Roxana Illuminated Perfume GreenWitch review

I have wanted GreenWitch ever since I read the reviews of it on Scent Hive and The Non-Blonde back in March last year when it was first released. Mr London kindly gifted me a vial of the perfume as one of my Christmas presents (in the interests of full disclosure, there had been some pretty heavy hinting on my part).

When I first apply GreenWitch I get a blast of fresh, wet seaweed, but then like a slippery, silvery fish the fragrance disappears completely into my skin for about 10 minutes. However hard I sniff it blends completely into my own natural skin-scent and I have to resist the temptation to apply a bit more, because after about 10 minutes, the fragrance suddenly blooms.

It blooms beautifully. This is a classic chypre blending a fresh bergamot top-note, elegant floral heart and a primarily mossy base, with a salty seaweed chord flitting in and out of the other notes. My skin absolutely loves salty fragrances, and on me personally it is much more sea than beach. This perfume is the answer to anyone who thinks that natural fragrances are clunky or basic; GreenWitch would hold its own and beat off any Big Perfume House scent.

I've tried a few of Illuminated Perfume's beautiful fragrances, and while I've loved all of them, GreenWitch feels the most 'me'. It's not too girly (a man could wear this) and it is elegant and unusual without being weird. GreenWitch isn't a heavy perfume and wears quite closely to the skin, but the addition of a little africa stone (fossilised hyrax poo) to the blend adds real depth and longevity to the fragrance.

This fragrance deserves all the praise it receives, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It is available on the Illuminated Perfume Etsy shop here http://www.etsy.com/shop/IlluminatedPerfume.

Mine is the 1ml vial - this is the perfume extract, so you don't need much of it and a 1ml vial of Illuminated Perfume's liquid perfumes typically lasts me a month or two of daily application (I like to reapply before bed quite often, so I smell nice as I drift to sleep). At the moment, GreenWitch is only available as a liquid fragrance, but Roxana Villa has indicated that a solid version may be coming this year.