Pearfat Discovery Kit Review!
i’ve been meaning to give pearfat a try for a little while, particularly after i first read about multiball- i am a sucker for a cola note!
first, the shopping experience: i got a shipping notice 4 days after purchasing, but my package didn’t actually start to move for another week. once it was on its way, ups got it to me quite quickly. packaging was nice, with cute purple paper wrapping and a little branded pouch containing glass sample spray bottles and a postcard. i just wish the card had contained the perfume notes! there doesn’t seem to be a master scent list anywhere on the website, so you have to look up each fragrance individually to find the notes when you are testing. they do include a coupon for $20 off a $100+ order, which i appreciate!
pearfat’s style kind of reminds me of sixteen92 (minus the scamming lol), with the notes that aren’t really notes (“good omens” and “teen angst”) and this misty, atmospheric dna they seem to share. there is something a LOT of these scents have in common that seems to disagree with me in particular… there is a note on their website’s “about” page that says “Pearfat is dewy, slushy, and sweet” and that’s kind of the common thread i seem to be picking up on!
personally, i found their scents to be very hit or miss- perhaps more miss than hit, but essentially, the scents i liked, i really liked, and the ones i didn’t like, i REALLY didn’t like. however, they are almost all interesting! i found myself repeatedly testing each scent, even the ones i didn’t care for, over the course of 2-3 weeks to really explore and get a feel for them all.
i will give my usual disclaimer that i truly have the world’s worst skin chemistry. i rarely get more than an hour or two out of a perfume. actually, if i get two hours’ longevity, i am thrilled. SO, feel free to take my comments about how long a scent lasts with a big heaping spoonful of salt.
edit: i have attempted to painstakingly fix the formatting on this post about 50 million times while balancing my laptop and my sleeping baby and i still don't know if i got it right! why does reddit constantly add line breaks where i don't want them?!?
favorites: Multiball, 2030 Park Avenue, Amicus Cumulus, MULTIBALL
least favorites: Charismatic Megaflora, I’ll Never Learn, Stomped on Bed of Lettuce
now, the reviews!
2030 Park Avenue
top: french 75, candied lemon, sprinkle of spring rain
middle: ambrette, tuberose
base: warm wood, velvet
petrichor and soft blonde woods, some powdery musk from the ambrette. the tuberose comes out on the dry down, a velvety floral center. i get no lemon, really, but i do pick up on the gin, a little hint of an astrnigent herbal note on top. it’s very subtle and elegant, sitting close to the skin. i really like it; it’s the sort of scent i would wear out for cocktails (very appropriate) or a nice dinner, if only it lasted longer. it fades sooo fast, but i like it enough that i would consider buying a larger size and just topping up throughout the evening because it really is a very pretty scent.
Amicus Cumulus
top: fluffy clouds, ozone
middle: milky oolong tea, fresh strawberries
base: sweet black licorice, good omens
fuzzy creamy strawberry sweetness. i don’t really get the tea; the strawberry is like candy, and there is a sweet creamy note surrounding it, with maybe the barest hint of licorice. it’s actually really pleasant! the longer i wear it, the milkier it becomes. it’s a warm, slightly caramelized milk scent, like when you try to warm milk on the stove and accidentally let it start to boil, with a teeny bit of ozone. like drinking steamed strawberry milk in a room with an open window. it’s very pleasant, and actually kind of comforting. i would consider a larger size of this!
Bread + Roses
top: fresh baguette, sweet orange, familiar warmth
middle: red rose petals
base: cocoa, nutmeg, labdanum
i love this rose note, and it has great throw! i was trying to test it on one wrist with another scent (charismatic megaflora) on the other, and found it to be impossible because all i smelled was rose. it’s a sweet, slightly fruity rose (it reminds me a little bit of lush’s rose jam, with the sweet rose + citrus combo). there is a little hint of a toasty warmth underneath it. the baguette note is most noticeable at first spray and then fades to a very pleasant dry down- a voluptuous rose petal note with warm spice and just the tiniest hint of something like baking bread. a pretty, cozy little perfume. actually, it’s a big perfume, since it’s all i can smell once i put it on!
Charismatic Megaflora
top: persian lime, black cumin
middle: ylang ylang petals, pear flesh
base: boronia flower blooms, damp earth
very indistinct. it has this generic floral PERFUME scent- not fresh florals, mind you, but a sort of aldehydic floral faded perfume feel, with a little bit of a wet soil note. i’ve tested this three times and have failed to distinguish any other notes- no pear, no lime, MAYBE the teeny tiniest whisper of cumin if i do whatever the olfactory equivalent of a squint is. at any rate, it doesn’t really matter what it smells like, because it completely evaporates from my wrist in approximately 10 minutes.
