[Review] Nui Cobalt perfume oils

 

 

• Shop name: Nui Cobalt Designs

• Location: Columbus, Ohio, United States

• Known for: Phthalate-free perfume oils, candles, jewelry, and bath products, all handmade and infused with magick; LGBTQIAP+ owned

TL;DR: I think NCD is a fabulous shop, though a lot of their scents don't work for me! The owner is lovely, and they really do make great things. I will continue to recommend them to people, even if I have a lower success rate with the scents.

As always, you can read more about how I review scents here.

Scents

🖤Arctic Fox

(Soft amber nestled in sumptuous cashmere, steamed rice milk, winter white musk, and snow-covered fir trees.)

Very sweet; a little toasty and creamy at first but smelled dusty as the cashmere note came out.

Longevity: not recorded

🖤Baby Pumpkin

(A scent to inspire sweetness and affection. Homemade maple pumpkin bread with Autumn harvest honey, spiced with nutmeg and clove, drizzled with salted caramel, and dotted with Turkish apricot.)

This is a lot prettier than I expected. It starts out as a soft, pillowy pumpkin bread with a lovely touch of sweetness from the maple. It's very lightly spiced, and the apricot adds a hint of brightness. As it wears, the syrupy maple and honey come out stronger. It's a really nice, balanced gourmand.

Trying again after three years, this is very warm and gourmand but does not smell like a baked good... What am I smelling? It's rich and deep, almost boozy but no tinge of alcohol. I want to say that it's honeyed. It's spicy and autumnal and quite nice. Keeping this.

Longevity: 7+ hours

 

🖤Blood Curse

(Sicilian figs, oak-aged Bordeaux, Tunisian incense, blackcurrant preserves, Louisiana pralines, tart dried cherry, a spritz of red grapefruit and smooth sanguine musk.)

I couldn’t quite figure out everything this smelled like. It’s lightly powdery but very dark and fruity, like purple and red berries of some sort. The powdery part fades after awhile, and there’s something that’s a little woody and maybe a little bit like incense. It’s really interesting and gives something a little different every time I sniff.

Longevity: 7+ hours

🖤Brunch on the Lanai

(A luxurious scent to attract wealth and pleasure in all of its forms. Mimosas, french toast with lilikoi preserves, and the gentlest hint of pikake on the breeze though sheer cotton curtains.)

This was so difficult to identify. I could smell the fresh orange juice and some other fruit (lilikoi/passionfruit, I know now) as well as a hint of the gourmand buttery smell from the french toast. A touch of clean and floral notes came out after a little bit of wear – it was hard to pinpoint, since I don’t have a personal reference for these smells together. It’s a really unique gourmand atmospheric scent.

Longevity: 8+ hours

 

🖤Cait Sidhe

(Velvety tonka and myrrh set the stage for a midnight melange of blackberry, black currant, boysenberry, and tart cherry. Honeyed oats soften the blend and a wisp of dragon's blood boosts its magickal potency.)

Ah. This all makes a lot of sense. I smell all of the berries very strongly at first - blackberries, cherries, and so on. SO said it smells like "a whole pack of fruit snacks". It is definitely very juicy and fruity. After a short time, I am smelling a ton of incense-like dragon's blood along with the same potency of the fruit.

Longevity: 11+ hours

🖤Cauldron Cider

(A warm brew of honeycrisp apples simmered for days with ginger root, black clove bud, cardamom, cassia, and star anise.)

Smells like spicy cider and tea, mostly, which I think is anise after reading the notes. I can definitely detect the spices: clove is the strongest, then ginger and some cardamom.

Longevity: not recorded

 

🖤Copper Fox

(Warm chai with steamed almond milk nestled in sumptuous cashmere, crimson musk, sarsaparilla, and budding birch.)

Not sure I'm getting the intended effect. It smells like soap and chai to me.

Longevity: not recorded

🖤Drunk Pumpkin

(An oversized pumpkin punchbowl filled with hot apple cider, Caribbean dark rum, Tennessee whiskey, cinnamon sticks, ginger root and a twist of lemon.)

Yep, all of these notes make sense. It’s very warm & spicy pumpkin and booze – I specifically smell the pumpkin with whiskey, cinnamon, and ginger. There is a syrupy sweetness from the rum, I’m assuming, that gives some richness. The lemon is bright and juicy, which elevates the whole thing. After several hours, I think what I’m still smelling would be the pumpkin, apple cider, and hint of spices. I like it.

Trying again after a few years, this is cinnamon liquor! I actually really like how rich and warm it is. Unfortunately, though, I am very itchy. Destashing.

