Wednesday Waftings: Sampler Set Review – Floral Street Discovery Set

Ok, I’m a day late this week, lol Shhhh… let’s just pretend it’s still Wednesday! 😉 I have a really fun and interesting sampler set for you today with scents that are decidedly on the more adventurous side. We’re going to explore Floral Street’s Discovery Set, a quite modern and hip fragrance house based out of London. Founder Michelle Feeney has been in the beauty industry for 30+ years and was previously with M.A.C. Cosmetics and has also been involved with popular beauty brands La Mer and St. Tropez.

When Ms. Feeney decided to launch her own brand in 2017, sustainability was at the top of her priorities. She’s on a personal mission to reduce product packaging and what packaging her brand does use is recyclable, reusable, and/or compostable. If you’re lucky enough to find yourself in London, you can refill your perfume bottles right in the store! Her products are also vegan and certified cruelty-free. You can read more about Floral Street’s extensive sustainability efforts here.

She also wanted to avoid the typical ‘sex sells’ branding that many perfume houses utilize and rely instead on empowering adjectives and images to create positive moods and feelings. I’m all for that refreshing marketing strategy!

Discovery Sets

There are three options for sampling Floral Street’s scents: the 8-Scent Discovery Set (which is what I will be reviewing today), the 5-Scent ‘Light’ Discovery Set, and the 5-Scent ‘Dark’ Discovery Set. The 8-scenter has a wide variety and range of scents while the other two are more focused on either lighter, more floral scents or darker, more woodsy scents. It’s convenient to have some different options for sampling, depending on your tastes.

Floral Street’s fragrances are eau de parfums and I have found both the projection and longevity to be quite good for each of these. Average wear time is about 4-5 hours before fading somewhat and most of them I can even still faintly smell on my skin the next morning. The prices are reasonable and all of the scents come in 3 sizes, including a 10 ml travel size; always my favorite! One of the things I really appreciate about this line is their modern and unique take on each fragrance. Nothing here is a ‘been there, done that’ type of scent. If you’re looking for interesting perfumes that are a bit out of the norm, this will be the perfect house for you to explore!

Find it here:

Floral Street 8-Scent Discovery Set

Floral Street Basic 5-Scent Discovery Set

Floral Street 5-Scent Discovery Set – Light

Floral Street 5-Scent Discovery Set – Dark (‘Loud & Proud’)

London Poppy

• Notes: neroli, orange blossom, Florida orange, Sicilian lemon, apricot blossom, jasmine sambac, sunflower accord, marine accord, cedarwood, Hinoki woods (a dry, fine, woody note with a light terpene-like nuance and a warm, sweet, somewhat spicy undertone), black amber
• Floral Street’s description: A fresh, citrus floral perfume – the ultimate urban mood lifter.

The first 5-10 seconds of this fragrance is blissful. It’s sweet, heavy on the citrus, and it does smell like my idea of a bright reddish-orange poppy. There’s a slight impression of honey and the orange blossom and Sicilian lemon are lovely. But then, bam! Here comes the musk! I don’t see musk specifically listed as a note so it’s got to be coming from the jasmine sambac, which is a more animalic jasmine. In the perfumery world, jasmine sambac is defined as ‘an incredibly intense aroma that is still very floral, yet more musky and masculine than your typical “regular” jasmine (grandiflorum).’ And boy howdy, does that musk come out in this one!

I do not care for the way musk smells on me at all. And for me, it just completely took over with this fragrance, which is really a shame. I have seen other reviewers (who were not bothered by the musk) say that the sunflower accord was the strongest note for them. I have also seen it described as woody, earthy, and green. Others have enjoyed this and I think I would, too, without the musk. If musk doesn’t irritate you the way it does for me, this is worth a try for an interesting citrus floral, especially if you are drawn to the fantasy note of sunflowers. I can see this fragrance working for both daytime wear as well as nighttime; for those who find musk to be a sexy note, this would make it a nice date night choice.

Find it here:

London Poppy – 10ml travel, 50ml, 100ml

Wonderland Peony

• Notes: blackcurrant, pink pepper, Sicilian lemon, pink berries, pink guava, violet, peony accord, raspberry flower, vanilla bean, pink candy floss (cotton candy), cedarwood, vetiver
• Floral Street’s description: A light, fruity floral perfume. Sophisticated, not soft. Captivating, not cute.

I believe this is Floral Street’s top seller and it does not disappoint! Initial sniff is fresh peony with the yummy sweetness of the ‘candy floss’ (cotton candy). About 5-10 minutes into the dry down, I get the pink pepper, which is really interesting and works well to tone down the sweetness so it doesn’t become too sickly sweet. I LOVE the cotton candy in it; it’s such a nice contrast paired with the pepper. This is a really pretty scent but kind of quirky, too (in the best way!)

