Bordello

[brilliantcat]

A decadent, deep perfume, lusty and luxuriant. The scent evokes images of velvet-lined Old West cathouses, tightly laced corsets, rustling petticoats and coquettish snarls of pleasure. Bawdy plum with amaretto, burgundy wine and black currant.

 

In the bottle: Sweet plum and currant with a slight boozy kick.

Immediately after application: Almost exclusively plum and burgundy wine. Sweet and rich.

Warming up: The wine is turning grape Kool-Aid on me. Boo.

Fading: Grape-y and sweet with a bit of dry almond from the amaretto and not the awesome rich wine/plum/amaretto it started.

Faded: Average throw, average wear.

Overall: Wine blends are hit or miss. I like my wine blends deep and rich and not sweet. This one went too sweet.

Rating: 2/5.

[Hannah717]

In the bottle, Bordello has a very liqueur-y berry scent. When just applied on my skin it's almost overpoweringly sweet, and as it dries down I can definitely make out the decadent berries. I was a bit scared though, because for about 45 minutes it had a synthetic, plastic scent. Luckily that went away. To me, this is definitely a more summery scent.

[EricthoDesalamander]

Whenever I smell Bordello, I think of two different types of fabric. I think of bright pink fuschia satin draped over deep red satin, tied together with a black silk rope. That's the image that always pops into my head whenever I catch a whiff of this scent.

 

If it were a person it would be a femme fatale, but with an innocent and very playful streak. She'd make the hardest and most conservative of men let their hair down and play. Oh yes, she will...

 

I do agree, the scent is like candy, but a sexy candy. Rich, decadent and sinfully sweet -much like richly hued fruits left to soak in a bath of deep red wine.

 

But enough with the prose...

 

This is my second fruity scent, and I have to say that at first sniff I was really taken aback by this one - at least at first. I thought back to all of the reviews that I had read on here, and all the references to it "smelling like candy" and they were right, it does smell like candy - more like expensive candy. Like some red hard candy, with a liquor-soaked fruit at the center. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but it ended up growing on me.

 

What really drove it home for me was the pleasant reactions from friends and family. Everyone literally LOVED the scent, especially my husband who was unable to stop sniffing my wrist for quite some time. As for my friends, every one of them deeply inhaled the scent; and the expression on their faces was one of extreme pleasure... It was hard to describe. Dare I say, it was like watching the essence of seduction being unbottled and released....

 

In my opinion, as it dries down it gets a bit more complex. Don't get me wrong, it stays very very sweet, but it starts to get a bit richer and boozier and deepens - the candy impression starts to take a back seat.

 

So, if you like fruity or candy-like scents, then I'm sure you'll like this one.

Edited December 4, 2012 by EricthoDesalamander

[madscientistdh]

In bottle: grape bubblegum/chiclets with a very faint almost chocolatey musk quality?

 

On skin: Plummy, deep purple musk with a sweet floral tinge

 

Drydown: Darkly sexy fruits... forbidden fruits eh??

 

Verdict: Not quite what I was hoping to smell from Bordello, but I'll definitely try it again. I was hoping to get something a bit more lusty and wanton than a bowl of overripe fruit.

[holborne]

This is extremely fruity fruit fruit; the plum pretty much hit me in the face when I opened the imp and wasn't any more subtle on my skin. (FWIW, I don't get the slightest whiff of amaretto.) However, fruit isn't exactly the smell I associate with a bordello. That would probably be something more like sweat, leather, and gin. This is more like a Froot Loop breakfast -- not the first thing I think about when I think of raw carnality.

 

This scent is fine if you want to smell like an overripe Carmen Miranda; otherwise, you might want to give it a miss.

[bellumed]

Whoa, major morpher! That doesn't happen to me often. It's not the changes were dramatic, more that they were constant over several hours.

 

In the imp: typical bubblegum-candy-fruit smell, although without the “bright and bubbly little girl” association I usually have with that. There's a touch of something unusual here.

 

On me: Surprisingly, more subtle than I would've guessed. Strange, though, I’m not sure what to make of it. I… kind of like it? And kind of don’t. Plummy, certainly, but the rest is indistinct. For some reason, at one point a couple hours in, I was struck with the thought that Bordello was a "happy" scent, even though I didn't love it. Eventually, it became something a little bit sour, not very pleasant. Next time I sniffed, it had turned almost gummyish. Then later, it was fermented plum gummies. Then plums and booze. Then just plums.

 

Dang, this blend moves fast-- how appropriate! I think I'll have to pass on this one, not my thing.

