EDGE OF THE NIGHT (Pre-fall 2013)

EDGE OF THE NIGHT
Black Vanilla, Soft Spices, Red Musk, Chypre Base


Offered as Perfume, Glace and Ganache

Description: Edge of the Night is inspired by dark sensual perfumes for Women such as Guerlain's Shalimar and Yves Saint Laurent's Opium.  It is an elegant yet edgy blend best suited for evening wear when you'd prefer something a little more daring and sexy.  This is a perfume that loves to be paired with a bold red lip, stilettos and a leather mini.  It's beautiful, mysterious and fearless.

Edge of the Night is a blend of amber, oakmoss, aged patchouli, bergamot, black vanilla, a touch of red musk and buddha wood and a delicate blend of organic clove EO, star anise EO and cinnamon.  This fragrance also contains a nominal amount of lavender absolute and agarwood which are not a detectable notes in the blend.  It is well-blended and difficult to pick out individual notes but the drydown smells deep, ambery, musky, sweet and a little spicy.  On initial application, all of the notes are vying for attention at once with the bergamot top note emerging to the forefront.  The bergamot dissipates rather quickly as it makes way for the other elements with the focus on a generous spike of amber.  The spices lend an exotic quality to the composition without being dominant or overpowering.  It takes some time on the skin before the undercurrent of black vanilla becomes apparent.  It will manifest with a rolling sweetness and a touch of powder but will not overtake the other deeper notes.

This perfume is pretty concentrated and therefore strong on initial application.  Apply sparingly the first time you try it so that you can gauge how much you prefer.  A heavier application generally places emphasis on the deeper notes, oakmoss and musk in the blend for longer, while a lighter application encourages the soft powder element and a little ambered sweetness to come out faster (within about 15 minutes).

Use caution if applying the products near cuts or broken skin as the spice oils may sting.  This blend contains only a small amount of spice oils but they could be aggravating to those who are very sensitive to them.

GANACHE NOTE: Layering the Edge of the Night perfume on top of the ganache is recommended for the full experience of the scent and longevity.  Use caution if applying the products near cuts or broken skin as the spice oils may sting.  This blend contains only a small amount of spice oils but they could be aggravating to those who are very sensitive to them.

GLACE NOTE: Use caution if applying the products near cuts or broken skin as the spice oils may sting.  If you are sensitive to spice oils, use caution when using the Burnishing Glace in the bathtub.  This blend contains only a small amount of spice oils but they could be aggravating to those who are very sensitive to them.

Cross-posted from my review on the green forum:

What Edge of the Night reminds me of is expensive French perfume - maybe a little bit of my Mom's Chanel no. 5 eau de parfum with a spicier edge? It's hard for me, as Angela anticipated, to pick out individual notes in the blend. I will say that I don't detect the vanilla at all which is supposed to be the first note! I am also somewhat wary of musk notes, but I can't pick that out either. There's clove and cinnamon in there too, but all I can detect is "spicy."

I don't think this is as overpowering as Angela worried it might be. I wouldn't wear this to an office, but its sillage is actually sort of in the medium category for me. It lasts a nice long while.

I love this fragrance!  It wears fairly close to the skin on me and it lasts forever--I can put this on very early in the morning and I can still smell it when I go to bed that night.  I think this is a very expensive-smelling perfume, a sexy, powdery, spicy Oriental--the scent description Angela provided is perfect.  Can't believe there aren't 100 rave reviews, because it is hard to imagine anyone not liking this.     I find myself huffing my wrist about a thousand times a day when I wear it.  It has rapidly become my 'go-to' perfume.  LOVE it, highly recommend trying it.

This scent has easily become one of my SS favorites. It reminds me of a smoother more well-blended version of BPAL's Snake Oil. While the images for this scent suggest it is more "appropriate" for women, or smells more traditionally "feminine," I think it is easily unisex.

Perfume: I don't know where to begin on this one. My nose is having a hard time picking out individual notes that it recognizes. It's all blended really well I've smelled a bit of cinnamon every now and then with a hit of subtle clove but man that's about it on picking out notes. I'm kind of on the fence about this one. I'll have to see what it's like after awhile. It's not bad at all just not sure if it's for me.