Longevity: 12+ hours

🖤First Harvest: Grain

(The earthy scent of oatstraw and hay drying in the late-summer fields.)

This smells like clean, fresh straw that is a little bit toasty. It really does have a fresh earthiness that is hard to describe. The word 'herbal' came to mind, but that's not quite right. I'm not sure exactly what to call it, but it's an interesting take on a clean scent that's still quite autumnal.

Longevity: 6.5+ hours

 

🖤Flummery

(Highland Flummery: toasted oats and warm heather honey folded gently into whipped cream and drizzled with a shot of Drambuie.)

Yep, this is very toasty. It’s warm toasty oats with a little bit of honey and creamy sweetness. It’s not liquor-heavy in particular, but the extra shot helps add to the warmth. I like it!

Trying again after a few years, it's much boozier, to the point that I thought it was baked apples from the syrupy sweetness. It did itch for a few minutes but went away quickly. It's nice.

Longevity: 16+ hours

🖤Ginger Cat

(Crystallized ginger and raisins baked into warm pumpkin bread with caramel drizzle, candied orange peel, homemade apricot jam and the subtlest sprinkle of cardamom.)

The ginger here is soft but definitely the star of the show. It's like a soft ginger cookie (which makes sense with the notes saying bread, though I don't know that I detect any pumpkin). There is also quite a bit of candied orange, which is very noticeable, and other spices are softly making up the background. The overall feel is very autumnal and unique to me.

Longevity: 12+ hours

🖤Gingerbread Cabin

(This year's gingerbread house is a rustic construction of apple fritters sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, frosted ginger snaps, vanilla cream pie, candied orange peel with a teensy pinch of clove, and a superstitious sip of Kentucky whiskey.)

This smells like soft gingerbread cookies and some kind of fruit. I've noticed that Nui Cobalt loves to include fruit with a lot of their spices, and I do not like it. This smells like it might be apricot? I dunno. It's very spicy gingerbread, with a lot of cinnamon/maybe something else so it's not straight cinnamon. Either way, it burned my skin. No good. Just looked at the notes, and it's cinnamon + clove. Makes sense!

Longevity: 9+ hours

 

🖤Gingerbread Hacienda

(This year’s gingerbread house is lovingly constructed of sumptuous tres leches cake, sugared sopapillas, cinnamon churros, chilled horchata, ginger flan, and a drizzle of dulce de leche.)

Hmm. It smells like milk that's slightly stale. Maybe that's my interpretation of the rice in the horchata? I have never had it. I also smell a lightly-spiced syrup, which must be the dulce de leche. I was hoping for this to develop into something as good as its description, but it didn't really do that. Hours later, it smells vaguely like that same caramel but is mostly nondescript.

Testing again after it's aged a few years, this is NICE. It's lightly-spiced and has the smallest touch of sweetness and maybe wood? It's very snuggly. I don't think I meant to keep it after that lackluster first impression, but I'm glad I did. Definite keep.

Longevity: 12+ hours

 

🖤Hearthside

(Skin-warmed wool and woodsmoke, the aged pages of a old book, and redwood oh-so-lightly accented with fresh cranberry.)

Initial smell is astringent and evergreen, which I guess is redwood. The wool and cranberry came out after a little while and smelled a bit floral to me. It wasn't my preference.

Longevity: not recorded

 

🖤Hell Freezes Over

(Decadent devil's food cake, still warm from the oven, fluffy marshmallow frosting and the lightest dusting of crushed candy cane.)

It's very light on the mint and more on the side of fancy chocolate + marshmallow.

Trying again after a few years, it's a teeny bit of mint on top of a dry chocolate cake that has crumbled. Over some time, it becomes a bit of floaty marshmallow instead of mint, but it's still rather faint and not the best chocolate I have.

Longevity: 8+ hours

 

🖤Horsefeathers

(A traditional Arctic Roll: vanilla bean ice cream wrapped in a blanket of yellow sponge cake and a layer of vibrant red raspberry jam.)

This is nice. It's like a buttery and soft pastry covered in a sweet raspberry drizzle. It's doesn't morph at all.

Longevity: 6+ hours

🖤Humbuggery

(Pineapple Upside Down Cake: a delicious juxtaposition of tang and sweetness, caramelized pineapple, coconut cream, toasted hazelnut crust and baked brown sugar.)

Immediately applied, this is very tropical, fruity, and sweet. A few minutes after it dried, there was a dirty smell that reminded me of sweaty dogs after a long run. That goes away after an hour or two, leaving a toasted sugary crust and an even mix of the pineapple and coconut, very blended and hard for my nose to separate.

