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| Travel way downtown in search of nothing but the sky at night. |
Retail therapy is a very real thing. Sometimes when you're having a rough day and one of your favorite indie shops puts up a ~limited edition preorder only~ fragrance that you cannot sample, only purchase at full size in a leap of faith... let's just say my inhibitions were down and my wallet was willing when Xenon Nightly went up for preorder in Darling Clandestine's shop.
Xenon Nightly
5mL glass bottle with roller top for $22.00 USDXenon Nightly is my favorite all-botanical blend thus far. All essential ingredients, no synthetics. It's pale green, pale green. Crisp, excellent calendula sweetened with a tiny breath of neroli, balanced with a wonderful galbanum essential, a quartet of green herbs and the faintest whisper of precious agarwood.
I'm trying really, really hard to branch away from my traditionally girly favorites, but it's hard. I was conflicted on Xenon Nightly because a sharp green perfume doesn't really sound up my alley. I also really couldn't tell you what most of those elements smell like on their own.
Xenon Nightly's rollerball top is a nice deviation from the traditional glass bottles Darling Clandestine offers. I rather like it because it makes it easier to apply if I'm half asleep or lazy. It doesn't seem to really drip or leak (so far!) which is good.
Xenon Nightly opens with a bitingly sharp, bitter green cacophony of notes. It's nose-crinklingly bitter, maybe a bit too much for me. It's really not something I'd want to smell. I also don't understand the whole "Travel way downtown in search of nothing but the sky at night" sentiment that begins this perfume's listing description. I live in a more rural-ish suburb but I'm pretty sure a voyage downtown at night would probably smell like maybe dirt, gasoline tinged metal, and Chinese food - it would probably not smell bitterly herbal and green!
After about half an hour, maybe even a bit less, something lovely happens to Xenon Nightly. Maybe this is the part where you walk past the downtown area and you've waded into that grassy, weedy area off to the side of the road, the smell of greenery tinged with petrichor on the asphalt. I suspect this is where the neroli comes into play, and it lasts longest on my skin. It's almost... like a snuggly pale green.
Duration: Many of Darling Clandestine's fragrances are pleasantly robust on my skin, but Xenon Nightly is not one of them. Typically I get an easy 5+ hours of wear, but after 3-4 this scent fizzles out with a whimper. It doesn't throw very far after the initial bitterness wears off. However, I do really like how it hugs close because it makes for a more intimate scent, and given that this is a bit unlike my regular perfumes, I'd rather not be tossing green-scented silage across the room. I want it just for myself to enjoy.
Score: 3/5
I enjoyed the experience, I liked the drydown, but overall I wouldn't have purchased Xenon Nightly as a full-sized perfume had I sampled it first. However, I wonder if it might grow on me. It instantly reminded me of another perfume I tried a while back - Vide Cor Meum from Possets - and that scent eventually became my favorite from the decanted samples I tried. However, Vide Cor Meum has sandalwood to ground it and warm things up, and I love the teeny nip of ginger, and Xenon Nightly has neither of these things. Perhaps it will grow on me too and become a gradual favorite, but for now I'm not too enchanted.
Xenon Nightly's rollerball top is a nice deviation from the traditional glass bottles Darling Clandestine offers. I rather like it because it makes it easier to apply if I'm half asleep or lazy. It doesn't seem to really drip or leak (so far!) which is good.
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| Xenon Nightly roll-on bottle |
After about half an hour, maybe even a bit less, something lovely happens to Xenon Nightly. Maybe this is the part where you walk past the downtown area and you've waded into that grassy, weedy area off to the side of the road, the smell of greenery tinged with petrichor on the asphalt. I suspect this is where the neroli comes into play, and it lasts longest on my skin. It's almost... like a snuggly pale green.
Duration: Many of Darling Clandestine's fragrances are pleasantly robust on my skin, but Xenon Nightly is not one of them. Typically I get an easy 5+ hours of wear, but after 3-4 this scent fizzles out with a whimper. It doesn't throw very far after the initial bitterness wears off. However, I do really like how it hugs close because it makes for a more intimate scent, and given that this is a bit unlike my regular perfumes, I'd rather not be tossing green-scented silage across the room. I want it just for myself to enjoy.
Score: 3/5
I enjoyed the experience, I liked the drydown, but overall I wouldn't have purchased Xenon Nightly as a full-sized perfume had I sampled it first. However, I wonder if it might grow on me. It instantly reminded me of another perfume I tried a while back - Vide Cor Meum from Possets - and that scent eventually became my favorite from the decanted samples I tried. However, Vide Cor Meum has sandalwood to ground it and warm things up, and I love the teeny nip of ginger, and Xenon Nightly has neither of these things. Perhaps it will grow on me too and become a gradual favorite, but for now I'm not too enchanted.
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