The Living Flame

[pensive]

A luminescent red scent: breathless with passion, flickering with desire, and glowing with ardent and reverential love.

conversation at work regarding the Living Flame -
"(Coworker), can you smell Living Flame and tell me what it smells like?"
She comes back. "It smells like.. I know there's a word for it."
"So do I but I can't figure out what it is."
"Well I took a small swipe to see."
"Give me the wrist." (pensive sniffs) "Not bad, not bad at all. Works on you." (pensive sniffs imp) "I don't know what it is. It's interesting."

Imp sniff: This is gonna make no sense. Spicy, yet fizzy, and sort of floral.
Wet: I have rarely been at a loss for words trying to figure out what something is.
Drydown: I got some words at last - spicy. floral.
Verdict: It smells more commercial than any of the other scents I've tried, like I'd be able to spritz this, but minus all the alcohol base. This is not a bad thing.

The next morning: Omyword. You know what that smell is? That's sandlewood! It has to be. I have a little vial of straight sandlewood I got from a Ren Faire and the extreme drydown smells a bit.. like that. Either that or that's what you get when you layer Alice and Somnus on a faded Living Flame, which would be weird.

Reinforced:nice, but I wouldn't personally go chase a bottle down, I don't think.

[Lilithlefay]

in the bottle it smells like a juicy floral if that makes sense. I can pick out florals, but there is something kind of juicy underneath it. Yummy...kind of strong in the bottle though.

on the skin it goes on with that same sharp floral, juicy scent but as it dries it becomes more powdery and not as sharp.

5 minutes into it: definately a powdery scent...I'm guessing sandalwood as that is often how it smells on my skin, but also a touch of floral. Very nice indeed.

[Ajila]

On me at first this was like a block of sweet florals, I couldn't really detect anything specific, although there was something that made me sneeze at first sniff, which normally only happens with lavender. It's the most perfume-y smelling BPAL I've tried. It later became a slight vanillary/ambery warm scent that hung around on my skin for ages.

[eisoj5]

I bought Living Flame from lilith_lemourne because I have a dress for a friend's wedding that can only be described as "fiery" and I wanted a scent to match.

 

It smells...in a word, it smells BRIGHT. It started to fade to powder when I first put it on, but it's actually still spicy, a little incense-heavy with a hint of floral something or other (can't tell flowers at all yet aside from lilac!)

 

ETA, about fifty minutes later: Ack. Now I smell like my mom. Guess I'll have to find another flame-y scent...

Edited June 26, 2005 by eisoj5

[madelf]

I had a hard time narrowing down any notes in this one. It is a sweet, very pretty floral on me, but there is something underlying the pretty flowers that I just can't place. Something a little powdery and spicy. It is beautiful though, very sweet and soft, bright but not overwhelming.

 

It made me feel very lady like, and was a perfect scent to wear out to a fancy dinner.

[~AmusedMuse~]

My Impression:

Definitely floral though like most of the previous reviews I cant identify what particular notes. Also I detect the vanilla and a small musk note which blended all together is in a word FANTASTIC...This is a keeper & if it were available I would wear it everyday

[arabella]

First Impression: Floral but nothing specific stood out.

 

Dries down to: A very quietly, lovely but benign floral scent with a hint of red sandalwood, rosewood or maybe red patchouli underlying it. The flowers could be poppy, carnation, rose, tulip - I've really no idea.

 

Additional Comments: The mental image I get is of walking into a room and sensing someone's presence but not seeing them - it's so subtle but definitely present. I'd want to be wearing this while reading a sad book - it would be comforting yet appropriate. I see it as a silvery magenta colour - a cool red but soft, like suede.

 

Lasted: About an hour.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

[maewitch]

Wow.

 

This is sensual in a bottle. There was a brief shot of something fruity and red, like berries, when it was wet. Dry, it's very warm, slightly spicy, slightly sweet, slightly musky. This is a rich, brown-toned red.

 

If there is sandalwood in here, I can't smell it, or it's - miracle of miralcles - not doing its usual Cloying Powder of Death routine.

[Little Bird]

In the bottle I am smelling hairspray. That sort of bitter and throat clogging sharpness. It's probably the musk that gets this reaction out of me.

 

First on my skin, I smell gummi bears. A definite generic fruitiness. This settles down into musky gummi bears. Odd, but not awful. I don't love it either though. This is gummi bears trying to be sensual. I have an image of colorful jelly-like little bears trying to fornicate. It's making me uneasy.

