Carmanah by Wild Coast Perfumery

Questions:

What do you think of natural perfumes?
What do you think of Indie perfumery? 

Wild Coast Perfumery (WCP) is all about transparency and telling us what ingredients go into their creation, all natural, visit their website, their pledge is right there. I’ll admit, when I started really collecting I stayed away from indie mainly because it was a high risk with a potential high reward situation, but, it could also have a potential low reward, I told myself that trusting the “big” companies was better, I was under a blanket of security of thinking “they know better”, well… I’ve been proven wrong, time and time again, for example: Laurie’s creation: Carmanah.

Carmanah is an all natural creation from Wild Coast Perfumery in Vancouver Island, it opens with a really strong Lemon Verbena, a scent profile I often struggle with because I like it but don’t love it, the first 1.5 minutes are all about that Lemon…but, it’s not headache inducing or “too much” and it’s natural, it’s pleasing. After that initial blast…. OH MY! The flower heart of this fragrance opens up in a fantastic blossom that includes a very real jasmine enveloped in this amazing green bubble from the petit grain, absolutely welcoming, again, extremely natural and airy, like standing in a rain forest during a windy day.

The mid and dry down do bring some oakmoss to the mix, the green aspect of the fragrance becomes louder and although I couldn’t pick up the Lavender or Vanilla by themselves, I imagine is what keeps the balance on the fragrance from either going too floral or too green, it sits on the middle, exactly as you would expect as this is not an “aquatic” green, this has a backbone to the green notes, they sit on wood but wood doesn’t dominate them, it’s really well blended and perfectly unisex. My favorite aspect of this fragrance is how good it feels on your skin, it’s welcoming, fresh, clean and just complements you, that feeling is immediate and the fragrance (with 6-9 sprays) lasts over 8 hours on my skin, I like this so much that I’ve found ways to wear it 3 days in a row….I wouldn’t be surprised if that trend continues.

Look, getting into Indie fragrances can sometimes feel like a high risk, I get that, but, the 50ml of this fragrance is about the same price as Bvlgari Aqva Amara (same size) and I can tell you, hands down, this is better. In fact…and this was hard for me to accept, I prefer this to Creed’s Green Irish Tweed by a small margin , not because they are similar scents because they are not…but, rather, because I would use this fragrance on the exact moments I would use GIT and this is more unique and welcoming to me (I prefer oakmoss-y scents as well). The performance is better, the uniqueness factor, the clean green scent, everything is just amplified better…also, when I buy from WCP, I’m buying from Laurie up in Vancouver Island, not from some big company, Laurie makes the fragrances by hand, bottles them, prepares the packages in what I consider the best boxed presentation I’ve received…. and that is amazing.

Have you tried anything from Wild Coast Perfumery?

Thanks for reading,

X. 

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