Sunday, July 7, 2019

Sixteen92: Summer 1989- Live Shows- Collection


Sixteen92's summer collection arrived a while back from The Circle subscription I purchased but I had not really been in the frame of mind to devote time to experiencing multiple perfumes until recently. This turned out to be a totally rad variety of scents that ranged from darkly intense and atmospheric to sweet, young and innocent. All are built around various songs from the summer of 1989. This sample set can be purchased for $24.



Cruel Summer- Notes: Beach rock, hot sand, palm fronds, sunblock, salt and rum.
From the vial a sweet mixture of coconut nectar and creamy banana florals washes over the senses. I dig it already. Creamy coconut gardenias open up the scent once applied to warm skin. Then rum, sweet and tropical, streams into the heart. Cruel Summer dries into a sandy amber and golden driftwood with a whiff of soft leathery ambergris. This one is a stand out for me and probably my favorite of the bunch. It is a beachy tropical scent that is complex but also distills a Florida beach summer down into a heady concoction that can be enjoyed easily.

Pour Some Sugar On Me- Notes: White peach, raspberry syrup, citrus flower, sweet mango, cotton candy and pink lipstick.
Oranges, lemons, peaches and berries- a tangy sweet ode to a candied Carmen Miranda. Bits of Skittles, Starbust and Now and Laters tucked tightly between molars and tie-dying the tongue. On the skin the fruits dance taking raspberry's lead. They kick up a fluffy nimbus of strawberry hued candy floss that swirls and floats in the heart, highlighted by a halo of subtle musk. Powdery pink orris licks at the edges of plump mango as the scent shifts. The drydown still carries some of that violet flowered orris and tucks it into a banana vanilla custard treat. This is a vibrant fruity perfume with undertones of budding womanhood that make it intriguing.


Bad Reputation- Notes: Rolling paper, cannabis, cherry cola, worn leather jacket and torn magazine pages.
In the vial lies a half drunk Mr. Pibb frozen in time within its hourglass shaped bottle next to a stack of Teen Beat magazines with their plasticky sheen of ink and hairless boyish faces. Glossed onto the flesh the theme of Dr. Pepper Lip Smackers and plastic film encased heart throb 'zines continues. Light leather and singed papers, perhaps love notes from an old flame, creep into the heart with a fresh and clean Teen Spirit vibe. This is no rugged leather but a fresh leather. The cannabis is quiet and the drydown retains the leathery Dr. Pepper/Mr. Pibb ghosting of cherry cola.

Shout At The Devil- Notes: Smeared makeup, cocaine, hairspray, fog machine and nag champa.
The sample vial holds the scent of tuberose laced hairspray and thin threads of incense smoke. Wet on the skin clean, crisp jasmine and honeysuckle petals rip and shred in an electrical storm where silvery aldehydes give an impression of a static hairspray thundercloud. The florals dart in and out of the aroma as steely incense curls like barbed wire through the white flowered musk. The drydown features a pyrite fog of stony incense. This scent is my second favorite with its push and pull between silvery mineral and ozonic incense and narcotic florals.


Youth Gone Wild- Notes: New vinyl records, warm night air, polished arcade wood, hot asphalt and burned rubber.
Rocky concrete pavement pushes up through the glass vial while on the wrists the vinyl aspects pull through first: blackened rubber, wax and ink. Echoes of endless albums stacked dozens deep in wooden crates. Wet steamy pavement presents itself after the opening. Night rains on the street after a long hot summer day, the petrichor and stone fragrance so solid and visceral the steam can be felt on the face like a tangible memory. The base of the scent veers into the vanished mahogany territory with crevasses of labdanum darkness to warm it up. 

Time After Time- Notes: Watermelon lipgloss, peony blossom, new roller skates, vanilla malt and sugar musk.
Watermelon syrup drenched sno-cones and vanilla marshmallow musk can be inhaled from the sample. It reminds me of the creamy Rosegirls wax tart that Jenny made with marshmallow watermelon peppermint but without the peppermint. On the skin it opens up the same way but more of the malty aspects emerge to mimic crisp sugar cookies. It is the spirit of the cookies rather than the realism of them, this is not a bakery scent. A subtle waft of shiny new leather skirts the heart. Peony and watermelon marry effortlessly given peony's melon-like roundness. As it dries the plastic-y leather skates to the center then vanishes in a puff of clean powdery musk. Distant memories of Love's Baby Soft scented school days rise to the surface of my mind. This scent is one that morphs in many unexpected ways but it works somehow. That drydown is what really ensnares my appreciation though. 


This is a fabulous collection of scents. I am happy I got to experience them all. Cruel Summer, Shout at the Devil and Time After Time are my favorites. Youth Gone Wild is a fun one though too with its steamy pavement realism.

Did you try out any of these? Are you a Circle member? Which of these songs is your favorite? I Cruel Summer is mine.

5 comments:

  1. Being a music fan, I was ECSTATIC when I saw this collection release!
    Sixteen92 has not worn well with my body chemistry in the past, but I needed to give some of these a definite try so I ordered sample vials from Ajevie.
    The 3 blends that most appealed to me are actually songs by artists that I really really love: Joan Jett (Bad Reputation), Motley Crue (Shout at the Devil) and Skid Row (Youth Gone Wild). I grabbed all of those, but your Cruel Summer review is making me wish I grabbed that one as well. :O
    Shout at the Devil and Bad Reputation are my faves. Youth Gone Wild is wild and I need to test it again. lol
    I am contemplating full sizes.
    I do think I subconsciously love and adore these fragrances more because of their musical influence and I am totally fine with admitting that. lol (If they had regular names that didn't connect with me, I probably wouldn't have tried them in the first place or written them off as not so great if I stil went ahead and tried them).
    What a fun, awesome collection!! I love it!!

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    1. Glad that you love those!! I have a feeling with all the wild notes that these perfumes would wear very differently on different bodies too. I am happy with the collection overall but none of them have me pulling the trigger on a full bottle. I will wear the ones I liked most though and probably pass on the rest to others. I hear you about liking scents more if they pull at the heart strings with a name or theme. I think then associations are made that make the scent more appealing. I have had that happen for sure. I always love wearing and trying scents with notes I wouldn't normally try. It is like a mini adventure. Enjoy your scents!!

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    2. I was perusing the site this morning and guess I never realized there are roll ons and spray formats, do you have any input on what you prefer or the perfomance of either format? I know the difference in scent throw, but just curious for Sixteen92 specifically.. I think I've only tried their oils so far.

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    3. I have picked up a handful of their 7ml travel EDP sprays and prefer them in that format. The oils are nice but I like the clarity that the alcohol gives them. I really wanted Black Sugar in the EDP but it is discontinued. :-( The sprays have more of a projection and on me a slightly longer lifespan.

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    4. Thank you so much for your feedback!
      I'm really sorry that scent got discontinued. Maybe you'll get lucky and find one from destash or they'll be able to blend up an almost exact dupe in the future?? I don't like when things I love go away forever.

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