This store has quickly become one of my favourites based on customer service alone! I placed this order in August and Evonne was nice enough to hold it for me until the Falloween release. Not only did she hold it but when I received it I realized she had upgraded my La Malinche lip balm sample to a full size! Seriously awesome customer service peoples! It doesn’t hurt that I really liked the products as well, especially the lip balms! Everything came well wrapped, each in their own separate papers and baggies. Nothing leaked or was damaged so it has been decided that saltwater taffy is a pretty good padding option! The package looked a little worse for wear when it arrived so I was super relieved when everything was in perfect shape.

I ordered Bitsy’s of Harpy, Small Saga, and Ballyhoo as well as a solid Bitsy of Step Right Up, and samples of Bifrost and La Malinche lip balms.

Harpy’s description: a sailor’s delight, with notes of sea salt and dark bay rum, milk and coconut squeezed with bitter lime.

On cold sniff the lime is in the forefront all sharp and bright. The coconut and milk come up right behind, rounding out the citrus with a bit of sweetness. I catch a hint of the sea salt floating around the edges keeping it from being overwhelmingly sweet but the bay rum doesn’t appear for me. Once applied, the rum stumbles onto the stage adding its unmistakable boozy scent to the mix. The lime is still stealing the spotlight but it is citrusy without being artificial. The coconut is trying to inch the lime out a little bit but lime hold strong creating a lovely balance between the sweetness of the coconut and the sharpness of the lime. The milk and the sea salt have buddied up to round out the scent, preventing it from becoming too sweet.

After about 30 minutes the lime steps back a little bit, allowing the coconut to shine. There is still a distinct lime scent but it is lighter than before. The coconut motions the milk and salt to come join it and the inch forwards a bit more. The scent is now a sweet, warm and creamy coconut and milk, with a slight bite from the sea salt and lime. The rum is still stumbling around and adding the warm boozy scent that rum adds. This is beachy without being artificial which has been the issue with most tropical scents I have tried. This had pretty good sillage and I could smell it around me for a good 3-4 hours before it started to fade. It clung close to my skin for another hour before it started to dissipate. This scent makes me want a pina colada and a sunny beach. Anyone want to join me?

Small Saga is described as: Figs and apricot wine and sweet cream unfolding into a mellow, soft wood. Deceptively creamy at first whiff, but then comes the Darling Clandestine complexity you’ve come to know and love.

On cold sniff this is all fig and cream, so sweet and delicious you just want to eat it! There is a slight hint of apricot at the tale end but the real fun begins when it is applied. The sweet cream and figs blend perfectly with the apricot wine, mingling perfectly for the first couple minutes. As it dries, the cream starts to take a step back and there is a warm woody scent that starts to envelop the sweetness. The sweet fig and apricot are juxtaposed with the warmth of the wood. I’m not sure why but I always find wood scents to feel warm! This works perfectly with this perfume as it balances the sugary figs and apricot, adding depth to the cream. The scents are constantly shifting and mingling, almost becoming floral at times and powdery others. This lasted 3 hours before moving closer to my skin for another hour, last 4 hours total before moving on.

The description for Ballyhoo: A surprising melange of amber and sage and fig and spice with notes of creamy coffee and lime and dozens of other fascinating notes. Thoroughly appropriate for bold ladies and gents.

This one is hard to place on cold sniff. I get some lime and amber with a bit of sage floating around with some other scents that I can’t place. Just as you think that’s it, the coffee jumps out for the surprise encore. Once applied the fig and spice join the party while the coffee continues to hang around the edges. There’s something with a bit of zing (almost reminds me of Haus of Gloi’s Zazz) in there too but I can’t quite place it. After about an hour the scent is balanced, sweet with a bit of spice, a bit of bitterness and a touch of cream, a flutter of floral and a zing of something. It’s a wonderfully complex scent that is incredibly difficult to describe! This was strong for about 5 hours before disappearing. It moved closer to the skin for maybe an hour before it was just gone.

Step Right Up is described as: a clean, oceanic, very unisex fragrance with notes of tea and vanilla and wood and spice

On cold sniff this is all spice and ocean! It’s a yummy spicy, salty, wet scent. When applied the bitterness of the tea blossoms, perfectly blending with the spice and the clean salty ocean. The vanilla and wood come out around the edges, grounding the scent. The vanilla gets stronger, the clean ocean scent stepping back a bit. The spice stays strong, accentuated by the warmth of the wood. This stayed closer to my skin as I find solids do but I still caught whiffs of it here and there for about 3 hours. After the 3 hour mark I could still smell it but only when my nose got up close and comfortable with my pulse point. I love this scent and would love to compare it to the oil form. I’ve put a full size of the solid on my list!

Bifrost is a Coconut Peppermint lip balm described as, “a lip balm as brisk and luscious as I imagine the air would taste as you cross that rainbow bridge.” Ohmygosh, I love this! It is warm and sweet with a nip of cold peppermint. I shoved this under my mans nose commenting on how it smelled warm and cold at the same time. He was surprised but agreed that it was an interesting sensation. The sweet coconut gives this scent a sense of warmth while the peppermint tingles your nose like a winters breeze. I really do like this one. The peppermint makes your lips tingle and permeates the air around you like a chill sneaking through the crack in the door. The coconut sweetens the scent, adding that strange warmth to the scent.

La Malinche is flavoured (well scented since the balms are unsweetened) as Atole de Chocolate. As noted above, Evonne generously upgraded my La Malinche lip balm to a full size and boy am I glad! Not only because it was incredibly generous but because I’m in loveee. I love this balm, it is incredibly moisturizing without being greasy. This goes for the Bifrost as well! The formula is lovely and I find that it works well before lipstick in the morning, as well as applied thickly at night for a night lip treatment. This smells chocolaty and sweet, there’s a hint of vanilla and the slightest ghost of cinnamon. I like it because I find that cinnamon can easily take over a scent and for this it stays in the background, allowing the sweetness of the chocolate and vanilla take centre stage.

Summary

I liked everything from my Darling Clandestine order (yay!!)! I highly recommend that you try her perfumes and balms out as she has a large selection that is sure to have a little something for everyone. Her shop is currently closed for another week or two but she did mention that there should be some Falloween items in the shop when she comes back! When she opens up again you can find her here.