Hi friends! I've been looking forward to getting this set posted. It's the samples I picked up during the Sixteen92 Anniversary sale! I must say, that I'm really impressed with the anniversary scents I tried. Two of them ended up being all time S92 favorites for me!
The perfumes covered in today's review are:
- May I Admire You Again Today? [ store link ]
- Save Ferris [ store link]
- Sometimes You Just Gotta Say W.T.F [ store link ]
- Moirai [ store link ]
- It's History. It's Poetry. [ store link ]
Methods
All perfumes in this review were allowed to rest for several days ( a few weeks for these scents) after arrival. The perfumes were kept in the dark in a plastic box if small enough. If too large for a box they generally sit on top of a bookcase or bedside table, or inside of a drawer. I did crack them open to sniff them directly after arrival, and with a couple to do an initial test. The reviews are not based off of these initial impressions - though if a rest did change the smell I’ll note that.
I’m doing a half-hour skin test with each perfume. They are always applied to skin that has either been washed or hasn’t had perfume on it that day. Sometimes I will run one scent on one wrist/hand/arm and the other on the other wrist/hand/arm. When I wash my hands for review purposes I wash with Dove sensitive skin, or almond Doc Bronner’s.
Before doing test periods I often wear or play with other scents in my collection (that I wash off). I also am often wearing scented lotion on my feet and ankles (that I do not wash off). Sometimes I wear scented hair products simultaneously. Theoretically there could be cross-contamination.
For oils: Each sample was gently swirled before application. Then applied directly to skin - typically the top of my arm or the back of my hand.
Each review is written without looking at the notes in that moment. Frequently I will glance at a perfume’s notes beforehand. At the end of the review I will list what the official notes are and comment on how I think they interacted.
Bottle Review
You can see my review of S92's 2ml wands [ here ]
A reminder: Each nose is different and each skin’s chemistry is different. Your mileage may vary.
May I Admire You Again Today?
I remember one note from this. ‘strong lips’. What do strong lips smell like? I suppose it’s time to find out.
In the bottle: Glassy - like many of S92’s scents. Under that is tart fruit (citrus) and warm, skin-like musk (I’m betting that’s the aforementioned strong lips). There’s an edge of something creamy in this, and something that reminds me of amber. I could see a pink floral. It’s a very blended scent so I’m finding individual notes difficult to pick out.
Wet on my skin: Fruity-citrusy, creamy, maybe the tiniest bit floral (adding that glassy quality?), and skin musk. Might be a touch of silk or a textile note too. Very much a ‘your skin but better’. Definitely something resinous/woody in here - an amber or sandalwood or something of that ilk.
Drydown: Still a your-skin-but-better family scent. I’m getting citrus - orange? - combined with something like a very sweet floral. At this point it’s reminding me of honeysuckle or neroli. The base of the scent is that skin musk. Maybe a whisper of silk. It’s like a sweeter, less bitter, more musky companion to S92’s Blood and Honey.
After 30 mins: So the fruit smell reminds me simultaneously of a glass of champagne and a glass of orange juice. It’s tart, a little effervescent, and smooth. After that is a sweet floral that plays very nice with the fruity note. Below that is a bright resin and rich skin musk with a tiny touch of silk. Very stable - but also gets smoother and creamier that longer I wear it.
Official Notes: Pink petals, pale amber, soft violet leaf, sparkling tuberose, candied ginger, strong lips
So the florals are the pink petals and the tuberose. The pink is a soft touch in this - I’d say the tuberose is more prominent. The candied ginger must be what was reminding me so strongly of a tart fruit. It’s a very smooth, tart ginger. The amber is the bright resin. The violet leaf is probably reminding me some of silk - it’s very smooth and soft. The strong lips are probably the skin musk.
Verdict: This is one of the best scents I’ve smelled from Sixteen92. I know it’s a ginger but it reads like a fruit making the scent as a whole read like a sparkling fruity floral. I have no idea if I’ll upsize the scent - gosh, with the skin note in there it’d make a great hair product. Update: I ended up upsizing this one into a sea salt hair mist.
Save Ferris
I remember this one having blue skies, pretzels, and lake water as some of the notes. Very excited to explore what ‘blue skies’ smell like.
