Lucchesa
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Everything posted by Lucchesa
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Leather, Black Tea and Clove on me is a clove-spiced tea -- not chai, there's no milkiness or other spices -- with a subdued leather note, and the whole thing is a tiny bit soapy. Like a high-end gentlemen's soap that you'd pay a lot of money for in a quirky boutique. It lasts really well on me, and it put me in mind of a very clean pirate. But I was hoping for more leather and no soap at all.
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I got LOTS of smoke from Mahogany, Wood Moss and Smoke, especially initially. It was very similar to the smoke in Chestnuts and Hearth Smoke from last year's Yules, and this may be a note that amps on me because there too it was all smoke, little chestnut, although the balance is improving with age as it probably will do here as well. Eventually the smoke in MWM&S mellows down and I get the smooth mahogany and dry moss. This one tips masculine and outdoorsy, with good wear length. A little too smoky on me initially, but really nice.
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John Locke is lavender and spicy leather. Lavender always comes on strong when wet then is eaten by my skin, so I was surprised that this one stuck around longer than usual. I was also surprised to get definite spice notes coming through, so I looked up Carmelite water, which somehow I expected to be identical to Florida water. It isn't. The first recipe Google found for me included lemon balm and angelica, but also coriander, cassia, nutmeg and cloves. All the spices, in other words, but in the background, they don't overpower. The leather is smooth, more like a brown suede than a black jacket. Anyway, I like this a lot. If you're a reformed puritan, or like lavender or leather or scents that fall squarely in the middle of unisex, this is definitely worth a try.
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2017 Parthenope on me is mainly musky, dusty (orris-y) jasmine. I get some moss at first and a little honeysuckle, but they don't last long on my skin. Star jasmine is usually better on me than the regular kind, and this is true here as well -- nothing indolic about this scent. Parthenope is soft and pretty, but it's too floral for my tastes.
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Fourth Lash is very rose on me. Amber, leather, sandalwood and vetiver are all good on me, but rose is iffy (and this was gifted to me by a supremely generous forumite who is more of a rose lover than I am). If you love rose and hate vetiver, this should be no problem for you -- I couldn't find the vetiver at all, and could hardly make out the leather. And I almost never can make out BPAL's pepper note. Heady rose with sandalwood and amber, like a very grown-up, sultry version of the GC Little Wooden Doll.
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This is what I want oudh always to smell like! Black oudh is reliably terrible on me, so I wouldn't have chosen this, but it was generously gifted to me so I skin tested, and it's beautiful. On me it's low-key, dark and deep, with the main player an oudh which is rich but not fecal. Velvet is the operative word for this blend: rich and luxurious and elegant. Cool dark blue musk balances the warmth of the other notes. Very grown-up. With my chemistry it has low throw (normal for me, though oudh can be an outlier) and only average wear length.
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I would like Hetairae more without the ylang ylang. Which is probably true of any scent containing ylang ylang. There is something red and fiery about this scent, almost like a cayenne note, with lots of honey and fig, fairly subdued patch and clove, and too much ylang ylang. Perfect if you like florals in your honey.
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Wet, Wolf Moon was all about the cypress. But very quickly that sharpness receded and I got cypress, the resiny sweetness of pine, and dark fruitiness. I can't make out the cassia or myrrh. The drydown is just slightly too fruity for my tastes, but if dark fruits and dark evergreens sounds like your jam, this is deep and evocative and lovely, and the throw is better than I usually get.
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Ooh, I'd forgotten I had ordered this decant. So excited to see it in my stash! Yep, clove cigarettes, and it's 1985 all over again. This is a gorgeous clove tobacco, heavy on the clove, and on my it has good staying power and even a little throw, which is unusual for my skin chemistry. To quote doomsday_disco, my decant will not be enough.
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Apparently I never reviewed this. I remember it smelling pretty interesting, but then I had a skin reaction to it (certainly the wasabi -- honey and tea are fine on me) and had to scrub it off, and actually had to stop wearing BPAL for a few days because everything I applied started to make my skin prickle. Scary!!!
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I'm pretty sure this is Night Thoughts 2018 -- it's undated but a TTP decant. I love the lilac note and was hoping dianthus would be a recognizable carnation but I don't actually perceive either of those notes. Instead, I get a hint of cedar, a hint of dryer sheets, and a generic light floral. No throw and not a lot of staying power on me.
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I received a very well-aged decant of Gold Phoenix in a swap. Usually scents of this vintage are for curiosity only, but this one is really lovely. Florals and resins in combination don't usually work for me, but these particular florals support the amber beautifully and aren't throttled by the frankincense. The verbena is mellow and adds to a glowing vibe. Actually, this is very similar to Veritas but with amber instead of the carnation. Gold Phoenix is classy and very much work appropriate.
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Hearkening to the Death Watches in the Wall Atmosphere Spray
Lucchesa replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Atmosphere
Spicy! My skin usually eats up the peppercorn note in perfumes, or I'm anosmic to it, but it's a big player here. This patchouli is more elegant than headshoppy as it combines with the oak and the black musk. This does seem autumnal but doesn't spell doom to me; it's actually kind of comforting. -
My recent experience with Coffee Beans and Copal has left me more aware of what copal smells like, and I can make out a lot of it in my King Cobra decant. It's copal, powdery orris and a thin thread of frankincense, and as it starts to dry the Snake Oil distinguishes itself from the background. I think it would work better on me with more frankincense and less orris, but this is another Snake I'm happy to wear. It's got a little throw (more than I usually get) and decent wear length, though nothing like the crazy half-life of pure Snake Oil. Powdery, resiny Snake Oil with emphasis on the sweet vanilla aspects of SO.
