Lucchesa
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Everything posted by Lucchesa
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My Il Matto is not nearly as dangerous as starbrow's. (@starbrow, I think we are scent cousins -- I always find your reviews so informative & fun to read and often your reactions are similar to mine). In fact, my Il Matto is the ashtanga yoga teacher at the studio that shut down during the pandemic, half my age and adorably intense. My Il Matto swears by selenite to balance your chakras. He's been smudging his apartment with sage though he worries that it's appropriation. He smells like incense, sandalwood and palo santo and copal. He would never defile his body by smoking tobacco but he might purify himself with it (and worry that it was appropriation). The palo santo and copal are the strongest notes on me, so this has a new age shop feel to it. It's quite nice even if it has less soot and tobacco than I'd like.
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Ice Age Baton smells exactly like white chocolate on me. Which is not like real chocolate at all. More like a weird simulacrum of chocolate, wrapped in plastic. The eventual drydown is quite pretty, vanilla and amber and pale tobacco, and it lasts a good long time.
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Lilitu on me is dominated by sweet oud (nothing scary here) and lavender. Typically, the lavender starts out strong, and it even lasts somewhat longer than it tends to on my skin. This is very reminiscent of a beautiful dark lavender oud bath oil I used to have from the Christmas Carol release. Once the lavender fades about an hour in, I’m left with a perfumy oud. There’s a floral, presumably orchid, but I honestly can’t identify any of the other notes: no leather, no tobacco, no carnation, no tea. It’s one of the better ouds I’ve ever tried, but I do wish some of my favorite notes were able to be appreciated here.
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Forever With Unopened Eye starts out with a sharp, somewhat high-pitched evergreen. I usually wear cypress well, so I'm wondering if the hemlock might be at fault. It passes through a stage where it's mostly soil, with evergreen note still quite apparent. Ultimately I do get some incense but no lavender, which I had stopped expecting, frankly, because lavender tends to start off strong on me and get devoured by my skin within 15 or 20 minutes. This just isn't working well with my skin chemistry.
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Cerberus'ish is very foodie. I know, right? Lots and lots of buttercream and honey up front, with just a hint of chai spice. Once it dries down, I get roasted (but not scorched) marshmallow in addition to the buttercream, but I'm quite jealous of the people who got the smoke and the stick.
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Little Atalanta is almost entirely dead leaves on me (which I love) which eventually mellow down enough to perceive a softer, sweeter leather note. I was afraid pleather would smell like plastic, but it does not.
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Despite the bitter almond in the description, Eclipse is a very sweet almond scent which opens with the almond-cherry-marzipan confusion common to almond notes. Once it settles down it's sweet vanilla almond -- not as sweet as Hellcat -- which is very pleasant though unremarkable. There might be a trace of frankincense grounding things (this is a very old imp). I don't get any cinnamon, and while I know I killed a heliotrope once, I can't remember what it smelled like. I quite like Eclipse, but not passionately. Try if you love almond scents like Hecate.
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The Lion is a lovely, warm amber on me, like a beam of autumn sunshine. I don't get any particular spices, just the way a good amber can harbor its own spiciness somehow. It's spicy amber, not amber plus cinnamon or clove or whatever. It's not a strong scent, and the wear length is only average on me, but it's something I often choose for unfamiliar work situations because it feels professional but not impersonal or generic. It projects the warm glowing confidence I want as my own.
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There’s a lot of good stuff in Calico Jack, but there’s also a lot of aquatic, and that’s what’s makes this a pass for me. Lovely spicy musky woody salty leather and laundry detergent.
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I tried this once before and it went into my swap pile without my reviewing it. Another sample has come my way, so I tried again, thinking it sounded just the thing for a bright September day. I love the tangy flavor of tamarind and am not sure I have any other scents with it, but it's not very prominent here. Forever is more of a sweet amber and fig blend on me, with almost no patchouli. Like some of my older decants, this one has lost all its sharp edges and some of its distinctiveness. No throw and fairly short wear length. Not a standout.
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Hazelnut, Red Amber, and Toasted Sandalwood
Lucchesa replied to Seajewel's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
I love all of these notes, and the combination does not disappoint. Toasty, nutty, warm and glowy, this is perfect for late summer/early autumn. Very satisfying, and the throw and wear length are good on me. -
The only note that gave me pause here was the hazelnut cream because cream notes have been doing abominable things on my skin lately. This, however, is not hazelnut cream but just a lovely toasted hazelnut. Caramelized, even. With lovely roasted chestnut and that beautiful, beautiful sweet vetiver of Two Sheep and Two Goats. It goes on sweet and even foodie but quickly becomes something more as the vetiver develops. Maybe a little amber, maybe a little cashmere, no cedar that I can detect. I love toasty nut notes and the vetiver lasts all day and this is just a beauty.
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The soil is strong in this one (2022). For the first hour or more, it's all dirty leather, primarily the dirt, not the leather. In the vial I can smell a much more balanced set of ingredients, but the soil note takes over on my skin, which is unfortunate because every other note here I adore. Even in later drydown I never get tonka or ambrette, and not nearly as much tobacco or vetiver as I'd like. Leather and dirt, yup. I'm going to try aging this for a year or so to see if the other notes emerge, but right now my skin chemistry is ruining it.