Longevity: 11+ hours

 

🖤Kahuna

(Toasted coconut spritzed with lime, garnished with blackberry, and sprinkled with fresh-grated ginger.)

Ooh, that's a nice and fresh coconut note. There is a creamy, woody element, like maybe shea or something. It's a tiny bit sweet, but not in a sugary way - it's more like a fresh and natural sweetness. That's nice!

Longevity: 8+ hours

 

🖤Kelpie

(Warm brown leather and hay, twisted driftwood, ancient oak, ambergris, and sea foam.)

I mostly get an aquatic feel here... As it dries, it smells like something I identified as seaweed, which turns more into water + woods. It's a very aquatic smell that is a little bit dirty and does evoke the feeling of a creature living in the deep.

Longevity: 10+ hours

 

🖤King Cake

(Tahitian vanilla, East Indian spices, and caramelized Caribbean rum.)

This smells like fluffy yellow cake soaked with spices and tons of rum. It really does invoke a sense of fun while also being really delicious. I don't recommend it for anyone sensitive to spices, since it did irritate my skin.

Longevity: not recorded

🖤Koa Wood

(The wood has little to no characteristic scent of its own, but our interpretation of its natural beauty is blackstrap molasses, lavish mahogany, light blonde amber, and a splash of effervescent ginger.)

This is perfect. It’s so good. Imagine a warm wood mixed with resinous, rich amber, plus hints of sweet honey and a bit of spice that is unique and interesting. As you smell it, different things come out each time. It’s warm and cozy and sweet and clean and perfect.

Trying this again after a few years, it no longer vibes with my skin. This basically smells like resinous, golden syrup but turned into a powder. There is a wood note that is not agreeing with me anymore. Still long-lasting, though. Bummer!

Longevity: 10+ hours

🖤Level Up

(A deep scarlet incense of dragon's blood, nag champa, red sandalwood and oud spiked with blood orange and peppercorn.)

I smelled dragon's blood (which I interpret as sticky and sweet) with tons of blood orange. It smells like a Tootsie Pop! Sandalwood is more of a supporting player to round it out, and the nag champa is noticeable after about an hour.

Longevity: not recorded

 

🖤Little Brown Rabbit

(Nutmeg and tonka bean nuzzle up against fluffy marshmallow, cottonflower, pink pepper, and a trace of carrot seed.) 

This has a very fluffy, clean smell like cotton and something woody. It might be the power of suggestion, but I know this has carrot seed, and I swear it does smell like cooked carrots. After awhile, it fades to a more general clean/flowery smell, almost. I didn't like it.

Longevity: 9+ hours

 

🖤Making Snow Angels

(Homemade sugar cookies fresh from the oven.)

I didn't really get sugar cookies from this, unfortunately! It smelled vaguely like sweet dough but with more cinnamon than anything else. It wasn't as warm as I hoped, either; I'd definitely say it was more of a room-temperature smell.

Longevity: 7+ hours

 

🖤Malarkey

(Bread and Butter Pudding: twice-baked slices of soft white bread, salted butter, rich vanilla custard with a modest sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon.)

This is one of those scents where I can truly smell everything, even sniffing without notes. It's a creamy, thick vanilla custard and noticeable nutmeg and cinnamon. The spice is not overpowering, but I wouldn't call it modest. After a little while, the spices calm down a little, and the buttery, soft bread joins the custard. The salt cuts it just enough so that it's not overly sweet. This is both very realistic but also easier to wear than a straightforward bread or custard smell. I like it.

Trying again after a few years, I feel about the same. It's not the strongest but is really nice. Warm, creamy, and a little bit sweet... Mmm.

Longevity: 9 hours

🖤Menehune

(Roasted macadamia nuts, teakwood, coconut palm, and ripe pineapple.)

This smells like a woody coconut, a little bit of smoke, and something spicy that reminds me of the holidays. Is it clove? I swear, Nui Cobalt scents always have that holiday spice on me. I remember a teeny bit of pineapple at the beginning but honestly forgot about it until I saw the notes again. It was only a tiny amount before it disappeared.

Longevity: 10+ hours

🖤Northern Cardinal

(Spiced red currant preserves, caramel pralines, d’Anjou pears, rich mahogany and sugar maple wood.)

This is really lovely. It’s warm and comforting. I can smell the pralines perfectly mixed with the sugary wood and maple, all of which come out with just enough resinous sweetness. The currants are lightly spicy and warm with the pear adding an interesting touch. It’s very cohesive overall and does give the feeling of being around a woodland area.