Edited February 24, 2013 by bellumed

[GoddesShel]

I was afraid I was going to get black cherry Jolly Rancher candy. I was wrong.

 

Wow, this is good. Wet, I do get fruity red, but not with the same tartness as I got with Lady MacBeth, who *did* turn to Jolly Rancher candy on me.

 

The amaretto really smooths out this blend, though, making the fruits stay in line and not go candy-ish. Love it! I get a lot more plum with this than I get with most blends that say they have plum in them, also - which I find to be an excellent thing!

[Deliciousness]

In the imp: Wow, Very sweet, almost like cough syrup, but with more fruit.
Wet on skin: I can smell berries coming thru the syrupy sweetness of the initial application. Also getting an undercurrent of warmth - most likely the amaretto and burgundy wine.
Dry on skin: Sweet, fruity, berry, warmth ... These are the descriptive words which come to mind after Bordello has dried.

I LOVE this scent - its so sweet and luscious and marvelous!

[boomtownrat]

Here is one of the scents that creates a vivid mental image when I wear it, almost like a scent-play in my mind.

 

Plum is the leading lady. Black currant and Amaretto are supporting actors. Burgundy wine is an extra lingering in the background of the scene. This labored theatrical metaphor is brought to you by my scent impression of a deep burgundy plush velvet curtain. Bordello is kind of dramatic sometimes, like a prima donna hogging the limelight, but sometimes she's a little shy.

 

Before I got a bottle of Smut 2013, Bordello was what I wore when I craved Smut. (I had smelled an older version of Smut on a friend and started jonesing for it hard.) Now that I have both, I'm going to try layering because I get a similar tone from them, as if Bordello and Smut were two plays written by the same author. Maybe they're even scenes from the same play and Bordello leads into Smut. I haven't figured that part out yet.

 

This is one of the most successful frimps I've ever gotten from the Lab. Its red-violet nature feels natural for me. Striking the perfect balance of sweetness and sultry booze, Bordello isn't so loud that it's inappropriate for my work in a creative field. If I worked in banking, for example, I might apply it more sparingly. As it is, I often like to slather it.

 

Bordello has pretty good throw and lasts for a few hours before I want to apply more. Now that it's springtime I expect I'll be wearing it a lot more often, as it's perfect for the time of year when the world starts to awaken.

[ToThineOwnSelfBeTrue]

So very sultry. Dark sexy and comforting scent all in one. A new favorite.

[ObliqueRed]

Wet, it smelled like a delicious raspberry cocktail, and I wanted to drink it. Delicious. To my dismay, though, once it dried down a bit it started to smell like very artificial berry- in fact it smelled for all the world like a Strawberry Shortcake doll. I could even smell that soft plastic smell behind the fake berries. Sad- I wish it could have stayed in the yummy adult beverage stage forever!

[Mechanical Death]

Holy cherry lollipops batman!

[marcnatandcat]

Bottle: Plum. Not a juicy plum, but more of a plum liqueur

 

Wet: This has a strong medicinal smell to it. Like a fake plum.

 

Dry: Now I smell the brandy and juicy plum. I really did not like this wet, but it's decent dry.

 

This one is not for me. I'm not sure I would recommend this unless you are a big fan of plum wine or dark fruit scents. I didn't smell the wine but I didn't miss it.

 

 

2/5

[miishanyan]

Got this one as a frimp with a huge order, and while going through smell all my samples, this stood out so much. It's gorgeous, rich, a strong fruity cocktail. I put some on straight away and YUMM. YUM. So yummy. I felt a bit like I'd been smelling like I'd been drinking a lot, but my colleague at work kept commenting how nice I smelt She is the one that has to deal with my perfume addiction, so I trust her judgement haha

 

It stays pretty true to the imp on me actually, which is a nice change. Love this, want more, will be buying a bottle next order without hesitation.

[lucycat]

In the imp: Plum and black currant.

 

Wet: The same. I can't pick out a separate wine note, but something is there underlying the fruit, making it even richer, and I think that's the wine. I don't get amaretto at all.

 

Bordello smells delicious: sweet but not overly so, dark and juicy.

[welcometothefamily]

In the Imp: I can smell plum, cherries and....watermelon? o.o It's very candy-like.

 

Wet: Sliiiightly less sweet on the skin, but I'm still getting plums and watermelon. It's actually very much like Midwinter's Eve, but with Wonka's watermelon gobstoppers thrown in.

 

Drydown: Fruity and still sweet, but not as crazy sweet as before. Slightly musky. Still smells like watermelon gobstoppers to me, but it's now the powdery insides, not the crunchy coating.