I love peony-based scents and this one is a really cool take on it, it’s so different than the others I have tried. This is an all around lovely, interesting, and easy to wear sweet-ish fruity floral and is a huge personal favorite of mine.

Find it here:

Wonderland Peony – 10ml travel, 50ml, 100ml

Neon Rose

• Notes: pear, galbanum (a very intense green scent accompanied by a turpentine odor, very bitter, acrid, and peculiar, complex green, spicy, woody, balsam-like), bergamot, cassis kir (a popular French cocktail made with a measure of crème de cassis topped up with white wine), apple blossom, Sichuan pepper, cyclamen, juniper berry, jasmine Egypt, angelica, white cedarwood, peach nectar, crisp amber
• Floral Street’s description: A super-clean, super floral perfume.  This is what a rose would smell like if it were neon.

This one is an adventure! And a bit of an exercise in patience for the actual rose part of the scent to come forward 😊 The initial spray is light and clean, and heavy on the pear, which smells incredible and just like a real pear! I also get the citrus of the bergamot and a light impression of the apple blossom, followed by the Sichuan pepper. It’s a really interesting combo of scents happening all at the same time! Then the green galbanum note starts coming in strongly. It’s quite sharp in the dry down but at about 20+ minutes into it, it softens a bit. The pear becomes more prominent again and it’s my favorite note in the fragrance. I also get an impression of green apple. This scent also feels heavy on lime, though that is not a listed note.

This scent gets better the longer I wear it. At about an hour in, I do finally get the rose, though it’s still more of a pear/pepper/citrus scent to me. I don’t know that I’d ever reach for this, though it’s very interesting. So many notes I would never think to put together! I think rose lovers who are adventurous will enjoy taking this fascinating olfactive journey. Again, you’ll need some patience, the dry down really throws a lot of different scents at you. But I think most rose lovers will feel rewarded in the end.

Find it here:

Neon Rose – 10ml travel, 50ml, 100ml

Wild Vanilla Orchid

• Notes: vanilla bean, cashmeran, ambroxan, cassis, lemon, vanilla blossom, bamboo, jasmine, sandalwood, patchouli fraction, red orchid
• Floral Street’s description: Vanilla, but not as you know it. It’s like being wrapped in a warm cozy blanket.

Nice, floral/vanilla opening that reminds me of those ‘chocolatey’ smelling orchids. I do detect a small amount of musk, but luckily it pretty much hangs in the background for me. The ambroxan note can give off a musky vibe so that’s probably what’s doing it here. The first time I tried this fragrance, it reminded me so much of one of my favorites, Unnamed by Byredo. I looked up some background info on the fragrance and turns out, the nose for the Floral Street collection (Jérôme Epinette) is the same perfumer who created Unnamed! No wonder I love it, he’s my favorite nose!

For those unfamiliar with the term, a ‘nose’ is the perfume artist behind a fragrance. Similar to a sommelier in the world of wine, a perfumer, or ‘nose,’ is trained over many years to develop the knowledge necessary to detect a large variety of fragrances and their ingredients, as well as how to combine them to create different perfumes. It is a very prestigious profession with there being only about 500 perfumers in the entire world.

Back to the scent, it has a nice sweetness to it but it’s definitely not overly sweet. I think this scent could appeal to a lot of people. It’s got a little of everything: some vanilla, some floral, some sweet fruit, and some woody base notes to give it interest & longevity. Vanillas are a special favorite of mine and this one is wonderful. I definitely plan on purchasing a larger bottle of this. I also think this could be a good alternative for someone who loves Byredo’s Unnamed but cannot afford Byredo’s luxury prices.

Find it here:

Wild Vanilla Orchid – 10ml travel, 50ml, 100ml

Iris Goddess

• Notes: peach, lemon zest, chili pepper, midnight violet, suede accord, Tuscan orris, carrot seed, patchouli fraction (woody, has a more elegant tone and is less earthy than the initial patchouli oil), black vanilla
• Floral Street’s description: A powdery, soft Chypre floral perfume. Other-worldly and mystical.

Yummy! Purple violet candy and lemon are the initial impressions I get from this fragrance. I also detect the peach and vanilla a little as it dries down. This is a very nice sweet floral and easy to wear. I am not sensing any of the patchouli and maybe part of that is the fact that they’ve used the less earthy patchouli fraction here. It’s interesting to me that Floral Street describes this as a chypre because in my opinion, it is REALLY different in scent character from their Chypre Sublime (see next perfume below).

The violet and lemon are the two stars of this show for me. There’s a little bit of a powdery vibe as you would expect from an iris/orris/violet scent profile but it’s not outrageously powdery to me. This is a no-brainer for iris/violet/purple flower lovers. Projection is a bit lighter on this one than the others. A nice, light, inoffensive citrus-floral, suitable for daytime wear but would also work for a romantic dinner date.

