Chelsea Staircase

This was my favorite of all of Thin Wild Mercury's sample set offerings, and I will be buying myself some. I was pretty confident I would like this scent profile, although I was scared of the wrought iron note as I'm normally put off by metallic perfumes. Plus I hate how my hands smell after touching a tarnished silver antique. So to purposefully put a perfume like this on myself...? Luckily, the iron note is pleasant. It hangs out in the background but does not overpower the rest of the notes. It's evocative to those who know it's there, but doesn't obnoxiously announce its presence to others. I've read comments about this being sickeningly sweet. I was concerned about this, because I dislike Lush's Supermilk and Chelsea Morning perfumes and didn't want Chelsea Staircase to fall along those lines. I'm glad to report that I don't see any resemblance. It's super cozy without being saccharine sweet. It's not a strong scent, and I think it's very wearable and would not offend passers by. To me, this perfume is very autumnal. Honeyed tea; watching dust float suspended in sun rays through casement windows; a denim jacket with the sleeves rolled up, tortoiseshell clips in your hair. I've become increasingly disillusioned with brands that create perfumes with funky fantasy notes or other gimmiky marketing that overpromises and underdelivers. Thin Wild Mercury really does deliver. I'm really happy to say that I've been super impressed with Cathleen's work and am excited to keep getting to know these scents better.

First I have to say, this frangrancier is extremely good at evoking a feeling of a memory. As a synthesiate, I deeply approve. This is what it evokes for me: In the 90s my Aunt wore Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers. She wasn’t a New Yorker, she was a petite graphic artist with an esthetic then described as “yuppie”. She lived in a high rise condo in Atlantic Highlands New Jersey. In the summers I visited her and donning linen shorts, she taught me how to use colored pencils to illustrate flowers. The warm smell of heated metal permeated from her balcony and chamomile tea drenched in honey sat on her kitchen island. There were other older high school girls who wore this kind of scent. They were the blonde, sundress wearing it girls who were too nice to hate. The kind who had many friendship bracelets. The kinds that had many colors of thread and never got dirty. I will wear it on days I want to smile and remember the sunnier sides of the street. For me the main notes of this are chamomile, honey and oak moss. The citrus brightens but is covered in nostalgia of the more grounded notes. There is a warmth emanating of earthy metal. Thank you to the creator for this capsulation.

The most unique tea scent i've ever smelled. Quite possibly my white whale honeyed lemony tea perfume i've searched high and low for. Honey isn't even listed as a note, and every honey note i've ever smelled in perfume smells like cat pee to me, so idk if i'm just insane but oh my GOD this is good. It's like, a light fresh bright perfume but for artsy cool people that are a little brooding occasionally? The canvas and sunflower and wrought iron just add the coolest atmospheric surroundings to the star of the show. I want a full bottle desperately but as an LA native I need to prioritze getting a full size from the LA collection first. But i WILL be back for this queen

This is one of my favorites from the brand and I really do think it has to do with skin chemistry. The opening of this is straight up fresh brewed lemon tea on my skin, super heavy and dense. I pick up the hot iron immediately. It smells hot, as if the tea is still steeping. The dry down turns into this sunny smell, with subtle notes of paper. It's as if you're watercoloring while sunbathing. This is not a safe buy, and it's not for everyone.

One of very few FSBs that I’ve purchased! As an artist, former-Manhattanite, and lover of Earl Grey & antiques, this is such a perfect, unique, and inspiring scent! It’s definitely a wild one though, and not a safe blind buy with the strong tea & metallic notes, but it was my favorite fragrance after purchasing Thin Wild Mercury’s NYC sample set. This will be my “day-to-night art event” go-to fragrance!

I ended up getting a full bottle of this... I don’t wear it all the time but it is definitely a mood booster. I can smell the sunflower and metallic smell of the iron note ... it drys down to a pretty skin scent. It has a rainy day feel to it as well as a morning sunny cool day these are the times I find myself wanting to wear this. This is a unique fragrance.

I absolutely love this. I normally dislike citrus and lemon notes, and have had a hard time finding fragrances I enjoy that are warm weather friendly. The other notes add a complexity to the lemon that mellows out that citrus and makes it enjoyable. Not sure if others around me have liked it as much as I do. Family seems to have sneezing fits when I wear it :(

This is so interesting. There's a warmth like you're out on someone's New York fire escape and they've made tea with lemon to bring out to you.

Ur hot cause you're cool not cause ur pretty U have to be able to pull this one off

with a constant backdrop of hot iron and canvas, earl grey and lemon on the opening, and a sunflower dry down, every note listed has its time in the limelight. i absolutely love this fragrance, it wears beautifully imo if you're up for the challenge. it really paints a picture for you and is oddly nostalgic in a way i can't quite pinpoint. i would absolutely purchase a travel size of this fragrance for hot balmy days. as someone that typically is a yellow floral hater, i never thought I'd love a sunflower scent this much

I didn't like this the first time I wore it, but I keep reaching for it on days where I want something "fresh" but still interesting. It is so interesting how you actually get the wrought iron note, especially at the opening. It dissipates a bit and dries down to a lemon & earl grey/herbal scent with a little edge. I really thought my only full size purchase from thin wild mercury would be Girl of the Year, but this grows on me. It's special but still wearable.

This isn't a crowd pleaser. Strong sillage and longevity. I was told I smelled exactly like an antique shop. The earl grey and sunflower are comfortable, inviting, with lemon to cut the mustiness in the building. The wrought iron is edgy, but it does get less tolerable over time. It outlasts everything else and I don't like falling asleep to it. Interesting and unglamorous. Easy to overspray.

Absolutely sickly sweet in an amazing way. Fresh lemon in a cup of fresh, hot earl grey tea. I don’t normally sniff wrought iron, so I don’t really know how to detect it in this perfume, but there’s a bit of a metallic smell that the tea sits on which definitely helps the lemon become sharper and fresher. I can definitely see myself wearing this. This is a beautiful perfume.

This immediately brings me back to being a kid in a ballet studio. I think of powdery hair sprays and makeup, mixed with tights and used ballet shoes, and perfume from the mothers and grandmothers dropping off their kids. It's a nostalgic, worn-in freshness. So far, I've only sprayed it on paper, but I can see how this would dry down nicely on the body.

i do get the hot iron which i really like, i get a little hot black tea though thats probably just helped by the hot iron. its mostly really, really powdery, in a makeup way, which im not a fan of. if it wasnt so powdery i would really love it. i wear it when im sick of everything else i have

A pretty tea scent. The citrus and sunflower come through and work really nicely. I don't get too much of anything metallic or cotton-like, just a simple and very wearable tea scent. It's like a more sophisticated Chelsea Morning from Lush, which I really like as well.

I really like this fragrance but it the top notes don't pull at all on me. I don't get any tea, iron, or lemon. On my skin this smells like a yellow floral and cinnamon and the dry down is very sweet. I still like it a lot but I was expecting a fresh bright scent.

Metallic like the bike you rode to the beach after sitting in the sun all afternoon. i definitely get the lemon, but its in no way fresh or realistic. a gas station by the coast maybe, where all the window signs are sunbleached and they just cleaned the floors.

I love wearing this when I go thrifting or visit antique stores. It makes me smell like a beautiful vintage trinket on a shelf—powdery, nostalgic, lemony, and antique

Ok y'all are trippin if this smells like Sunflowers. Sunflowers was my signature scent and this does NOT smell even remotely close to that.