Les Bijoux

[Casablanca]

Skin musk and honey, blood-red rose, orange blossom, white peach, red apple, frankincense and myrrh.

 

On the wand: A curious mix. I smell orange blossom, peach, and honey musk, in that order, but something also gives me a dusty smudge of dirt in a way I usually link with patchouli. No patch listed, though? I smell grainy frankincense, but that's not it. I usually love myrrh, but is this myrrh reading as somehow dirty to me? Almost as an afterthought, I smell a little rose and apple. I'm a little put off by this mix, despite liking everything in the official notes list.

Wet on my skin, this isn't much better. Kind of a sickly or overripe peach, which is also over-sweetened with honey-orange peach syrup. I smell nothing else at this point.

Bijoux dries and settles into an orange-peach-apple-rose honey musk blend on my skin, no longer dirty. I like the honey musk, as always, and once dried, this is better than I expected. But it's too fruity for me to love. I also barely detect the frankincense, and kind of miss it.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Casablanca

[Psycry]

In the Imp: Fruity and flowery and incensey. This already has promise...

 

Wet on my wrist: Oh, this is pretty. It's not an overly heavy scent on me, but it's not light, either. Well-rounded. I'm getting something like pine in the background of it, but the incense smell is picking up. (For the record, I can't pick the incense or resin notes apart. Musks, either. Though I have found to my surprise, that black musk loves my skin.)

 

Drydown: I really like this. BPAL's honey note seems to turn to play-doh on my skin, but there's so much else going on here, that it's almost like a creamy backdrop, if that makes sense.

 

There's a brief almost-soap stage, but it never quite gets there.

 

Thankfully.

 

It's the closest to The Temptation that I've found yet in the GC blends.

[roseus]

In the imp: honey, orange blossom, and peach.

 

Wet: all apple and skin musk.

 

Dry: very soft peach, skin musk, and honey, with a little bite from the resins. It's a warm, better-than-your-skin scent. Sexy in a very natural, relaxed way.

[lizabelle]

This is so pretty. The honey note here is light and borderline-sparkling, with a lot of floral undertone and some fruitiness. It's well-blended enough that all that just smells like natural parts of the honey rather than individual notes. There is a little extra apple there, though. I do smell the resins mixing with the honey, adding just a little spice and extra warmth. It's subtle and springy in the best possible way. Definitely a full bottle for me.

[freyasfae]

At first this smelled very fruity on me with anise (ugh!) on the corners, but it calmed down pretty quickly - still sweet and fruity, but more nuanced and the anise quality (which could be the frankincense and myrrh?) become more background. The skin musk and orange blossom give it more complexity, and you can pick up the notes individually sometimes - it walks you through a lot.

[achildoftime]

It's a very fruity blend for me. Apple and peach drenched in honey is all I get when it's first applied. As it dries, the rose comes out to join the others. The extreme sweetness from the fruit mellowed out and is now mostly a rosy peach scent. It's not quite so overwhelming and actually relaxes into a skin scent. I can see where this would be right up someone's alley, but it's not for me.

[yewberry]

Apparently I ruin everything. In the Imp it smells like a lovely apple floral. On me, it's an unending source of old lady perfumey funk that amps endlessly. Much disappointment.

[garbagewitch]

Les Bijoux starts out delicious, sweet and golden with a slight spicy-floral edge, honey mingling with frankincense and orange blossom; this opening actually reminds me a bit of a lighter, brighter Blood Kiss. As it dries down, the spiciness of the incense backs off and the fruits come forward, creating a sweet, delicate scent that’s a perfect blend of floral and fruity and honeyed. It strikes a lovely balance between the fresh, juicy sweetness of an apple and the thick, golden sweetness of honey. Once it’s dried down, the honey gets a little lighter and the musk warms everything up, making this sheer, golden veil of scent that’s just unbelievably alluring.

This smells like sitting in the middle of fragrant garden with someone radiantly beautiful, eating crisp, pale slices of apples and peaches drizzled with ribbons of golden honey. It smells like licking honey and juice from their fingertips and breathing in the scent of their skin, flushed and glowing in the sunlight. Sweet and golden and ripe, Les Bijoux occupies that space of unselfconscious sensuality that so much of Victorian porn seems to take place in; it’s the kind of scent you instinctively want to sink your teeth into, the kind of scent you just want to ravish.

Like Oberon, this one straddles the line between smelling perfumey and natural pretty well, though it veers a little closer to perfumey than Oberon does. I think it could work whether you want to smell like you’re making an effort or you want to smell like you’re not trying at all.

A+, would recommend to anyone who wants to smell delicious and biteable.

[JuliskaMarie]

In the imp: Oooh, this is warm & fruity, with a hint of floral & rich frankincense & myrrh base to it. Interesting & pretty!

Wet on skin: Very different! Much colder & less floral, the frankincense & myrrh have melted into the musk & are *just* barely there, adding a hint of dusty spice to the fruit.

Dry on skin: This is not an especially strong scent. Dusty, warm resin & musk with a small hint of fruity-floral. Very pretty & quite subtle without being dull. (2:43pm)

After a few hours: Very similar to dry. Sweet, fruity, resiny musk. There's a tiny hint of floral if you're looking for it, but not much. Still almost the same strength as when dry too.

Verdict: This is a very pretty & warm scent. Interesting, while still being subtle. Seems to be quite long-lasting as well!

[cyborgutena]

Got this as a frimp and not necessarily one I would have picked for myself based on the notes, but I do enjoy it.

 

At first, it's kind of sweet and juicy and warm. I wouldn't have expected to like a honey note, but it turns out I do! The combination of the musk/frankincense/myrrh with the fruity sweetness is interesting. I get mainly musk with a bit of honey and floral when it dries down. It smells light, sweet and warm but not too cloying.

