Friday, August 10, 2018

Nocturne Alchemy: Prehistoria Collection


Dinosaurs are cool. 

And smelling like a dinosaur is even better than you might expect. This is not the carrion coated, urine soaked tongue of a T-Rex like Michael Crichton described in his novel, but a line of perfectly glorious amber based fragrances. 

Nocturne Alchemy currently has the Prehistoria Collection in the Limited section of the web-store under both the Summer ($25) and Summer Resurgence ($26) Collections. Seth is the nose behind the dinosaurs and he created them for layering purposes. He recommends dabbing a dinosaur on your wrist or inner elbow and allowing it to mellow a few seconds, feel free to huff it in at this time, and then adding some other lovely Nocturne Alchemy scents on top of it for the dino egg to "hatch." I do layer with these but I also wear them alone and feel that they are powerful and beautiful enough to stand on their own. 


Iguanodon- Notes: Resinous amber accord, limestone amber, Siam balsam, Egyptian white jasmine, sandalwood, white sandalwood absolute, Australian sandalwood, frankincense, cedar, black amber and a drop of ylang ylang absolute.

Amber and sandalwood dominate with a liquid golden hue from the ylang ylang gilding the edges with its tropical banana nectar when sniffed from the vial. On the skin, the narcotic ylang ylang and now jasmine too, open up more widely and bestow their perfume generously. These heady flowers drift seamlessly into the limestone amber which has a porous mineral quality to it. The balsam lends just a whiff of fresh evergreen winds, very subtle but perfectly right. This settles into a light floaty sandalwood and amber that possesses a touch of sweetness. Just a touch. Beautiful.


Tyrannosaurus- Notes: Resinous amber accord, limestone amber, a drop of cacao, Dracaena Draco of Morocco and Sangre de Grado Dragon's Blood. 

The King of Tyrant Lizards thunders out of the bottle in a red resin haze of dragon's blood and amber. Upon landing on the skin it reveals the more gentle side of dragon's blood, the carnations and florals. This is fleeting though, soon the scarlet spice of the resin pulls deeper and almost holds tones of cinnamon and red clay earth in its heart. It dries down into earthy smooth incense and smells like a most excellent dragon's blood with the clarity of amber to heighten it. I am tempted to create an Andominous Rex hybrid myself and layer the musky Velociraptor with the dragon's blood T-Rex for a bitey spiced musk. You can read about Velociraptor next...sorry for the spoiler.


Velociraptor- Notes: Resinous amber accord, limestone amber, black musk absolute, black amber and a drop of aged viscous Velociraptor Kashmir red musk.

Claws of musk and amber scratch their way out of the bottle and tease the nose with yumminess to come. Grazed onto the skin the deep red and black musks leave grooves of spiced resins and full bodied velvet along the skin. These musks and ambers are exquisite. This one wears easily on its own but would layer with just about anything but in particular the EA color line I think. The sweetness would make the musks all the more cuddly, would retract the claws a touch. But the claws are nice. Verrrrry very nice. 


Diplodocus- Notes: Resinous amber accord, limestone amber, a drop of cacao, Boswellia carterii frankincese from the United Arab Emirates and a drop of steam distilled Oman frankincense tears, hand harvested by the perfumers. 

Cocoa powder and frankincense waft from the bottle in a heady mixture. Fresh on the skin the lemony resin of frankincense pushes against the powdery chocolate, making for a headstrong fragrance. At first I wasn't crazy about the chocolate but I very much enjoy layering this with vanilla centric perfumes and pumpkin scents. Diplodocus is brilliant for adding a strong depth to a fragrance. I purchased this one last year so it has aged nicely and is already half gone. Sadly, this one did not resurge but I wanted to review it for the sake of thoroughness. 


Utahraptor- Notes: Resinous amber accord, limestone amber, Kashmir and black musk absolutes, Egyptian musk and a drop of Crimson and Sri Lankan black peppercorn eo. 

Dark musks with a touch of woody pepper emerge from the amber glass. The black silken musks are undeniably smooth and a touch sweet. The ambers pull in dark and resinous with the musk to drape about them. This one is not as "red" or spiced or bold as Velociraptor, more sweet and dark and amber focused. More slinky.


