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Right now Winter and Spring are at war with each other. Just when Spring is here to stay, a somber darkness moves in turning the sky a sullen gray.  While others can’t wait to see the back of Winter, I’m holding on as long as I can. My favorite perfumes are winter fragrances and it saddens me that they will be hibernating in my drawer soon to make room for light florals and fresh greens for Spring. I know what you’re going to say, “Who cares about the season? Just wear what you want!”. I wish I could but it doesn’t feel right wearing a heavy winter fragrance in the spring or summer. For me, it feels like wearing a long, heavy wool coat in the 80 degree weather. I feel inappropriately dressed as far as I’m concerned.

Firebird Tobacco Honey and Alkemia Miel de Sauvage et Tabac were my favorites in my winter wardrobe – two cold weather fumes I’m surely going to miss…

 As with the nature of bar soaps, their smell doesn’t stick to my skin after I shower, which is a big disappointment when I fall in love with the scent. I fell hard for Firebird Bath & Body Tobacco Honey soap this winter. Despite, the myriad of soaps I could choose from, I always reached for Tobacco Honey because it brought me warmth and comfort to a cold season.  I even packed a few cubes with me on my trip to the U.K. because I couldn’t live without it.  Because of the fleeting fragrance of soaps, a recent idiosyncrasy I’ve acquired is to match soap and perfume with the same scent profile. Two weeks ago after my return, I was rifling through my perfume samples and found the perfect match — Alkemia Apothecary & Perfumery Miel de Sauvage et Tabac!  I completely forgot I had this sample.  If not for my obsession with tobacco honey soap, I wouldn’t have found it! Don’t you love it when you discover perfume samples you didn’t know you had? It’s too bad I discovered this perfume just as winter draws to an end.  I would have worn this scent all winter long.  Better late than never, I guess!

Firebird  Bath & Body Tobacco Honey Handmade Glycerine Soap

Description:  Tobacco Honey is a gentlemanly blend of sweet pipe tobacco, golden honey, and a hint of spice. Made with a natural detergent-free soap base, with a sprinkle of black tea.

Ingredients:  coconut oil, palm oil, safflower oil, glycerin (vegetable derived), purified water, sodium hydroxide, sorbitol, sorbitan oleate, soybean protein, fragrance, color, tea

Notes:  tobacco, honey, spice, black tea

Scent:First impression from the bar, I get a slightly sweet, dry tobacco.  I can barely detect the spice but it’s somewhere in there! The dry tobacco leaves prevent the honey from being too cloying.  I expected the honey note would be tooth-achingly sweet but this is not the case. The dry tobacco balances out the honey nicely.  The honey leaves a creamy impression.  Think honey that has crystalized and turned solid white than its golden syrup form – a tobacco honey caramel! The black tea lends an earthy smokiness. 

Lather: Excellent and unique lather.  More creamy than foamy.

Cleanliness & Moisture: It leaves me feeling clean without stripping my skin.  I love how it doesn’t leave my skin parched.  My skin feels smooth and silky long after I dry off and shower.

Sillage & Longevity: The bar alone has a strong throw.  I noticed when I first put it in the soap dish and revisited the bathroom later, it scented the bathroom even not in use. The fragrance does linger on the skin after you shower, but it disappears after an hour or so.  Not bad! 

Would I buy again? Yes, will definitely be a staple in the bathroom.

Pricepoint: $5.50 plus shipping

Final Verdict: Firebird Tobacco Honey Soap leans more toward the masculine spectrum but I can’t get enough of its creamy, earthy, slighty sweet and smokey tobacco caramel goodness!  My husband is in love with this soap as well.  He loves to pair it with his Bulgari Black.  Made with no harsh ingredients, Tobacco Honey soap leaves us feeling clean and our skin smooth and silky.

Firebird Tobacco Honey Soap:  Available on Etsy. 

Alkemia Apothecary & Perfumery Miel de Sauvage et Tabac

Description:  Sweet, spicy pipe tobacco flecked with wild honey, freshly crushed honeycomb, the pollen of forest blossoms, and smoked black amber. Warm. Dark. Golden. Luminous. Untamed.

Notes: tobacco, honey, honeycomb, forest blossoms, black amber

Scent:  Two words come to mind at first sniff: sweet and sour.  I expected a smokiness from the pipe tobacco but I was pleasantly surprised.  Unlike the dry tobacco leaves from Firebird’s Tobacco Honey soap, Alkemia’s Miel de Sauvage et Tabac is more of a wet tobacco smell which makes this scent all the more unique and interesting. Wet on skin, it starts off bright and tangy.  It’s so tangy, I can feel it in the back of my jowls.  As it dries down the tanginess tones down and a sweet spice comes through.  Hiding behind the curtain of tang, sweet, and spice is a golden syrupy honey.  As the hours go by, Miel du Sauvage et Tabac gets darker, sweeter and warmer with the amber lifting off from the skin — viscous honey and dark amber molasses seducing my senses. Towards the end it morphs again with a soft sweet floral (I’m assuming the floral is from the pollen of forest blossom) honey.

Sillage:  Excellent projection for a perfume oil.  One dab on each pulse point: wrists, behind each ear, and cleavage is enough to leave a soft scent trail.  People could smell it standing or sitting beside me.  It’s not a pong monster but packs an unobtrusive punch.

Longevity:  My skin loves this stuff.  I can still smell it the next day.  No problems in the longevity department.  Impressive for a perfume oil, most perfume oils last 7-8 hours tops.  But more than 24 hours?

Who Would Wear This?  This is an androgynous scent.  It gender bends as it morphs.  It first starts off as unisex.  It turns masculine as it gets warmer and darker, then it teeters on the feminine with its soft floral honey accord. 

Season and Occasion:  Winter.  Casual, day, night.

Full Bottle Worthy?  Hell Yes!

Pricepoint:  $12 for 5ml

Final Verdict:  Alkemia’s Miel de Sauvage et Tabac is a complex fragrance full of juxtapositions.  This is the most interesting perfume I have encountered in my fragrance journey so far.  It’s sour but sweet, bright but dark, warm, sensual, and as the description states untamed because it moves in unexpected crazy directions during development.  The sillage is excellent and longevity goes above and beyond.  It’s a gender bending perfume and I can see both men and women enjoying this fragrance.

Alkemia Apothecary & Perfumery Miel de Sauvage et Tabac: Available on Etsy.

[Image 1] via
http://cherryblossomvillage.blogspot.com/
[Image 2] Firebird Bath & Body via Etsy
[Image 3] Alkemia Apothecary & Perfumery via Etsy