 

Fruitiness is gone and I think I smell musk, jasmine, and maybe a bit of vanilla. It's getting stronger and sharper.

 

In the drydown over the next several hours, this is an okay vanilla musk on me. I just don't really like musk, so I doubt that I'll be wearing this much.

[Miss Lynx]

This was very much not what I was expecting. For something with "flame" in the name, I'd have thought it would be much spicier. I tend to like fiery scents, but this didn't really seem like one to me. It was just sweet, faintly warm and... well, I hate to say bland, but that's kind of what's coming to mind. It didn't really seem to have a lot of depth or character to it.

 

Mind you, I may not have been experiencing it at its best, as I tried it along with several other oils at once from a friend's collection last night, but most of the others I could get a distinct impression of, while this one just seemed vaguely sweet and sort of generically perfumey, albeit not to an extent that was really annoying or headache-inducing the way commercial perfumes can sometimes be for me. It was thoroughly inoffensive, but it was also, well, pretty blah. And disappeared fairly quickly on the drydown.

 

All in all, kind of a non-event, sad to say.

 

Grade: C

[olympia301]

 

I can't quite pin down what I smell in here and I can't pick out one theme running through it. Several other people have said it is nice but indistinct, and I have to agree. I can't call it: fruity, floral, resinous, spicy or any other mental classification. It is attractive and reminds me of a spring tree smell I used to pick up in my childhood in Washington, D.C. But, I don't form a solid opinion of it when I smell it in any of its phases. Amorphous blend, pleasant but without much character.

Edited September 10, 2005 by olympia301

[Avery]

Thanks to Blood onmy Hands for her most generous inclusion of this in my newbie imp pack!

 

This was not what I was expecting, based on the other reviews and scent description. Maybe I thought it would be a bit more cinnamon. I have a newbie nose, so pardon my inability to decipher the individual notes, but it's definitely floral. While it doesn't smell BAD to me, florals are not my thing. It reminds me of a rose incense that would be burned at a middle-eastern travel store. It also reminds me a LOT of hetairae, for those of you who missed the LE but still want sniff-tisfaction. It is *definitely* a warm, RED, scent. Just not for me. Swaps!

[korshka]

Nice blend. I like it. It was quite beautiful. It's soft and firey; it's musky and light. Very nice. It is hard to pick out the scents, but a little of everything is in there. It's nice.

[theseagrows]

i loooove the living flame. it smells sexy! kind of like a vanilla-y floral with a touch of spice that i cannot place. as someone else mentioned, it does kind of remind me of commercial perfume to a degree, but i still like it

 

gotta track down a bottle of this.

[Loligo]

Huh, I thought I review this way back when I first got it, but nope.

 

I haven't worn this all summer, but I dug it out now that the weather's getting a teeny bit cooler again. This blend opens as a heavy floral, and I can't pick out any of the notes other than to say that there's probably a wee bit of jasmine, which always gives me that "commercial perfume" smell. But it's not too bad, and doesn't take over the scent. Where this blend really shines for me is on the drydown -- I dont' get cooking spices at all, I get some sort of spicy wood or resin, with a faint breath of vanilla, the remaining florals, and is there some myrtle in here? It's warm, gentle, and rounded.

[PurringPulsar]

The Living Flame

 

In the imp: a fruity sweet floral. I've smelt that smell somewhere-but where?

Wet on skin: a citrus-floral scent. Very nice.

Dry on skin: ooh, this is a lovely fruity flowery scent. It smells lush and juicy, full and warm. I'm wondering if there's a citrus peel note here, as well as some sweet rich blossoms. I can't pinpoint what sort of flowers are in here, but they are quite wonderful. It has a warmth and redness to it that brings to mind images of a beautiful sunset under exotic blooms. I'm wondering if there's mimosa or hibiscus here?

After a while: now it's very, very sweet, almost like nectar. Like smelling the nectar of the heady blooms in the scent, it's an almost honeyed or syrupy sweetness. I'm just a bit worried it might be too sweet for me. This does settle down though.

Verdict: this is a gorgeous, feminine scent. Not what I expected from a 'fiery' concept, but this is a scent of lush blooms filled with a sweet and almost fruity fragrance. It's warm and rich, and does have a certain 'redness' to it. It does get a bit too sweet at one point, but that doesn't spoil the experience of this wonderful fragrance.

