Remember this post I made about my fragrance wishlist? Well the house of Gozdawa ( and any other south African perfume house really) was on my must sniff list and I finally bought the sample set of confessions volume 1, the first collection release.

















The founder, Agata Karolina, couldn't have picked a better home for the fragrance house. It was founded in South Africas floral kingdom; Cape Town, in 2015 as a 100% natural ingredient extention of her families aromatic legacy.
Having never experienced 100% natural perfumes before; I was pleasantly surprised at how approachable these fragrances made the world of niche and artisinal perfumes.  A blog post isn't enough to cover my experience but while I wait for the YouTube bug to bite me again, it will have to do. Forgive my limited olfactory vocabulary but where my novice nose fails me, I will borrow form my other sences.


This fragrance opens with fresh green smelling pines with this strong volatile aromatic note (which could just be the alcohol) that dissapears within seconds to introduce woody notes and a hint of what I think is earthyness. Then a soft slightly sweet smokey insense accord finishes it off as a skin scent
Now as a frequent user of the pine gel, I was concerned that this perfume might be a bit  reminiscent of the synthetic version found in the cleaning detergent but its actually quite  pleasant. On my skin, the perfume lasts for no more that 3 hours max. The pines project moderately for just over an hour after which the beautiful soft cloud of woods take over as a skin scent for a further 1.5 hours after which the perfume becomes a faint skin scent with very little projection
This I would recommend for the simple clean cut man who doesn't need a lot of razzmatazz to make a statement. Its office appropriate and non offensive. The pines place it well with spring/summer and the woods make it great for autumn but the frankincense does not project enough for winter a winter scent. We almost had an all season there ladies and gentlemen.


Aga is an interesting combination. Rosemary which opens up the perfume with an almost jolting cleanse/waking up to the palate?/ Nose? immediately followed by a white floral slightly fruity (grape?) sticky vanilla like  sweetness. These rosemary + white floral notes linger together for about an hour on my skin and as the rosemary disappears the fruit grows ever so sweeter into what could be a frankincense base as a skin scent.
For me, rosemary + fruit is a confusing combination  as a perfume, and I don't know how I feel about it just yet. Don't get me wrong, its not offensive or anything but I have no idea how or when one would wear it. Maybe in a few months after I've expanded my olfactory palate I'll come back to this post and have a more well rounded opinion of it.





I don't know what that make of Andrea. Its citrus ,green, shrubbery and I don't know if my nose plays games with me here but I think I detect a bit of lavender and the licorice like vibe that's given of by ubuhlungu, a kind of helichrysum. Now if you have a father like mine who insists on "ukukhupha ukungcola lwedolophu" or "cleansing out town/city toxins" every time you come home from the city, you will recognise some scents that were probably in your nightmarish 5am Saturday mornings when you knew that today is the day and everyone is staying home.  .  .if they could catch you first. *flashback*. . . .shudders 😵😵😵
I think there's some kind of tea earthiness in here and some fruitiness comes through after the 'licorice'. Then, a resin.
I didn't wear this long enough to ring out how long it lasts. It just brought back too many memories of "futha apha, thambise phaya, sela apha". Nope! I'm not doing it. For my boho earthy minimalist babes, try this. Me? I'm good


Before I get to my favorite, we have Taputti and the ocean,  a collaboration between Agata and Norwegian Designer Kaja Dahl for the 2017 design indaba his was a once of creation inspired by Cape Town, the sea and the beauty of equilibrium.
To me this smells of Fennel and licorice, a combination I have never smelled or even imagined as a perfume.This too is a bit to esoteric (and triggering 😓😓😓) for my liking and I don't think I could pull it off. I've never been to cape town myself so I wouldn't know what it would smell like. Ambergris tends to smell like the ocean but my nose kind find it in here. Is it broken? Is it because I only smelled it once? Is it not in here? Only Agata knows.




For me, this perfume is hands down the superstar of this collection. The mass appealing one . I'm being predictable here but hey, I like this perfume the best . Agata took inspiration for her perfumes from the personalities of prominent people in her life and I want to meet Hel. That's how much I love this fragrance and if I were to judge her by her namesake Perfume alone I would say she's extroverted, she's the life of the party and any gathering become a celebration when she's around. She's warm, inviting, sweet, feminine and has a sensual quality about her.
💃💃💃💋💋💋🌹🌹🌹🎊🎊🎊🌋🌋🌋💦💦💦😍😍😍
This perfume gets notices before it enters the the room and lingers after you've left. The projection and silage is insane, it fills and entire room and has crazy lasting power!. I'm talking 10hours +.
To me this smells like someone gathered the grapefruit, the rose, the frankincense and whatever else is in here (something minty?) and candied it by dunking it in warm thick brown sugar, allowed it to solidify and then but it on a slow insence burn. I personally don't like and obvious smokey notes as it reminds me of burning insence stick which I would rather not have as a perfume but man, it smells so good in here.



The Verdict : They're not for everyone
While I'm sure most personalities would find something for themselves in this collection, I don't think they're for everyone. They're not mass market and they're not people pleasers.  Most of us are so used to synthetics, and this is a completely different direction, in fact, a friend of mine said she would have grumbled a bit about the sample money. So I would say try these out if you are actively looking for something new. Sample them before committing to a full bottle.

I'm quite neutral on these perfumes. This is after all my first experience with 100%naturals so I want to get my nose out there first with other houses, essential oils and tinctures and then circle back to a more informed and well rounded opinion.
I'm not sure about committing to a full bottle just yet but I would recommend that any fragrance lover treat themselves to this olfactory experience by ordering a few sample's. Minimalists, naturalists, vegans and maybe expecting parents I think would particularly appreciate these creations .

For more information visit www.HouseOfGozdawa.com. If u get any samples, tell me what you think.

Have you ever tried natural perfumes or niche houses? What did you think? Is there any nich fragrance house you have your nose on?

Until next time,
Xoxo😘

The last time I talked to you all about makeup, I was reviewing the yardley stayfast foundation which to this day, try as I might am still not a fan of. That was before I took an 8 month long on and off haitus from the blogosphere but in that time, I've continued to play around and some makeup habits and products of mine have changed.

At this point, I am 99.9% sure that there are forces beyond human comprehension working against me. Right after my heartfelt pledge to do better, a glass of wine spilled onto my computer and with it, my 5 post drafts and dreams of a blog makeover died. Also, its 2018 and still don’t have the skin of my dreams.You would think after the incident I had with one of the products from the body shop that actually caused the hyper pigmentation around my mouth, I would run the other way yet here I am putting my faith in an entire range to clear said discolouration without having read/watched a single review.