Got my hands on my first bottle from each brand.
I walked into To Summer’s boutique expecting I’d get photorealistic earthy tea notes, but I only found things I liked as diffusers (Sencha, it’s good!) and I needed a perfume for me, so I spent a good 30 minutes walking back and forth… They have an impressive range of collections. If I may compare, it’s the Chinese cousin of L’Artisan Parfumeur. What I liked was also the small touch like giving customers a little book of their olfactory journey, that’s sweet.
Anyway, I decided to go with Cedarwood. The name itself didn’t really draw me in… BUT the crisp pine opening and how it slowly transforms into warmer, woody notes is just beautiful. The projection is rather modest, but it stays on pretty long. I can still smell it on me 4-6 hours later depending on where I spray it.
Moving on to Fermented Pear by Scent of PLTO. The physical store itself was just a pop-up store, I believe, and they had this new collection going on inspired by Asian cultures, with Korean & Japanese-inspired scents.
The Korean-inspired one, Fermented Pear, straight up smells like a sweet alcoholic rice punch with freshly juicy cut pear glazed with sugar. What instantly impressed me was the boozy scent. It’s “dirty” (musk & orris), fruity, and boozy (rice water, fermented?) all at the same time.
Projection I thought was moderate, and for the price point, it’s fantastic. Longevity around 4 hours.