Portraits : Changing Constance
Penhaligon's (2018)

So, I haven't worn, or sampled Penhaligon Fragrances in a very long time. Reminiscent of some Creed and Santa Maria Novella fragrances, I recall the Penhaligon fragrances I have tried as absent, non-detectable, faint, wispy, barely-there, thin, watery, aquatic, overpriced eau de toilette type liquids.

I cannot believe the HYPE Changing Constance receives. And for the PRICE charged, it is all quite criminal. Never in ten million years would I pay anything approaching the asking retail price for a full bottle of this fragrance. Never. Ever.

A barely there, non-detectable, aquatic, watery, pale, caramel, vanilla concoction. Vanilla & caramel with marine notes.

The Emperor's New Clothes.

I AM IN LOVE. Glorious slightly salted buttery caramel, tobacco, slight spices, a bit of cashmeran - it's just the perfect grown-up gourmand.

However, it's incredibly expensive, too, especially when it does not last as long as I'd wish. So I don't see a bottle in my future - I just cannot justify this. But it smells gorgeous, so maybe a decant some day.

When I wear Changing Constance I have a yen for creme brulee with its sugary creamy notes of vanilla, pimento, butter and salted caramel. She comes in an artful decoupage box with a golden stag stopper, could there be musk in the bottle I think not, it's banned.
Resist urge for salt caramalized chocolate and wait for the dry down to develop of cardamon and tabacco to revisit drinking cardamon coffee and smoking hookah in souks, just tobacco you understand. But all I can think is rice pudding, creme brulee and cup cakes, this melange is too overpowering to let the pimento and cardamons notes breath.
It's a pudding kind of perfume, the perfumer would make a great pastry chef. Pass me the blow torch Constance

The opening notes are in the darker side, with back pepper and cardamom mixed with whiffs of spice. The drydown develops an impression of salted caramel that is done all right, but it lacks the vividness and intensity to entice, and thus misses that interplay between the two than makes this contrasting combination so interesting (Berthillon's ice cream cones to mind!).

The base sports a tobacco note that is a bit too restrained to convince, and non-specific woodsy tones with a lashing of a nice tonka towards the end.

I get moderate sillage, good projection and six hours of longevity on my skin.

An interesting autumn scent with original ideas, but overall lacking vividness and a tad too generic. 2.75/5.