La Petite Mort

[Inscrutable]

Seduction, sensuality, the Act, and the aftermath all in one. The scent of warm, damp skin flushed with the glow of passion, touched by the luxuriant potency of ylang ylang and myrrh.

Whenever I wear this, people lean in closer, hug me longer, find reasons to get closer... It never fails. Not one I would wear when I want my personal space respected, but when I'm game for the attention, it's unbeatable.

[kashmira]

I received an imp almost 3 years ago and it has been aging quietly in my imp box since then. Wet, all I smell is myrrh and ylang ylang. Dry, it fluctuates between sweet(right wrist) to floral(left wrist), but overall, has that 'je ne sais quoi' that makes me want to keep smelling both of them at the same time. I think this one would work marvelously in my hair -- it's a scent that would make people want to get closer for a second whiff. It definitely makes me want to consider getting a bottle to age.

[holborne]

I'd been wanting to try this for a long time and was finally able to get an imp. Wet on my skin, it starts out as kind of baby powdery. As it dries down, a lot more of the myrrh comes out, but it somehow blends seamlessly on my skin, as though it's organic. I don't get a lot of ylang ylang, but that's probably a good thing, as I find that scent somewhat sharp, and this isn't sharp at all.

 

It doesn't have a ton of throw, and it fades somewhat quickly on me. However, it's a lovely scent, and very sexy; if I didn't prefer longer lasting oils I'd be ordering a bottle of this right now.

[russalka]

I had such high expectations for this one! I even ordered an imp of it from the lab ... so now I feel a little underwhelmed.

 

First off, there was this bathroom freshener stage. The ylang ylang was way too strong on my skin and it took quite a long time for that stage to end. It was hurting my nose. Not pleasant at all.

 

Then the oil dried properly, my skin warmed it up and finally it got more bearable. Now it's the myrrh taking over with its spiciness. I like that much better. It's still quite spiky and if I breathe it in deeply, it still hurts my nose.

 

I don't get the comparison with O at all.

 

This one is just not for me, unfortunately.

[EricthoDesalamander]

This oil isn't bad, but it isn't one of my favorites. I can somewhat see the comparisons to Snake Oil or O, but with a distinct powdery and/or soapy note and less sweetness.

If anything, it makes me think of a man's applying cologne on freshly washed skin - its quite masculine to my nose.

 

Taste-wise, its not really up my alley. Its nice, though.

[Coldfire]

Imp: heavy languid resinous notes

Wet On Me: heavy resinous floral

Drying Down: rose is coming out and stomping over everything.

Wet On Me: too much rose for me 

[kajacana]

In the imp this is really subtle- I practically had to stick my nose in the vial to smell it! But then I get a really light musk or vanilla, almost like a non-spicy Morocco. Not too impressive.

 

And on my skin, it goes straight to baby powder. No thank you. I would love to smell the awesomeness some of the rest of you are getting, but alas.

[MissJennaPDX]

La Petite Mort was one I was very excited to try. When my imps came I promptly dug this one out and slathered it right onto my wrists.

Right away I get a smell that reminds me of my grandmother. Now, this is not a bad 'old lady' smell, but instead gives me the warmest nostalgia. My grandmother always smelled beautiful and CLEAN. She was never a perfume wearer, but must have used a lotion or body powder that smelled like this. It reminds me a bit of the old Jean Nate body splash, or like skin freshly showered with Neutrogena Rain Bath. The ylang ylang comes out wet with a roar, but within minutes it dries to something almost lemony on my skin and melts together with the myrrh to create the most amazing skin scent ever. I get zero throw; this will be for intimate nights with my hubby. If I showered and powdered with a Morocco dusting powder, my skin would smell like this. In short, I love it, but I can't find it bottle worthy because it sits so close to my skin.

[lucycat]

My imp of this is now nine months old. I didn’t write a review of it then, but when it was new, La Petite Mort was almost indistinguishable from O on my skin.

 

In the imp: Myrrh so tingly it makes me sneeze: the first time this has happened with a BPAL oil. Nevertheless, it’s not unpleasant.

 

Wet: Ylang ylang.

 

As it dries, the ylang ylang becomes stronger, though never overpowering. My primary scent association with ylang ylang is the Method tile spray I used a couple of years ago. While I liked that smell, I’m not usually drawn to floral perfumes on my skin.