 

Verdict: I don't get any wine or amaretto from this at all. A little disappointing since I think it would have made this perfume a lot more grown up. Not bad, but not really for me. Too fruity sweet.

 

3/5

[applecider10]

It honestly smells like candy. Eventually it dries down to something more powdery, with a hint of almond, but it's still very sweet. Way too sweet for me!

 

Apparently some people get a more authentic wine/fruit smell, but the overwhelming impression this blend gave me was of artificial grape -- like you'd smell in a drug store candy aisle.

 

Edit to say: Beware. Two scrubbings haven't been enough to get the scent off!

Edited January 17, 2014 by applecider10

[icecreamcone]

In Bottle - It smells like black cherry kool-aid meets marshmallow, yum! It's always good when something reminds you of your childhood.

Dry - I like this scent, after a bit it gets more mature.

Keeper. It gets better with age. I have a six year old bottle and a brand new one - the older one smells deeper and more rich.

Edited December 26, 2022 by icecreamcone

[miamaslegi]

180: BORDELLO
GC: Ars Amatoria
"A decadent, deep perfume, lusty and luxuriant. The scent evokes images of velvet-lined Old West cathouses, tightly laced corsets, rustling petticoats and coquettish snarls of pleasure. Bawdy plum with amaretto, burgundy wine and black currant."

Received from Lab 28 February 2014

In bottle: Sweet, fruity plum, currant, and wine - yummy! I love wine scents, so I hope this plays nice on my skin.

Wet: Still nice and fruity but with a perfumey edge (plum sometimes does that). I was kind of hoping for yet another rich, dark wine scent to add to my collection.

Dry down: Warm and fruity - not winey, but I am really liking this a lot. It's almost got a custardy note in there (maybe the amaretto?). Tasty!

Dry: This is fading a bit in intensity, but is still nice and fruity. I think this would be worth a bottle in the future!

4/5

[doomsday_disco]

In the imp: Very fruity and sweet. Reminds me of blue raspberry blow pops.

Wet: I definitely get the plum and black currant, but I'm also getting something that reminds me of bubblegum (or something candy-like). I don't know if it is blue raspberry blow pops or something else, but it definitely reminds me of some type of candy from my childhood. I thought I didn't like plum, but I'm actually enjoying this. Maybe I haven't liked the other perfumes with plum notes that I've tried due to the other notes that have accompanied it.

Dry: I get a bit more of the wine and black currant now, but it still reminds me of candy!

Verdict: I don't typically like fruity scents, but this one is nice!

[ModderRhu]

when I first smelled Bordello, I was like "ew. this doesn't smell like plum at all." and put it away for a while. then I dug it out again and I was like "ew. how are they calling this plum. this is gross." and forgot about it again. then I found myself thinking about it. so I dug it out and applied it while thinking "ew, gross." but I couldn't stop smelling my wrist. then I couldn't stop thinking about it and started craving it. and now I've ordered a full bottle

 

I guess I didn't want to admit how much I love this one! I think it smells more like a fruity, musky bubblegum than plum. it's nice and smooth and juicy. the amaretto is barely there but it keeps the sweet tart fruitiness from being so monolithic. it really is delightful.

[Allumina]

Aww, this is kind of adorable. I'm not particularly into sweet or foodie scents (I amp sweets) but this is just so cheerful- straight up grape candy. If I sniff my wrist, I can smell some more musky, adult notes swirling around, but the throw is all juicy purple candy.

 

Unfortunately, the second and third time I tried this it went to plastic on me, so it looks like my chemistry can't handle it.

[agirlnamedfury]

Boozy and fruity... two of my favorite things!

 

I get a little bit of the amaretto once it's dried down. It mellows out quite a bit and is almost creamy. This one's a keeper for sure.

[DiesMali]

In the imp: Plum wine. Mmmm.

 

Wet on my skin: No longer plum wine, but rather black currants and amaretto.

 

Dry: This is a gorgeous scent! It's a dry, almost dusty amaretto and currant scent, with a bit of a tart kick from the plum. It really does give the impression of a bordello in a gritty, dusty Wild West town. It's satiny and a really lovely muted mauve/fuschia colour. Might be a bottle scent at some point. MMmm.

[barilace]

Free imp from the lab.

 

I don't know what's wrong with me but I pick up....sandalwood? I thought for sure it was a note in it before I went to check. ODD. I pick up sandalwood for the first good chunk of wearing it and then as it settles down I get a sweet berry with a light amaretto.

Edited March 21, 2015 by barilace