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Lampades

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... Their scent is the crisp, inviting bittersweet tang of cranberry with smoky dark lilies, heady, sensual musk, a tingle of ginger and a brush of Mediterranean spices.

 

Lampades starts out on me as a very lovely musky cranberry. Over time the cranberry fades a bit, becoming spicier and a little more floral. Eventually it vanishes altogether unless one tries very hard to find it, leaving behind sweet spices with a gust of floral underneath. I do like it very much, whether it's bottle-worthy requires further testing.

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In the bottle: High and bright, kind of greenishly herbal

 

Wet: Morphing between herbally, sweet, lightly spicy, but drying down soft and warm.

 

Drydown: Soft and close to the skin, warm musk with a little tang, almost ambery with just a bit of tangy brightness and a tiny hint of warm spice. Amazingly, while I normally amp florals, the lily is barely even in attendance.

 

Conclusions: Complex, but soft, lays close to the skin. Appropriate for work or going out and about. Keeper!

Edited by alianthe

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In the imp: Very sweet, almost like fruit punch.

 

Wet on my skin: It retains that sweet punch feel, but with lilies surrounding the punch bowl.

 

Dry: This could just be my hormones going wacky, but I never do get much of the musk, ginger, or spices. This remains a calm, sweet, slightly juicy floral on me for most of the duration of the scent, only fading enough to allow the musk to come out at the last hour before fading completely. It's not bad at all, that being said. I'd just wished to have more ginger/musk in with the lilies.

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A nice juicy cranberry in the bottle. Goes on with some musk, but that soon disappears, leaving just a gentle, rounded cranberry with no bitterness. I was ready to ditch this but the musk vanished very quickly. I like it!

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I love the sound of this. I haven't tried anything with the Lab's cranberry note before either, so pretty excited to try this.

 

 

Wet: Cranberry and woods. A bit tangy, a bit sweet. Woody. Kind of sensual, actually. I like it immediately, but I'm also thinking it would smell great on a man.

 

 

Dry: smoky, woody cranberry. Quite good. But it's the kind of thing I think I would really like on someone else, or maybe in a room scent. It's just not me. I would really love to smell it on a man though.

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Bottle: A reddish-brown musk, deep cranberries, reddish lilies, and dark smoke, in that order.

Wet: A cranberry tang on a background of lilies and smoke and spices. I smell the ginger when I look for it. The throw is pretty good while wet -- I keep getting random whiffs of playful cranberries and a little smoke.

Dry: The cranberry shows a nice longevity. I get some musk after a while, but the cranberry needs a couple hours to wear down a bit before the musk came through on me. This would make a nice red and tangy floral for the fall.

I like this blend's sense of play among its smoky mystery. Like Voodoo Lily, it's nicely expressed with a couple red and burgundy things I wear.

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I got this in the Oriental Floral imp pack. Cranberry is the most prominent note. It's sweet but not sugary, and also a bit tart. This is strong when first applied, but the throw faded quite a bit in the immediate dry down. I was starting to think it was just all absorbed really fast but then I started to catch a sniff of the scent when I moved around. I don't get much of the spices and no ginger that I noticed, but I maybe get the lilies? I'm not good at picking out individual florals yet. It's mostly gone at 5 hours. I'm kinda conflicted. Sometimes I like it. Other times it smells like a fruity air freshener. I need to test again. The color is a desaturated smoky cranberry. On further test, I decide I like it much better, I get more of the sense of ‘torchbearer of hecate’ (which would be awesome to smell like!) I think I’ve made up my mind, I like this. Overall it's a smoky-sweet-tart cranberry. Definitely gonna use my imp up!

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I bet this smells fantastic on a lot of people, because it almost smells fantastic on me. That musk and smoke! Unfortunately, my skin causes the cranberry and smoke to start fighting each other. The result is kind of plastic-y. Not for me.

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This was a frimp from the Lab.

 

In the imp, wet, and dry, Lampades is a tart, bright cranberry. The musk seems to be grounding it and making it last longer than it would on its own, but I can’t really pick it out otherwise. After about ninety minutes, a slight spiciness emerges.

 

I don’t smell any ginger (too bad; I was envisioning a gingered cranberry sauce scent) or lily, so if you dislike florals, Lampades is a safe blend to try.

 

I agree with all those who say this blend feels right for autumn.

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In the imp this smelled very spicy and a little fruity. On my skin it's sweet. Really sweet. It smells kind of like a gummy candy, in the same way Forest Reverie does on me but a little juicier and with just a tiny hint of tartness. I don't get cranberry or spices at all when I wear it, but I do like it.

Edited by ShunnerOfHugs

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Wet the musk was the strongest note on me, with a little tart cranberry and ginger. It was very sweet and sensual. As it dried I got some lily. Dry it's a soft, tart scent. There is a little zing from the ginger and the lilies waft in and out. Very intriguing. Don't know if I am in love yet, but this could grow on me.

