Red Lantern

[Finny]

A tribute to the opium den cum bawdyhouses of Shanghai in the 1930’s. Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice.

Sticky sweet caramel hits my nose right away. Then the fruity, but earthy note of currant. A bit of sweet tobacco, and as it dries down the coconut and the amber make an appearance. No crazy powder note from the amber to ruin it. It just keeps smelling better and better.

Fantastic blend! Edited February 7, 2006 by Shollin

[Little Bird]

Red Lantern was one of those blends that could go either way for me. Amber and tobacco usually smell awful on my skin... but the coconut, caramel, and black currant sounded like an absolute dream to me. Thankfully, it is as good as I had dared to hope.

 

In the bottle, this smells like gooey caramel and sticky fruits. My mouth literally started watering at first sniff.

 

First on my skin, this is exactly what I had hoped it would be. The sweet caramel is dominant, with a swirl of exotic spice and dark fruitiness underneath it. The coconut also comes out after a few minutes. It is a sensual, intoxicating sort of sweetness.

 

Throughout the next half hour I kept catching whiffs of this one and thinking of caramel apples. I am in foodie heaven.

 

Surprisingly, I also don't ever really smell the amber or tobacco (which, for me, is a GREAT thing). I also am not getting the coffee comparison that others have mentioned. The coconut ends up being strongest for me after an hour, like coconut drizzled with caramel. The sweet fruitiness fades in and out on my skin.

 

Two hours later, this has faded away to nothing. But it's such a unique and wonderfully foodie scent on my skin, I will happily slather and reapply. I especially adore the first 15 minutes or so on my skin. I'm glad that I bought two bottles.

[blueroses]

In the bottle, Red Lantern is overwhelmingly caramel. I can smell some tobacco in there, but really it's so sweetly caramel that this could be Trick or Treat.

 

On, it's a world of difference. The predominant note is still caramel, but the black coconut and tobacco make a strong showing. I can also smell distinctively "Asian" florals and spices.

 

After wearing for some time, I can smell a slight fruitiness - the black currant.

 

Ok, keeping this one, I think. It's hard for me to find a sweet BPAL that I can wear without it going plasticky. I'm loving the currant, coconut, and, most of all, the tobacco in Red Lantern. It's a nice caramel scent held back from being obnoxious by exotic and green notes.

[slave1]

In Bottle: A non-fruity Sugar Skull

 

On Skin: Ok, so it smelled like a Non-fruity Sugar Skull in the bottle, but when I put it on, wow it morphs! The coconut is in the front and I think it smells a bit dirty, maybe that’s the difference between a normal and black coconut? The caremal sweetens it and makes the scent smell slightly toffee like. The tobacco is very, very light so if you’re worried about that being a strong note, it doesn’t seem to be at all on me. The spices are quite pretty and give a very exotic flair to this sweet scent. The amber provides a nice warm and golden base, holding the scents together but not overpowering them. Overall, an interesting scent but not one of my favorites. It’s a little too soft and subtle for me. I like the in-your-faceness of Smut better.

[zenvodunista]

sadly for me, Red Lantern is all caramel on me.

 

don't get me wrong, i like the sugar. and for a little while, the sugar was supporting and allowing some other things like spices and tobacco to come through. i LOVE tobacco, so i was thrilled.

 

now though? it's caramel.

 

on my skin, it smells like Hearth 05, and Sugar Skull. there's no difference. and i wonder how many sugar scents i need

 

i'm sad, but someone will be very happy when it goes to swap.

 

n.

[coulrophobe]

Preconceived notions: All the notes sounded perfect to me - except the caramel. Foody scents have a tendency to make me a bit queasy.

 

In the bottle: I can smell a red-berryish scent - must be the currant. And unfortunately... lots of caramel.

 

On: The caramel is definitely threatening to wreck this blend for me - but the non-foody notes aren't quite ready to give up the fight. I can catch whiffs of amber and tobacco if I inhale deeply. And finally, the coconut peeks out - the good kind of coconut, not the one that goes all plasticky on my skin.

 

What I end up with is a scent that's definitely sweeter than my usual tastes - but intriguing, and not bad at all for a foody blend. Maybe more of a cozy autumn scent.

Edited February 6, 2006 by coulrophobe

[desu]

In the bottle: Rich, spicy caramel.

 

On my skin: Oh my. Slowly, the caramel melts away revealing the tobacco, amber, and coconut, the effect being one of heavy, dreamy smoke.

 

Later on: The smokey scent gradually becomes fainter as time wears on, but does not seem to morph at all.

