Like the Very Gods

[doomsday_disco]

Shuddering, sweat-warmed skin gleaming with sheer musk, honeyed olive blossoms, vanilla cedar, white sandalwood, and orris butter.

 

I get an orange-infused skin musk (I think the orange aspect may be due to the olive blossom or maybe the honey?) and honeyed olive blossom for most of the wear. I agree that the cedar in this is very gentle. The scent smells drier and dustier by the end of the day thanks to the white sandalwood gaining more of a role, but the orris has added some powder to the scent, but it hasn't turned into a powder fest like it normally likes to do with scents on me.

 

I'm glad I got to try this, but I don't think this is something I'd reach for (maybe if the dry sandalwood hadn't gotten stronger over time). But it makes me want to try more scents that feature olive blossom as a note!

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by doomsday_disco

[amokslime]

Like the Very Gods truly is one of the scents that made me fall in love with fragrances. It's so gorgeously blended. I get woods, sweet skin, radiant olive blossom, something else tingly, and an overall sense of warmth that leaves a shining golden impression. It just keeps getting dryer (but still sweet) and more complex with age.

 

Idk if it's just my perception, but this scent really seems to shine on my skin when the ambient temperature is warm. I love to smell it in the bottle during winter, but I always find myself reaching for it in the summer. It seems like it has the most radiance during that time. While it's hard to judge these things on yourself, it seems to have just the right amount of throw. I get compliments from people in my bubble (like, handshake radius) but not further, which is about the distance I'd want.

 

I honestly can't hype this perfume enough! I really hope it comes back to the Lupercalia GC someday. If it does, I beseech you to try it.

Edited December 18, 2022 by amokslime
I listed a wrong ingredient.

[PumpkinGuts]

Anything I say after the previous reviews is going to sound like a caveman wrote it, so I'll be brief: this is just as gorgeous as everybody says it is, Defututa lovers should absolutely seek this out. It also smells remarkably similar to The Olive Branch ? on me. Golden-orange, warm, summery, Mediterranean, gender neutral.

[Magdelene]

I finally, finally, after 8 trillion years - created an account here so I can put a review for this scent.  
 

I’ve had at least 5 bottles of it already from the 2021 release, rationing it carefully because it’s become my holy grail and I was so sad at the idea of never having it again.  
 

I wore it for my wedding and even featured the bottle in my “wedding details” photo.  
 

When I heard it was being re-released for 2025, I was on vacation in NYC.  Waiting for a subway, no less.  
 

I immediately bought 5 more bottles and will probably buy more later if I can, seriously.  
 

 

I’m terrible with scent descriptions, but it’s the most beautiful, light, golden scent that has a “your skin but better” vibe - you just took an ‘everything’ shower, you’re clean and luxurious, you’re about to have the best cozy Saturday early summer afternoon delight session with the love of your life, you feel beautiful and all is right with the world.  
 

It’s so well blended nothing really stands out too much for me - the scent of fruit from peachy blossoms that are someday going to become juicy peaches (the osmanthus - I have a bush in my yard and it smells like this), with the barest breath of cedar if you lean in closely.

 

The sexy, carefree Mediterranean vacation vibe a lot of people describe here is spot on, IMO.  The scent of what I dream living that life would be like.  

[Alethia]

I’ve been looking for a “my skin but better” perfume for a long time. Like A Girl was it for a long time but wasn’t available to repurchase when I finished my bottle (and I no longer have the patience/time to stalk swaps and sales). When I saw Like the Very Gods pop up in the 2025 Lupers, it was an instant bottle purchase even though I was worried about both the cedar and orris butter. I shouldn’t have been because this might be one of the best perfumes I’ve ever smelled across all the houses I’ve tried.
 

All the reviews above are right: it’s idealized, sun warmed, summertime skin that’s just a little sweetly musky and just a little sweetly floral. This is a masterful fragrance and the only thing to do is debate with myself how many bottles will be enough. 

