Les Infortunes de la Vertu

[Lucchesa]

A pain-tinged, pleasure-soaked blend of leather, oakmoss, orange blossom, amber, and rose with a breath of virginal French florals and a hint of austere monastic penitential incense.

 

Leather is a really iffy note on me, so I worried about it being the first listed note in Les Infortunes, but I love the idea of leather and I love all the other notes, so I thought it was worth a try. And it was! Generally, if leather is going to be awful on me, it's awful right from the imp and stomps all over all the other lovely smells. But here it was a generous supporting player, letting the orange blossom and rose and amber come out. For me, this was not a particularly masculine scent at all. It's sexy and beautiful. I'm so happy to find another leather scent that works for me.

[achildoftime]

I love leather notes, and this one is lovely. It pairs really nicely with the oakmoss and rose. It smells very fresh and green overall, but the leather keeps it from being a straight garden blend. I don't get any orange blossoms, which is a little sad, but since everything else is lovely I can't complain about it too loudly.

[badseed1980]

When someone compared this to Habanita, I was excited. That's my favorite non-BPAL perfume. Like most people, I'm finding that in the imp, the leather is really prominent. It also seems that my skin amps leather, as I'm not getting a lot of other distinct notes as I wear it. I do like it, but I'm not getting the orange blossom or other florals or the amber, really. There's enough other scent to take the edge off the leather, and make more pleasant than a pure-leather note, but nothing that adds a lot of character of its own. There isn't a lot of throw on me. It's OK, but not one I'm going to want in a full bottle.

 

EDIT: OK, I just realized I reviewed this...FOURTEEN YEARS AGO. OMG. I have had the imp that long? I just...wow. Or maybe I got another imp at some point? Anyway, yeah, my opinion hasn't changed!

Edited April 5, 2022 by badseed1980

[VetchVesper]

This comes across as a dark chyrpe on my skin, heavy on the oakmoss and deepened by leather and something else - perhaps the incense.  It's very powdery, and, for something with so many floral listed, it's surprisingly masculine.  I wish I got a bit more of the floral floating on top of the chypre base.  As is, it's not bad, but lacks complexity.  I'm guessing other chemistries might highlight the lighter notes better though, because I do catch a bit of the floral when I sniff my imp.  

[PumpkinGuts]

Testing a very aged imp.

 

All I'm getting here is leather, but less pain for pleasure and more well-worn leather satchel. Oh, there's a bit of oakmoss, too. I'm thrilled there is zero orange blossom, but I would have appreciated the emergence of some or any of the "virginal French florals". I agree that it's a chypre-like scent, and much more gunslinger-y than I'd anticipated. That's not a bad thing!