In the bottle: SALT, a flour based gourmand (probably pretzel) layered over a rich, soft, and musky vanilla. Like - I just used three adjectives on that vanilla but I could have easily used four! It’s also kind of ‘toasted’. A very golden-brown vanilla. It’s also creamy to the degree that it could conceivably be a tonka.
Wet on my skin: SALTED pretzel at the very top. A golden amber or something similar under that. Then a hit of that rich, nutty (see?? Another adjective!) vanilla/tonka. Finally just the tiniest edges of still water. Very gourmand and pretty much gender neutral.
Drydown: The amber has moved to the forefront along with an almost boozy, sparkling note. I figure the almost-boozy-sparkling-note is probably the blue skies. Right behind that is the warm savoriness of the pretzels. It rounds out with a base of that roasty, toasty vanilla/tonka and edges of lake water.
After 30 mins: The scent has morphed quite a bit after the drydown - instead of just getting ‘amber’ I’m now getting S92’s cake accord with like… the tiniest hint possible of pretzel behind it. Under that is the thick scent reminiscent of tonka and edges of that sparkling-smelling note and lake water (and I do mean tiny edges). I don’t know if it’s my skin chemistry, or just how this scent wears but it is significantly different than when I first put it on.
Official Notes: Funnel cakes & lemonade from Wrigley field, salted pretzels, bright blue skies, cool Lake Michigan breeze, Bueller… Bueller…
So uh, okay. The funnel cakes must be the amber/cake note - they don’t have that greasy-ultra-sugary smell I associate with funnel cakes. The lemonade must be that note that reminds me of a very complex tonka - but I don’t get anything all that citrusy from it at any stage. It does remind me of the smell of lemonade that’s more sugar than anything and isn’t really that art. The salted pretzels are there, but fade over the life of the scent. The blue skies must be the sparkling note. The Lake Michigan breeze is actually pretty accurate to the kind of subtle edges of water throughout the scent.
Verdict: This scent wore much more complexly in the wet stages, and even in the initial drydown. Honestly, it’s kind of disappointing how it morphed on me and how much of the complexity was lost. I wish the lemonade note had been more prominent and that there’d been a powdered sugar ‘edge’ to the cake notes. It smells fine as a kind of simple, amber-y gourmand, but I do wish it had maintained the initial complexity and that it had featured more of the citrus elements of the lemonade. A swap for me.
Sometimes You Just Gotta Say W.T.F.
I recall this one has a lake water, whisky, and cola note.
In the bottle: Still water, earthy-woody resin, and edges of Coca-cola. There’s maybe a whisper of booze in this that you get at the tail end of the scent. The strongest note is that earthy-woody resin which smells like old wood with a dusting of dirt over it.
Wet on my skin: Topnotes of still water and that Coke-with-an-edge-of-whisky. Under that in the midnotes is something spicy - kinda reminds me pleasantly of aftershave on clean skin. The base notes are that old-wood-coated-in-dirt resin.
Drydown: The cola-and-whisky combo has shifted to the forefront - it actually smells like a glass of whiskey-and-Coke with some slightly melted ice cubes in it. Beneath that is still, fresh water and a bit of the spicy-aftershave scent. At the base is still that old-wood-coated-in-dirt note.
After 30 mins: The water is at the forefront now and it does genuinely smell like melting ice cubes. Behind that is the whisky-and-cola, now fairly subdued. Beneath that a breath of spicy aftershave and finally a base of dirt-covered wood.
Official Notes: Aged whisky with a splash of diet Coke, dark amber, tonka, damp pier wood, cold lake water, Time of your life, huh kid?
So, the whisky and Coke are definitely there. The dark amber and tonka are what smells kind of like spicy aftershave. The cold lake water is the melting-ice-cubes smell. The dirt-covered-wood is the damp pier wood. This one really is what it says on the tin y’all.
Verdict: This is probably my favorite scent that I’ve reviewed from S92. Hands down. Upsizing happily. It’s masculine, it involves their spectacular soda note, it’s atmospheric. It doesn’t have much of the ‘sharpness’ or ‘glassiness’ I usually get from their scents.
Moirai
In the bottle: Soft waves of fruit layered over glassy resins/woods - edges of something gourmand smelling blending with something very earthy (benzoin maybe?). Whatever that earthy note is it has a bit of nose-tickly to it. Maybe it’s salt?
