Perfume-Aftelier-Secret Garden

Secret Garden (EDP) by Aftelier has had my attention for a while, maybe it is the name, or maybe it is just my curiosity and my imaginary perfect spring/warm-weather-perfume wish, finally I got a sample!

Cleaned-up patchouli, woody oud-y syrupy sweetness oozed out when I had a drop of Secret Garden on me. It smells really natural, somewhat familiar but I cannot really retrieve the right memory related to this; something I am sure is, Secret Garden at this stage has this quasi-Chanel No.5 Parfum type of civet smell, which is animalic but not stinky; and the syrupy jam-y tart raspberry simply lightens up the whole concoction and smells like Sunday afternoon picnic at grandma’s in a way, the home-made jam, the smell of the sun (if it had a smell) and the whole sense of care-freeness (or maybe, it’s grandma’s Chanel No.5 Parfum in the air mixed with raspberry jam).

Then the scent develops in a really linear fashion. It is sweet, syrupy without the thickness. Somehow it reminds me something from the Chanel Les Exclusif range, but not as sophisticated or that Chanel-y (as in all suited up, business-y).

Secret Garden is not bad at all, somewhat I find it has some personality and I did enjoy it momentarily; however, to smell this syrupy for nearly the whole duration of wearing this perfume, I guess I can easily pass this to someone else.

However, does Secret Garden smell like the type of lush, natural garden I was dreaming of? Not really.
Also, I'm pretty sure Secret Garden would not be that much warm-weather friendly to me.

Oh well, I tried. :S