[astrid]

Oh dear, so far I am 0 for 2 on these Lupercalia scents. The smell of Red Lantern is divine in the bottle. That uber caramel-ness is so gooey delish, but on me it goes so uber tobacco it's crazy! I smell like a great big walking cigar. Which would be acceptable if I were smoking a cigar, but not on a non-smoking cigar basis. So sad! I adore the label, but can't keep a scent because of that. Pooh!

[Brienze]

In the bottle, this is very like Miskatonic U... that one is butterscotch, and this is caramel. I've always had trouble telling the difference between them.

 

On me, this one is a lighter, sweeter Herr Drosselmeyer. It's not a strong, deep pipe tobacco with cherry, but the tobacco is definitely there. The caramel is front and center, and its sticky ooze keeps the coconut from taking over like it does in every other coconut blend I've tried.

 

Those of you with Chinese 5 Spice in your pantry, go take a whiff. Cinnamon, clove, Szechuan pepper, star anise, fennel -- I'm pretty sure this is the Asian spice, but all of those form such a small portion of the blend that it doesn't turn into overpowering Cinnamon!Clove! spicy hell (or Big Red gum, which is what Three Witches did on me). Amber is lending a bit of powder but not enough to spoil it, and I don't know what opium smells like so I can't pick out that, or the delphinium, or the black currant. In the "tribute to the opium den cum bawdy houses of Shanghai in the 1930s" this is much more the bawdy house side of the equation. It's got nice throw, too, for about 5 hours until it suddenly disappears. The tobacco is much more prevalent when sniffing close to the skin... it's the sweeter and spicier notes that make up the throw.

 

I can see the familial resemblance to The Perfumed Garden. Both have a lot of ingredients from different scent categories that play nicely together instead of one schoolyard bully beating all the others into submission.

 

Red Lantern is an assertive scent. It's impossible to ignore. I'm actually not sure I"m woman enough to pull off wearing this, but I'll be keeping my bottle, and this will be a "decant of last resort" only when swapping for something else that I desperately want.

[jewelbug]

Bottle: As soon as I opened the bottle and took a whiff, I had to get out my elegba imp and compare. I have to say that wet, I can't distinguish one from the other--coconut and butterscotch/caramel. This is a saliva-inducing blend.

 

Wet:I can't smell any of the currant, tobacco, amber, insence, etc. This is sweet and oozing golden caramel with deep coconut. Buttery, deep, tropical, and lipsmacking,…But Elegba smelled like that wet, too, and it turned to suntan lotion and playdoh…

 

Drying: ….Suntan lotion and playdoh. Why?!!!!! Why, RL, Why?! *shakes fist at the sky*

 

Dry: In 10-20 min, it is still undeniably suntan lotion/playdoh on me, but there's some tobacco and spice thrown in now (I've got elegba on my other wrist for direct comparison-- I want to pick out every nuance of difference--I refuse to give up on red lantern!).

 

Then, 1.5 hours later, I forgive Red Lantern for its playdoh practical joke: Out of no where, its completely changed. This is incense now. Yay! Sweet, smoky, slightly coconut incense! Not even a hint of playdoh/suntan lotion. That's a mind-boggling transformation! By 3 hrs in, this is a deep, powdery, dry incense. Its slightly sweet, with a shadow of light tobacco and coconut. Deep and sexual. It remains at this stage for 6+ hrs (and probably longer, but it was bed time)

 

Overall: Bottle smell is heaven, first 1.5 hours are heartbreaking with my skin chemistry, but I really enjoyed what this mellowed into. I won't be keeping it, since I can't wait 1.5 hours for it to clean up the playdoh, but I'm glad I stuck through it to smell the happy ending. Throw is average to high.

[Fefferbella]

OMG this is decadent... smokey tobacco, warm syrupy caramel and sweet spicey currants.

 

Nothing buttery or foody on me except an initial strong caramel note that fades as soon as the oil dries. The tobacco is a little strong at first, but mellows quickly to a sweet, smokey backdrop for the spicey sweet currant/caramel notes. There is almost a coffee or expresso note in this, but it's faint-- like someone had been drinking rich dark black coffee with cream in the room moments before.

 

This should be a fun scent to let age. I have a feeling it'll really be amazing in a few months.

[Carolyn]

Crikey. I guess I'm the odd woman out here. I smell overwhelmingly like...celery.

 

Celery with a dash of smokey caramel.

 

I think it's the spices--did I read that that particular blend of spices might have fennel? I guess I'm picking up that note above all others.

 

I do get traces of Perversion, which I never liked, and Elega, which I never liked.

 

Drat. I was so ready for a swoony kind of caramel scent.

[rhubarbbear]

in the bottle i smell caramel, but not overwhelmingly. i also smell a touch of coconut, and the black currant. fruity caramel! yum.

 

for the first 30 min or so i really dig this...it's pretty, it's "grown up", it's a night out. i get a touch of amber, no real tobacco, the currant, and a hint of coconut. no spices, either. but it's lovely!