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On me In Dubiis Libertas is quite a pleasant vanilla amber blend, with hints of slightly smoky benzoin. My skin just damps down any cypress from the get-go, so this is not an evergreen scent on me at all. If anything, it smells a bit like the teak from Antikythera Mechanism. This is very nice and I love the smoked vanilla note, but I do wish my chemistry were allowing some cypress to emerge. No throw (normal on me) and good wear length.
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The Buffalo Man is ridiculously sexy on me, but it takes a while to get there. It starts out harsh, even acrid as described by the last couple of reviewers. Like the kind of smoke that stings your eyes and singes your throat. At first I don't even notice the labdanum, but it's there, lots of it, sticky and dense, underneath the smoke. And the musk... But first the scent has to soften and the acrid smoke has to recede, and then it's fantastic, with a little throw (which is a lot for my skin chemistry) and a warm, masculine, hot AF vibe. I can't stop sniffing my wrist. If the opening were less off-putting, this would be an instant bottle. I'm going to let it age for a couple of months and see if it comes into its own any sooner with aging.
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In Splendoribus Sanctorum is indeed beautiful. I occasionally enjoy wearing Penitence, but this is brighter and more optimistic, like a cathedral with beams of sunlight slicing through the gloom. The bergamot brightens the frankincense and the amber warms it, so that it's glowy and sacred both. I have to be in a very Catholic mood to wear Penitence, or giving a lecture on Fra Angelico or something, but I can see wearing In Splendoribus much more frequently and joyfully.
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I worried about tropical flowers in Santo Domingo, but on me it's all about the bay rum and tobacco. It starts out sharp tobacco and bay leaves, and I was afraid it would be the tobacco note that just doesn't work on me (looking at you, Snaky Hair'd Moirai). But within 20 minutes or so the sharpness mellows, a sweetness creeps in, and it's all beautiful tobacco and bay rum. I wouldn't call it "chewy" on me; it's a drier tobacco. But the florals are never more than a background breath on me, and this is just lovely. Another win for the GC!
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V'al Hanissim is a gorgeous addition to the Lights of Men's Lives family of scents: warm, golden, burnished, lit from within. It's primarily warm beeswax on me with glowing amber backing it up and adding a little old-fashioned elegance. These are both notes that tend to last well on my skin, and I can still smell it faintly 24 hours after application. Absolutely lovely!
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Finally a kaffeeklatsch scent in which I can truly smell the coffee! It's there in spades in the opening of Coffee Beans and Copal -- nice dark-roasted beans and dark resiny copal. After about an hour, though, the coffee vanished. Which means I now have a much firmer idea what copal smells like, which was kind of the idea behind buying this decant in the first place. SN copal is nice, but I preferred the opening with the strong coffee.
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Library scents consistently break my heart. Black Coffee and Old Books is no exception. First off, I got lots of leather. No coffee beans were in evidence. The strong leather (which I like) quickly mellowed into a more parchment feel, with the bit of dust and mustiness and old paper that I look for in scents like these. A hint of coffee. I decided it didn't matter if there was any coffee at all as long as the old books aroma would stick around on my skin -- this would be my used bookstore scent, my ancient library. But no, within 90 minutes it was barely perceptible. For some reason my skin just obliterates these scents.
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I get vanilla and kind of an airy cardamom, with just a little bit of coffee. No itching or prickling from the cardamom. I agree that it's not ridiculously gourmand and has a perfumey vibe which is lovely. It doesn't last terribly well on my skin, though.
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So, my mother has Alzheimer's disease, and I've heard that losing your scent of smell is an early warning sign. And the two kaffeeklatsch decants I tried this morning had me really worried. Thank goodness for all you reviewers to reassure me, because I am really not smelling coffee in Cafe au Lait and a Wool Blanket at all. A soft, sweet milkiness, a trace of vanilla maybe, but coffee? Maybe, if I imagine it, the drop of espresso that Italian moms put in the warm milk they prepare for toddlers. No more. It's a nice, fluffy, comforting smell, but not the least bit caffeinated to me. ETA: The drydown of this scent is gorgeous and lasts forever. It was still going strong 12 hours after application, which never happens on my skin. I may buy a bottle even if the coffee is exceedingly reticent.
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I wanted Here We Come to be a spiced leather scent with hints of roasted apple, rosemary and fig; without the leather as first listed note, it wouldn't have earned a slot among my Yule decants. But of course it's a fruit scent; on me the leather was barely apparent, and it was primarily baked apple and fig (I haven't tried Lamb's Wool but the apple note reminded me of Huntress from the Liliths a couple years back). It lasted quite well on my skin. This would be delicious as a spiked hot apple cider beverage on a nippy day, and I'm going to add a little rosemary the next time I make an apple crisp, but it's not my kind of perfume.
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Wet, I get plenty of gingerbread from Gingerbread, Patchouli, Leather and Dark Musk, but it's the drier, lighter-colored gingerbread with a prominent ginger note, not the really sticky gingerbread that's almost black from molasses. But as it dries down I get less and less gingerbread from this blend, more and more leather, with a little musk and patch backing it up. On me this is a slightly spicy masculine-leaning blend, and it's really nice: rugged with a hint of spices, not the other way around.