Lucchesa
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Everything posted by Lucchesa
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On me In Dubiis Libertas is quite a pleasant vanilla amber blend, with hints of slightly smoky benzoin. My skin just damps down any cypress from the get-go, so this is not an evergreen scent on me at all. If anything, it smells a bit like the teak from Antikythera Mechanism. This is very nice and I love the smoked vanilla note, but I do wish my chemistry were allowing some cypress to emerge. No throw (normal on me) and good wear length.
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The Buffalo Man is ridiculously sexy on me, but it takes a while to get there. It starts out harsh, even acrid as described by the last couple of reviewers. Like the kind of smoke that stings your eyes and singes your throat. At first I don't even notice the labdanum, but it's there, lots of it, sticky and dense, underneath the smoke. And the musk... But first the scent has to soften and the acrid smoke has to recede, and then it's fantastic, with a little throw (which is a lot for my skin chemistry) and a warm, masculine, hot AF vibe. I can't stop sniffing my wrist. If the opening were less off-putting, this would be an instant bottle. I'm going to let it age for a couple of months and see if it comes into its own any sooner with aging.
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In Splendoribus Sanctorum is indeed beautiful. I occasionally enjoy wearing Penitence, but this is brighter and more optimistic, like a cathedral with beams of sunlight slicing through the gloom. The bergamot brightens the frankincense and the amber warms it, so that it's glowy and sacred both. I have to be in a very Catholic mood to wear Penitence, or giving a lecture on Fra Angelico or something, but I can see wearing In Splendoribus much more frequently and joyfully.
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I worried about tropical flowers in Santo Domingo, but on me it's all about the bay rum and tobacco. It starts out sharp tobacco and bay leaves, and I was afraid it would be the tobacco note that just doesn't work on me (looking at you, Snaky Hair'd Moirai). But within 20 minutes or so the sharpness mellows, a sweetness creeps in, and it's all beautiful tobacco and bay rum. I wouldn't call it "chewy" on me; it's a drier tobacco. But the florals are never more than a background breath on me, and this is just lovely. Another win for the GC!
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V'al Hanissim is a gorgeous addition to the Lights of Men's Lives family of scents: warm, golden, burnished, lit from within. It's primarily warm beeswax on me with glowing amber backing it up and adding a little old-fashioned elegance. These are both notes that tend to last well on my skin, and I can still smell it faintly 24 hours after application. Absolutely lovely!
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Finally a kaffeeklatsch scent in which I can truly smell the coffee! It's there in spades in the opening of Coffee Beans and Copal -- nice dark-roasted beans and dark resiny copal. After about an hour, though, the coffee vanished. Which means I now have a much firmer idea what copal smells like, which was kind of the idea behind buying this decant in the first place. SN copal is nice, but I preferred the opening with the strong coffee.
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Library scents consistently break my heart. Black Coffee and Old Books is no exception. First off, I got lots of leather. No coffee beans were in evidence. The strong leather (which I like) quickly mellowed into a more parchment feel, with the bit of dust and mustiness and old paper that I look for in scents like these. A hint of coffee. I decided it didn't matter if there was any coffee at all as long as the old books aroma would stick around on my skin -- this would be my used bookstore scent, my ancient library. But no, within 90 minutes it was barely perceptible. For some reason my skin just obliterates these scents.
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I get vanilla and kind of an airy cardamom, with just a little bit of coffee. No itching or prickling from the cardamom. I agree that it's not ridiculously gourmand and has a perfumey vibe which is lovely. It doesn't last terribly well on my skin, though.
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So, my mother has Alzheimer's disease, and I've heard that losing your scent of smell is an early warning sign. And the two kaffeeklatsch decants I tried this morning had me really worried. Thank goodness for all you reviewers to reassure me, because I am really not smelling coffee in Cafe au Lait and a Wool Blanket at all. A soft, sweet milkiness, a trace of vanilla maybe, but coffee? Maybe, if I imagine it, the drop of espresso that Italian moms put in the warm milk they prepare for toddlers. No more. It's a nice, fluffy, comforting smell, but not the least bit caffeinated to me. ETA: The drydown of this scent is gorgeous and lasts forever. It was still going strong 12 hours after application, which never happens on my skin. I may buy a bottle even if the coffee is exceedingly reticent.
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I wanted Here We Come to be a spiced leather scent with hints of roasted apple, rosemary and fig; without the leather as first listed note, it wouldn't have earned a slot among my Yule decants. But of course it's a fruit scent; on me the leather was barely apparent, and it was primarily baked apple and fig (I haven't tried Lamb's Wool but the apple note reminded me of Huntress from the Liliths a couple years back). It lasted quite well on my skin. This would be delicious as a spiked hot apple cider beverage on a nippy day, and I'm going to add a little rosemary the next time I make an apple crisp, but it's not my kind of perfume.
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Wet, I get plenty of gingerbread from Gingerbread, Patchouli, Leather and Dark Musk, but it's the drier, lighter-colored gingerbread with a prominent ginger note, not the really sticky gingerbread that's almost black from molasses. But as it dries down I get less and less gingerbread from this blend, more and more leather, with a little musk and patch backing it up. On me this is a slightly spicy masculine-leaning blend, and it's really nice: rugged with a hint of spices, not the other way around.
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Mountain Temple is really beautiful. It reminds me somewhat of last year's Pale Snowman without the carrot seed. It's the evergreen forest snow, not the minty one on me, with a curl of sandalwood incense. Very evocative and lovely, and good wear length. Totally work appropriate, too.
