Tag Archives: luckyscent

A quick word

I've been thinking November 27, 2010 Comments: 11

Prompted by new Luckyscent sample pack and Mona di Orio scents.

One of the most important things I learned about the world of perfume is that you cannot just jump in. You cannot go around gathering ideas from what bloggers are writing about, what smells good or is new and interesting at the moment, what the classics are, etc.

If you have no knowledge outside your perfume store and absolutely general and often bad releases we see (smell) each day, you cannot just start smelling stuff at random by reading about what people find great.
I mean, you could (as I did) but most of the time, I failed to come to the same conclusion.

Learning about perfumes (and their constituent parts, i.e. notes) is a long and pretty much never-ending process. And I know this for some time now, but it became very clear tonight after trying some Mona di Orio perfumes. I tried some of them a year and half ago and kept wondering what was in there that everyone liked so much?!
Well, now I understand, and I already have my favourite – Jabu.

But the point I’m trying to make is, you need to take baby steps. Learn a general road of notes, start with some easily likeable but different houses (my favourite for that is L’Artisan Parfumeur) and take it slowly then. Trust me when I say, it takes a while for Mona di Orio (and in my case chypres) to register on the right scale.

And the most important thing – the more you smell perfumes, the more you understand them. There is no other way.

Not a quick word after all. 🙂

Personal perfume trivia

Uncategorized October 18, 2010 Comments: 9

And all thanks to Luckyscent. 🙂

I got their fall sample package the other day and it sparked a whole bunch of interesting situations.

I was happy to try Amouage Memoir Woman and almost instantly got reminded of Frapin’s Caravelle Epicee. So I tried them side by side and luckily they are not the same. CE is much sweeter in a spicy way while Memoir gets a boozy thing going more than CE. I like Memoir quite a lot, but not that a lot to buy a bottle.

Then, Luckyscent tried to trick me and they switched labels on Andy Tauer scents. 🙂 Shame on them.
Imagine my surprise when I finally happily applied some Eau d’epices I waited for so long to try and it turned into a wet smelling something resembling a rose. Now is a good time to say I wasn’t expecting Une Rose Vermeille to work on my skin because it’s a wet rose floral. I was very right, it fell splat and didn’t move anymore. And I do mean no movement at all. So I tried the sample labeled Une Rose Vermeille and imagine my surprise when it turned into this juicy sweet thing that lasts and lasts (I keep wondering how do you make that fruity juicy note last so long?).

Which brings me to Vero Onda Rubj and resemblance between Rubj and La Prairie Threads Sapphire. Well, Sapphire only resembles Rubj which is much richer and fuller but the resemblance is definitely there. And one is called Rubj and the other Sapphire.  Interesting. 🙂 Although, to be completely honest, I only smelled Sapphire on a strip and didn’t give it a lot thought because after trying Rubj just the day before, there wasn’t
any chance it would be better than Rubj.

Here are the notes.
Rubj: Bergamot, mandarin, neroli, passion fruit, cumin, orange flower absolute, tuberose, basil, cedar, oak moss, musk.

Sapphire: Top notes are green notes, apricot and freesia; middle notes are jasmine, narcissus and gardenia; base notes are woodsy notes and amber.

And before I leave, I just licked my fingers (I admit, I’m eating potato chips while writing this, yes, I don’t really live a completely healthy life) and afterwards I realized there was still some myrrh absolute on them (barely but still) and that is the reason my tongue tastes bitterness in my mouth. Oh well, outside, inside, who cares if it smells nice. 🙂

Etat Libre d’orange and Luckyscent

Uncategorized May 28, 2009 Comments: 2

First, I have to say who ever decided to start Luckyscent has my eternal gratitude. 🙂 Especially beacuse they regulary have sample packages that are quite interesting (and most of the time I end up buying them). Therefore, I was very happy when I came home yesterday to find a little package waiting for me although for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what was supposed to be in it. I’m quite forgetful these days.

Well, it was the Etat Libre d’Orange sample pack. Yeey! Finally. It is quite impossible not to stumble upon those scents wherever you read so I was very interested to see what it was all about.
Today I decided to take out 2 samples and see how will I like them.

The first I tried was Antiheros and I liked it just fine. The notes listed are 3: lavender, musc and bois (wood notes). It is exactly what you get and it smells great. I like that one very much – you cannot miss the opening lavender and after it subsides a bit, you get some musc and then a little wood and it just smells great. I would wear it definitely but I wouldn’t think this might be feminine (lately I love scents that get termed as masculines but you cannot really tell that by smelling them).

I am not going to post all the text accompanying the scents, you can read it on etat libre site if you’re interested.

The other one that came out of my bag today is Charogne. Beats the hell out of me how come it is called Beast in English when French wikipedia says it actually means carcass, but there you go. For this one, I was honestly tempted to put the whole text here, because it is about innocent flesh being plucked by the beast (with not very hidden undercurrents). Anyway, I thought it was going to be great, the whole innocent/beast juxtaposition, but it seems I was wrong. Or maybe, my idea of a beast is somewhat different from the rest.

The listed notes are: bergamote, notes de cuir, baies roses, gingembre, accord lys, ylang-ylang, jasmine, encens, vanille naturelle, ambrette absolu, notes animales.

It starts off quite innocently with the barest whiff of cuir and with a somewaht chewing gum idea and it keeps that innocence while vanilla, ylang-ylang make their come out and then I kept waiting for the beast, but it never showed. The perfume did progress to a somewhat less innocent idea, but if that was supposed to be a beast, it was a pretty tame one (and somewhat small because it would neither devour you or scare you). 🙂
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