 

then it turns slightly soapy, and then becomes commercially "perfumey". why, why???

 

i'm going to age it and keep trying, cause it's just too pretty to give up on quickly!

[amrita]

Wet, the caramel and tobacco hit me. My first reaction is that this smells really weird. It reminds me too much of Hearth, which I didn't like.

 

As it dries, I'm hunting for the coconut, amber, currant, opium, and delphinium, but can't pick them out. This is still a very foody, sweet tobacco blend. Eventually I smell something very sharp, sweet, and fruity; I think that might be the black currant.

 

An hour later, I'm finally getting the amber-- but at this point Red Lantern is still primarily tobacco. Man, I was looking forward to this blend the most, but the caramel and tobacco notes took over everything and just didn't let up.

[gingersnapp]

This is sweet, but also... dry? I thought it would be a sticky juicy sweet, what with the caramel and coconut, but it's actually probably much more tolerable this way.

 

This is also one of the only blends with coconut that doesn't turn into Banana Boat SPF 4 on me, so I'm pleased about that. The caramel and coconut are smooth, creamy sweetness in the foreground, but again, keep in mind that it is a dry scent. Not sticky.

 

I am also getting a dry dusty spice smell. This isn't really what I expected from this blend, but it is very nice nonetheless.

[sarada]

Boy was I nervous about this one.

 

I was excited about everything in Red Lantern except the caramel and coconut, which terrify me and make me ill in other blends. But I love tobacco and amber...

 

In the bottle this is just as I feared, a sickening rush of that nauseating sweet buttery scent that sends me into headache/stomachache mode. It smells a bit like Pumpkin Patch 5 in the bottle, which I liked okay on my skin but ultimately found to be not to my taste. But I'm testing this anyway. Always test your BPAL, whatever it smells like in the bottle!!

 

And....miraculously, everything that I didn't like, is gone! I am left with only a divinely sweet and complex tobacco scent, warmed by amber, lifted by a faint floral and a bit of that sharply sweet berry.

 

I cannot stand foody scents but this is only sickly-sweet in the bottle. It's great on my skin! I can't guarantee that it won't ultimately give me a headache or make me feel queasy, but we're on Day One here and I can't stop sniffing my wrist.

 

For a comparable experience I'd point to Al Azif, which is another "sweet incense but not in a foody kind of way" scent.

 

I do not smell any coconut. But I know that black coconut was also in Snake Charmer and I didn't smell that there either. Perhaps it's just that dry sweet note I'm picking up. This is not like Elegba to me, because the rum note (my mortal enemy) is not present. It's more successful than Herr Drosselmeyer was for me because this does not have that cherry-tobacco scent that makes me feel dizzy. It's more a cousin of Perversion in terms of the sweet but earthy tobacco, though there's so much more going on in this blend.

 

I was all ready to swap this as soon as I got it but as of this writing I am thinking it is a keeper. It sometimes takes a few wearings before a scent triggers my sensitivities though so that could change.

 

And really, that bottle is just gorgeous.

[Heavenlyrabbit]

Elegba's tea-totalling sister. Less sweet and non-alchoholic. but no prude. There's a sensuality and earthiness that reminds of patchouli blends.

 

OR

 

The Springtime version of Hearth without the evergreen notes.

 

On my skin, the preeminent note is Tobacco. The caramel wafts out of the bottle but quickly moves to the background where it picks up the baseline.

Edited February 11, 2006 by Heavenlyrabbit

[foxroses]

here's my play-by-play of putting it on, on aim with the boyfriend

 

in the bottle: WHOA caramel...

2 min later: it goes a little weird, but nice. Macha said "something astringent" and thats true, it's something bitter on me, but not very strong. just a bit of it.

5 min later: the caramel is coming back, itsreally nice and sweet

5 min: kinda coconutty, i like it... a lot

5 min: it is a bit fruitysweet, in a way, but not really? so like.. maybe its the amber. i dont smell amber particularly but its golden sweet like that.. there is something a little bitter though. there's opium in it, which it may be that.. and delphinium, and i dont know what that is.

10 min later: that bitterness is going away, its getting nicer.. mmm the caramel is coming back in force. i loove the caramel/tobacco combination

5 min later: some people are making sweet coffee comparisons, and i see that, it does kinda smell like.. not LIKE coffee, but like.. i dunno. a sweet coffee caramel? just like being in a coffee shop, but not LIKE coffee smell, if that makes sense.

 

i was kind of rambling, but i can't ever really write eloquent reviews. its been about 30 minutes of wearing it and its really lovely, caramelly coconutty without being too sweet or strong. there's definitely some amber and tobacco underneath, keeping it from being overly candyish. YUM. i'm glad i got a second bottle of this!

