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Limb-loosener.
Ambergris, pale musk, peru balsam, golden amber, cedar, lavender, spikenard, narcissus, vanilla caramel, white sandalwood, and woodmoss.


In the vial: light vanilla, lavender, musty valerian, and fragrant cedar

Wet on skin: sharp green narcissus leaves, a bit of hyacinth & jasmine, sandalwood. Here it is strongly green and floral. A bit of herbally lavender and valerian in the mix. The sandalwood cuts through the edge of the herbals. It is very cologne-like and sharp.

Dry: amber begins to emerge, not overpowering, just firm. The lavender and floral notes soften and the moss deepens with the cedar and sandalwood. It does take a while to get past the sharp stage, but once it happens, all is uniformly blended and quite lovely. Very light from a distance, but up close is full-on. Leans slightly feminine once the vanilla carmel sets up on my skin.

I'm glad that I tried a decant of this. It falls into that "had to try" category. Not at all like any scent that I have. One of those scents you ponder while you're wearing it-wondering if you've smelled something similar once you get to the drydown. I love to smell it on my wrists. But beyond that, it is not something that I would wear often enough.

However, it may be something I can convince DH to try...

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expectations-

amp the ambergris/musk and have the other notes complexify'

imp-

mmm-yes, it might do just that~ warm musk-

wet-

musk-but also vanilla caramel, balsam,perhaps moss.

a creamy floral note, reminding me a bit of Voyeurs Among the Cherry Blossoms? or Kyoto without the anise? odd! maybe it's the moss assisting....

getting a bit faint, but quite tasty.

verdict-

creamy musk, with a light floral blending (no woods for me)

-quite like this one. Not gender specific~

Edited by Shollin
Removed Lab description --Shollin

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whoa what a weird scent. it smells like shampoo and libraries/video rental stores mixed together. i don't know how else to explain it. this is sort of masculine, but sort of not- the musk and vanilla caramel bring the masculinity down a notch. all in all, it doesn't really smell good on me, so i think i'll swap it!

 

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Wet on skin: smells very cologne-y and masculine. I can't specifically point to any notes which would be doing this, but it makes me want to try this on the hubby.

 

Dry on skin: morphs into a softer scent, then almost immediately disappears on me. Sad.

 

Verdict: I was hoping for something more musky/herbal.

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Wet, it's pretty mixed up. Something sharp comes up first; I think it's the cedar. More notes are coming through now, and it's nice — woody with a little bit of spice.

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I'm getting a lot of woodmoss and lavender out of this one. Like many others, it went on so faint I reapplied a few times. Once it warmed up to body tempature though, it roars a bit. Strong, sharp, slightly bitter and slightly sweet with a hint of musk in the background. This whole Lupercalia series is really puzzling me because many I thought would be true love are meh on my skin, and then others I thought would never work are my new favorites :huh:

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Frimp from the lovely ravyn1. :wub:

 

Imp: Strong moss and spikenard with a heady, perfumey mix of musk, amber, ambergris and strong sandalwood/cedar. It's cologne-y, but not in a bad way, and sweetly herbal with airy resins rounding it out. Me likes! It has an almost citrussy feel, but without any actual fruit.

 

Wet: Oooh. Ambergris and the richest, softest musk, with a very, very manly overtone of moss and herbs and wood. It's very hard to describe, but it smells like a clean man to me, someone who's just used a very expensive soap and an ever-so-soft towel. A delicious man. A delicious, clean, aroused man. :blush: Don't lie, you know exactly the smell I'm talking about... damn it! Why is the boyfriend out of town? The throw on this is hayooge, too, so I can't get away from the sexy man scent!

 

Dry: Up close, this is a thickly spiced, gooey caramel-vanilla, but in the throw, it's all a citrus-tinged, spiced, masculine musk. Gorgeous! I wouldn't wear it, it's too manly for me, but I am not responsible for what might happen if I succeed in enabling the Boyfriend with it. :yum: I might even have to hunt down a full decant.

 

[edit] I figured out what this reminds me of-- Morocco! It has the same sweet vanilla and musk, but instead of being overlaid with feminine spices and carnation, it's the most awesomest manly moss, woods, and citrus. FANTASTIC.

Edited by WidgetAlley

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Oh man, I was loving it, then it turned masculine-soapy on me. Shoulda known, what with the ambergris, woodmoss, and naked dude and all. Silly me!

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So, I'd gotten the chance to sniff someone else's bottle then ordered one myself. Except, I guess due to batch variances, mine seems nothing at all like the other one I sniffed. :cry2:

 

Wet: All I'm getting is lavender, lavender, lavender. Not "bad" per se, but not really what I want, either. :huh?:

 

Drydown: Still tons of lavender. But wait, 30 minutes later some of the woods are coming out! Probably the balsam and cedar.

