This week, every fragrance I have tried has reminded me of some other olfactory experience from my past. The associations seem inescapable at the moment, but I don’t want to let that stop me from reviewing the fragrances. I am sure that my experiences of these perfumes will change over time, but I’m going to start with my impressions now… otherwise, no blog!

Yesterday I received my November 2015 shipment from Olfactif.
I ADORE this subscription, and my adoration is indeed all capital letters.
It’s the best $18 I spend each month: the indulgence and feelings of luxury, surprise, and experience that I get for the price is unsurpassed.
(Perhaps I should think differently about how I spend the rest of my money?!?)

This month, 1826 by Histoires de Parfums, La Fin du Monde by Etat Libre d’Orange, and Trayee by Neela Vermeire Creations were the perfumes in the November 2015 Layered Collection.
I shall review them as I feel moved.

. . .

I like a perfume that sits up and punches you in the face.

That’s what I realized after about an hour of wearing Neela Vermeire’s Trayee.

During the dry-down, Trayee reminds me of my much-loved bottles of Dior Addict (the original iteration, 2002). Oh, how I loved that scent at 19, it was a real punch in the face. I am sure the whole town could smell me coming a mile away. Unfortunately, Addict was spoiled for me after a Winter’s season of working a dismal retail job at the local mall.
Picking up Addict after having put it down for a month or two, all I could remember were gray, rainy, dreary, boring days.
How sad for a scent that initially reminded me of my first trip to Paris earlier that Summer, so hot, so grown up, so sexy-feeling! Sandalwood, vanilla, tonka-bean, combined with sharp, luscious greens.

Back to Trayee.

Upon first blush, I can smell the blue ginger.
Would I have known it was BLUE if not told?
Hell no. It smells like ginger, faint, but fresh.

This whole perfume is faint. It is like a gauzy slip of a summer dress, sheer, transparent, voile.
It is a style of perfume (and dress) I don’t typically wear, nor typically enjoy. The first time I spritzed the Vermeire Creations, I was wholly unmoved, and mostly horrified by the high price tags, for scents I could barely register, let alone experience.

After the blue ginger, the basil hits my nose, sharp and green, high in my nasal passages.
After that… the un-deluge. Ten or fifteen minutes in, a tiny whiff of blackcurrant and jasmine. The blackcurrant is fresh, the jasmine sweet, a little white star flower in a deep, dark forest.

Not gonna lie: I am not always able to pick out every note in a perfume, though it’s easier with some than with others, and I’m sometimes able to nail each note accurately.
Other perfumes though, are super-well blended, and due to the ratios of the ingredients and the way they interact with one another, I am left with a well-blended “smell,” rather than any one particular scent. This is Trayee’s end-game.

Trayee’s drydown is some magical, smooth mixture beginning with the sandalwood, vanilla, vetiver, and oakmoss clinging to one another in a sexy embrace, conjuring up my reminiscence of Addict.

I happen to know that I love oud, patchouli, incense, and cedar; amber can also lend its hand to the sexy factor when done sparingly. (I’m not a huge fan of overt amber.) I imagine, rather than smell these guys in the mix.

Later, 45 minutes or so in, I get the vanilla on its own. It is slight, more of a cream color than a heavy scent, it is a creamy feeling rather than a sickly sweet olfactory experience.
If the vanilla were makeup, it would be a light brushing of powder over cheekbones, a little highlighter to announce “I am here, I glow, you may look at and enjoy me.”

Finally, the sandalwood and saffron sigh out a breath together, something a little sweet is left, the oud turns a bit putrid and rotting, like a dead animal whose death exorcised its bowels in the hot jungle, and I think that is the whole story of Trayee.

I am wrong though. The perfume keeps going after a couple of hours, and I don’t want to shower up, but keep the story unfolding. After the putrid, long moment of oud, we are back to Addict, I am in love with my grown-up, 19 year old self again, and I am sighing for Tryee.

. . .

All in all, I enjoyed this experience, and my enjoyment of it surprised me.

In the last few months, I have become rigorous about applying perfume to my skin and sniffing it throughout its journey. I initially did this only with scents I was 90-100% drawn to. Now I am doing it with each and every scent that I test, in order that I may have an accurate experience to think about, and to write about. Sometimes I am surprised, like with Trayee, and sometimes my initial impressions are carried out to the bitter, disgusting, (usually overly sweet) end.

Would I purchase Trayee for myself? No. Maybe.
For me, the price tag does not add up to what I think is worth purchasing in an experience. is difficult to justify given my current perfume budget.
Would I put it on my Christmas list? No. Maybe.
Would I mention it to some rich sugar daddy who could buy me anything my stinking little heart desires? Hell yes!
So, Trayee is probably not going to come in a FSB through my door any time soon.
Not this year anyway.
However, you can leave me one in your will, and I’ll remember you by it.

What do you think of Trayee?

Do you have the spiritual experience of it as described on Oflactif’s website, or is it more about a jungle prowl for you?

Purchase Trayee at Olfactif, or at Tigerlily Perfumery in San Francisco!

I adore Tigerlily, its owner Antonia, and I will shill the shop every chance I get.

Olfactif has equally fabulous customer service, and my communications with the owner, Tara, have left me impressed.

. . .

Sillage is personal. I can smell Trayee wafting about me as I move around, but it is not at all overpowering. It is still the silk dress fluttering in the breeze. My boyfriend could smell Trayee when he came close, but this perfume will not be punching your friends or lovers in the face. Staying power is PDG: pretty darn good. I applied at 6pm and could still smell Trayee past midnight. I haven’t done a whole day in Trayee yet, but I would have good hopes about its staying power.