[Chas]

Definitely floral, but I can't place what type. It's very warm and cozy smelling. It's strong, without being overpowering, and sweet, but not cloying. There's something vaguely spicy about it too. Carnation maybe?

 

It's not sexy per se, but I definitely get a romantic vibe off it. It's a "cuddling up in bed with your sweetie during a snowstorm" smell.

[SeaMonkey]

When I first put it on, it kind of smelled like coco cola, but when it dries, its a nice sweet floral, but there's also a warmness. Maybe resin or amber? I don't know. This is very pretty.

[Em-]

I tried this at the DC Meet Up over the summer and was surprised that it was not more powerful - it was very light and not at all *hot* like I expected it to be. It is a sort of warm floral with a hint of vanilla and maybe a touch of warm spice, but really not my thing.

[moon_lemming]

The Living Flame, once dry, makes me think of Dragon's Milk -- minus the almond -- with some florals layered on top. Unfortunately, with my chemistry, this means "fabric softener."

 

It's another one I really dig in the imp, though -- a very warm, comforting scent. I guess it's good that my chemistry hates so many notes, or I would go broke buying all the BPAL oils that I adore in the imp.

Edited January 7, 2006 by karen

[slave1]

In Bottle: Sweet floral

 

On Skin: What is this? It’s beautiful!!!! I thought for sure it would have cinnamon, but it doesn’t seem to have any extreme spice to it. Maybe a light musk, and something a little clean and soapy. The floral in it is soft, nothing overwhelming or sickly sweet. This smells perfumey, very pretty and womanly. It reminds me of Venom a little, which also reminds me of a soft mild Dior Poison. I love that it is blended so well that it’s hard for em to even pick out individual notes. The name puzzles me because I get more of a golden feell, nothing red or fiery. I want a bottle of this!!!

[malanna]

The Living Flame had joined my favorite LEs pile, the LEs I was going to keep around. Currently, that pile consists of Samhain, Lick It, and Milk Moon. It's a very selective pile (I guess it's not really a pile...). The Living Flame is no longer in that pile. Perhaps it just wasn't as fantastic as I'd remembered it, or maybe my skin chemistry changed. I'm really sad though, because I had thought I'd found a floral scent I really liked.

 

The Living Flame is basically just a haze of red (not a solid red, but a smokey haze of red). I think, before, it got to be a hazy, red, musky vanilla, but it just seems vaguely floral with a tad bit of musk. It seems vaguely remniscent of another LE in the red haze quality--maybe Lughnasadh? At one point, I thought that there was honeysuckle, because it got to be a very sweet floral. There's a tiny bit of musk that comes out later. The Living Flame is very light.

Edited February 2, 2006 by malanna

[Voleuse]

Mmm. On first application, this is sweet and warm, low-key but enticing. There's a hint of musk, not overwhelming, and a lovely whisper of floral notes. This is really well-blended--I'm not able to distinguish any specific notes, but the overall effect is gorgeous.

[LittleGreyKitten]

I took a risk and got a bottle of this unsniffed. Risky, but I got really lucky. I like Living Flame a lot. Especially the drydown. Initially it's a warm floral, very well blended and almost like a commercial perfume. Then, it dries. Ohmigod, it's amazing. This delicious warm sweet creamy smell comes out behind the flowers, and then pushes them far, far back. Gotta be vanilla and musk creating that amazing smell. It takes about 20 minutes to get there, but oh, it is worth waiting for. The floral intial smell is nice, and interesting in that it is definitely a warm aroma not cold like florals can be, but it's the drydown that delights me.

 

I want to put this on, along with my sexy little black dress, with some serious lingerie beneath, and have my husband take me out for cocktails somewhere swanky at one of the "see and be seen" places around town. (And then let him discover the lingerie later!) Hot stuff.

 

4.5 out of 5.

Edited April 7, 2006 by LittleGreyKitten

[edenssixthday]

The Living Flame is one of the most complexly blended scents I’ve encountered. It smells distinctly perfumey and is warm, floral, and slightly spicy. This is a winter-time dress-up scent. It’s a truly gorgeous scent. I definitely sense musk and vanilla in it, as well as a pinch of mulling spices. The floral is very difficult to distinguish, but I can say with 99% certainty it’s not iris or jasmine, as they go all wonky on me. I think it might be orchid or stargazer lily. I detect nothing fruity or sweet in it, as some reviewers have noted, although the scent is softly sweet, but due to the vanilla and floral notes. This is such a very pretty scent and I’m thrilled that I've been able to track down a full-size bottle of this.