Scentzilla!

Antonia’s Flowers eau de parfum is, in a word, maddening. It is both repugnant and beautiful.

The eau de parfum opens with a note I can only liken to the smell of a bad hangover. The first ten minutes are utterly dominated by a particularly bilious pollen that chokes. It is honestly so bad that each time I tested this I was consumed with a deep desire to scrub it off and forget about having the patience to see it through to the drydown.

But with time, I begin to perceive a tiger lily-like smell, still rife with pollen, but fortunately evaporated of all bile. While it’s not quite so alienating, I still feel an urge to scrub. This fades down into a nice enough Easter lily scent, which quickly drops off into… nothing. It’s as if the scent has died completely.

But then ever so s-l-o-w-l-y, and utterly surprisingly, freesia begins to rise. It is an effulgent yet delicate freesia note, and I’d have to say it comes the closest I’ve ever smelled in perfume to capturing the flower itself. The scent of pressed linens and but the slightest implication of pepper is what marks this note as so flower-true to me. The freesia seems underpinned by the freshness of calla lilies at the very end, and gives me the sensation of floating along in a cloud of my own sillage.

I can’t say I’d ever buy a full bottle of Antonia’s Flowers: I find the opening far too unsettling. Even gross. And the unevenness of development is not something I’m keen on at all. But I think Antonia’s Flowers should be given serious consideration by those who really love freesia (and do not mind strong lily.) It is available in an eau de parfum, which I tested, as well as an eau de toilette and parfum.

Top image of the doggie hangover from www.bornintoit.com. Much more beautiful second image is entitled “Freesia and Lilies,” by Lynn Gertenbach, and is from the Ella Walton Richardson Fine Art Gallery.

Floret eau de parfum by Antonia’s Flowers is an apricot dominant scent. White florals hug this fruity note tightly, giving Floret a very soft, unsugared feel. Of these florals, sweet pea is what I notice most at the start. It comes across as a note that is remarkably lotion-like. With the drydown, what I primarily find is lily of the valley mixing with apricot before the fruit completely evaporates and leaves just flowers behind. This scent is incredibly gentle, and would likely appeal most to those who seek fragrances that soft pedal their potency. (Floret is also available in an eau de toilette, but I didn’t sample that version. Given how understated this fragrance is, I would personally just skip the lighter concentration.)

When Benefit Cosmetics introduced their Maybe Baby eau de toilette, I recall many people from the fragrance site boards remarking on how incredibly similar it is to Floret. I don’t feel it’s an unfair comparison. But where Floret is soft and calming, Maybe Baby is sparkling and champagne-like. The central character of the apricot in both scents is enjoyable, though I must admit Floret has the superior staying power by a long shot. However, I’m not sure most people would bother owning both scents. I will probably stick by Maybe Baby, as it is more affordable, easier for me to pick up, and frankly I am addicted to Benefit’s Touch Me Then Try to Leave cream which bears the same fragrance as Maybe Baby.

It’s a little tricky to nail down brick and mortar stores that carry the Antonia’s Flowers line, but thankfully it’s quite easy to order samples online.

Sorry for the brevity of this post. Last night I was twiddling with the template for my other blog, and then branches from the tree in my neighbor’s yard came cracking down, which needed to be cleared from the street. (They’re in their 70s, and it’d be kind of rotten of us to leave the job for them to handle on their own.) Both tasks ended up taking a bit longer than I thought they would.