The Ruthless Countess Dorothea

The marketing is amusingly correct on this one: this is a rich middle-aged white lady smell. The amusing part is the way the scent marketing posits her as a grand mysterious dame of old. Cashmere, white wine, and the herbs-and-honey background scent of her house? Please. Dorothea is a contemporary countess. She won't poison your tea, but she will shoot dagger eyes at you across the PTA meeting and give you a big fake plastic smile as she shows you around one of those big taupe American houses with the wannabe-McMansion aesthetic. She is the perfect archetypal character of the powerful and ruthless countess of old made contemporary, which I think is hilarious and brilliant. Hats off to Penhaligon's for the story this one tells. Though that might sound cynical, Dorothea is genuinely a very comforting fragrance with a genius note pyramid. The notes are all distinguishable, but blended together well, and each is selected towards a stack of scents that both symbolically and aesthetically work together in a way that is nothing short of art. She is warming in a way that is airy and breathable, but also a bit cloying and dusty, like lying in a patch of sun on an old carpet floor as a child in your parents' bedroom, relishing the warm spot in a house kept a few degrees below a comfortable temperature. You crush as much of your skin as possible into that carpet floor to soak up all the warmth you can, even as you can feel the creeping ick of all that dust tickling you all over. That's the duality of comfort and unease that Dorothea serves up. As she opens the door and invites you into her home, you're hit by a few different scents simultaneously. In the first hour or two, you're enchanted by a sweet treat she's been baking in her oven: thin, crispy gingersnap cookies, with plenty of cinnamon and the gentlest, mildest hint of ginger. The spices are mild and sweet, mellowed out by the process of baking. The aroma of cinnamon gingersnaps wafts all around you in the kitchen as you turn around and peer into the dining room, sensing another scent... The wine! Some sprigs of sage are subtly hidden in the artful decor of the room, and the dining room table holds a beautiful uncorked bottle of white wine, with two glasses beside it. The wine has already been poured. It is for you. The sight of just those two glasses on that long white table sends chills down your spine, though you can't say why. The subtle scent of fine white wine -- not of drunkenness or of perfume alcohol, but of wine, uncorked -- floats around you, intertwining itself with the slightly smoky scent of springs of sage. Has a candle been burning? There will be candles, tonight. The texture of the fragrance throughout, and particularly within the first 2-3 hours, is strongly shaped by cashmeran. This smells strongly and convincingly of a cashmere sweater, which really makes up the body of the confident-rich-lady effect the storytelling pulls off here. It feels delicious, wealthy, and substantial, with living, breathing texture to grab onto and breathe in. This whole big house, too clean, too shiny, too pristinely laid as if it were a trap, it all seems reflected in that fine beige or gray cashmere sweater, and in the hints of aromas that cashmere oh-so-easily picks up. Someone was here before you. Someone will be here afterwards. On me, Dorothea is, at her heart, a beeswax scent, a little cloying and dirty and sickly-sweet, with absolutely delicious edges of yerba mate accentuating the grounded facets of the honey and wax and keeping the sweetness from floating off to cupcake land. Beeswax fascinates me; I think it is one of the loveliest scents in the world, but it is also a little too much for me in its thorough, cloying, biting sweetness, like a grape or a chocolate that bites at the back of your throat as you swallow, too sweet, not in an airy perfumey way, but in a grounded and surrounding way that can feel a little suffocating. This works in the favor of the world Dorothea creates: it's a little too sweet in a way that's sinister, but oh, it's so beautiful, in a way that is mature, that takes up the space it deserves, that knows what it wants and guns for it. This is the room scent of fine artisanal candles that burn here every night, and a hint of the tea that Dorothea brews herself the next morning, when the ritual is done, as she scans her planner from Marshall's for the next PTA meeting or soccer game, filing her nails and smiling to herself. I don't gatekeep fragrances based on demographics like gender and age, and I personally tend to hew towards more mature, powerful scents, but the character of Dorothea is constructed so precisely that even I do not know if I can pull her off with my personality. I may be the thrifted-cashmere-sweater-loving "mom friend", but something about this feels genuinely older than I am now, in a way that I can both poke fun at and simultaneously secretly admire and wish for. The most challenging notes for me in this regard are the undeniably rich and mature cashmere as well as the spices, which start to lean generic-pumpkin-spice at some moments of the drydown. Nevertheless, I will enjoy the comfort of my sample, and decide from there whether I am someone who can wear her properly. She really is lovely, and the storytelling of this one really entertains me. Above all, she is comforting, but there is something sinister in her power that I find absolutely delightful. The projection leans towards being intimate from the very beginning — this is no beast mode fragrance — but it's still very usable and respectable. A subtle volume suits the fragrance well. It makes you dig for all those mysterious subtleties as it transitions through its various delicious stages. The performance is moderately acceptable as well, with Dorothea lasting some 8 hours, clinging faintly but distinctly to the body through much of that time, and leaves a barely-there trace of spices on skin for several hours more. Her whispers are self-assured and powerful. I tell myself she is not for me, that she is not right for me, that she's too fickle and grand in her tastes, too pricey and high-maintenance, and yet... I keep waking up hearing her calling my name from a dream again.

