Confession: I’ve had my samples from Sweet Tea Apothecary for a little over a month now and have hesitated to post a review because most of the scents didn’t agree with me. This isn’t to say they were bad, at all. In fact, I liked most of them quite a lot in the bottle but they just wouldn’t play nicely with my skin chemistry (darn skin chemistry!) I decided to age them a month and re-run trials (totaling 5 trials each scent) to make sure but sadly, results were consistent. As my skin chemistry is a bit weird/anomalous, I didn’t want to deter anyone else. It came down to the fact that I actually find negative but constructive/informative reviews super helpful myself and I didn’t want to be hypocritical, darnit! Ok! Let’s go 🙂

Sweet Tea Apothecary draws inspiration for their perfumes from historical figures and places. As a fellow lover of history and language, this starting point alone got my attention. I decided to jump in with both feet when STA ran their Labor Day sale, which offered their very generous 2mL samples for $1 each! What?! That’s $0.50 per ml of perfume oil guys. Freaking amazing! Now, their regular sample price is still very reasonable at $3/2mL ($1.50/mL) and their full sizes are offered in really beautiful glass bottles (with rollerball tops) at 8mL ($28, $3.5/mL), 15mL ($40, $2.66/mL), and 1 oz (~30mL, $80, $2.66/mL). I believe some scents also come in solid form for those of us who need pretty smells on the go!

I picked up 8 scents: La Reine Antoinette, Boleyn, Clara, Georgiana, HRM Victoria, Maynard, Pamplemousse, and Remy. To be honest, HRM Victoria and Remy were probably doomed from the start as they both contain vanilla, which has never managed to work on me. I just kinda hoped to push my own boundaries and be proven wrong

The Order

Ordered: 8/27 (Thurs)

Shipped: 9/2 (Tues)

Received: 9/5 (Fri)

I’m awkwardly not able to locate the TAT on their website right now, but suffice it to say, that is pretty darn fast considering there was a weekend in there so effectively a mere 3 days! 🙂

My little bubble mailer arrived sans incident. The perfumes themselves were securely lined up in a small ziplock (see below) and then subsequently placed in a branded canvas pouch, tied up with a string. Overall, the packaging was professional, thoughtful, and very sweet.

Customer Service

I didn’t need to reach out to the seller during this transaction so I can’t speak to CS.

The Smelllls!

Antoinette

Moss, Rose, Bergamot, Jasmine

Cold Sniff: Jasmine front that is rounded out by rose over a soapy background that verges on powdery. It is a more mature, sophisticated scent. I think STA did an amazing job capturing the young queen, a floral, delicate youth powdered into maturity.

Wet: Consistent with cold sniff

Drydown: The powdery background detected on cold sniff becomes more pronounced, however, to me it isn’t baby powdery at all but rather reminiscent of my mom’s high end rose scented setting powders that I used to steal and sniff at when I was a kid. Mmmm, nostalgiaaaaa. Unfortunately, consistently around the 30 min mark, I would get a headache and would need to scrub the scent off. 😦

Weartime: N/A

Sillage: High

Boleyn

Vegan Civet, Champagne, Dragon’s Blood, Violet



Cold sniff: Verging on masculine, mossy and woody with a sharp floral sweetness, almost a hint of fizz. Warm, musky, up front. I really like this in the bottle.

Wet: Unfortunately, on my skin it reads a bit muddled, and I’ve lost the fizz, it becomes just a smidge soapy.

Drydown: As it was wet, except the soapyness does seem to dissipate. It’s a pleasant, warm, and definitely a little masculine (in a good way) but unfortunately not a standout/unusual scent? I’m disappointed because I loved it in the bottle but somehow my skin chem has made it rather less distinct.

Weartime: 1 hour

Sillage: Low

Clara

Sandalwood, Tuberose Moss, Bergamot

Cold sniff: Floral Sandalwood Soap, but like the nice ones.

Wet: Powdery but no longer soapy with sharp green florals and a hint of sandalwood peaking through.