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Generally I want to slough off winter's sluggishness, but Brumation is making me embrace it. It is so firmly in my wheelhouse. Mmm, syrupy fizzy labdanum. Yes, with that cola vibe, but add in dark sweet tobacco and vetiver -- the latter being similar to the one in Two Sheep and Two Goats -- and you have something I want to cozy up to on a long winter evening. The moss adds a cologne-like touch, just a touch -- this is definitely unisex. If the patchouli emerges with aging, that would be lovely, but it's already pretty great, with good wear length on me. Magnetite Phoenix, with a lot of the same components, fell flat on me, but Brumation is going on the bottle list.
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Cabbage White on me is powdery orris and lots and lots of lily of the valley. The vanilla cream is gentle and not prominent. The cream note is not always well-behaved on me, but this one is subdued; if you like all the notes except for dairy here, it shouldn't deter you. This old fashioned floral isn't my kind of perfume and was generously gifted to me; I'm glad I got to try it but will be passing on this decant.
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Colemanite Phoenix is a beauty. Dry, pure desert scents predominate here. I recently tried White Sage SN and was astonished by how complex a perfume that single note was; the sage here isn't identical (less perfumey than the white), but it's similarly complicated. It's not your usual dandelion sap either but something more silvery gray than spring green. In fact, the colors of this scent are the silvery gray-green of sage and dusky purple of lupine lit by a sunset. Creosote and borax sound nasty, and I don't think of lupine having much scent at all, but don't let that bother you. If you think you'd like to smell like the tenacious plants that bloom in the desert, don't miss the chance to try this.
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You Might Be a Daisy is all leather on me. New leather, like a Tandy leather shop or a leather goods stall in Tijuana. Or Elspethdixon has it absolutely right: cowboy/tack shop, not black leather jacket. I had Colemanite Phoenix on the other wrist, but it didn't help me suss out the sage here, and I didn't get wildflowers either. Or smoke or gunpowder, for that matter. Just fresh leather and lots of it, for a good long time.
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I had such an odd experience with Christougenniatiko 2019 that I wondered if my decant had gotten mislabeled. On me, this was primarily fruity. It smelled like the blackberry or blackcurrant note smells on my skin, in other words, like berry candy. There does seem to be an evergreen note as well, but it's subsumed by the fruit. I kept reading through the scent notes to see what could be causing the berry sensation -- opoponax? Never reacted to it like this before. Anyway, I'm hoping to see another review soon to see if anyone else had this reaction or if maybe I was smelling something else.
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Testing blind I thought, Opoponax! Or labdanum? And labdanum! And I was delighted at the lovely syrupy dark resins, and this was looking like a bottle. As it dried down, though, something went a bit sour on my skin, either the frankincense or the iron note or the combination of the two. It was never unpleasant, it just wasn't amazing anymore. I think this will age beautifully if it works on you, but I will probably let go of my decant as it doesn't seem to like my skin chemistry.
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Maybe I'm having an off day, or I need to let my decants rest more than 24 hours from the mail, but I Hear You Call, Pine Tree was not terribly audible on me. First there was lotus, then there was a breath of pine needles, really creating the sensation of them floating to me on the wind. Gradually they faded, and within two hours there was silence. No lotus, no pine. I will try again in a couple of weeks. This has real beauty to it if it weren't so faint on me.
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Ooh, Native Gold is delicious. If you love rootbeery blends, you have to try this one. There's soft, sweet tobacco and amber in the drydown; I'm not actually getting much cedar. But the sarsaparilla is still in the forefront, and it's lasting well on me, too. Rugged and cuddly. Very nice!
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Upon Man and Upon Beast is a big, dry, almost camphorous patchouli (akin to the one in Tricksy) with an afterthought of cherry. Which was pretty much exactly what I wanted. The sandalwood is evident behind the patch, but I never do find the opoponax or labdanum. Despite the cherry, there is nothing fruity or sweet about this scent. It's totally gender neutral. No throw, which is pretty typical on me, and maybe a little less than average wear length. Dry, earthy, and kind of righteous, this one feels like a power scent to me.
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After reading the above review, I really wished I had ordered a decant of Hanksite Phoenix. Wait, I did. And I have to agree with most of what z_z says. Hanksite is a bright, charming blend that reminded me of A Boar and a Goat from the 2018 Weenies which also had mandarin and labdanum. (Not sure if labdanum is contributing the effervescence here, but that's the vibe.) Hanksite's lime and ginger add zest, and there's a little sweetness from the mandarin but not much. I'm not sure I ever actually made out the khus. Unfortunately, my skin ate this up in short order. I'll try again in a month before the Anniversaries come down to see if a little aging adds longevity.
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Halite Phoenix has that chewy salt note that I love from blends like Aegir without any troublesome aquatic notes that turn to detergent on me. Salt, sand, sun. It doesn't morph much on me and has decent wear length. Probably good for layering, but I like it all by itself.
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Sorcerer contained way too much dragon's blood for my comfort zone. It's the only note here that really doesn't work for me, particularly in its incense form, and that was primarily what I got here. A little lavender and citrus at first, a little cacao and frankincense after that, but it settles into dragon's blood incense pretty quickly and doesn't budge on me from there. Of course it lasted really well on me. There are lots of wins in the new RPGs for me, but this isn't one I can wear. If you love dragon's blood, go for it!
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My decanter accidentally sent me Californite Phoenix instead of Colemanite; it's not in my usual wheelhouse, but I'm super glad I got to try this one. My experience was quite different from that of Casablanca, though I do concur on the airy musk. I didn't get mint at all; instead, on me Californite was a perfumey green moss blend. I couldn't pick fern out of a lineup, but there's definitely a greenery note here, and fougere is French for fern. This didn't morph on me; it had good throw, which is rare with my skin chemistry, and decent staying power. Elegant green fougere.