 

After about an hour, there’s a honey sweetness under the floral, which is reminiscent of O, though quite soft. In this stage, La Petite Mort is pretty, but not very “me.”

 

Given some more time, though, the myrrh re-emerges, and in the final drydown I get a honeyed skin musk, once again very similar to O.

Edited February 26, 2014 by lucycat

[inhumation]

I could only smell the myrrh and ylang ylang at first, when still wet. dry, this is a pleasant, sweet scent that lies close to the skin (perhaps the skin musk), and I can't really make out any individual notes. after a couple of hours, there is a soft powdery scent that reminds me of O. I asked my husband what he thought of La Petite Mort, and his response was, "there's something medical about it." weirdo.

Edited September 14, 2014 by inhumation

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Smoky, musky, honeyed, and seductive.

 

Drydown: Honey drizzled over spicy musk and slightly sour myrrh. The ylang ylang comes forward and mixes with the honey, resulting in what smells like a very heady honeysuckle note. Slightly powdery and resinous. The mix of headiness, sort-of-sourness, and resinous qualities remind me a lot of poppy.

 

Dry: Once dry, the musk fades substantially, leaving an oddly sour mix of ylang ylang and myrrh. More and more powdery as it continues to dry. Later in the day the powderiness yields, revealing a smooth and smoky floral musk.

 

 

 

5 out of 10 bones

[doomsday_disco]

In the imp: The ylang ylang note stands out to my nose, and I think I am picking up the Lab's honey note as well... it reminds me a bit of O, but it isn't as sweet as O.

Wet: This is similar to the Post's Formula 57 massage oil, which contains ylang ylang and honey notes. However, the ylang ylang note in this is stronger than it is in the aforementioned massage oil. The myrrh note has now made itself known, and I think there may be a musk in this as well.

Dry: The myrrh is the most prominent now, but it is a soft myrrh, perhaps the kind found in Bastet. The ylang ylang is still present, and there is still something in this that reminds me of O.

Verdict: This is okay. I prefer the blends that it reminded me of (before the myrrh became the dominant note), so I don't need a bottle of this.

[Malaena]

In the imp it smells wonderfully sweet and sultry. Unfortunately, my skin turns it into baby powdery dirt. I'm going to let it age a bit and see if that improves anything.

[d0gbones]

In the imp: Almost nothing. There's an impression of something sweet.

Wet: Spices, slightly minty. I'm picking up a lot of notes I don't usually get from scents I wear regularly today, it's really confusing me.

dry: Soft resins and a touch of rose. It is a tad powdery, but that works for me.

[Veronica]

The ylang ylang on this just gets amped to the high heavens on my skin--all shrieking white floral.

[LexieBlom]

La Petite Mort imp

 

Wet/Bottle - Ylang ylang and myrrh, spicy and floral. Something musky and dark, but sweet. I can see why people compare this to O, it smells almost like a watered-down O.

 

Wet/Skin (5 minutes) - Very powdery floral, which is what Ylang ylang usually does on me. It's a good thing I like powdery scents! Less and less myrrh as time goes on.

 

Dry/Skin (30 minutes) - Well, the myrrh is back, but it's almost...sour? Sour baby powder and floral air freshener.

 

Damn you, floral. Damn you.

[Teamama]

On me, LPM is like O crossed with Follow Me Boy, with the addition of skin musk. I don't get very much myrrh. It's very sexy, and I probably need a bottle,

[yakiguri]

I completely agree that La Petite Mort is like a watered down O. LPM is nice, but, for lack of better term, too safe for my tastes. It's soft, sweet, and just a tad spicy. Since both are named after bedroom activities I'd say O is the raw, raunchy, bed-thumping, bodice-ripping kind of sex and La Petite Mort is the gentle, romantic, soft-sighs-between-the-sheets sort.

 

If O didn't work for you but you'd like something in the same family, try this. As for me, O does work and does much more complex and interesting (dirtier) things with my skin chemistry. I'll enjoy my imp but can't see myself upgrading to a full bottle unless O suddenly ceases to exist. This could also work if you enjoy O but it's too raunchy a scent for the office.

