Possets Reviews, Pt. 2: Tea and Gourmands Edition (GC, Retours, and More Fiancé Thoughts)

[femmenstein]

Hullo! Back at ya with some more Possets reviews, and much like the title implies, they're largely tea and gourmand scents. You can find my first set of Possets reviews here, which will also give you a bit of a background into how this is laid out, who DH is, what TAT was like, etc. I will note that the TAT was a bit slower for this batch, since some of these were ordered during or directly after the Valentine's Day and 2-22-22 sales, plus I had one of the orders held for a while per my request. At any rate, onward!



🥂Madame X (Skin musk, wax, cream, lemon zest, champagne, a kiss of bitter vanilla) (Permanent)

Preliminary notes: Madame X has pretty mixed reviews across the net, ranging from shower-fresh and soapy to seductive and elegant, but it also seems to be a Possets classic. I have a history of not liking champagne notes and tend to avoid citrus notes other than bergamot (though if the lemon in this is anything like the lemon in High Tea, it'll be fine), and I also tend to prefer heavier scents to subtle skin scents, so I could be shooting myself in the foot here. I have a feeling, just going off of the notes, that DH isn't going to like this one very much and that it'll need some aging before I'm super into it as well.

DH's preliminary notes: Toasting to a full-body wax.

In bottle: Very subtle fruitiness with a background of creamy vanilla. A little bit soapy. I can tell just from the bottle that this is, indeed, going to be a skin scent. It's pretty faint.

DH's thoughts: There's a musk in there, isn't there? White musk? Skin musk.. I just don't really recognize what the other things are in there. I like it, but what is this?

On skin: Largely the same. It kind of billows out like a cloud upon initial skin application and then recedes back in on itself. The wax (which is like a true candlewax here as opposed to beeswax) and cream are the strongest notes for me, followed closely by the lemon (which is very mild and not at all astringent or biting). It reminds me of something but I can't pin exactly what it is. It's a nice, creamy, slightly citric skin scent, and the more it wears, the cozier it gets. I do have a small part of my collection dedicated to more "work/meeting safe" scents (i.e. nothing that's super strong or overly offensive), and I think this fits in there quite nicely.

DH's thoughts: Huh.. yeah, that is potent. There sure are a lot of lighter things in there. Skin musk..

Verdict: 5 fancy candlelit baths out of 5. I was initially going to dock a partial point for the soapiness, but I cannot stop smelling myself. The soapy phase doesn't last long anyway, so it's not worth docking a point over. My preliminary thoughts about not being into this one until it's aged were definitely not accurate. Overall, I like this a lot. It's dreamy and soft, and it would probably make a great bedtime scent for some people.



🍪Pavane (Cardamom, silver accord, artemisia, coumarin) (Permanent)

Preliminary notes: Ah, the infamous Pavane. I've read many a review that cite this one as smelling like snickerdoodles (DH and I have never had them but know what they are), melted ice cream, or some other manner of sweet baked good. I don't really have any proper prelim thoughts on this one beyond "it sounded good" and was kind of an impulse pickup.

DH's preliminary notes: Eating rice beside a fancy garden.

In bottle: Dry spiciness with a bit of sweetness. Does not smell anything like cookies to me, but I'm not particularly complaining. There's a bit of greenness in the background as well.

DH's thoughts: Something kind of woody about this. It actually almost reminds me of a sunflower seed. There's also something kind of sweet about it too. Maybe syrupy?

On skin: The green aspects of this take a bit of a backseat on the skin, and it does kind of resemble cookies, or like, cinnamon sugar-topped vanilla bean ice cream. The Silver base gives it a bit of an elegant edge.

DH's thoughts: Is there sandalwood in this? It has like a deep woody smell, like a polished wood, but paired with some sort of cherry smell.

Verdict: 3.5 cinnamon sugar-dusted cookies in a silver bowl out of 5. I'm not sure how I feel about this one, but it's not bad or unpleasant at all. I stopped being able to smell it for the most part a few minutes after applying. It's.. fine. I can't say I'm overly impressed by it.



👑Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (Mysore sandalwood, suede, frankincense, patchouli, four vanillas) (Permanent)

Preliminary notes: While suede isn't an outright leather note, I do really love leather, and combining it with four vanillas sounds delicious. After my experience with The Girls Love Vanilla, I'm a biiit leery of Possets' vanilla notes (though I'm pretty sure it was the honey that went weird in that one).

DH's preliminary notes: A beach in Florida. (??)

In bottle: Vanillic leather with a bit of fruitiness (which means the weirdness in The Girls Love Vanilla was probably the vanilla, unfortunately). Not nearly as dark as I was expecting.

