Portrait of a Young Woman with Unicorn Hair Gloss

[VetchVesper]

Vanilla crepe de chine, ruby musk, golden amber, frankincense, honeyed saffron, smoked cardamom, sweet orange, star anise, and bronze fennel.

This is SOOOOOO good. When I opened my package from the Trading Post, this heavenly scent wafted up to me and I knew I had done well.

"Portrait of a Young Woman..." Is extremely well blended, and I really have a hard time seperating the notes. What I get most is a light sweet orange resting gently over a luxurious bed of rich amber and velvety red musk. There's a sort of smokiness to the scent that I find intriguing and something almost comes across to my nose as a dry cocoa note. Little wafts of vanilla trickle in at dry down, but over all this is just a beautiful, incensey, musky masterpiece. So glad I splurged on this one!

ETA: I really just love this. One of my top 10, and strongly considering buying a second bottle, which I do next to never. Also, I work at a job where I do lots of physical labor w/my hair up, but this stuff lasts through all of it for days. When I let my hair down, it's just a blanket of heavenly descending. Edited October 22, 2016 by VetchVesper

[LizziesLuck]

In the bottle, this smells like a creamsicle with a hint of anise, which makes me smile. Orange is one of those notes that I love, but I can't seem to wear any of BPALs orange notes on my skin - they turn to powdered cleaning product. There are lots of other notes I can't wear in perfume that I can in hair gloss, so I have lots of hope for this!

 

I already have HG in my hair, so I am trying this on my shirt. It's seriously amazing. Creamsicle, yes, but the anise/fennel really pop once I spray this, and I just love that combo. Orange and fennel is classic. This is bright, sunny, happy. Sweetened by the amber and vanilla, with just hints of barely there musk. Yum!! I could eat it. Really unique, unlike any other HG I've smelled. So happy I took a chance on this!

[alterosen]

I can't decide if this is pretty or yummy, depending on which notes I'm noticing, so I'm going with both

 

Vanilla, something candied, bit of orange, slight incense wafting here and there, red musk & hint of spices in the background. I think the candied aspect is from the anise/fennel combining with the vanilla & amber, but it isn't licorice-y at all, for those people who might be worried about that.

 

It's sophisticated but friendly. It's light enough to wear to work - in fact, this past week was fairly stressful & a couple of times I found myself holding my pony tail in front of my nose to give myself a break & enjoy the scent, so it's comforting, too (to me anyway).

 

[LiberAmoris]

Portrait of a Young Woman with a Unicorn is really lovely. The vanilla, ruby musk, amber, and orange create a creamy, golden orange-red feel that's complicated in the best way with frankincense, saffron, cardamom, anise, and fennel—and a hint of smoke and honey. Overall, it's like a spiced vanilla-orange on me with a musky-ambered base. It's elegant and well-blended, upscale and straddling the line between a modern amber and a gourmand. If I didn't have so much hair gloss already and just the one head, I would be waffling over whether I should snag a backup of this beauty (and I still might). It smells like the colors of a sunset, my friends.

[zankoku_zen]

Musk, amber, frankincense. I get a whiff of orange once I put it on, and I agree with Liber that this has a golden orange-red feel to it. This one is a very heavy/sophisticated oriental smell.

 

It's elegant, sophisticated, and very amber/gourmand.

Edited November 15, 2016 by zankoku_zen

[PersimmonSeeds]

When I first got my decant of this I was a bit thrown off by a very prominent 'sweet orange' and underlying waxy(?) scent.

I'm not big on citrus (which is a lie, I'm just extremely picky over citrus scents) but this isn't so bad after a while.

That beginning stage is really not jiving with me, it makes my head swim a bit and I'm wondering if it's the amber doing this to the orange note? I'm not a huge fan of amber as it smells really heavy on me.

 

All that said, once the beginning stages smooth out... THIS IS SO GOOD. JUST SO SO SO GOOD. I think it's the vanilla crepe de chine that is really making me fall in love with it. It smells exactly how the fabric feels. So smooth, soft, creamy, and gentle. Something about the vanilla smelling like a silky scarf is making me feel very cozy!

I love honeyed anything and this is a delicious honey spiced with saffron. There is an overall, delicious smokiness from the cardamom! They both smell down right decadent together.

 

As always, red musks always cling at the very end stages on me. It's not as prominent as it would be on my skin but damn this is a really yummy red musk. It coupled with the vanilla crepe de chine is blowing my mind!

I am not a huge fan of frankincense, so I'm happy to say I don't pick any up on me and the amber doesn't seem to return. The sweet orange note is pretty much always there in the back but it mellows out and blends well into everything.

 

Over all this is going to be a definite bottle. I can only hope aging doesn't bring out the amber (don't shoot me!), but I can definitely endure the first few minutes for all day deliciousness.

Great wear time and throw!

[mamafuturama]

If you are even remotely opposed to anise, stay way!

 

I love anise and honestly find myself hesitant to reach for this gloss. It is sweet, it is orange, it is watching a sunset on an early autumn day when the eerie quiet chill reminds you that perhaps you'd feel warmer, and safer, inside your home.

 

...and then it is anise.

 

It occurs to me that the hair products I use to tame my damaged curls may contribute to the creamy anise that AMPS like crazy from this, so keep this is mind if you wear sweet smelling product in your hair (such as coconut oil based).

 

Still a solid 5 stars though- if nothing else for the obviously generous amount of quality fragrance in the product. This smells staggeringly opulent when first sprayed and lasts FOREVER.

[Verios]

This is really, really gorgeous, and it makes me so glad I was able to track down a bottle (since I missed the initial release). This doesn't change throughout the day on me, but the throw is perfect (whiffs througout the day), and it lasts really nicely! This is actually really hard to pick out individual notes for, as everything seems to blend together - but thankfully, I don't get any anise, since that is a note that is almost always a no-go for me. I definitely agree with other reviews that I get something creamy and vanillic, so I'm guessing that's the crepe de chine, and everything else works together to give this some exotic spiciness, and the barest hint of the sweet orange to add another layer of depth.

 

Seriously, so, SO good. I've been really lucky with HGs so far, but I do believe that this may be another one that I need to get a backup bottle of.

Edited June 9, 2017 by Vashtya

[Minh Scent]

One of my favorite HGs! The notes in here are such a glorious combination! To my nose it is a vanilla orange gourmand with nuances of frank, amber, musk and spices. It is strong and long-lasting. Sexy.

[starbrow]

Portrait takes Scherezade to new heights. On the one hand, there is a creamier vanilla and slinkier silk (if you've smelled the Lab's silk note, you know what I'm talking about) that debauches the red musk more fervently than Scherezade. (Ruby musk, in this case, translates for me as a darker-tinged red, perhaps some resin rendering it a rich burgundy.) And on the other hand, the herbs come out more potently with the first spray: earthy fennel, hulking anise, green-tinged cardamom. Both have saffron, with Portrait a stronger hit of it.

 

I would wear either one while in the mood for richly spiced red musk, although Portrait has almost a 2019 Shunga kind of spicy uniqueness, so I would have to be in more of a mood to reach for it. It is very glorious. It is also a helluva lot. But I am so here for it.