Description
“Sea of Gray is the first offering in our Light and Shadows: Amber series which focuses on gradations of light. Each offering includes a style of amber and there will be one release per season. Sea of Gray portrays diffuse light through a cloudy sky: gray, rainy, endless rolling sea. The ambers featured in this blend are an ambergris accord and a fresh creamy white amber. Upon initial application, Sea of Gray features a strong combo of vanilla rain, roasted seashells, saltwater and seaweed. The seaweed and roasted seashells provided a briny marine note with the salt water but the vanilla is in the foreground. This is a marine vanilla with a light drizzle of rain. As it begins to rain, the oceanic elements recede like a tide as you seek refuge in the beachside ice cream parlor. The scent of the cold ice cream freezers and a sweet vanillic odor typical of ice cream shops comes to the foreground. It mingles with the saltwater that has dried on your skin and clings to your towel. The white amber comes out more on the dry down which is a creamy, sweet, slightly salty vanilla. The sandalwood and ambergris are used very lightly in this formula. The frangipani is extremely subtle and is not very detectable. This is not a floral perfume. It does not resemble Blackburn’s Parlor which is a pure gourmand, uses a different blend of vanillas and is meant to represent the waffle cone sundae. Sea of Gray is more about walking into the parlor itself, complete with the cold scent on the air and a vague sweetness that most parlors always have. It is a more atmospheric concept though still pretty literal.” – a note from the brand.
The nose behind this fragrance is Angela St.John.
sad35 – :
I didn’t get the same atmospheric happy that others did. I get a green, weedy forest floor with gorgeous resinous vanilla overtones that doesn’t quite blend. From a distance it’s pretty great, but up close,it’s rank. then I tried it another day and it was just the forest floor and the vanilla resin was absent. As my husband said, “smells like rotten grass.” So not a buyer for me.
insuddile – :
A couple of weeks ago, I was walking on the beach by my house. Dead jellyfish frequently wash ashore, but that evening there were dozens of still living moon jellies littering the shoreline. I didn’t know if they had any chance of survival, but I spent the next hour throwing them back into the water anyway. Not wanting to get jellyfish…jelly on my hands, I slid my sweatshirt sleeves down over my hands before picking each one up. By the time I was done, my sleeves were soaked, and by the time I got home they were crusty, so I tossed my sweatshirt in the dirty laundry bin. After doing laundry a few days later, I put the sweatshirt on again and realized my sleeves still smelled like jellyfish–salt and seaweed and something that I can’t put words to but have only smelled at the beach.
Sea of Gray smells like that jellyfish residue plus a hint of vanilla. You wouldn’t think that something with a vanilla note would accurately capture the smell of the sea, but somehow Sea of Gray does it. It’s actually kind of ingenious because without the vanilla I would probably find this pretty nauseating, just like I was a little grossed out by the smell of my sweatshirt sleeves. I think it’s probably the ambergris note that I find a little off-putting, although who knows what makes jellyfish smell that way.
So in summary, Sea of Gray is a very accurate ocean smell that sacrifices a tiny bit of accuracy for the sake of wearability, which is probably a good decision.
mikkirurk – :
Sea of Gray is a cool atmospheric experience at the ocean. Its a overcast cold winters day with the pacific ocean lapping on the beaches near the pier and an ice cream shop stands deserted after the summer crowds. You walk by and he frozen steel air from the coolers rush outside with the scent of vanilla from the waffle cones they are freshly making for the weekend visitors. The ambergris/salt accord lends a realistic marine note to the composition. You must like ambergris to pull off this scent successfully. This is exactly what you get in the copy above. It reminds me of my days in Pismo Beach, California on the pier.
5ml oil reviewed.