DH's thoughts: That's much lighter. Maybe something almost fruity about it but also kind of floral. Something that almost reminds me of some kind of bread. Like a sweet bread.

On skin: Smells nothing like it did in the bottle (which is fine by me. I don't want any fruity notes unless they're supposed to be there). Dusty leather and a bit of dry vanilla and sandalwood. It darkens up quite a bit on the skin. It kind of smells like an old leather jacket that's been sitting in someone's attic for 30 years. I do get wafts of some really rich vanillas from time to time, but it's mostly the dusty, musty suede.

Update: After about a week or so of resting/aging, the mustiness is completely gone, and now it's suede with a delicious, almost caramelized vanilla backdrop with a touch of smokiness. Yet another lesson in "Please rest/age your Possets before making a final judgement."

DH's thoughts: I know there's food in that. It smells like something sweet. Maybe there's a little bit of vanilla and toffee?

Verdict: 4.5 caramel-covered leather jackets out of 5. I think it needs to age a bit more to get the balance right, but it's sublime as-is.



🍃Danse Chinoise (Pekoe tea, green tea, incense, lime leaf) (Yule retour)

Preliminary notes: This was one of the Yules I was reeeally excited about. I love tea scents, and this one sounds lovely for spring (I'm a bit puzzled as to why it's a Yule, since it sounds pretty fresh and green, but who am I to question someone else's creative process).

DH's preliminary notes: A meditation session outside of a Buddhist temple.

In bottle: Oh, this is heavenly. Dry tea leaves and a touch of incense and lime. It does smell a bit meditative, so DH's prelim notes were pretty accurate. Very excited to skin test this one.

DH's thoughts: It's sweet, like candy. It kind of reminds me of an overly sweetened pink lemonade. Extremely sweet.

On skin: This is such a perfect dry tea scent. The lime leaf adds a gentle citrus lilt to it, and the incense is soft and unburnt, so not smoky at all. There's something veeery slightly camphorous peeking out from the background, but it never goes full-on camphor. I adore this so much.

DH's thoughts: Maybe like, some old sweet wood?

Verdict: 5 loose-leaf teas in opulent tins out of 5. This is a stunner and has earned a place in the league of my favorite tea scents. Possets does tea scents exceptionally well.



🎉Clara's Party (Black musk, Arabian frankincense, three golden ambers, spicy gingerbread, black tea) (Yule retour)

Preliminary notes: Another tea-featuring Yule, which I skimmed over initially. I do not like ginger, at least not in an eating context, so I'm curious to see how this goes. Most of the reviews I read mentioned the tea note being pretty heavy, which is what I'm hoping for.

DH's preliminary notes: It sounds like something out of a fairytale.

In bottle: Oh, wow! This one is pretty sweet, but not in a bad way. Everything is well-balanced, and I can't make out specific notes beyond the tea and a bit of the gingerbread. It's cozy and has a bit of a classy edge to it. I like it a lot.

DH's thoughts: There's something far more natural, almost sweaty, about it. It is a little sweet though. I would almost describe it as a rich scent. I would imagine if whatever this is was in its natural form, it'd be thick like molasses.

On skin: The ginger comes roaring out of there once it hits the skin, along with the tea and resins. I like it! It smells elegant and festive, like an expensive ginger tea in a fancy teacup.

DH's thoughts: It's interesting.. *proceeds to sniff my wrist 5 or 6 times* (He liked it)

Verdict: 5 festive, mirth-filled tea parties out of 5. This is delightful, and that tea note is perfection.



🍋High Tea (Tea, lemon, sugar, milk, the best starched linens) (Permanent)

(I have no idea what happened to the preliminary notes for this one, so ignore that)

In bottle: So funnily enough, I ordered a full size of this during the 2-22-22 sale because I figured I'd like it, but a free sample of it showed up in my first Possets parcel, which arrived shortly after, so I got to try it a bit sooner. This review is from when I tried the sample. It reminds me a lot of Alkemia's Madam Pearl in the vial, which is one of my favorite refined/elegant tea scents. The lemon smells more like bergamot to me here, and it's a pretty light and refreshing scent overall. As so many reviewers before me have said, the tea note is more on the iced side rather than a hot cup of tea. It smells like sitting outside on a patio in a garden during late spring/early summer, sipping iced Earl Grey from a tall, ornate vintage glass (like these) with a thin slice of lemon floating on top. I can see the sunlight reflecting in the divots in the glasses in my mind's eye. I did not expect this one to conjure such vivid mental imagery.

DH's thoughts: Black musk, talcum powder, and a leather coat. (??)

