Thursday, June 07, 2007

Yosh U4EAHH! and Sage Perfume Oil

I'm not sure why poor Moea didn't get any comments. Granted, the post was short and to the point, and I guess so was the perfume oil itself. Vanilla-based scents can be fun to wear, but they are rather, uh, vanilla.

When I used to think of perfume oils, I generally thought of them as hippie-ish, full of patchouli and frankincense and...well, a lot of the notes that makes up perfumes I love! To be sure, plenty of perfume oils like that exist--and some of them are remarkable, but it's just too hot to wear them right now. But by and large, when I first started sampling perfume and tried some oils, they were mostly a new breed for me, lush tropical florals that made me long to be on a beach somewhere with a book and a fruity cocktail.

Yosh U4EAHH! and Sage Perfume Oil (by a perfumer also called Sage) fall into neither of the above-mentioned categories. U4EAHH!, with notes of pomegranate, aloe vera, cucumber, pear, and water lily, is a tart burst of fruit, green and refreshing, but rather sweet. Although I like it well enough, I find it a bit pricey ($130 for 8ml) for a scent whose notes were better lent to a shower gel or body spray than a perfume oil. For people who like very clean scents, this one works well, and the one thing it definitely has over shower gel or body spray is lasting power. Most other perfume oils are moderately priced around $45, which makes sense given they're mostly straightforward. To me, they lack the art of development. If I were going to spend this much on an oil, I think Yosh's White Flowers would be the better choice.

Sage Perfume Oil, with notes of sage, sweet pea, African musk, tonka bean, and hints of cucumber, is more up my alley, both price- and scent-wise. It's also refreshing, and the cucumber notes lend the same watery quality that seem to cool the scent, but the soft herbal quality is what appeals to me the most with this one. Sage can be overpowering, but here it's light, almost powdery (I think that's the tonka bean at work), and any edgy incense quality is removed by the sweet pea and musk. This one is a desert breeze, cooling and soothing in the summer, adding a hint of soft warmth to the winter. I got this sample because I actually wanted to purchase it, and it was sold out! It's still on my list to buy. It comes in a EDT form as well, but I prefer the oil for its lasting power and how close it stays to the skin.

*photos from Luckyscent