On me this is thin, sharp, and cheap smelling. I adore spicy scents, glad I tested it, as this one doesn't work. I honestly can't tell which note or notes is causing the issue, the whole thing is too muddled and confused on my skin.

Edit: Since writing the review below I’ve had covid, and now this smells really strongly of warm spice. And not much else. I really could smell more lemon and vanilla before, but now it’s just warm spice all the way. Smells more like Shalimar Philtre than Lira to me now, although it’s much spicier. It’s crazy how everyone’s smell is just slightly different! When I smelled this I knew I’d smelled it before, but couldn’t place it for awhile, probably because it reminds me of something I’d never associate with this. Lira by Xerjoff. Now they are not the same, and not dupes at all. However, Dorothea has a citrus, cinammon, vanilla opening, exactly the same as Lira, only not as sweet. As Dorothea dries down the ginger and other drier, more aromatic spices (sage and mate I guess) become more prominent, and the similarity to Lira begins to widen. It becomes aromatic (which Lira is definitely not!) but still has a caramel sweetness to it. If you find Lira just that bit too sweet try this. I’d even go as far to say it could be a masculine version of Lira. An aromatic citrus cinnamon spiced caramel. Although discontinued, it’s still available often in UK fragrance groups as Penhaligons had it as a prize in one of their games in mid 2021. I don’t get any wine, thankfully, and it projects and lasts fine on me, although possibly not as long as Lira which is ridiculous, but I’m happy with 6-7 hours. I tried it again, with more sprays, and this time I definitely get much more herbal beeswax. Like a cross between 4160 Tuesdays’Captured by Candlelight and the aforementioned Lira. With a huge helping of ‘spice drawer’. Edit: also a similar type of scent to Ani by Nishane, although not a dupe.

This smells like absolutely nothing I have smelled before, I see people comparing this to other gourmands scents that I have sampled, and my immediate thought is...NOPE! This is stunning and incredibly unique. To my nose, it smells like a delicious chai latte with honey and cinnamon served with warm freshly baked gingerbread cookies. The scent is inspired by afternoon tea, and Penhaligon's did such an outstanding job capturing the essence of such an experience. I only wish they offered an extrait/extreme version, because this scent is so light, with a small scent bubble, no sillage, no projection, and no lasting power. After about 30 minutes it becomes a skin scent that you're only going to smell in intimate situations such as hugging. So you really need to spray generously and reapply often. My absolute favorite from this collection!

Sweetness is the dominating theme of this perfume. It's not cocoa, vanilla type of gourmand sweetness but reminds me of the brown sugar sweetness in Equinox Bloom with a mild ginger oil and very light lime around the edges. It did not seem beeswaxy or winey or herbal unless it's around the edges.It's pretty good but I'm not sure it's complete. I would like there to be some more evolution beyond the sweetness. I only tested one spray on my hand so I will need to spray on my pulse points next time to get a better picture. It is rather unique since I have not encountered this type of sweetness before.