On skin: On skin, the tea note comes out a bit more after the lemon has calmed down, but it's still very much an iced tea scent. It could just be that it's too fresh out of the mail, but this wears extremely close to the skin and is hard to smell sometimes aside from the citrus. I don't get the starched linens at all, which I'm not complaining about. No powder or laundry here. Just resplendent iced tea. 🧡

DH's thoughts: Like pink lemonade and tea. It smells like iced tea, but not like, a normal iced tea. Like a specialty iced tea. A pink iced tea. It makes me thirsty; it makes me want to drink you. Lemme smell your iced tea wrist. ARE YOU ACTUALLY WRIT- God damnit..

Verdict: 4.75 elegant iced teas out of 5. I wish this lasted longer on the skin, but that's my only qualm with it. It'll be a lovely late spring/summer scent.



🍵Linden Blossom Tea (Linden blossom tea, honey) (Permanent)

Preliminary notes: This one's kind of a no-brainer for me. I like springtime-y floral tea scents, and I like linden blossom. This sounds lovely.

DH's preliminary notes: Break time in a tequila factory. (??)

In bottle: Gorgeous linden blossoms, a bit of watery tea, and a really fantastic honey note (one of the most realistic I've come across thus far). Love.

DH's thoughts: It is very floral, and you can definitely smell the tea. Like a little hint of lemon in it too. There was this garden that I had tea at in Alberta, of all places. I don't know why, but I think about that place when I smell this.

On skin: Largely the same, but something warms it up. The honey kind of recedes on the skin, so it just becomes the linden and tea. Bit of a bummer, since the honey note is really nice, but this is still lovely. It threatens to go a bit soapy but never quite gets there. I can see where people would get an air freshener/bathroom soap vibe from, but I adore it nonetheless.

DH's thoughts: It's very floral and very light, with a hint of something stronger. It's like cinnamon but not cinnamon.

Verdict: 4.75 springtime garden tea parties out of 5. I wish the honey stuck around longer, but I still really love this. For such a light scent, it has really good throw and longevity.



🍮BBC - The Big Black Cat (Buttery creme, smooth caramel, bourbon vanilla, gourmet candy corn, burnt sugar, cinnamon, clove, allspice) (Permanent)

Preliminary notes: Is it gonna smell like a fall candle? Let's find out. Much like High Tea, I initially got a free sample of this in my first Possets parcel, so this review was written when I tried the sample.

DH's preliminary notes: Sounds like a movie night at my house when I was a teenager.

In bottle: So. Fucking. Buttery. I love it. The spices are a bit in-your-face, but I can live with that. This smells delicious. It does veer into fall candle territory a bit, but I'm not opposed to that at all. This is one hell of an autumnal gourmand.

DH's thoughts: Certainly is pungent. Makes me think about food again, like some kind of cake. Maybe a pound cake. There's something creamy in there too. And something like, a wood table?

On skin: Much the same, but the spices blend into the caramel and cream enough to calm down a bit. The caramel and cream notes never go plasticky or sour on me, which is fantastic. I immediately full sized this after skin testing. Love, love, love. This may very well be my holy grail caramel scent.

DH's thoughts: Smells completely different on you. That smells like you're eating a cake at your grandma's house *points at sample vial*, and now it smells like bath bombs. It lost its potency. It lost all of its food notes. (This made me sad and I disagree with it, but scent is subjective. I don't regret full sizing it and will wear the hell out of it regardless)

Verdict: 5 luscious Halloween treats out of 5. I absolutely adore this and want to bathe in it. Instant win for me.



🥚Syllabub (Eggs, milk, cream, a light dusting of lemon zest, fluffed together and eaten with a long-handled spoon) (Yule retour)

Preliminary notes: I couldn't find many reviews on this one, but the ones I did find mentioned that this smells a lot like cake batter. That's enough of a reason to try it for me.

DH's preliminary notes: Stealing a piece of lemon meringue pie.

In bottle: Well, it does indeed smell like raw cake batter. The lemon zest is quite pronounced in the bottle, which I'm hoping evens out on the skin. Can definitely tell this one's gonna need a bit of aging.

DH's thoughts: It's like a sweet fruit, like cranberries and toffee. Definitely smells like sweets. I wanna eat it.

On skin: This is so bizarre. It smells like raw cake batter in the bottle, but once it hits skin, it smells like a freshly baked lemon poppyseed cake with like, 2 inches of frosting on it. I've never smelled something that's such a dead ringer for lemon poppyseed cake in my life. Delightful.

DH's thoughts: It smells like a sponge cake with toffee and vanilla, maybe with a spot of tea on the side.