Trying again after a few years, and it is giving big baby wipe vibes. It's that mahogany, I swear!

Longevity: not recorded

🖤Ohana

(Soft sand, sunwashed driftwood, the cooling shade of the front porch and a plate of homemade haupia malasadas (coconut custard donuts).)

This is not a terribly strong scent overall, though it did last a good amount of time. I get a lot of the woody note and some of the fried dough, though I wish more of the creaminess and coconut came out.

Longevity: 7+ hours

 

🖤Pish-Tosh

(A bright, tropical tang complements smooth vanilla custard cradled in classical shortbread crust.) 

The passionfruit is absolutely amazing! It's so fresh and juicy. There is a pastry element that I can also smell, so I'd say it is true to description. That said, I am picky about pastry/dough notes and do not like this. It's fine but not my style.

Longevity: 8+ hours (I think)

 

🖤Pixie

(An apple orchard in bloom, spring grasses alive with some unearthly glow, vanilla bean offertory cakes and sparkling honey mead.)

This is super pretty. It's fresh apples hanging in the distance, with honey oats right next to you. The grass is subtle but noticeable, and it really does smell like standing in the cool sunshine on a spring day. No morphing.

Trying again after a few years, it's subtle and grassy plus apples, no real nuance. I wish I got the honey still!

Longevity: 6+ hours

 

🖤Pumpkin Cupcake

(Whipped white pumpkin between layers of angel food cake, marshmallow frosting, and a light dusting of allspice.)

This is nice but not too sweet. It smells like warm pumpkin with light spices in a spongy, soft cake. After several hours, a slight sweetness comes out, which probably would be the marshmallow. It's very balanced.

Longevity: 7+ hours

 

🖤Raw Power

(Bright ginger gilds sturdy cedarwood, copaiba balsam, mahogany, and lemongrass with rosemary, basil, cardamom, and fresh-cracked pink and white peppercorn.) 

Starts out as a sharp ginger in the bottle and dries to equally-strong ginger and lemongrass. After an hour or so, it all mellows a bit and starts to feel like a woody and herbaceous blend on top of the original notes.

Longevity: 11+ hours

 

🖤Replenish

(A champagne sangria of tart cherry, blackberry, elderberry, and tangerine awash in cool effervescence with a spritz of lemon.)

This is so bright and lovely! It's incredibly juicy and fruity, though it's hard to pick out specifics past lots of berries and citrus. There is the slightest bit of something extra bright from the champagne, which could be interpreted as a touch soapy in the best way. I really like it! It's almost like a darker version of the fruity + clean vibe I love so much.

Testing again after a few years of aging, this is lovely. It's bright and fresh. It does still feel relatively indistinct, but that's okay. Love it.

Longevity: 7+ hours

🖤Revolutionary Intellect: Emmy Noether

(Her scent is sparkling water and sage leaves over fresh blackberry, elderberry, and currant with a featherlight finish of Bavarian creme.)

Mostly berries with the sparkling water note and a vague sweetness. It's a little bit creamy but not totally reminding me of dessert. It is sweet but also has a freshness to it.

Longevity: not recorded

 

🖤Second Harvest: Fruit

(Homemade pies and preserves brimming with spiced pear, blackberry, apricot and currant.)

I smell berries, pear, and currant for sure, all mixed together and creating a preserve that's almost boozy with its syrupy richness. I don't get much of anything baked, though the apricot makes it a little bit more bright after some hours.

Longevity: 6.5+ hours

 

🖤Sleep Elixir

(Bulgarian lavender, gentle rain, aloe leaf, tulsi, blue chamomile, neroli, catmint, a grain of kava, and a sliver of key lime.)

I keep trying to smell more of this and then falling asleep, so... Yay for correct advertising? This smells like a very specific cologne, and I'm afraid I can't give any more complex thoughts than that. It's a little much for me at first; I wish it were sweeter and/or a bit more nuanced. I believe this is supposed to have lavender, but it does not come out on my skin at all. I prefer it in the morning, when it smells more like the remnants of someone else's cologne that you can smell from being near them. It's sentimental because I got to buy it in person, but I don't think it's working as well for me now that it's rested.

Longevity: 12+ hours

🖤Snow Cat

(The very essence of Hygge: lightly toasted marzipan, ivory amber, chilled coconut milk, and the soft fur of a purring kitten.)

This smells like clean cotton and Play-doh, nothing else. It is kinda soft and nice and warm, but I am giving up on these kind of scents. It's not enough of anything that I want to smell like.

Longevity: 9 hours

 

🖤Snow Day!

(Hot blueberry pancakes with melted butter and real Vermont maple syrup.)

