May Lily opens with a nose-tingling aldehydic concoction, a slightly grubby citrus accord (probably a facet of the aldehydes), and a faint whisp of white florals - a bit of jasmine, lily and maybe a tad of powdery iris. It has a “fizzy soda” kind of vibe, but devoid of much flavour. Underneath all this there seems to be this sweet/sour animalic note that isn’t quite coming forward yet.
The opening has this strange, old-fashioned vibe to it but the base seems unusual. It smells as though there is a huge empty space between the aldehydic opening and the base notes. I can smell a rough leather that is slowly surfacing, a bitter almost green leather with a nutty castoreum paired with it. The empty space seems to be separating a fight between the soapy stain of the opening and the animalic leather trying to reach for the top. It’s quite uncomfortable to wear and I’m not sure which way the fragrance will favour – consistently clean floral or dirty dominance.
The florals fade considerably, well, they begin to completely disappear. The leather seems somehow muted, almost translucent, along with a growing labdanum note. They both seem somehow ethereal and bright, despite smelling completely bitter and rugged. As I said, there is a green-ness to the leather, but I don’t smell any vetiver or green notes. Tying together the labdanum, castoreum and leather is a slightly clean muskiness, that smells more old and dusty than actual musk.
May Lily, over the next half an hour, falls in favour of the base, and the clean, soapy stain becomes blackened and worn with the aging scent of musty leather, nutty animalics and “gummy” labdanum. Whilst it sounds all-powerful and brooding it somehow remains light and almost out of reach, and bizarrely familiar. Not too dissimilar from Boadicea the Victorious’ Complex, without the soil and violet notes.
*****Okay before I continue this charade, let me just add – I MADE THIS :’) Mwahahaha!!!
A long story short… On the 29th April 2012 I attended a fantastic Intermediate Perfumery Course hosted by Lila Das Gupta through Perfume Lovers London, and run by the lovely Karen Gilbert. I learnt absolutely loads and had a great time meeting like-minded interesting people all passionate about fragrance.
Please don’t take this post too seriously, but I tried to review my “fragrance” as though I hadn’t smelt it before (and this is the first time I properly have!), and don’t worry, I realise that it is probably the most un-refined scent in existence! 
To be honest though: despite it being made in a mad, stressful afternoon rush, a hurried estimate of raw material measures and bulked up with a huge dose of Iso E Super, I’m thrilled with it! It represents exactly what I intended on it doing - a big mish-mash, slightly avant-garde, slightly classical yet just about wearable. It may not be the next Muscs Koublai Khan, but I’d love to get the opportunity to tweak it and make it perfect one day 
The day in London was a huge dose of knowledge for me and the great opportunity to sniff plenty of raw materials and learn lots from other perfumistas, as well as get some basic hands on experience with fragrance creation. I have to say, I have come away with an even greater appreciation and understanding of the creation of the fragrances I love, and feel a great deal of inspiration particularly from the perfumers who create these scented works of art that give me so much enjoyment!
So yes, whilst it may not be the most polished EDT, I’ll happily send anyone a free sample if you drop me a line! 
I’d love to hear your thoughts
Good review of what was obviously an interesting fragrance, resulting from a good course. I’d have like to be there myself actually.
Thanks for sharing and good luck with the tweaks – that’s where the real fun begins believe me.
Thank you that’s very kind
I know! I’m almost too nervous to delve into the expense (which is obviously going to happen soon) of investing in all the materials in order to recreate it! And make it better of course.
Thanks for reading.
How wonderful!!!! It sounds like you had a tremendous experience. I am so jealous with the fact that you there in London have such an active fragrance lover community. I have checked and there is nothing like that here in DC. And if you send me a sample, I’ll do a review. Can’t say that I’ll love it though. Great fun in your post!!!
Lol! I don’t expect a review *hint hint* :’)
Nah sounds great!! Think of it as, a first edition!
And don’t worry I know you’re not a leather fan, you can give it a one bone, I won’t be offended
Hit me up with your addy. I’ll send you a small bunch of samples if you want, some things to wrap your head around!
Posted the sample, should be on its way to you shortly
I shall have my nose poised and ready
Since you are so passionate about it, Freddie, this may not be the last scent you ever created. At least it came out fairly close to what you had envisioned in the head. And then to put it together, without precise measuring, but rather like an excellent cook, a little of this, a little of that. Now, in the process of evaluating and perhaps tweaking, you will keep notes, how much of this, and how much of that ?
Seems to me that you are saying there is a gap between the top and the base notes. What are your heart notes ? Do you plan to put any special ones in ?
What did you mean by tweaking ?? Again, a vision is probably first – and then, the execution.
You could ruin the whole thing !! Sometimes, a painter overworks a painting by adding a little flower here and there,
KEEP IN MIND the whole, over-all, impression of your perfume.
Good luck, have fun.
Hi Ursula thanks for reading!
I’d love to create more but that seems like a far off dream, I was hugely grateful of the introduction though and I think I’ve got tons of homework ahead.
Tweaking it because my personality means I could never be happy with the first outcome I have to get hands on and play more. I’d keep the aldehydes and add more variety of them, they have a strange sweaty note right now. I’d add a few more florals (muguet) and I’d love a metallic accord to be strong upfront. I’d mix the metallic accord with some smoky frankincense maybe and create a cold metallic incense to flow into the heart. Literally I made a top and base and no heart, but smudged it together at the very last minute with a blob of Iso E Super. Luckily I recorded my formula suprisingly accurate! Whilst yes adding bits here and there, I always scribbled it down.
I won’t be changing it for a while, for starts I have no supplies, and to save up for everything I need I’d definitely need to cut back on the fragrance spending!
Hopefully o
Hi Freddie, I am Evinick (Nikos) from Basenotes. First of all I find your seminar experience very exciting. I too like to play the perfumer, mixing essential oils and aromachemicals, and what I really miss is to have someone that knows the “job” to consult me, and answer the 1 million+ questions I have about perfum creation. I have the feeling that May Lily (a floral leather if I am getting it right from your review) is the bottled experience+knowledge from this seminar. I am a big fan of leather, incense, smoky woody scents but as a genuine fragrance maniac I try to smell practically anything and eventually admire scents from all existing categories (as you can see from my basenotes wardrobe too). I really would like to exchange some samples of my scents with you, to hear and give a review if you agree of course. Regards, Nikos
Hi Evinik.
Well, I’m sure you have had a lot more practice than I have, this was my first attempt at anything like this but I was suprisingly happy with the outcome!
Yep that’s what I enjoyed so much – finding out every answer to all my questions. I really didn’t have a clue before the course so it was fascinating to hear professional information and insight.
Yep a floral leather indeed! I hadn’t categorized it yet but you’ve got it spot on
Our teacher had pre-made bases for us to use to really fill and smooth our fragrances out but being the annoying individual I am I insisted I did mine fron scratch! Haha.
Yep I’d love to have a sniff of your work, I’d be happy to post some thoughts on here if you’d like.
My email address is in my “About Me” section so contact me through that
I look forward to it!
Regards,
Freddie
hehehehhe, that was funny way of doing an impressive review before disclosing the secret in the end
i would love a sample just to make sure the review matches the fragrance 
Well be sure to send me your address to my email in the About Me! section and I’ll send one out to ya
[...] A couple of weeks ago, Freddie author of the smellythoughts blog, tricked his readers with a review on a new perfume May Lily. As it turns out, this was Freddie’s first foray into creating a scent. Creating that perfect scent is something that no doubt, all perfume lovers dream about and I believe that he was extremely tickled to have the opportunity to actually try. You can read all about May Lily by clicking here. [...]