[gentle-twig]

If you have made it to this thread, you probably understand what kind of blend we’re dealing with here. I was excited to try it because I love olive notes but it’s really not for me. I mostly get white musk with olive blossoms, vanilla, and a little cedar. It’s very feminine in a contemporary department store vein. Pleasant but feels jarring to have on my body. 

[Teamama]

2025 release. I love it!  Cedar, vanilla & sandalwood are the most prominent notes on me. This is a delight. I definitely need a bottle.

[Jarek]

Honey, sandalwood, orris butter: very much what I notice at first when I apply it. Quite the pleasing combination. I'm in love already.

 

Then after a little bit the vanilla cedar starts to peak through, and I love it even more! Getting some of that musk too but it's pretty gentle and more of a supporting role than a lead like the musk has been in some other Luper blends.

 

Everything is balanced so well and I'm very much enamored with this perfume. I know I often like masculine and unisex scents but I greatly enjoy more feminine ones as well!

 

The honey and floral fade as I wear it longer and the musk sticks around but is less... fuzzy, gets more soft. The woods and vanilla remain.

 

I have already bought a bottle of this. xD

[amoray]

2025 I think this is what characters from The White Lotus smell like...maybe it's the whole set just wafts this. I feel like it reminds me somehow of Skeleton Onesie...but that one was a bit too fabric forward for me. This stops just at being too much. It makes me feel nostalgic for some reason. 

[Amoraexcena]

The gentle warmth of dappled sunlight on your skin. This is distinct, but reminescent of other "golden" sandalwood scents like L'estate and Haloes. This is the softest, subtlest of the three, with a very demure, very mindful throw that plays beautifully on my skin. Some of BPAL's honey notes amp too much on me, but I'm getting none of that here, it smells maybe like a supporting wildflower honey to the main players of sophisticated sandalwood and skin musk. Not too sweet. I could totally imagine this being the scent of a sacred liquid filling the holy grail. 

 

Reading just the notes of this I probably wouldn't have sprung for a bottle, but I'm in love. Thank you so much to previous reviewers for convincing me to get it! I might get a backup or two before the Lupers come down. This is so pretty and wearable in almost any situation. Also slatherable.

[becca_s]

On my skin this is a mix of olive blossom, white sandalwood, orris and cedar with hints of honey and vanilla. The olive blossom smells slightly lemony on me. The sandalwood and Orris give this scent a dry, almost powdery quality that is sweetend by the honey and vanilla. Overall, this is a subtle scent that stays close to the skin. This is one of those versatile scents that could be worn for any occasion or situation. 

[Assimbya]

I love this very, very much, but have been struggling to write a review of it! Partly because so many reviewers in this thread have articulated it so beautifully already, and partially because my experience of this perfume is so ineffable and difficult to put into words.

 

It most definitely has a shimmering quality, golden but as once translucent, almost opalescent; it feels a bit paler and cooler than sunlight to me, like a film of light over skin. As it goes on I get a sweetness from the vanilla and honey, sharpened and given shape by a gently woody cedar which never takes over, and with a citric edge which is almost lemony but not quite. As it dries down, the skin musk and olive blossom combination is definitely at the center, and it's utterly stunning - at once sensuous and elegant, bodily while also feeling clean.

 

I agree with previous reviewers who described this as extremely Hellenic, and I love that about it, though for me I'd say it doesn't so much evoke the beach as it does the feeling of sitting on sun-warmed  stone in a high place, sparsely forested but with cedar and gray-green olive trees with their tiny yellow blossoms.

 

I'm still not great at picking out orris butter as an independent note, but triangulating with other blends I can definitely track a continuity with From Whose Eyes as They Glanced's orris butter-skin musk combination, which is very distinctive and also, for me, very difficult to describe. Whatever that combination is, I love it, and I love that it's a version of sensuality I feel able very authentically to inhabit.

 

I am so glad to have this perfume in my life; I'm trying to keep it as something I wear for non-work days to keep to the association of leisure, but I love it so much that I may have to let go of that intention eventually. I have been trying to avoid buying backup bottles of things, but with this one I am definitely tempted.