 

It's too sweet for me to wear personally but it's certainly tasty. I wouldn't get tired of someone else wearing this.

[monocainsheresy]

Mostly honey, musk, and frank+myrrh on me. A bit of juicy florals and fruits in the background. Stays extremely close to the skin.

[Brigdh]

In bottle: peaches and honey, with something just a little bit astringent - maybe like cut skin on a peach.

Wet: Some smokiness from the frankincense or myrrh, but mainly a generally fruity scent, too complex to pick out the peach or apple or floral notes exactly.

Dry: Smoky, musky, honeyed, peach. Not too fruity, just a bit of sweetness to the smoke and musk. It’s not overtly sexy; it’s very close to what skin smells like naturally, just a bit better. Very good. 

[Eis Hexe]

Frimp!

Sticking my nose to the vial, all I can detect is rose with a trace of honey.  Hmm.

On the skin the honey sharpens, likely due to the myrrh breathing a bit.  The rose gets jostled to the side.

After the dry-down it's still smelling the same as when freshly applied. 

30 minutes later and I can finally detect the crunchy apple and (there you are, lovely!) orange blossom. 

The frankincense seems to be MIA here for me.  This is entirely due to skin chemistry, because I can detect it on my sweater sleeve. 

This doesn't have a very good throw, unfortunately.  That may be due to having an older imp... Wine scents can do some interesting things if left on the shelf for too long after being opened, much like an opened bottle of wine will.  Case in point I have a fresh imp of Aglaea that smells COMPLETELY different from an aged one that I received.  Night and day.  If not for the label I'd have no idea that they were the same formula.

If I hadn't dumped over half the vial on myself while applying this morning I would most likely put this one in the 'share with friends and family' imp bowl that lives in my guest bathroom.  As it is I guess I'll just dump the rest on one of my scarves so it can mingle and layer with the hundred other perfume oils that it absorbs when I wrap it around my neck.    Now THAT'S a chemistry experiment for sure.  How oh how can about 200 different perfumes be mixed on a length of viscose and smell amazing?

I really wanted to like it, but either due to imp-age or my epidermis, it seems to be gobbled up very quickly.

A regretful 2 sniffs out of 5 for this one. 

[artisjok]

I’m not a big fan of skin musk, yet this was alright for about the first half hour, a musky honey with tart apple, hint of peach, and maybe a dab of resin underneath. Unfortunately, if turned to powdery fruit candy after the first phase. Didn’t notice the rose, and don’t know if I was smelling the orange blossom & just lumped it in with peach in my mind.... (I only remembered a few notes while testing.)

Not my thing, but it’s a lighter sexy summer scent for those how like fruity or (skin) musky honey scents! 

[feyofthefellwood]

A very pretty close-to-the-skin scent that I find sensual without being bold. It loses its complexity on my skin as it dries and mostly smells like honeycrisp apple, but I don't mind. It's gentle and warm, almost glow-y from the honey and frankincense combo.

[a_bear]

This is a much more fruity and feminine a scent than I usually go for, but particularly now that it's had some time to settle I really like love it. I think the first review in the thread describes it as something like a bombshell wearing a cozy sweater, and I have to agree. Not too sweet, and the rose is fresh rather than perfume-y.

 

Wet: mostly apple and honey with the frankincense and myrrh providing a bit of depth

Dry: the peach and rose come out a little more, but the rose never dominates.

Edited December 19, 2020 by a_bear

[warriortwo]

Ooh, I love this. Do you ever smell someone walk by and they smell fantastic, and you just want to ask them what perfume they're wearing? Sometimes, someone will have freshly washed hair, or a guy is wearing a woodsy cologne that melds perfectly with their skin chemistry. When wet, this reminds me of clean shampoo, lightly peachy and apple-y. When dry, it's close to the skin, and I get whiffs of something musky and inviting. This is what I always want men's fragrance to smell like when I wear it, but it never does. If I inhale deeply I get a little dab of honey.

 

Rose, apple and peach can all go screechy on me, so this is a surprise love. Full disclosure, my secondhand imp is probably aged several years. I will need to try a new imp of this to see how it behaves.

 

 

[wordortwo]

This is a surprisingly complex fruity rose scent, with the freshest, most realistic apple note I've experienced from BPAL. (I thought "Don't Touch" smelled like apple candy, for example). I recognize that powdery-sweet "skin musk" from O, as well as a light breath of honey. Like @Casablanca, I get the lightest tinge of a dirt note. The mood is a demure, sweet, and somehow a little mischevious.

 

This is a grounded fruit scent, but it does get a little too sweet for me over time. I wish the rose asserted itself more on the drydown. That is more of a personal preference than a problem, though. If you, like me, are cautious about fruit scents, give this a try.

[torischroeder9]

Apparently I have never tested this? I must have scared myself away with mention of both rose and apple in the notes. But this was a frimp in a recent Forum purchase.

 

In the decant: Apple and peach are at the forefront of a number of different notes. Skin musk is detectable underneath, but I can't pick out the others in the swirl.

 

On my skin:

 

Wet, I immediately get more of the grounding notes, frankincense and myrrh. Now I could not necessarily pick out the skin musk among those. That said, the initial drydown quickly becomes like my impression of the scent in the imp. Very peach-forward, a little musky, becoming also a little rosy -- but peach is the star of at least this part of the show. I do get more of the musk and myrrh in the skin scent, but they never throw very far from me.

 

This is actually really nice on me, though I can appreciate the tendency it will have to become cloying, especially in the warmer weather to which it is most suited. Still, I'm tempted to hang onto this imp until springtime to see how it works when sparingly applied.