Perfume Review - Darling Clandestine's Supernova Sway

By Unknown

Purchased

Prepare to blast off into space with Darling Clandestine's Supernova Sway

There's something exciting about receiving a free sample in your order. Don't deny it! I know I'm a huge sucker for that sort of thing. But the best thing of all is when you receive a free sample for something you'd have never ever considered buying in the first place - it's a chance to be adventurous AND it didn't cost a penny.

My last order from Darling Clandestine turned things up a notch - it arrived in the mail only a day after Evonne announced one of her newest fragrances, Supernova Sway - and my order of samples had a little Supernova Sway freebie tucked away inside.

Darling Clandestine's Supernova Sway

If "black metallic" had a fragrance, it would be this. I've been working on Supernova Sway for an age, under cover of night. Dark and bright and dark and bright again, deep musks streaked with mint, black resins with subtle flashes of orchid and buttery honeysuckle.

Evonne has a flair for the poetic, and somehow she manages to paint the most gorgeous pictures for her fragrances while being as far from literal as possible. I knew this was going to be interesting, but aside from the few hints she gives (deep musk, mint, black resin, orchid, honeysuckle) I really had no idea what to expect from Supernova Sway. Some consumers might be rubbed the wrong way by this - "I want to know all the different fragrance notes!" - but it's clever and a lot more fun this way because it lends an air of mystery.

So does Supernova Sway live up to the hype?

Remnants from an actual supernova

I'm still going through some big-girl growing pains when it comes to my perfumes. I cling to my bubbly, zingy fruit scents. When I first applied Supernova Sway my initial impression was, "OH NO! I HAVE TO WASH THIS OFF!" Describing Supernova Sway as "black metallic" is spot on. Black tar, steel, anise, and asphalt all came to mind, followed by my panicky backpedaling. (For the record, I even asked Evonne if there was anise in Supernova Sway - she said there’s bitter wood that may be teasing me into thinking it’s anise.)

Imagine you're blasting off into space, and put all your sciency mumbo jumbo in the back of your mind - the sky above is dark and the atmosphere hangs heavy as you're flying higher towards it. That thick black metallic scent fills your lungs right up until the moment you puncture through the atmosphere and suddenly it breaks and the sky is clear - endlessly black and scattered with brilliant flashing and twinkling stars. The opening notes of Supernova Sway might feel very heavy and metallic, that atmospheric cloud, but it breaks quickly and things become “darkly sweet”, if that makes sense - no one element stands out above the rest, and it’s not like you can clearly pick out the mint or honeysuckle, but they all bleed into each other to paint a really beautiful smell that’s vibrantly dark.

Duration: Out of this world! (haha...)  Seriously though, the silage for this fragrance is just right - it’s juuuuust enough of a trail to curiously tickle a passerby’s nose without slugging them in the face. I catch a whisper of it all throughout the day, and the doubly perplexing thing is that sometimes it smells dark and sometimes it smells light. I suppose that’s what Evonne meant by “subtle flashes”--! Similar to a dying star, Supernova Sway’s brightness softly fades by the end of the day, its few dying notes tinged with sweetness. This is the part where I feel like I notice the mint, but maybe my nose is playing tricks on me.

Score: ???
I don’t even know how to score this. Am I breaking the rules by not giving Supernova Sway a score? I have no clue, but I really don’t know how to even measure this fragrance because it’s so complex and strange - it’s unlike anything I own and anything I've ever worn. I feel it sits squarely within the “unisex” category and is completely genderless. I don’t dislike it, but at the same time it’s not like my regular rotation fragrances. If anything my feelings towards Supernova Sway are perplexed reverence. This is one crazy scent that should be respected (but not feared!) I've reached for it several times since purchasing, mostly because I feel like with each wear maybe I’ll understand it just a little bit better.