I don't have a review written anywhere about my first impression of this, but I remember it being pretty much pancakes and nothing else - not super sweet or particularly identifiable in any way.

Tested again after it aged a long while, and it smells like plain toaster waffles. Where did the syrup and berries go?? Pass.

Longevity: not recorded

🖤Snowball Fight

(Poached pears, rice pudding with nutmeg and allspice, a drizzle of caramel and a single fresh bay leaf.)

Ohh, I loved this. Seeing the notes, it makes sense. I love pears. I kept thinking this was grapes, for some reason, though I guess that makes enough sense given the fresh and fruity aspect, which is what I was mostly smelling. That said, this is purely clean, fruity grapes (pears) that eventually gains a bit of a woody note over the first hour. It stays like that for the rest of the wear. Now that I know, I can detect a little bit of the rice in there, making it a little dry but also interesting.

Longevity: 7+ hours

🖤Starlight & Spidersilk

(Slender strands of cotton flower hung with trembling dewdrops, cold crystalline musk, and tiny black vanilla beans.)

This smells like what I imagine cotton would smell like if you picked it fresh. It's very clean and has a bit of a floral edge. It's incredibly potent, and I can't smell anything else.

Longevity: 8+ hours

 

🖤Sworn Enemy of Convention: Hedy Lamarr

(Hers is the scent of Hollywood’s Golden Age: sparkling white grapefruit, golden sandalwood, deep amber resin, and fine fur accord.)

The amber and sandalwood are front and center here... It's very resinous and woody with the amber coming in a second wave when you sniff. The amber is very powdery and a little warm, and something smells the tiniest bit clean. With the amber, this combination reminds me of baby wipes. Smelling again hours later, it has faded to citrus that's almost fizzy. My SO said he liked this during the baby wipe phase, but what does he know?

Longevity: 7.5+ hours

 

🖤The Children's Champion: Audrey Hepburn

(Earl Grey tea with a slice of peach, sun-dried teakwood, tonka bean, English pipe tobacco, ecru suede, and just a touch of Bulgarian lavender.)

Very peach-forward with small amounts of tobacco, wood, and a tiny bit of tea. I do get some of the herbal lavender after about four hours.

Longevity: not recorded

 

🖤Waimea Mist

(Lilikoi nectar, soft meadow grasses, gentle rain water, and a wildflower breeze lifting white cotton curtains.)

Most of these notes are things I wouldn't typically wear, so it's hard to pull them out specifically. The cotton and rain are definitely prominent, and the blend overall smells like a very clean, nice shampoo. It is definitely soothing and has a very nice feel to it.

Longevity: 7 hours

 

🖤White-Tailed Deer

(Soft brown suede, golden musk, wild forest berries, and roasted chestnuts dusted with maple sugar.)

This really surprised me. I could smell something fuzzy & warm that I thought was wood but was more likely the brown suede + roasted chestnuts. There was a LOT of maple sugar in this; it actually surprised me quite a bit. I want to try it again, because it's a really interesting scent.

Trying again after a couple of years, all I'm getting is hot pavement and a headache. Scrubbed.

Longevity: 10+ hours 

🖤Wool Over Your Eyes

(Fluffy jasmine rice, precious saffron, vanilla-infused sugar, almond milk, nutmeg, cardamom, and a scant sprinkle of cinnamon.)

This is cornmeal in a wool bag; it takes on a baked (but not warm) kind of feeling after an hour. You mostly smell like a scarf, but the bread is there. At three and a half hours, it's pretty much gone. Seeing the notes, I have no idea what is smelling like corn!

Longevity: 3.5 hours

Thoughts

 

I am pretty sure I first learned about Nui Cobalt as a stockist, because the store used to carry another perfume brand I liked. I tried a few samples included in an order I'd placed, and then the brain blur kicks in, and I have no idea when I started sampling more heavily. Since I first started following them, I see a lot of trends in how Nui Cobalt blends are made, and I think it makes the house really nice to follow. Consistent release times, no ghost notes, and a kind, personal touch are all things I've appreciated about my (many) orders, though the scents themselves often lean a little more woodsy or less sweet than I'd like. They also have a lot of lovely fabric and textile notes as well as tea scents, but my skin really doesn't get along with those. It's a bittersweet review because I only kept a handful of these in my collection, but it's not for lack of quality. Plus, if you like collections based on certain moods or vibes, NC has you covered. It's a very tight aesthetic all-around, which I appreciate.

I also have met Forest in person and can vouch that they are an absolute sweetheart. I can't recommend a house more highly!

Success rate: 5/45 = ~11%