Blackberry & Vanilla Musk #9 (2000)
by Trish McEvoy

This fragrance is a wormhole to my childhood hideout in the blackberry brambles. We had a habitrail of tunnels worked through the brambles behind my best friend's house. The only thing missing is the scratchy thorns and the bees! The first spritz opens with the sharp green scent of crushed blackberry leaves. I wish the top notes would linger longer, but it soon develops into warmed by the sun, ripe, delicious, juicy blackberries. Then I begin to notice a warm vanilla that lasts all day. This is one of those fragrances I forget I'm wearing until a slight breeze wafts over my arm and I smell the sweet berries and wonder where it's coming from until I realize, hey! it's me! If I could only wear one fragrance for the rest of my life this is the one I'd choose.

#9 has been compared to Philosophy's Falling In Love but IMHO Falling in Love is the lesser of the two. It's not as nuanced or complex. It lacks the top green notes and doesn't last nearly as long. Philosophy's version is nice too and if I hadn't found the McEvoy first I'd probably own a bottle. But when I want to be transported back to the lost summer days of my youth spent with my best friend, I choose #9.

The only thing I don't like about #9 is that after wearing it for several days I can't smell it anymore. So I have to alternate using it with others. For a fragrance freak that doesn't really present a problem. I do not like the lotion that is made to go with this fragrance either. It has a plastic odor about it and doesn't quite make the grade.

23rd October, 2008.