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I am totally delighted by everything about the Light Betwixt the Horns except for the fact that I didn't spring for a bottle. Red musk predominates as it always does on me, but the supporting players are so great here. I don't get the sense of specific fruits, just a fruity red musk, and it's spicy from the clove. There's a background of deep rich amber and patchouli, two of my favorite notes. I honestly don't get any juniper, which is fine, it can go awry on me. Despite the "scorched" and "blackened" of the description, I'm not getting any kind of charred vetiver, just a rich, slightly smoky depth. This has been going strong for eight hours, very rare on my dry middle-aged skin. Why did I only get a decant? Why? TLDR: spicy red musk, eminently wearable, sexy as hell. Totally hoardworthy.
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Horn of Benediction doesn't have nearly as much vetiver present on my skin as I would have liked. It's definitely a white vetiver -- everything here is light and bright. The sandalwood, sage and incense are hard to pick apart -- it's similar to the white incense note in some blends. The overall vibe is of a clean, summery incense, with a whiff of ambergris.
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One of my favorite scents is that of sheets hanging out to dry in the sun, and Traditional Sheet Ghost comes near to catching that vibe. There's a sunny lemon I wouldn't have pegged as frankincense and that clean cotton smell with a hint of vanilla. I'm not getting a lot of marshmallow, though it is mildly sweet. It has hardly any throw on me but lasted longer than I expected it to. Very work appropriate and a fun summery scent.
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I’m avoiding oudh these days, but this decant was gifted to me, and it’s really lovely. Everything is understated on me — the pepper and oudh balance out the honey and vanilla, and nothing stands out, like a perfect ensemble cast where no one is showboating and everyone shines. Utterly unisex. I think this would be appropriate for work because it is understated, but yes, it’s sexy too.
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This was a gift from a lovely forumite, and when it hit my skin I thought for sure there must be a goats milk component. It had that kind of barnyard twang along with the sweet florals. Cream notes have been disastrous on me lately. It settles down into something wearable (I actually enjoy the goats milk note) although more floral than my usual jam. Lots of pink roses and pink peonies, and not much in the way of identifiable amber or sandalwood. So creamy pink florals and goats milk.
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This was frottled to @Teamama who generously passed it on to me. Sadly, I don't do orange blossom either. And this is a lot of honeyed orange blossom on me. The amber adds a powdery feel to the orange blossom rather than appearing in its own right, and after half an hour or so I do get the smoky frankincense, though it's overpowered by the orange blossom. If orange blossom is your jam, it's hard to see how this could miss.
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I want LavenderCoffee's skin chemistry! I got peonies. Big peonies. With some honeyed goat's milk. I'm still hoping the carnation and vetiver will show up on my skin. Peony is actually one of the few florals I enjoy, but this is really a faceful of them.
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Despite the cacao as the first listed note, this is not a foodie blend. It's in the same family as #occupywallstreet, but this is the more respectable cousin who doesn't sport dreadlocks and bathes regularly. This patch is smooth, not filthy, with a little sweetness from the tonka, some rich woods from the mahogany (I get no smoke whatsoever, if that note is of concern) and a bit of that incensy sandalwood. And of course the deep dark cacao holding it all together. I don't see any sludge in my bottle, and it doesn't stain my wrist. I bought the two Roe v. Wade scents I thought would work on me, the two with patchouli, and they're both pretty perfect.
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This is already one of my favorite cardamoms. Earthy patchouli sweetened by brown sugar and vanilla with lots of spicy cardamom -- what's not to love? This is an instant classic. The throw and wear length are nothing to write home about, but hopefully that will improve with a little aging.
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Bullfinch and Weeping Cherry (Uso, Shidarezakura)
Lucchesa replied to Seajewel's topic in Limited Editions
Bullfinch and Weeping Cherry was extremely unlikely to work on me, but I love the woodcut so much I had to give it a try. Plus I was interested in the woad note. Like doomsday_disco, I get mostly cherry blossom dryer sheets. Unfortunately, I also get tuberose, which I dislike. I can't make out any smokiness, any black plum, or anything I could possibly identify as woad. Swaps. -
I nearly wrote this off when I first applied Bugbear Doula. I was getting a slightly high-pitched lemony tea note, and I couldn't imagine ever really wearing it. But over the next half hour, it softened into something cozy, with the fur note adding a hint of musk and something sweetening it (a drop of honey in that chamomile tea?). It's not really what I would consider herbal, just golden and comforting.
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Lots of campfire here, and not much gingerbread -- just the spices, if anything, and they're pretty charred. It's a lovely campfire scent if you're into that sort of thing -- in the same family as Chestnuts and Hearth Smoke or Dead Leaves on Fire. I think it would make a good layering scent for weenies that don't have quite enough bonfire going on. BPAL wood smoke fans know who they are, and this is for them.