 

Verdict: It's nicer later, but it's still not enough of a love for me to keep this 5ml around.

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Glukupikros

 

In the imp: a masculine blend of woods, moss and lavender.

Wet on skin: clean fresh moss and woods, but I also smell amber and sweetness, and musk.

Dry on skin: I like this. It’s manly, but I still like it…there’s a very classic feel to it. It makes me think of a well-crafted chypre/fougere based cologne. The lavender leads the way but it’s beautifully backed up by a warm, golden amber and vanilla-caramel (no cloying caramel foodiness though). I can smell woods, pale musk (a very clean ‘just showered skin’ scent) mosses and the earthy touch of spikenard too. This reminds me a bit of the Emathides, but more masculine and fresh.

After a while: this then seems to go into a stage that reminds me of a cross between Old Scratch and Emathides, and one of the sweeter spikenard scents-maybe Diwali? The blend of cedar, spikenard and sandalwood reminds me of the incense base of Diwali. The amber and lavender and musk and moss are very appealingI seem to be getting powder from this as well, from the moss and musk. This gets more and more amber-vanilla over time, and I love that. it smells like a sort of amber chypre in the end, sweet moss with an amber base.

Verdict: this is masculine, but not overwhelmingly so, I feel this is unisex and I really like it. It’s a very nice blend of lavender and woods and moss with a clean musk and delightful amber-vanilla warmth behind it. I feel as though I can pull it off without smelling like aftershave, though I’d love to smell this on a guy. I find this very sexy and approachable and it’s got a very sophisticated, mature feel to it as well, classic but also quite contemporary. It’s not a favourite-there are other lavender-wood-amber scents I prefer, but it’s a lot nicer than I expected.

Emoticon rating: :D

Is it a keeper? not really but it’s very nice!

If you like this, try: Emathides, Old Scratch, Casanova, Bat of Longevity, Gaueko

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In the vial: Balsam, cedar, lavender, and a touch of caramel.

 

Wet: Ambergris and balsam, mostly. It smells very evergreen.

 

Twenty minutes: It's still quite tree-ish, but there's something floral in there. Looking over the list of ingredients, I suspect it's the spikenard I'm getting. That caramel note has disappeared, and I'm not getting any cedar. There might be a smidgen of lavender, but I'd expect my skin to drink that up immediately in the company of some of these other ingredients which I amp.

 

One hour: Still balsam, but the ambergris has mostly disappeared. The cedar and vanilla are coming out just a bit now, which is warming it up some. There's still a touch of unfamiliar floral. I like this one, but it may not be grounded enough for me.

 

Two hours: More grounded now, but alas! It seems to have gone kind of soapy. It's very pleasant soap, with a lovely warm evergreeny impression, but I can't escape the soapiness of it. I'm glad I indulged my curiosity about this one, but it's just not going to work on me.

 

Three hours: Definitely all soap now. That's strange: I rarely get soapy results.

 

I traded this to someone who loves it.

 

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Imp: bitter/tart

Wet: Sour/tart citrus rinds. Starting to smell florals. I can smell the astringent lavender. Starting to smell the cedar. I can smell a hint of the vanilla caramel, but it quickly disappears.

Drydown: Starting to smell like a sharp perfume. Floral and wood, but otherwise non-descript. Head-ache inducing.

Overall: This had too many notes that were fighting with eachother. :ack:

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Sniffed: Peach coloured oil. Fresh and cologney! Ambergris and musk and white sandalwood are really all I can pick out, though it smells complex. Very clean, with an almost soapy edge, and an underlying sweetness.

 

Wet: Similar - definitely strong on the ambergris and the musk is just gorgeous! A little bit of lavender now, and the sandalwood has taken on a slightly dry edge. With effort I can detect a little caramel...and maybe some perfumey amber.

 

Dry: Definitely getting sweeter and more ambery-powdery, and the cedar is emerging too. Earlier it remind me a little of Vicomte de Valmont, but now not so much. Soapier too. Sigh.

 

:(

 

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Wet: starts with a light, slightly masculine scent that makes me think of aftershave - kind of a cross between oakmoss and rosewood. I'm guessing that's the "woodmoss" as the opening act.

 

Drying: becomes a little more complex, but still vaguely masculine. Much as I adore gender neutral/heavily wooded/musky scents (which this ISN'T, just saying that I don't often go for overly femme scents), this one is starting to look like a no-go for me.

 

Dry: It continued to round out & the ambergris pokes it's head in making it a bit nicer; it's probably be nice on a guy. I don't love it enough to present it to my sweetie to try on or to hunt down more of though. It's very nicely blended -- note that the cedar, lavendar and white sandalwood, all notorious for taking over a scent, all behave nicely enough that I might not have guessed they were in here. So if you like scents that smell like a nice aftershave but are scared off by one of those notes, fear not. :)

 

EDIT: a couple of hours later, the base notes drydown is lovely. It's sweet and creamy and woody. This doesn't magically transform it into a keeper, as the lingering scent is a skin scent without much throw for me. *shrug* Not worth the "meh" first hour or so for me, which is much louder than the lovely rest of it.

