Castles In The Air

There is something very comforting about natural fragrances. Perfume reviews often judge fragrances on how synthetic or how realistic and/or natural they smell, but of course if they weren't synthetic, they wouldn't have that high level of perfumey sophistication. Nature is a bit raw. Castles in the Air is an intense, energizing and comforting scent. I also love the simple design of the bottle as well as the poetic descriptions of Walden fragrances.

I've always been curious about this house, being cruelty free and non-toxic and after studying the notes of various fragrances, decided to sample Castles in the Air and See the Moonlight. The citrusy opening of Castles is fresh but somewhat harsh, dominated by bergamot. After about half an hour, the citruses give way to a very subtle, somewhat Chanel 5-like iris/ylang-ylang combo, with a tiny hint of lavander. But just when I started thinking 'ok, this is promising...', it just vanished into thin air! I was prepared for longevity issues, as this is the trade off with non-toxic fragrances, but this was literally 'blink and you'll miss it' type of experience. And I am a serial undersprayer with a highly sensitive sniffer. So, I tried again. More than 10 sprays on skin and clothes, no hand washing, no competing scents of any kind - nothing! Half hour of the citrusy opening, followed by 10 minutes of faint middle notes, and then gone without ever reaching the drydown. Reapplying doesn't help, as you'll just keep experiencing the mediocre opening without ever moving past it. Such a shame for what sounded like a great idea on paper!

I bought a little bottle of this natural perfume. Looking at the composition before buying it I thought it could be an unusual one. (a fougere/aromatic that also contains ylang ylang and champaca? very unusual, would it be a good mix?) It positively surprised me, it is a very nice perfume, different from 4711 probably because of the added hints of ylang ylang, champaca and iris. It is a skin scent, not suited for people who wants projection/sillage. But I would advise to try it, may be buying the little 5ml bottle, just to smell how it natural and good smells. In the fragrantica database their latest fragrance (A morning star) is not (yet) described. This last one, beside essential oils, contains "parfum" as well, so I think Walden is aware of the very weak performing of their fragrances (too weak sillage and too weak longevity) and now starting to add "parfum" to the essential oils, may help. I would like to test A morning star, but the price of 14 euro for 5ml it is too high.