Perfume Review - Posset's Fascinator

By Unknown

Purchased

Fascinator is mature elegance packaged up in perfume form.

What does being grown up smell like? That's something I've been seeking the answer to almost as long as I've been experimenting with indie fragrances. When you're short and sport baby-face features (at least I've been told as much), sometimes you'll do whatever you can to get a leg up, and if that means gingerly setting aside your beloved Super Zingy Sparkle Grapefruit of Adolescence perfume in favor of something a little more mature... sometimes you've just gotta do it.

I've been a bit lukewarm on Possets. Some of the fragrances I've tried completely fell flat for me (Silver Bells, I'm looking at you! I wanted you to be lovely so badly) and others were so fleeting that they barely lasted beyond two hours. However, one I come back to again and again almost as frequently as my other Possets darling Massachusetts is Fascinator.

Fascinator
Posset's General Catalog Offering

Something to tickle your nose and drive you wild. This one is pretty dry but sparkling, very high-key bright crystalline musk combined with a more emollient backup musk, a good spritz of sandalwood, and a small amount of cedar and rosewood. This is very sexy indeed, and grown up. Nothing foody about Fascinator, but it is seductive as it can be. A great novelty for this droopy time of the year. 

Fascinator is pretty fascinating (you knew that was coming). It was actually a freebie tossed in with my first order, so I didn't pick it out and had to go look it up when I received it. Dry, sparkling, sexy? Sounds like an excellent grown-up alternative to my favorite sparkly juvenile scents!

The more time I spend puzzling over perfumes, the more I realize I simply don't know how to describe "musk" - but if musk could twinkle then Fascinator is dazzling. Sharp, dry, crisp and cool with an almost delicate powdery edge to it, Fascinator is how I'd imagine a very well put-together office lady smells like. Her shirts are pressed, everything neatly tailored, hair perfectly coiffed and a dainty string of pearls atop a cardigan. Of course, no one knows that she buys her clothing secondhand and the pearls are immitation, but it doesn't matter because she smells like a million bucks.

What's curious about Fascinator is that although the lineup boasts cedar and sandalwood, I actually didn't pick up on either until several wears later. Everything is blended so nicely that it doesn't really call attention to any of it. It's also one of the few fragrances I've tried that leans "cool" despite having sandalwood notes.

Duration: Fascinator is probably the most robust Possets scent I've tried so far, although admittedly I haven't tried many. It has decent sillage and wafts around the room (but not offensively), but its true sign of strength is its resilient clinging power! Fascinator is definitely a clinger - I applied some one morning and could still detect traces of it at my desk while applying my makeup two days later.

Score: 5/5
Fascinator is classy, sharp and elegant. It's not girly - this is a womanly perfume for sure. What attracts me the most to it is how delicate and cool (temperature-wise) it leans. If I had to pick a color to represent Fascinator, I'd choose a cool slate grey or a muted lavender. While I love both Fascinator and Massachusetts from Possets, I haven't taken the plunge yet and grabbed any full-sized bottles. But Fascinator is definitely on my "to-buy" list.