This is a very pretty scent. When I first put it on I could really smell the anise standing out from the other notes, which I really liked. Then that faded into the background, and the scent became a blend of a bunch of notes I couldn't pick out individually - a sort of soft, powdery, spicy, oriental scent. I really liked it in these first two stages, and my only problem with this scent is the dry down. After a few hours of wear it dries down into a mostly powder scent, with a hint of chlorine smell on me. The same thing happens when I tried Hypnotic Poison (although with HP it was 10x worse and the chlorine smell was present directly after application and remained until I managed to flee home to scrub my wrists... not a good day at the department store). The slight chlorine edge to the dry down in this one isn't terrible though, and it isn't there all the time - it's just something I catch a faint whiff of occasionally. I'm not sure which note causes this, but it must be something that disagrees with my skin chemistry. Other than the dry down though, this is beautiful scent. I wish it could stay in the first two stages forever, because I would be more likely to purchase a full bottle.

I like this one, it's very well blended and I can see it being a good unisex scent (I love those btw). I can't pick out anything specific, it's resiny and nice, not too sharp.

I had a different take on this--I feel it would be very work appropriate if applied with a light hand. It's a very sophisticated, classic oriental without being heavy or powdery. Although the notes are different, it reminds me of Conjure in that it's one of those scents where the notes meld together so nicely they seem to be slightly out of focus so you can't pick out any one individually. The word that pops into my mind is "irreproachable" in that it would be appropriate for almost any situation. I can't imagine it offending anyone, even those who say they don't like perfume.

I smell the back of my hand and i just know i smelled this blend somewhere else. OMG!!! I know it! It reminds so much of Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men. I am not kidding - wow!

I am writing this review based on a tester Angela included for me to try.

My very first reaction is actually pretty much in line with that of SolsticeScholar in that the opening is far more unisex than I was expecting. That was a definite surprise, but was also commented on by "stellamaris" as well.

It very quickly (about three minutes) unfolds exactly the way Angela describes and certainly has one of the most classically european perfume styles that Solstice has created. I was almost going to say "yes, it is very feminine" as the early stage is the most feminine period of the development, but at the 10 minute mark, this concept begins to recede and the fragrance becomes more unisex again. There is a "feel" about at this stage comes closer to New York by Nicolai Parfumes in it's richness, with the bergamot tempering the warmth of the amber and musk, and the Oakmoss giving weight to the vanilla and patchouli. There is further warmth provided by the clove, star anise and cinnamon, but again this seems tempered by a slight hint of lavender to provide a little sharpness. I know Angela says the lavender is not detectible, but to my nose there is a vintage Jicky (Guerlain) vibe from the lavender and vanilla combination which I certianly detect throught the musks. For those who don't know it, Jicky is one of the oldest perfumes that has remained in continuous production (1889 to the present) and was a favourite of both Sarah Bernhardt in the 1890's and Sean Connory in the 1960's - talk about broad, long lasting appeal!

I can certainly understand "theredkilt" being reminded of Obsession for Men (Calvin Klein) as there is a very definite unisex appeal for that fragrance as well. Edge of the Night has a similar warmth and richness that also reminds me of Middle Eastern men's fragrances which are very different to typical European men's fragrances.

As such I would not be limiting the description to "red lips, stilettos and mini skirts". While it would be wonderful on a woman, the right man could easily pull this fragrance off as well. I suspect that the elements of the fragrance will act differently on female skin and male skin. Certainly if you look at the ingredients that compose this fragrance, there is absolutely nothing that would put real men off.

For guys, I would definitely follow Angela's advice about the heavier application bringing out the deeper notes. I will definitely be getting a full bottle in the near future.

Edge of the Night EDP - Let me start off by saying that this was sprayed on my clothes, with only a bit hitting bare skin.

That being said ... OH MY SEXY! The oil was all Chypre on me, to the point it was overwhelming and uber-masculine. Something in my chemistry wasn't letting the other notes come out and do their thing. But with the EDP I get to enjoy the full spectrum of this super sexy blend! Yes, it's got that Chypre masculine edge, but it's supported by sensual red musk (I'm a sucker for red musk), black vanilla to give it a touch of dark sweetness, and the spices for a bit of oomph. Now I've worn this all day, with no refresher, and it's just been this beautiful cloud around me. It smells like that perfect blend between feminine and masculine - but that blend that you can only get from ... extra curricular activities. *wink*

Edge of the Night turns really baby powdery and musky on my skin, like powdery amber and powdery white musk more than traditional red musk on me. It's not as sweet, warm or incensey as red musk usually is. The moss and bergamot are a bit sour. I get only the tiniest hint of vanilla sweetness.

I prefer Monarch's strong, sultry red musk and labdanum over this one. Edge of the Night just isn't quite sweet enough for my tastes, and is a bit too powdery.

I always like to try things I'm pretty sure I won't like, just to see if I may have changed my mind and this was one of those. It seems that I don't care for the chypre base and the overall scent was much too strong for my taste.