[sarahmarie]

Okay, this is a blend I was nervous about: I love the coconut and the caramel aspect, the currant would probably be good, spice can be sexy - but amber tends to hate me. It goes sharp and weird on my skin and smelling it is a bit like banging my head against the wall. So you can tell I really wanted the caramel and coconut part to work out, here, right?

 

In the bottle I can see the comparisons to Misk U - it's the sweet, lightly buttery smell that feels similar. On my skin, the amber immediately pops up, sharp as can be. Uh-oh. I wait for the drydown, and hope.

 

Aaah. After about 15 minutes, the amber does settle down quite a bit, and the sweetness is emphasized. There's a spicey, amber background that makes this sexy and keeps it from being excessively sweet. It's very nice, but it's not my favorite - my ambivalence about the amber keeps me from thoroughly enjoying this scent. Still, I'm glad I took a risk on it - I'm going to give it another try and some more time to see what it does on my skin, because I really *want* to be able to wear it!

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 5/5

Summarised in a word or two: Gorgeous!

 

In the bottle: Mmm, caramel. I thought I'd hate caramel, but this is... really, really good caramel.

 

On skin, wet: Coconut, caramel, currant, spices, amber and tobacco... all in an amazingly good way. The strongest notes are the caramel, coconut, spices and tobacco, all of which save spice I thought I'd hate in this. It's smoky in much the same way that Devil's Night was, but with one glaring difference: the smoky element in Red Lantern is gorgeous, and not at all the stale-bar-smoke smoke I got from Devil's Night.

 

On skin, dry: Tobacco, amber, coconut and caramel. I'm not getting butterscotch or buttery caramel at all, which I'm thankful for. The tobacco is much stronger than I'd ever anticipated, but I find this a good thing -- after Red Phoenix and The Great Sword of War, I've discovered that there are instances in which I adore tobacco, and Red Lantern is one of them.

 

Conclusion: Earthy, smoky, rich and just a bit sweet. Not at all what I was expecting -- RL is so much better than I was expecting.

[Rheliwen]

Heaven's to Betsy! I shouldn't have listened to all the caramelly-sweet reviews that told my inner voice not to order another bottle!

 

On me, the caramel is simply a candy-coated backdrop...a tempered sweetness. I smell cooking spices, and amber and a teeny tiny bit of coconut with tobacco occasionally poking his head in. This one isn't fruity on me. Very spicey and akin to Snake Oil and Perversion in feel for me.

 

ADD: So I wore this all day today and it smells so much like perversion! I would swear there is leather in here somewhere.

Edited February 9, 2006 by Rheliwen

[Dolly Dimple]

I should have realised that the coconut would be the killer for me in this one. I can just about make out some of the tobacco note, but otherwise this is all a rather plasticky coconut on me. I let my brother have a sniff and he said I smelled like a car air freshener. Damn my body chemistry!

[The_Merf]

In the bottle: Wow, this smells a lot like caramel. I'm picking up something else that smells nutty--perhaps a mix of the tobacco and coconut.

 

Wet: Wow, this continues to smell like caramel, with an undertone of...peanut butter? This is giving me a bit of a headache. The caramel is also going a little stale on me.

 

Drydown and wear: Well, I guess it had to happen eventually--this is the first LE bottle I've ordered that just struck out on my skin. This situation is my own fault--this blend has coconut in it, which nauseates me when it is used in food. I try to avoid blends that have any mention of coconut, but the other notes in here sounded so nice that I decided to give it a try. Oh well, my loss will be someone else's gain, I guess.

[isyche]

As everyone has said, Red Lantern is strong caramel/sugar at first, similar to the sweetness in Misk U, but there's dark fruit under it (currant?). As it dries on me, the currant comes out more and is joined by tobacco and spices. Eventually, it becomes a cloud of spicy smoke without the sweeter notes.

 

This is slinky, exotic and sophisticated...I feel like I should be wearing a red silk cheongsam and jewels with dark red lipstick and red nails, smoking a cigarette in a long holder. It brings up Asian-noir-esque associations...triad gangsters, shady backroom drug deals, etc.

 

I like it, but as a definite special-occasion scent, like a costume -- I love the image, but it's not very me so I wouldn't wear it every day.

Edited February 8, 2006 by isyche

[alicia_stardust]

In the bottle: Buttery and caramel-like.

 

On my skin: for the first while I still get the buttery and caramel scents. Then those move to the background a bit and I get a slightly sharp scent that I believe is the tobacco and/or black coconut. The amber is a nice central point to those two extremes, and I find this scent to be very complex and layered. The description fits it to a tee and it's a wonderful creation, Beth!

 

I rated this a 4 out of 5 stars. I'll keep a bottle but will sell my extra one.