J’s image of Neshama Wandering Stars

Neshama Perfume Souls on Fire bathed us in the beauty of the setting sun and has returned bringing us into the night with Wandering Stars, another stunning floral-forward perfume. Neshama’s Simon Shaer co-created Wandering Stars with perfumer Michael Ælfric Nordstrand of Mythologist Studio™. It’s an elegant Extrait de parfum to lose yourself in as the main elements of gardenia and Indonesian oud take you on a journey through this elegant chypre that plays with darkness and light in a stunning way. Cue Portishead “Wandering stars, for whom it is reserved/The blackness of darkness forever…”

Neshama Wandering Stars perfumers Neshama’s Simon Shaer and Michael Ælfric Nordstrand of Mythologist Studio™.

Fresh bright Sichuan pepper crackles across a dark green sky like a shooting star, it captures your attention, pulling your eyes up to its brightness. A sweet glow of citrus softens the spices at the edges of Wandering Stars, letting it burn with a bright intense heart. Neroli adds a stunning green aura to the spicy Sichuan shooting star, giving the citrus aura an alluring musky density that density orange blossom holds as the last light fades of the day. Wandering Stars is very much of the night, that floral muskiness is thickened up in a voluptuous way with a dark leathery jasmine sambac. The neroli and jasmine sambac merge forming this constellation of grassy flesh yet also bitter steamy greens while pushing that heady orange blossom facet giving Wandering Stars a plush crushed velvety elegance.

J’s image of the little dipper somewhere over Dublin©.

Darker, subtle earthy undertones slowly become illuminated by a creamy white light, whose glow gives off an innocence and purity. Yet there are purrs of desire sending slow vibrations through the complex yet elegant composition. You can feel the interplay of darkness and light through the entire wear of Wandering Stars. It’s like being out of the edge of the world with some one special looking at the stars over the sea letting the darkness grow soft around you, a new love, before a first kiss. You can feel that desire building up as the soft starlight illuminates you both. Soon you will feel the pillowy soft lips of gardenia kiss you, letting its heady aroma envelop you, there is no letting go the stars are leading the way. We are all one under the night sky.

 

 J’s Gardenia by Erin Silversmith© and agarwood chips via wiki.

Gardenia and Indonesian oud are the two constellations forming Wandering Stars, as the heady aroma of the gardenia blooms you can start to feel more of the Indonesian oud’s facets, the dark to the florals light. A soft smooth woody aroma with a whisper of bitter sweetness moves like a gentle musk through a jungle greenness, it picks up from the neroli in the opening, letting those stems reach out into the darkness, there’s almost a soft salty sea breeze, giving a savory addictive feel. All these oudy facets softly linger around the base of a stunning gardenia that has bloomed shining like the North Star in this night sky. I got to smell Simon’s mods of the gardenia long before the perfume was finished, he’d composed multiple versions highlighting different facets with various textures and densities, his final one captured the utter seductive heady magic of gardenia as it blooms at night. They sourced a 2024 Lebanese gardenia artisan enfleurage for Wandering Stars, like all Neshama’s perfumes, beautiful materials are important elements to the composition. Gardenia is a scent that’s woken me having filled a room for the short time I attempted to grow a small gardenia in my room, its scent was room filling, opulent and elegant, yet dripping with an intense musky carnality.

 courtesy of Neshama Perfume.

Wandering Stars also possesses this daring allure. Earthy aromas with a subtle mushroom dankness are met with a silky waxiness of creamy plump petals that feeling of desire is seeping out from a quite innocence. Like desire you can’t hide, that palpable kind of biteable desire between two lovers. It’s narcotic with the Indonesian oud’s animalic whispers illuminated by the creamy glow of  gardenia. The gardenia wraps everything in its floral elegance as bitter dank mossy greens start to hint at a more chypre like base. Those leathery facets from the jasmine sambac return, just softer now as the gardenia’s silky petals slink over them. Wandering Stars feels like it illuminates the air around you, but has that strange sense of deep darkness where the edge of its creamy starlight fades. There is a beautiful interplay that illuminates the materials facets letting you gaze and smell into the night sky as the musky glow of gardenia lights your way and one I’m happily lost wandering in. I’d love to see more collaborations between Simon Shaer and Michael Ælfric Nordstrand, as Neshama Perfume Wandering Stars is a stunner and one of the best gardenia perfumes I’ve smelt!

Notes: Red Mandarin, Neroli, Sichuan Pepper, Jasmine Sambac, Lebanese Gardenia Enfleurage, Indonesian Oud, Himalayan Cedarwood and Oakmoss.

Disclosure: Neshama Perfume Wandering Stars was sent to J for this review his thoughts and nose are his own.

 50 ml Wandering Stars courtesy of Neshama Perfume.

J Wearescentient, Senior Editor, artist & olfactive writer.

Thanks to Neshama Perfume we have a 15 ml bottle of Wandering Stars for one registered reader in the UK, EU or USA. Please be sure to register! To be eligible for the draw, please tell us where you live, what appeals to you about J’s review of Neshama Perfume Wandering Stars, and where you live. Draw closes 11/4/2025

Please read J’s review of Souls on Fire Osmanthus Floral here.

Michelyn’s note: Simon Shaer was a finalist for a 2023 Art & Olfaction Award-Artisan for Osmanthus Floral (Souls on Fire). Michael Ælfric Nordstrand won an Art and Olfaction award 2025-Independent for Bad Lily by TALE Parfum.

If you want your comment to count twice follow @neshamaperfume on Instagram

Follow us on Instagram:@cafleurebonofficial @neshamaperfume @michaelnordstrandperfumer @wearescentientThis is our Privacy Policy

We announce our winners only on site and on our Facebook page – so Like ÇaFleureBon and use our RSS feed…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.