I Broke My Own Heart
top: hot cocoa, petitgrain, teen angst
middle: toasted coconut, jasmine, favorite sweatshirt
base: seaweed, sandalwood
this is bracingly unpleasant upon the first spritz. i’m not sure what it is i don’t like, but it may be a combo of the citrusy petitgrain and “sweatshirt” note which i assume is something cottony/laundrylike. luckily, it softens into a pleasant dry coconut with hints of sweet, non-indolic jasmine. there’s a soft creamy sandalwood base. i really like the coconut + sandalwood combination. i can’t pick out any of the cocoa or seaweed notes- maybe a hint of salt? the late dry down is soft, faded, like the memory of a perfume rather than the perfume itself. the scent reminds me a little bit of hair products… like i just washed and conditioned my hair with something really nice. the little story that accompanied the scent description mentions detangling spray, so in that sense the scent is pretty evocative! I find myself really liking the way it smells but I don’t know if I would actually wear it as a perfume. i keep testing it, though! i remain undecided on this one.
I’ll Never Learn
top: bergamot, lavender, fog
middle: candied violet, geranium, orris
base: suede jacket, moss, heartbreak
heavy on the suede and a misty watery note, the fog, at first sniff. the powdery orris heart comes out after that. the herbal notes are very indistinct, sitting on top, giving it a hint of a faded fougere. there is an overall flatness to the scent, a plasticky-ness that i often get as the late dry down in certain perfumes that don’t really agree with my skin chemistry. suede, a soft fuzzy leather scent, is the dominant note on my skin. the LATE dry down is a very animalic leathery musk which lasts for AGES. it’s always the ones i don’t like that actually last on my skin!
i thought this might work for my husband, but i was wrong. his review: “it smells like stale tortillas.” that sounds like a no!
Kewpie Doll
top: cherub cheeks, sweet basil, calabrian bergamot
middle: new vinyl doll, summer blooms, sun-streaked tomato leaf
base: nana’s back porch
there is an initial BLAST of high-pitched floral notes and tbh my brain wants to scream “OLD LADY PERFUME!” but i am a reformed floral hater so i am able to start appreciating it after that. there is a sweet, pink powdery plasticky vinyl note underneath that i really like (vaguely reminiscent of a similar note in steroplasm poseur, although the perfumes as a whole are not at all similar). it dries down to a heavy floral with some greenery, like sticking my head in a florist’s fridge, but warm instead of cold. i actually quite like this one but i don’t get enough longevity (maybe 30-45 minutes) or throw to justify a FS purchase.
Multiball
top: spilled lime cola, high score bells and chimes
middle: patchouli, sparking metal
base: waxy cedarwood flooring
multiball sounded SO good; i was hoping and praying i would love it on my skin, and I DID. i fucking love a cola note. this is so so delicious- the sticky-sweet cola with a hint of lime, and the polished wood (reminiscent of the wood notes in bpal antikythera mechanism!). it’s really perfect. it leans bit masculine to my nose, but i don’t mind at all! the little story accompanying the notes compares the pinball arcade to a church (“I’ll share this place with you, but you’d better be ready to worship these waxy floorboards, see the sacred in that pool of spilled cola (off-brand is best), and clasp your sweaty hands in prayer”) and the overall vibe of the scent really is a bit like an atmospheric church incense scent- think something like possets midnight mass at old st mary’s and its notes of wooden pews and dark fruit. actually, the dark, sweet cola notes seem take on a kind of resinous quality that is similar. OH and it lasts for AGES, even on my cursed skin. great throw, too. tl;dr I AM IN LOVE.
Rabbit Rabbit
top: juniper, turmeric
middle: carrot cake, apricot
base: barley, galangal
i LIKE this, but i’ll be honest, at first i have no idea what i am actually smelling. i can’t really pick out any notes other than the turmeric, which is pleasantly earthy and spicy. i actually LOVE the turmeric note but the rest of it just doesn’t work for me. some sweetness comes out after that, the apricot or cake maybe, i don’t know which because it’s really indistinct. it’s not foodie at all- just a sweet vaguely spicy earthy soft skin scent. this shares something in common with amicus cumulus and kewpie doll- some sort of vaguely fuzzy misty sweetness they all have.
i also tested this on my husband and i thought it smelled great on him- i really got the carrot cake and more of the delicious turmeric note. it was a slightly gourmand earthy herbal scent that really worked! ONCE AGAIN, sadly, he hated it.
Stomped On Bed of Lettuce
top: pink pepper, rhubarb, grapefruit
middle: patchouli, frankincense, civet
base: oakmoss, salt water, body heat
ok so this one i did not like at all. salty musk, a watery citrus on the top and lots of oakmoss underneath- but my skin amps oakmoss like crazy, as a general rule. the civet is very loud and, obviously, quite animalic. i wish i got more of the pink pepper. leans masculine, so i thought my husband might like to try it. his response: “this is VISCERALLY UNPLEASANT.” ok, he is not a fan either!