Wet on my skin: Topnotes of sand and salt, below that is a soft layer of fruit. The fruit is slightly green (like a guava or something) and not terribly sweet or tart - more like a “pure” fruitiness. At the base of the scent is a brown, slightly earthy resin and a bit of foody goodness.
Drydown: Salt, sand, butterscotchy rum, a tiny edge of that bitter fruit, and something earthy-resinous. The strongest notes in the skin are the butterscottchy-rum-smelling note and the earthy-resinous note. It started out kind of sharp and bitter but the longer I wear it the smoother it gets. There might be an echo of a floral in with the fruit but it’s hard to tell.
After 30 mins: Topnotes of salt, sand, and that butterscotchy rum. The fruit is there very faintly - and I still can’t tell if it has a floral mixed in with it. The earthy-resinous smell has died back quite a lot and I’m getting a ‘still water’ note at the base.
Official Notes: Black fig, black and red tea leaves, ginger root, coconut milk, papyrus
Well, huh. So I think the papyrus is what’s reminding me of still water. The ginger is what I was reading as sand - the ‘nose tickle’ from it might also be what’s reminding me of salt. The red-tea and coconut must be what’s making that kind of butterscotchy-rum smell. The black fig must be adding to that earthy-resinous vibe (the ‘fruity’ note in this doesn’t remind me of the smell of fig)… which leaves the black tea as adding that kind of bitter-green-fruity central notes.
The throw on this is about 6 inches from the skin. Wears mildly, but not faintly.
Verdict: I have no idea how I feel about this scent. I have no idea if I’ll keep my sample or swap it. It is not green in the sense of freshly cut grass, but more green like bitter, green fruit. I do like the gourmand portion - S92 rarely goes super-sweet with its scents and as a consequence that means its gourmands are really appealing and complex to my nose. I also am not sure who to recommend this scent to. Fans of… dark, gourmand, oceanics? I don’t know. It’s left me feeling very puzzled.
It’s History. It’s Poetry.
In the bottle: Ah, a hothouse scent. The first thing I get is mulch, followed by something kinda alcoholic (whisky?). Under that is something oddly creamy and maybe… a floral? It’s hard to tell. Something sweet, nevertheless. Little bit of a piquant note at the edges that is nose-tickly.
Wet on my skin: So at the top is a really odd note. It reads as creamy, kinda green, and kinda like skin. It’s like someone’s taken a green coconut husk and rubbed it on their skin. There’s that odd piquant note and then fresh wood - cedar maybe? Very masculine and kind of old fashioned smelling.
Update: So, I googled where the quote that’s the title of the scent comes from and it’s the Catcher in the Rye. I honestly had assumed it was a Hemingway quote for some reason (I suppose I didn’t read the description as closely as I could.). This is what I get for not checking because that topnote that smells creamy, green, and like skin? I’m pretty sure that’s rye friends! It certainly smells like rye bread.
Drydown: Rye/tall grass, a glass of whiskey, a bit of that odd piquancy I can’t place, and a really, really earthy/mulchy base with an edge of fresh wood. It smells like a plank of fresh wood set down on a bed of mulch. Bit of sweetness of the perfume I can’t place.
After 30 mins: Still about the same - but it has mellowed some. Compared to most ‘hothouse’ type scents this one is smooth - almost creamy. It’s just this side of gender neutral - enough of a twist on the mulch-and-greenery ‘hothouse’ smell that it feels slightly more masculine than gender neutral. Definitely heavier on the mulch/wood smells than the green ones - but there is a hint of grassiness to this.
Official Notes: Tobacco, whisky, polished wood, typewriter ink, city sidewalks, carousel lights in the rain
I can see the whisky - the tobacco in this comes off more ‘grassy’ or leafy than the rich, sticky herbal notes I’m use to from tobacco. The wood doesn’t smell polished at all to my nose - it smells fresh - almost green. As part of the smooth-sweetness I could see some ink being in here but it doesn’t stand out strongly. I think what my nose reads as ‘mulch’ is in fact the sidewalk accord. My best guess for the ‘carousel lights in the rain’ is that kind of piquant, nose-tickly note combined with the wet/humidity that’s making me read this as ‘hothouse’.
Verdict: Not my thing. I was hoping for a richer, smoother, wood and a richer, more developed tobacco in this. A swap for me. If you’ve been hunting for a more woody, more masculine ‘hothouse’ family scent this one might be worth giving a go for the little unique twists in it.
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