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The first thing that gets me is cran-lily with spices, and the musk to bring it down from being too flowery and foodie; I can't pick up much of the ginger, but that may be my inexperienced nose, or it blending with the other spices and things. It's a mystical scent to me, alluring and dark, and ages into something much more 'musk and cranberries' than floral, though they peek out every so often, and the spices stick around to warm it up. The carry does diminish a little as time goes on, especially compared to some of the more forceful oils I've tried, but that's a good thing too; it's not enough to be cloying and still tugs at the senses.

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A generous frimp from the Lab, with a really unusual list of notes--I can't recall every trying any other cranberry BPALs. On me, it smells like fresh cranberries over patchouli? I guess it's the musk, but it smells like patchouli on me, which adds a dark earthy undertone, like a cranberry bog!

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How can it be I never reviewed this? I looked through and didn't see, though I know I have tried this before, back in the early days. I got Lampades as a frimp from the Lab, and I remembered that it didn't work well for me - but that was probably 10 years ago, so I decided to try again. And I'm intrigued! It's really interesting. I get cranberry and lily with some spices, rounded out by musk - pretty much what it says it is, but it's surprising to me how well this seems to be playing on my skin given that fruits and lily don't usually. It's like the cranberry is grounded by the musk and sweetened by the lily, and the spices keep it balanced so it's not overbearing or too fruity or floral. In other words, it's well done, which is no surprise. But the magical combo might just work on me! My first tentative test faded quickly, so I'm on my second round to see what happens on the drydown when I apply a little more.

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Bust'n out the cranberries for November! :)

 

Lampades mostly smells like tart, sugared cranberries at first. It's a tad fakey on the front end, but as it warms on my skin, the smoke, ginger, and spices start to make an appearance, turning this into a tart, dry, fruity incense. I really like it.

 

If you are worried about the lilies going soapy, I don't get even a hint of that. I think these are more the lush, juicy smelling lilies, like in Cobra Lily. I don't really get a strong musk element either, though I'm sure it's in there tying things together.

 

If you're a fruity fragrance fan, this one's definitely worth checking out, especially with that unusual cranberry note.

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I had hopes for this one, but cranberry just isn't for me. It always goes to holiday candle territory on me. Even when it's dry, it just smells like sweet and waxy like a cranberry candle and it really doesn't appeal to me. I'm kind of bummed because I was mostly hoping for all the other notes to stand out. Can't win them all.

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Fruit! This smells like straight up berries in the imp AND on my skin. As it dries down, it's still fruit. Maybe with a tiny tang, but mostly: berries.

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There's something unpleasant in here that activated directly as I put this on my skin, which I'm guessing may be the musk combined with the ginger. Smells like rotten garbage, but!! That aside this is super fruity and fresh on application.

 

THANKFULLY whatever is making this so yucky on me kinda ..flows into the background a little later and I get to enjoy it a bit more. Sweet cranberries, mostly. Not for me, unfortunately.

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Starts out dark red berries with an underlying scent of smoke; the smoke sometimes oscillates into a subtly "basementy" smell that makes me think it might be vetiver, but if it is, it's a really quiet vetiver that doesn't amp up as loud as that note sometimes does. Later, it's the berries with a soft haze of dark musk. I'm reminded a little bit of Her Strong Enchantments Failing, except I think I like Lampades better, because Enchantments' white musk goes dryer-sheets in the late drydown. I need this anyway for the Hecate connection, but I like it enough for at least an imp's worth in any case.

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This does have that fruity holiday candle smell to me, nd on my skin it just smells like berry chapstick. Not a favorite.

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In the imp: Lots of cranberry, with just a hint of ginger.

 

Wet: The cranberry is by far the strongest note, and I think the musk is making it stronger. Behind that, I can smell the smoky lilies and a bit of spice. I swear there’s some soft, chewy patchouli in this as well.

 

Dry: The combination of the cranberry and the musk makes me think of red Jello. I no longer get any patchouli, and the smoky lily note just smells smoky in the background. So… fruit punch or Jello with a bit of smoke and a little spice in the background.

 

Verdict: This is far too fruity for me, and the fruit + smoke combo also isn’t my cup of tea. As far as cranberry goes, I like Red more than this one.

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I've been wrestling with this one for months - it's such an out-there combination of notes, but it's also strangely, stunningly beautiful.

The most impressive part is the first few seconds on the skin. It's gingery cranberry on the wand but as soon as it hits my skin it warms up rapidly and there's a wave of musk, which retreats just as quickly as it arrived. The memory of floral-spice incense in the background. This settles down to dark, but not juicy, cranberry on a bed of warm, long abandoned flowers and spices.

This evokes so much imagery - dark, sensual, primal, magical imagery.

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On me this is just sweet cranberry, it actually reminds me of a bottle of premix cosmopolitan that you add vodka to. But it's not as loud and in-your-face as that suggests, this works as a good day scent on me. 

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In bottle pretty, juicy red musk. Skin chemistry sours it a bit as with most fruits, drydown red musk with some florals and subtle spices thrown in. If fruits go wonky on you I would look for a different blend, but if they work I could see this being a nice, effervescent, juicy musk with ligh florals and spice thrown in for sophistication. 

 

Not for me but glad to have tried it!

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