Today I wore TokyoMilk’s A Song In D Minor No. 13 ($30, tokyomilk.com). What I have is a 1ml decant from The Perfumed Court, that was included in a sample swap I did a few months ago. This is a very linear scent, meaning that it doesn’t change much over the course of the day. The manufacturer describes it as a “complex melody” with notes of gardenia, white orchid, orange flower, and amber. On me, it’s all about the gardenia, and that’s a note I’m still trying to learn to like. I mean, this isn’t like the big, heavy, cloying gardenia of Annick Goutal Gardenia Passion, more like the freshly-cut gardenia corsages that the flower shop where I used to work sold at Mother’s Day. Perhaps that’s part of why I associate A Song In D Minor so much with a woman older than I am, because it smells like sitting in church on Mother’s Day with all the grandmothers wearing gardenia corsages from their grown children.
What I will say in its favor is that it has excellent lasting power for a $30-a-bottle perfume. I wore it today to HeroesCon, our local comic book convention, and when I reached up to put the convertible top down to drive home (because my friend’s 8-year-old had never ridden in a car with the top down before today), I caught a whiff of it, over 8 hours after I’d applied. And that’s after having spent most of the day feeling so hot that I was afraid I’d get sick. Even in the heat, the projection (you’ll see this described elsewhere as “sillage” or “throw”) wasn’t extreme–when I asked my friend what he thought of it, the first word was “subtle,” which sets it apart from many of the well-known gardenia scents.
I feel that A Song In D Minor is an exceptionally well-made fragrance for its price range, and any issues I have with it are because it’s not my personal style, not because it’s not a quality perfume. To be fair, there are occasions where a white floral is the perfect thing, and I may reach for it then, but I don’t expect to buy the full bottle. However, I’m very excited to try other scents by TokyoMilk. I’d give it a 7/10.
The Remote Controlled Hearth 