Perfume-Demeter Fragrance-Black Russian

Besides Gin&Tonic and non-girly-sweet drinks with absinthe in it, Black Russian is the only sweet drink I ever really liked. Thus it felt like a duty to try out Demeter's Black Russian.

This Black Russian by Demeter Fragrance starts with milky creamy, coffee liquor-y smell with a touch of fresh sweetness. I was nearly gonna say it’s spot on; however since the initial ‘black Russian’ essence gets masked by the rather thick coffee flavoured candy scent, I worried that the perfume might go to a warm foody direction, and the worry is true.

The Demeter Black Russian is quite linear after the initial relatively truer-to-Black-Russian start. The linear scent is not bad, as I said above, it’s the coffee flavoured candy scent, which somehow does make me think of cola in Black Russian. However, this Black Russian is a bit too foody, sweet, creamy, gourmand and even a little bit Christmas-y; it lacks the sweet freshness, the fizzy bubbly refreshing feel a typical Black Russian gives me.

Overall, it’s nice, a slightly less alcoholic approach to Black Russian and I guess it makes the perfume quite wearable, especially in cooler days when you crave something syrup-y from a café.

However, I wouldn't recommend Demeter's Black Russian to anyone, due to the fact that it's not true to its name (hey, Demeter, what's going on here? Also, if someone's looking for something nice, creamy, Black Russian-y, there are many good gourmand perfumes out there; or if someone's looking for something a bit Coke-y, the option is quite unlimited outthere too).

Perfume-Demeter Fragrance-Gin&Tonic

Funny that Gin&Tonic was my go-to drink for years and with so many Happy Hour Collection choices from Demeter, my heart goes for Gin&Tonic by Demeter immediately once again.

Gin&Tonic smells like the real thing when smelling from the bottle or paper (Gin&Tonic with lime wedge). However, on me, it has the Gin&Tonic smell as background, with a dash of floral hint, like those from a typical ivory soap, and I find Gin&Tonic quite nice to wear if you want something has the cleaness of Pure Soap also by Demeter, but with a little bit fresh and refreshing twist.

Perfume-Demeter Fragrance-New Zealand

Most of the clean Demeter scents just don't agree with me. New Zealand by Demeter is unfortunately one of them.

New Zealand by Demeter starts with some weird, soap-bubble-in-a-plastic-tube-for-too-long smell, somewhat getting glue-y. However, soon it transformed into real, lush, green leafy scent reminds me of those evergreen trees. Somewhat it does reminds me of New Zealand if I think about New Zealand while smelling this, I lived in Christchurch for about two years, and New Zealand reminds me of the gardens, the sun, the little hills and a vast landscape of green trees. Somehow it’s refreshingly young and lively.

Just when I think I can forgive the weird opening and love this scent, old glue plus sugarcane juice is the image hits my mind, yes, New Zealand transformed into a weirder smell. When the weird glue scent gradually disappears, it’s actually not bad, it reminds me a lot of Rain, also by Demeter, the sweet, kinda airy smell; plus a touch of those light, sweet, woody smell from uncoated wood furniture. However the drawback is, it gives me a headache, even though all these smells are so naturally present in life.

Perfume-Demeter Fragrance-Rain

Rain by Demeter is quite a perfume somewhat captured one type of the nice feeling rain, in a tropical place full of green, lush vegetations, might smell like. It starts off quite sweet, as in a zest citrusy sweet smell without too much of the typical citrusy-ness. Somehow I think I can smell a little bit fir, and sometimes a tiny hint of pepper which brings out the coolness of the perfume.

As the perfume develops, it gets a little bit stale, like a water-downed version of the above, and totally minus the fir-like cooling and open-space/forest smell.

Nice perfume, interesting to try on. I actually find it works nicely as a traditional cologne with a modern leafy sweet twist.

Perfume-Demeter Fragrance-Laundromat

Laundromat by Demeter has the similar Vodka-smelling start as Pure Soap, however, the Vodka smell here has entangled with the perfume for quite a few minutes.

The start of Laundromat is somewhat cold metallic plus a bit of plant sharpness (thinking about rosemary, but Laundromat doesn’t smell anything of rosemary tho). After these brief weird phase, Laundromat does smell like Laundromat, especially those Laundromat placed in a commercial laundry place—still clean, nice, possibly harbours so many different types of washing powders, slightly synthetic but nice enough (just like the washing detergent smell, it’s synthetic, but we are so used to it thus we find it ‘nature’ somehow).

Laundromat is nice, but somehow I find it sometimes makes me feel as if I’ve been locked in a laundry room, without fresh air. I would recommend Pure Soap as a more ‘nature’/comfy perfume to use instead of Laundromat if what you are looking for is the washing product smell plus a little bit mental/emotional space for fresh air.

Perfume-Demeter Fragrance-Pure Soap

Pure Soap by Demeter is really true to its name if the soap here we are talking about is the type of white, simple, supermarket home brand soap, which normally have a hint of discreet floral smell and the powdery/soap smell which makes you think of clean white towels. Somehow Pure Soap bares a similar essence as Prada Infusion Fleur D’oranger, of course Pure Soap doesn’t have any singular typical distinguishable floral notes.

The drawback of this Demeter perfume is, the blast of Vodka smell in the beginning is quite off-putting and the sillage or lasting power is quite poor. Well, it's quite typical Demeter :S

Perfume-Demeter Fragrance-Cotton Candy

The Cotton Candy scent by Demeter Fragrance reminds me a lot of pink strawberry flavoured + a little bit plain vanilla flavoured candy floss on a paper cone.

The strawberry candy floss scent is quite genuine in a late 80s way. It's like most of the high-voltage flavoured crap we had when we were little. Smells like strawberry, but you know it's really artificial. Somehow it even reminds me of some sugary scented erasers.

It disappears quite fast, sillage is about 2 hours. I like the dry down a lot. It's creamier, lighter and much less on-your-face artificial-flavour dominated.

I would only wear this fragrance when I don't want to smell like any typical perfume (and I would plan in advance, so people will only catch the barely-there scent after 2 hours' of apply). Sounds like a lot of trouble, and I don’t really see myself planning that well.
Anyhow, Cotton Candy is more like a body mist, and somehow I can imagine a five-year-old can easily play with it in her dress-up parties.

Perfume-Demeter Fragrance

Demeter, such a unique niche-y perfume house which I’ve just discovered about one year ago.

It’s an American niche-y house which is creating a fragrance library. The concept of Demeter is kind of bizarrely interesting. They have scents which are realistic-nature-smelling, like Dirt, Vanilla Cake Batter, Almond and a whole range of booze Happy Hour Collection.

A photo of some Demeter perfumes.

Their perfumes are rather cheap in comparison with niche houses like By Killian, Bond No.9 to name a few. For around $15-$30(depends where you find them) for a 30ml bottle, the size is perfect for perfumistas and the price can easily be the ‘dirt-cheap’ king of niche ones. Not to mention sometimes I can find a set of several 15ml ones :-)

However, be warned, for the pickier noses out there, maybe Demeter isn’t as sophisticated or complex as you wished it could be, or maybe you might taste some typically Demeter-y watery alcohol undertone in nearly every single bottle of them.  And the perfumes might end up as air-fresheners.

I guess since uni holiday has began, I will gradually finish sampling all the Demeter perfume/decants I’ve got my hands on.