Battle of the lavender bombs: BIR Extradose vs Purple Melancholia
Lavender is one of my favorite notes and Iâve been looking at adding another lavender-forward fragrance to my collection. Initio Rehab was a near miss (I like it a lot but thereâs something just a bit cloying about that one) and Iâve kind of always wanted one of those awesome spikey BIR bottles, so tonight Iâm battling the new Purple Melancholia vs Extradose to see if one or both are FBW. Purple Melancholia opens with a wave of smooth, creamy, lightly sweet lavender. Thereâs definitely some warmth and richness here from the cardamom, and faint creaminess coming from coconut. Itâs not a sunscreen coconut, think a can of thick coconut milk or a coconut creme pie, and even then itâs not super coconutty. I donât typically like coconut in fragrances but it works beautifully here. This scent is very familiar - I worked through a decant of the similarly creamy lavender BIR Ivory a few months ago, and this one feels like they replaced the smokiness with cardamom and somehow made the lavender a bit smoother. Projection was ok - I had to lean in to about 1â to get it, but it was pushing off strong in that range. Iâd say itâs pretty linear for about 3-4 hours, after which it starts to turn into an ambery lightly vanillic with a touch of lavender skin scent. 8 hours into the wear and I could still pick up faint traces of it. I think this can be worn all year aside from the peak of summer, with the cardamom warmth carrying it in cooler months but the light aromatics and coconut creaminess working in slightly warmer months. Extradose lives up to its name - it opens with an explosion of sweet lavender. Thereâs definitely some spice thrown in here - like maybe a touch of cloves or something - but the sweet lavender is the star of this show. The lavender here is a bit sharper, like maybe the flowers arenât quite fully grown yet or youâre getting some of the bitter green stem - itâs definitely not as smooth as Purple Melancholia. But thatâs ok - the lavender here is unapologetically in your face and is clearly the star of the show. Itâs also pretty linear, projecting a bit more than PM, like maybe 1.5â-2â for 3-4 hours, then settling into a similar lightly sweet and aromatic but slightly more woody and ambery skin scent. Itâs also a bit longer lasting than PM â 10 hours later and I can still faintly pick this up. Even though it doesnât have the cardamom of PM, this one somehow comes off thicker and heavier, and I donât think it would be as good a choice in the late spring and early fall - but itâs just luscious in cool weather.