Drydown: Lighter, very sharp mixture of greenness, sandalwood, floral but sadly I don’t smell any bergamot. I enjoyed wearing this until roughly the 20 minute mark at which a headache set in. Scrubbed off.

Weatime: N/A

Sillage: Moderate, can smell it when my wrist is down by my side.

Her Grace, The Duchess, Georgiana

Black Tea, Lavender, Jasmine, Amber, Bergamot

Cold Sniff: Very strong amber with jasmine and lavender hanging out in the back. No apparent tea or bergamot.

Wet: Sweet amber and powdery lavender dominate this scent with a hint of sharpness at the tail end that gives this scent an unexpectedly clean finish.

Drydown: Objectively, pretty! Slightly soapy lavender grounded by rich amber and a hint of something vanilla-esque. Headache induced around 20 minutes though. scrubbed off.

Weartime: N/A

Sillage: Moderate to high.

HRM Victoria

Amber, French Lavender, Vanilla

Cold Sniff: A sweet but not at all cloying balance between vanilla and amber with a floral flirtation

Wet: The balance shifts to mostly lavender and amber, its comforting and sophisticated all at once. The vanilla doesn’t seem to be exploding on me.

Drydown: Abort, abort! powdery, cloying, vanilla, no lavender in sight. Reminder: this is a known issue I have with vanilla and likely has jack didley to do with STA.

Weartime: N/A

Sillage: Moderate to High

Maynard (cologne)

Sassafras, Juniper Berry, Tobacco, Teak, Oak Moss, Sandalwood

Cold Sniff: Holy Root Beer, batman! Not A&W rootbeer but small batch, locally made root beer that Whole Foods or Trader Joes might stock. After getting over the major rootbeer-yness of it all, the juniper berry and tobacco are easily picked out and serve to make the scent more complex.

Wet: As above but there’s a similar tingle to it…

Drydown: Oh, it’s exactly a dupe for my dad’s cologne (he doesn’t remember the name and had decanted it into a nicer bottle awhile back, sorry). It’s masculine but bright: warmed wood and smoke, a hint of spice, and a gin-ny zip and a rootbeer splash. I kind of picture sipping a gin and tonic on a warm summer night, sitting on a warmed log and laughing as someone accidentally spills rootbeer all over our shared log, there’s the smell of a small bonfire in the distance. Unfortunately, b/c it reminds me SO SO strongly of my dad, I’m not sure it’s a great scent for me or my bf but I think it would be a great one for someone else. 🙂

Pamplemousse

Ginger, Bamboo, White Tea, Saffron, Grapefruit, Honey

Cold Sniff: Sharp, almost too sharp green, bamboo, grassy, citrus but not specifically grapefruit.

Wet: Consistent with the wet smell, sharp green grass and fresh bamboo, slightly sweetened with a bit of citrus that still doesn’t read as grapefruit to me. Crispy

Drydown: The grass/green/bamboo combine into the very distinct smell of bacha/elephant ear plant which is commonly used in vietnamese cooking (especially in my favorite soup Canh Chua! which is a fish, tomato, pineapple, elephant ear, bean sprout extravaganza of loveliness) Sadly, I’m not getting the grapefruity, tart scent I was really looking for.

Weartime: 3 hours

Sillage: Low

Remy

Saffron, Sandalwood, Honey, Lavender, Amber, Vanilla

Cold Sniff: Round, powderfy, sweet incense with a milky quality

Wet: Consistent to scent in bottle

Drydown: Oh look, it’s my skin chem. amping up vanilla and killing all other scents. Sad.

Weartime: N/A

Sillage: Moderate

Alright! That’s all folks! I would definitely suggest trying out a few of their scents. However! If you are sensitive and prone to headaches, I might proceed with caution and try one or two first before hauling hard the way I did. Looking through the scents, I realized that all the ones that gave me a headache contained their bergamot note so I think that’s the culprit in my case. Bright side, if you are interested in trying some of these out and are on r/IMAM, I will be destashing them all sometime this week 🙂

Edited 10/14 for a grammar/spelling ^^;;