[joopjoop]

Ylang ylang is one of my favorite notes, and myrrh is one of my trickiest/least favorite notes, so I was both excited and wary of trying this.

 

Wet: Ugh, so much myrrh and what I assume is skin musk and vanilla (?) for the 'flushed skin' part.

 

On the dry down: Ah, there's the ylang ylang - very pretty and ably counteracting the sort of slightly sweet sweatiness of the other notes. I understand now why this is a popular one, it is well-balanced and definitely a 'skin' scent. I just don't think it is for me.

 

Later: Blerg. The myrrh wins and it is too much - sour sweat with an overlay of clammy sweetness, like trying to cover up the smell of unwashed skin. I'll pass.

[mermaidjeans]

Expectation: This wasn't originally on my list but O was out of stock so it made the cut. (Even though the notes are different, they have a very similar theme.)

First Impression: sweat, must

This wasn't the scent I was hoping for - it didn't say "sexy" just... not quite right. I'm not familiar with the individual notes, so I don't know which one is making my nose wrinkle the most. I felt like I was trying to like it, as if there could be an interesting scent there if it wasn't for that.

Verdict: not a keeper. I gave it another chance for this review, but it was still the same decision.

[lizabelle]

For whatever reason this refuses to blend together on my skin. It starts with a blast of ylang (enough to make me hold my arm away from myself), then settles down into honey and not much else. If I get really close to my arm I can smell myrrh as a spicy, dusty note in the background, but it's colder than the honey and doesn't really seem to go. Not for me.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Candy? Like bubblegum or something? Ylang ylang is often oversweet on me, but it's never smelled like this before. It must be the combo of notes, but this is way more of a candy scent than a floral, right now. It's giving me a bit of a headache. It smells like adolescence and misery.

 

 

Dry: Still icky sickly sweetness. Thank you, skin chemistry.

[Miss_Unicorn]

(This is my first review!)

My strongest impression of LPM is that it smells quite "clean", but in a deliciously beautiful way. It reminds me of something old-fashioned, not in an old-lady way, but like the kind of perfume that seemingly innocent young ladies would wear to a ball. (Where no doubt they'd get up to all sorts of mischief.)

When I first tried LPM I didn't like it very much. In the vial it smelled strongly of baby powder. Wet on my skin it smelled like baby powder and lemon drops, and dry it was almost undetectable. Sadly, the myrrh made no appearance.

However. After sitting in the dark for a few weeks... the ylang-ylang has chilled out a lot and the spices have come to the foreground. In the vial it still smells mostly like powder, but with an undertone of something very delicious.

Wet, on my skin, it still smells like powder at first, but I'm willing to put up with that brief stage, as it quickly changes to something that smells like pale yellow flowers (the ylang-ylang?) with some spice (the myrrh?).

Dry, the flowers quickly fade, leaving only an faint aftertaste of something pale and floral and the spices are more prominent.

After some time, it is quite faint, but the "skin musk" comes out and I think there might be a tiny trace of vanilla.

I must note that this oil seems to have a critical mass: the smell works a lot better when I am not stingy with it. (Perhaps this is, what you'd call a "slatherer"?)

Also, it smells really great when I put it on before/after a yoga class. (Something to do with skin chemistry no doubt.)

Maybe the contact with air did the oil wonders, or the tiny bit of aging, of perhaps my skin chemistry was just really off when I first tried it. (Or perhaps a combination of those things.) In any case, now I find it pretty and elegant and I like it a lot!

[Lucchesa]

I recently retested an imp of this after I was frimped it and couldn't remember why I had rejected it earlier. Looking back, my notes say only "Hello, red musk" and I'm wondering what I accidentally mixed up with La Petite Mort, because there's certainly no red musk here (which tends to take over completely on my skin). Instead, this is warm, creamy, insinuating. I'd call it a light floral with warmth and depth. It has a gentle, sweet myrrh, not a high church myrrh, and the ylang ylang is not screechy. Although it may be in the same family as O and Snake Oil, it is by no means a duplicate of either of those scents, so if you are looking for that vibe but O and Snake Oil don't work on your skin, this would be an excellent GC to try.

[mandragora369]

This scent is a disappointment for me. Normally I love ylang ylang but here I smell none. This smells like a public pool on my skin. You know with the chlorined pool water. So this smells not good.