It is in fact against the blog rules to have two perfume posts so close to each other: I just had the Scents of the Day story on Friday, so this one is definitely too soon. But I’m in the mood for this particular review, partly because I’ve just purchased the scent and partly because I’m still under the influence of Saturday’s tea party.

Russia is a country that inspires more clichés than most others put together. Some of them are dangerous, but some I just cannot resist: samovars, snow and Pushkin will probably work on me until I die. So it is absolutely no wonder that I was drawn to Russian Tea – not only is it called Russian Tea, but it’s based on a quote from Eugene Onegin: “Day faded; on the table, glowing,the samovar of evening boiled…”

It smells pretty much as you’d expect it to smell: of smoke and black tea. It isn’t very heavy, however, I find it completely wearable for day. It’s probably the effect of the slightly fruity notes, raspberry and magnolia – the latter often reminds me of apples. If you imagine a cup of tea with some raspberry jam as a sweetener, you can pretty much imagine how this smells. I came to this mental picture completely independently and was so proud of myself, until I realized it is also exactly what they say in the description on the web site.

Russian Tea is remarkably close to that description, now that I’ve read it. This is a pleasant change in the perfume world where blurbs either make no sense at all or bear no resemblance to the actual fragrance. The only thing I don’t really smell much of is the promised mint in the top notes, but many others do, so I’m willing to blame my nose.

Last Saturday, when we were having tea and Pavlovas in a Russian-inspired restaurant, I was wearing Cuir de Russie (and running around like a lunatic, spraying, to scent the room). Next time, I’ll go with Russian Tea. It works with the theme, smells good and I think a touch of masculinity will work well in an all-female environment.