Full Light

I love this. It works on me, and it's great. Vanilla, cinnamon, and something else... maybe a bit "basic" in concept, but this elixir on skin works potent magic! Solstice Scents perfumes work very well for me. Maybe it's my nose and/or my skin, but I always get compliments when I wear them out. Reading comments, maybe they don't work well on everyone. But if you do - buckle up for a magic carpet ride! I bought a full bottle of this edp and I could see actually using all two ounces. I will say that you should always get a sample of the edp and the oil when she has a perfume in the two different formats. They are not the same perfume, and will always be a little different. For example, I love Foxcroft Fairgrounds in the oil as well as Night Watcher, but in the edp, they are duds on me. I'm loving Blackburn's Parlor in the edp, but the oil is just ok for me.

I’m surprised to like this! After having tried around 30 of Angela’s creations, I was convinced my body chemistry does not jive well with Solstice Scents. Many of the florals were stanky on me, and the vanillas, including the famed Estate Vanilla sample I paid a pretty penny for, were quite playdoughy. I got this in a blind buy and could tell right away this was vanilla without having looked at the notes. There is still this floral, slightly stinky component about this. However, it’s not big enough of a deal to make me mind it. It’s about the same level of stink as I get from Solstice Magnolia, another like of mine. This is sweet, powdery, with a hit of floral on the end of a whiff. I’m surprised I don’t hate the amber. Good for cold autumn or winter days or nights! Will revisit then. Update: towards the end of its life it becomes a LOT like the yellowed pages of old books I love the smell of. In fact, I’d been looking for this very scent for a long time. It’s the aged vanillin, ever-so-slightly incensey and smokey. This beats Sorce’s English Major and Demeter’s Paperback by miles! We may have a full size on the horizon!

I am not going to lie I really dislike this perfume. I am always stunned by the number of people who don’t know what vanilla really smells like. I’ve worked with vanilla beans from all over the world (Madagascar, Mexico, Tahiti, Uganda, Indonesia) making extracts and tinctures... And this house’s Estate Vanilla is mainly the lovely scent of Madagascar Vanilla Bean tincture supported by ingredients to sort of shadow around that core scent profile with something soft, creamy and sweet. Real vanilla beans are not just vanillin that’s only one of the molecules present in the bean it’s also woody and animalic. Estate Vanilla is a work of art so it’s hard to even process that this one full light was made by the same perfumer since it is really sloppily blended from my vantage point. It smells extremely soapy, specially it smells like of soapiness, dollar store “inspiration” perfume and vanilla candle (waxy). The concept was good but if they were going for airy light vanilla and white amber it went wrong veered into the territory of room spray that would be called goat milk and clean linen at BBW which is not what I was expecting from these guys since historically they’ve been quite good. I did have some real loves from my sample pack fortunately but there are a few new fragrances I was unimpressed with.