Dimetrodon- Notes: Resinous amber accord, limestone amber, UNRELEASED Studio Limited Cinder Vanilla (fire smoked caramelized vanilla), smoked oudh, Egyptian lilac, cypress and creamy wood undertones.

From the bottle a tendril of gray smoke unwinds. Once lit upon the skin the smoke curls about the flesh like an undulating coal snake. It slithers into sugared territory with blackened vanilla in the top of the heart then it veers into the lilac patch. The lilac bleaches the smoke into a pale nimbus that has an almost metallic electrical headspace. Like smoke and heat lightening under a veil of lilacs. The slightest aquatic greenery wriggles into the scent from the cypress as it starts to dry down but then fades into warmer tones once the amber and oudh burrow into the base. It finishes as a woodsy oudh and amber that I am thrilled to have in my collection.


I love the colors and artwork on these dinosaurs. Dimetrodon was one of my favorite dinosaurs when Savanna went through a rigorous dino phase in her toddlerhood. She had a dinosaur party for her 3rd birthday and her 5th birthday. The rest were dragons or Pokemon. She never strayed far from the reptiles. 


Maiasaura- Notes: Resinous amber accord, limestone amber, white amber absolute, amaranthus, pink peppercorn, honeysuckle nectar and tuberose extract.

Blossoming flowers that drip with dulcet nectar and juicy amber tears unfurl from the bottle. Dabbed onto the flesh a creamy tropical amber emerges. Subtle glimmers of honeysuckle and tuberose shine with antique gold. I love how elegant this scent is. The flowers add a whipped softness to the amber. 


Deinonychus- Notes: Resinous amber accord, limestone amber, VA Cemetery Musk accord, Sri Lanka sandalwood, Hungarian white cedarwood, Kobalt SL and a drop of Egyptian Temple oudh.

I love the aroma that comes out of this vial. It is pretty much the most amazing resin. It brings to mind copal a little bit, a buttery smooth dark amber. On the wrist a glorious taupe musk and polished sandalwood swirl about. The sandalwood gets creamier with vanilla and that is what the dry down feels like, a warm vanilla sandalwood with a touch of amber.



Plesiosaurus- Notes: Resinous amber accord, limestone amber, Bastet's Ice Cream accord.

In the bottle a gooey vanilla emerges with caramel tones. Glazed onto the skin Bastet's Ice Cream accord does what it always does on my skin and acquires a brief period of ozonic refrigerated air. After a few minutes that wears away and reveals a dark maple hued amber vanilla. There is almost a lemony brightness to the scent in the heart. The vanilla in this scent reminds me of Ember Vanilla in the viscous strength that it exudes. I wore this on my inner arm and Plesiosaurus' paddle like arm kept reaching up and bopping me on the nose for attention. I enjoy this scent and will apply it lightly as it has quite the projection. In fact the longevity is tremendous as well, I put it on around 3pm, went to bed, took a shower and then around noon the next day I could smell the most exquisite pillowy vanilla in the crook of my arm still. I plan to layer it with Bastet's Amber or Ozymandias or a Santalum based blend, something arid, woody or dry. 

Most of these are available for purchase except for Diplodocus which did not resurge and Plesiosaurus which sold out. I picked up Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor for Savanna, as she asked for them, so I might go back and get them for myself too. I am also eyeing up Compsognathus (musk, dragon's blood and coffee), Archaeopteryx (spices, labdanum and vanilla) and Cryolophosaurus (patchouli to the max) for potential homing. 

Bastet's Bazaar will be debuting very soon, where Nocturne Alchemy will release limited editions of perfume, bath and body and who knows what all kinds of excitement! 

What is your favorite dinosaur? If you had to pick one which dino would you bring home as a pet?

4 comments:

  1. Wow- they all look so good!! I have been faithfully stalking your blog daily - I'm glad your summer went well! We are already back to school here- not happy about that. Ellisa��

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    1. They really are amazing amber scents. Back to school did come rather quickly I felt like but I feel that way every summer. It just slips by like a silver minnow. But I also do enjoy the fresh clean page of a new school year. And this school year I have so many new things to teach and new tools to use. I am excited. <3 Hope you are doing well Ellisa! How are things going? Anything new?

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  2. It has been a rough few months, but things are finally looking better. My husband had prostate cancer/ got it removed and is now finally cancer free! We are in a great place now.

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    1. Oh wow. That is intense. I will be praying it stays away. <3

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