing fragrance. Michael Evans did an amazing job on it! However, on my skin it turned out a bit too masculine than what I was able to put up with; despite the description, I think it would smell great on a man as well. Nevertheless, Pyxis turned out to be not for me- it smelled intriguing in the bottle, on my skin it was just a bit too harsh.

The most dominant note for me is rose. Of the florals the rose is more dominant and a bit too strong imo. The jasmine is subtle and fits better with the oakmoss, amber, faint sandalwood and patchouli. In fierce competition for dominance is the peach. I detect a tinge of sweetness presumably from the benzoin. Also, there’s an herbaceous element (rosemary and basil) but what's odd is it smells more like spice than green. In the end it's overpowering rose with peach and a hint of spice on a sultry warm earthy base. I'm not terribly fond of predominantly floral blends, especially when it's rose, so Pyxis does not work for me. If we're going to strictly historical value then I'd take it as a well blended and exotic elixir that must have had quite the impact in its time.

Took me a few minutes to stop smelling my wrists so that I could write this review : ). . . WOW!! What a breath of fresh air this fragrance is! With so many chypres out there this is the softest I've experienced. So tame and mellow. Never have I smelled normally strong contenders like lavender, rosemary and mint in topnotes so subtle as to let the middle florals, jasmine and a soft, dusky rose waft in and take center stage, delicate hint of sweetness like the breath of a flower. The basenotes are very well blended to be in complete harmony with the middle notes. One of a kind for sure. A MASTERPIECE!! Believe I have found my first chypre skin scent and I love it!

Despite not being a "green" lover, I really liked the opening notes of this...fresh, mossy, with a hint of citrus and flowers. But then...it completely disappeared! Within ten minutes, I could smell absolutely NOTHING on my skin, and I have never had that happen so fast before. I am wondering if maybe the samples from Scents of Time are watered down for some reason, because when I sampled Nenufar it disappeared too, just not this quickly. I hope this is the case, as I feel both of these are very unique and beautiful in their own ways.

Ive still got my bottle of Pyxis. No matter what weather, temperature, season etc it always, somehow smells of honey! A rich, golden, mellow, honey. Not sickly sweet either. I cannot distinguish the separate notes, other than a resinous undertone that isnt unpleasant. I still love this perfume, now that the range of Scents of Time has been discontinued, I treasure my bottles.