Find it here:

Iris Goddess – 10ml travel, 50ml, 100ml

Chypre Sublime

• Notes: incense, pink pepper, wild geranium, damask rose absolute, midnight violets, patchouli, labdanum, benzoin, olibanum (frankincense; a fresh balsamic, somewhat green, woody and spicy fragrance with a fruity top note)
• Floral Street’s description: A glamorous woody Chypre perfume. Our little black dress of fragrance.

So what the heck is a chypre? It’s pronounced ‘SHEEP-rah’ and is a very common fragrance family. According to The Perfume Society, Chypre fragrances are warm and dry and (traditionally) almost all built around a woody, mossy accord of bergamot/citrus, oakmoss, patchouli, and labdanum (from the cistus, or ‘rock rose’, plant – gives an ambery vibe). Modern-day chypres typically contain bergamot, rose, and patchouli. Patchouli has much more relaxed IFRA regulations than oakmoss so it can be used in larger quantities (more about all that here). For much more on chypres, you can explore the genre further here.

I struggle a bit with modern rose and patchouli-focused chypres. They just don’t seem to play nice on my skin. On me, chypres can sometimes come across sort of like ‘sour fresh linen,’ if that makes sense. There’s something almost maybe ‘mothball’ about it? There are scents that can have that mothball tendency, which technically is referred to as ‘indolic.’ This fragrance is not necessarily musky but it does have that indolic white musky flower feel to it that I don’t love. Now, some people love indolic scents and as with musk, find them very sensual. I have seen this fragrance compared frequently to the popular Portrait of a Lady by Frédéric Malle so if you are familiar with and like that scent, this would probably be a good match for you. Or if you’re familiar with and typically drawn to chypres in general, this should also be a pretty safe choice.

Find it here:

Chypre Sublime – 10ml travel, 50ml, 100ml

Black Lotus

• Notes: jasmine, saffron, papyrus, black cherry, red peppercorn, saffron centifolia rose, black violet accord, narcotic musk flower, patchouli fraction, labdanum.
• Floral Street’s description: A powerful and oriental, woody perfume. Our classic English-Rose with attitude.

Despite the listed violet note, this one is no shy, shrinking violet! This fragrance is chock full of deep, dark, woodsy, patchouli vibes. This is the kind of patchouli that has bit of a ‘chocolate cakey’ impression that I really enjoy. I also sense some licorice and maybe a touch of leather. I really enjoy layering this one with a pure vanilla scent – Note Vanillee by M. Micallef is very good for this purpose!

This is a heavy scent that is not a safe blind buy and not one that I would recommend for the office as patchouli is such a strong, polarizing note and has very strong projection. With this fragrance, you are going to get ashy woods, leather, and patchouli overload. Some reviews I have read re: this scent described it as ‘dirty patchouli’ and I can agree with that. Leans a bit masculine. If you are a lover of patchouli, I would strongly recommend this one.

Find it here:

Black Lotus – 10ml travel, 50ml, 100ml

Ylang Ylang Espresso

• Notes: tangerine, Sichuan pepper, fresh rose, jasmine, tiramisu accord, patchouli, ylang-ylang, espresso beans, cocoa beans, guaicwood (a soft, rose-like scent, similar to hybrid tea roses or violets)
• Floral Street’s description: A powerful creamy gourmand fragrance with its own electric current. A fragrance to get lost in.

I’m in love with the opening of this scent! I can smell the coffee and tiramisu with the ylang lightly in the background and it’s scrumptious! The coffee is a very strong note here which is so rare for coffee-based scents. They always sound like they’re going to be similar to a cozy latte and then I end up having to strain to smell the coffee note – or can’t smell it at all. While this is a great scent for coffee lovers, you have to also be ok with some patchouli being in there which I know might be a deal-breaker for some. I like the scent better and better as it dries down, the patch mellows out a bit.

I don’t know if this scent would be for everyone but it grew on me! I think this could easily be unisex. The patch note is really strong here as it’s drying down but it’s also quite chocolatey/espresso yummy. If you love a strong coffee note, this is worth a try, for sure. I actually really like this (even with the patch!) but would not recommend it for close quarters or office wear. This is better for an outdoor event or concert or something along those lines. You’ll need to be able to air it out, lol Or you might just make enemies of all the people who hate patchouli!

Find it here:

Ylang-Ylang Espresso – 10ml travel, 50ml, 100ml

This fun line also carries body wash, body cream, and candles and diffusers for home fragrance. They also have a few other scents that were not included in this particular set that I reviewed here: Sweet Almond Blossom (which I am VERY excited to try!), Arizona Bloom (more about that one here), Sunflower Pop, and Electric Rhubarb. Please let me know in the comments if you’ve tried (or plan on trying) any of these unusual and intriguing scents!

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