Verdict: 4.75 heavily frosted lemon poppyseed cakes out of 5. This is delicious. It does have a slight dusty quality to it, hence not being a full 5 out of 5, but it's definitely tolerable.



🧁Smellbutrin (Cream, sugar, butter, a pinch of salt, frosting, sprinkles) (Orphans retour, special order)

Preliminary notes: I asked Tom if I could order this and The Grace of the Posset (the latter of which is now available on the site) via PayPal invoice, since they weren't available on the site at the time, and he very kindly obliged. What is there to really say about that note lineup? This sounds scrumptious and uplifting, and quite possibly tooth-achingly sweet. And also pink.

DH's preliminary notes: That just sounds like a cupcake. Literally a cupcake. (He said this without seeing the emoji I assigned to this one, so A+ for that. For whatever reason, even though I used the cupcake emoji, my brain didn't connect the dots on it and it took me almost a week after drafting this review to realize that the description does sound exactly like a cupcake. Brains are weird)

In bottle: Veeery sweet. This has a bit of a fruity edge that I wasn't expecting, and there's something else below the fruitiness that's sharp and a bit dusty-smelling. It smells very slightly boozy as well, in the same way vanilla extract smells boozy.

DH's thoughts: It's kind of balanced, if that makes sense. It's kind of light but kind of dark at the same time. Definitely has a musk in there of some kind, or at least I think it does.

On skin: Has the same dusty undertone as Syllabub (I'm guessing it's something in the cream note, since that's the only note they share), and has a very pronounced strawberry candy-like note to it. There's a tang in there as well, like cream cheese icing. It does indeed smell like cupcakes with a generous swirl of pink icing on top. This has quite a throw on it. I was smoking outside in the wind and could still smell a prominent cloud of Smellbutrin around myself.

DH's thoughts: Smells like toffee with maybe a hint of granola and some honey in it. Very foody. Still smells like a baked good.

Verdict: 4.5 very pink cupcakes out of 5. The dusty note isn't my favorite, but once it wears off, this is delectable. It's also very sweet (shocking), which is something I need to be in the mood for. When I'm in the mood for cavity-inducing sweet scents, this will definitely be one I reach for.



☕The Grace of the Posset (Like the foam on a cappuccino) (Spring retour, special order)

Preliminary notes: So DH has these French vanilla cappuccino Keurig pods, and I remember him saying "I would not complain if you smelled like this" while he was making one a month or so ago. I do love coffee scents as well despite not being a coffee drinker, so this was a shoo-in.

DH's preliminary notes: Breakfast.

In bottle: Almost floral and woody at first, but then the roast of the coffee comes out. Not quite as creamy as I'd expected. It smells like an upscale coffee shop.

DH's thoughts: This kind of smells like pancakes with some kind of fruit on it.

On skin: Virtually the same as in the bottle. The coffee note is pretty weak (in comparison to something like Lurker and Strange's Carpe Noctem), and there's a very perfume-y element to it. Does not, in any way, resemble DH's coffee pods, which is slightly disappointing but ultimately fine. It's its own thing and is still quite nice. Very creamy, cozy, and a bit rich. There's a veeery soft baked good note floating in the background somewhere, but this scent itself isn't foody.

DH's thoughts: Is that one of the ones that has honeysuckle in it? No? I've had many a cappuccino in my lifetime, and that smells nothing like it.

Verdict: 4 expensive coffees out of 5. I'm gonna age this one a bit and see if the coffee note gets any stronger and the perfume-y undertone evens out a bit. It is really nice as-is, however.



🌙Cambienne: Long Winter Night (Clary sage blossom infusion, a subtle hint of melon, a warm tinge of musk, ambergris accord, Haitian vetiver)

Preliminary notes: This one's an unexpected bonus. Tom had asked me if I'd be interested in a sample of this, and he ended up including a full bottle instead! Many thanks, Tom! Your kindness and generosity are unparalleled.

DH's preliminary notes: A humid brunch on a Caribbean island?

In bottle: The vetiver in this is gorgeous. It's almost creamy. I don't get anything else straight out of the bottle except the vetiver, and it's a really beautiful vetiver note at that.

DH's thoughts: OH, that is definitely not food. Really punches the nose, actually. I don't know how I feel about this one. It reminds me of rubbing alcohol. I don't like it.

On skin: Largely the same as in the bottle, though there's more of an herbal and musky edge on the skin. I think I liked this more before the herbal notes came ripping out of there.

DH's thoughts: *grimaces* Like when I wash my bong with isopropyl.

Verdict: 3 witchy herbal concoctions out of 5. DH hates this stuff, and I'm not crazy about it either, but it's not objectively bad. I really did enjoy the vetiver note before it hit my skin.