Edited by Muppetk

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Freshly applied, I get a big flash of calm and cooling lavender. This is manly for sure.

 

As it starts to dry down, it's starting to warm up with the amber. The amber is playing a fair game with lavender... neither are fighting each other too hard!

 

Once it's dry I'm picking up a warm and musky lavender men's cologne.

 

It doesn't smell too great on me, but it'll probably smell wonderful on the husbeast!

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In the imp, I don't get much of anything.

When first applied, I get a pretty strong mint and sandalwood.

As it dried, the mint and sandalwood became less pronounced. I'm left with a slightly minty, slightly smokey scent. Its not bad, but doesn't have much throw.

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Lavender, amber, a bit of pine. I get no caramel at all, really, but maybe a touch of the vanilla. this is a beautiful, beautiful scent. I fell in love with it immediately. It smells like clean, friendly man. Not very sexual, just masculine. Gorgeous.

Edited by Whisperstilled

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Glukuprikos - I didn't have the scent description in front of me when I put this on, but pinned down the musk and ambergris immediately. On me, it's a very sweet and highly musky scent full of pencil-shaving type woods and sadly, incredibly "perfumey" on me. It didn't last more than a couple hours on me, either. Off to the swaps!

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I see I'm not alone in finding the scent of Glukuprikos to be very different than what I had expected based on the notes. On me, it's clean and light, reminiscent of Dove Soap. I would put it in the same category as Floater, Dian's Bud, and The Lady of Shalott - delicate, white, floral, and soapy-in-a-good-way. Normally I amp vanilla and caramel, but they're not coming through here except as a hint of sweetness and a fleeting resemblance to the opening stages of Incubus.

I like it, just not at all what I was expecting!

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I was generously gifted a bottle of this at a recent meet and sniff. I finally tested it today. My first reaction was, yup, just like the reviewers said, soap.

 

But I smelled again -- it wasn't just soap, it was soap on someone's body. It smelled, not like soap in a dish, but like a warm body fresh from the shower, redolent of soap but glowing with musk.....

 

Must try it again.....

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With it being Lupercalia season yet again here in BPAL land, I find myself drawn to grab my decants of previous years' Lupes. Given that it's been two years since I started this madness, I'm thinking that my tastes might have changed or my nose grown more sensitive (ie I might find some hidden jewels in blends I thought were iffy). Glukuprikos is the first blend up for a second look!

 

Wet on skin: hints of musky silky mens cologne with light sweetness and florals, but the cologne feeling fades rapidly (I'm guessing that it was the balsam and woodmoss that was the cause).

 

Dry on skin: sweet undertones, a hint of light musk and a mix of ambergis, white sandalwood and the amber. Sadly though, this seems to be getting progressively soapier as time goes on. I personally lay the blame at the feet of the narcissus and the woodmoss. Mostly the narcissus. Florals and me . . . we don't tend to get along.

 

After a while: Ok, so Glukuprikos only goes mildly soapy, which isn't too bad. It's vaguely floral, vaguely sweet, with hints of the pale musk. I wish it was a bit more interesting past the drydown stage, but overall, a pretty scent.

 

Final Verdict: Eh, this one is emeinently forgettable for me, which might expalin why I haven't worn it in 2 years. Off to the sales post!

 

Rating: 2/5 :huh?::wub2:

 

If you like this, try: Smokey Moon 2009, um . . . *shrug* I can't think of anything else really similar to this.

 

Using a slightly altered yeahbutnobut review formatting, because it is the epitome of awesome.

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This is to Obsession for men what Khrysee is to Obsession for women. In my nose anyway.

 

The initial hit is all lavender, which burns away to leave a hint of ambergris, woods and a masculine feel, eventually landing up as a slightly more masculine than unisex scent heavily weighted with amber, even if it isn't listed. No caramel here.

 

It's warm on the outside but with a coldness inside I can't really describe. The middle section reminds me of something in Lilith Victoria, which made me think this would be nice worn to bed.

 

In my mind Brad Pitt might smell like this.

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I've tried this twice now because the first result was bizarre and I thought there must be some mistake. Nope. Same result second time.

 

This smells like me. I mean, exactly. I can't really even tell I have perfume on. This is exactly what my skin smells like all the time. Some combination of all the various products (soap, lotion, mousse, shower gel, etc.) that I use produces this scent. Soft, a little woods-ish, lightly floral.

 

I probably don't need to keep my decant, because... well, I already smell like this. What's the point?

 

The most shocking thing of all is that there's spikenard in this, my #1 most hated note of all time.

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