Lavender Lace

[djnevermore]

The breath between love and mourning: a cascading bouquet of French lavender, smoke-touched, with bourbon vanilla and caramelized tobacco, pricked by tiny daggers of cognac.

I wish this remained on my skin as it does in the bottle! It's SO pretty all wet! Soporific lavender with lovely, creamy vanilla, and a touch of sweet tobacco. Unfortunately, my skin hates "smoke" notes, so I should have known better. I'd hoped the lavender would win. Late dry-down is smoke-heavy, with a touch of something sweet and creamy in the far back.
If your skin loves smoky notes, this may be bliss on you!!!

[JMorgynWhite]

I waited a couple of days for it to settle in the mail. So here are my thoughts.

 

Wet down lots of dried lavender with an oily golden tobacco (I generally don't like tobacco, but here its seeming okay - its almost like a liquor maybe that is the cognac in play). The lavender melts into it and you get some light smoke and creaminess on dry with a kind of bitterness underlying and a whiff of the cognac at the end. Definitely huffable stage. Later dry down for me has almost a medicinal golden caramel element to it. I want to say I equate it with dry forest floor which makes no sense but that's where I'm at. The lavender integrates and I'm not sure I'd pull it out if I didn't know what it was ending up with a cologne-y light scent which I rather like with underlying vanilla. This bottle isn't going anywhere.

Edited May 2, 2018 by J. Morgyn White

[Otterling]

Got this in the mail today and couldn't wait to try it on. It's like nothing I was expecting but entirely lovely.

 

In the bottle: Bright lavender cut through with something green. It reminds me of clipping fresh lavender sprigs in my yard and smelling my hands. The cut green stems give off a tang and that seems to show up here. The lavender is front and center, followed by that sharp green scent and under laid with hints of the cognac.

 

Wet: The floral note is still bright and fresh, intensely lavender but quickly mellowing into something else.

 

Dry: Man oh man. This has changed. The floral notes have all but disappeared, absorbed into this musky, slightly smoky but sweet scent. There's not much throw, this one stays close to the skin, but the scent is warm and rich. It's entirely gone androgynous on me, somewhere between a perfume and cologne but without venturing too far into either. It's not cloyingly sweet, not overly floral, not heavily musky. The scent is like walking into an old drawing room where flowers had once been sitting. The scent of them still lingers just out of reach and mingles with the more masculine scents of the room. It reminds me of old houses with the lace curtains drawn and sunlight filtering through. Definitely glad I got more than one bottle.

[Roogna]

pretty lavender, not too "sleepy" thanks to touch of other notes/vanilla? Super low throw that fades fast....

when I put nose-to-wrist I can smell the wonderful smoky, almost chewy, vanilla with a beautiful lavender...too bad I can't smell it otherwise.

[brineydeep]

On my skin, this is a sweet tobacco Lace with a hint of smoke. I'm not getting much lavender once it goes on my skin but that may be because the lavender blends right in with all the rest (and my skin loves tobacco).

 

To me, Lavender Lace is most similar Champagne Lace (without the Champagne note) or Beautiful Death (without the berry note). It's a stronger, darkly sweet Lace. Wear length is most of the day.

[roseus]

The lavender starts off really soft on my skin and vaguely reminds of Waiting and makes me think of rainy days. Dry it's a smoky dry lavender that makes me think of incense, backed soft vanilla and tobacco to keep it from being too dry or smoky. Very soft and nostalgic, perfect for rainy days.

[archaesophilia]

In the bottle and wet it's dry, sharpish lavender over caramel. The lavender quickly mellows and blends in, followed by the caramel. After an hour or so the other notes start to come out, and a couple of hours after application it's a close to the skin, really well balanced, classic lace scent. It's a very demure lace compared to Emerald and Solstice, more along the lines of antique lace.

[doomsday_disco]

In the bottle, I get the lavender, caramelized tobacco, and cognac.

 

Freshly applied, it's a blast of lavender, with the caramelized French tobacco and sharp cognac. It stays the same once dry, but there's a bit more smoke present. If you worried that this will be too smoky, you need not worry. There's not a lot of smoke here.

 

After a few hours, the lavender calms down significantly, and it ends up mostly being the Lace bace and soft lavender (I get lots more of the caramelized tobacco and cognac with the lavender now, and the lovely vanilla has finally emerged).

 

I'm a slut for lavender and a fan of the lace scents, so I'm really happy to have this one. But *whispers* Summer Lace is still my favorite of the Laces.

 

[zankoku_zen]

Smoky tobacco, hints of lavender and lace. This one is more tobacco than lavender on me. Kinda mournful and wistful. In some ways, it reminds me to ancient linens. Medium throw and wear length.

[Aveya]

Source: Decant Circle

Preconception: Lavender, vanilla, tobacco? Sign me up.

 

Vial: Lavender. beautiful beautiful lavender with a touch of sweetness and grittyness.

Skin: Lavender, tempered hard by "lace". Sweetness from the tobacco cuts in just as I hoped. There's a smokey fabric vibe happening.

Drydown: Oh no. OH NO. Someone spilled their creme brulee all over my lovely lavender lace. It's ruined and can't be washed. Seriously if you amp foody caramel into gross generic "foodstuffs", do not snuff your nose at this caramelized tobacco. Half of the wear of this scent decided it was "foody" caramel. Everything else got drenched in the sticky goopy over-the-top caramel nonsense happening here. I am devastated. Everything else was working perfectly for me. Underneath the caramel-foody-ampage is something stunningly beautiful, albeit light on the lavender. The tobacco, smoke, lace effect is glorious. I'll be trying other laces for sure.

 

Verdict: Ruined by caramel-amp for me personally. Wanted to love so bad.

[VioletChaos]

In The Bottle: a dry, straight-forward lavender. I would call this a "daytime" lavender, in that I don't get anything that feels 'sleepy' or 'drowsy' about it, which is nice, because I'm fond of lavender but most scents have to be kept to evening use since they facilitate sleepytimes.

 

Wet On Skin: the caramel aspect of the tobacco os coming out, but not overpowering, which is a relief. I'm also getting hints of the cognac that is a staple in many of the Lace blends. Not much, if any, of the vanilla to speak of. I hope that changes on dry down.

Dry Down: Someone above mentioned the scent of old linens, and I can see that. The lavender becomes a faint memory, the cognac and tobacco melding into the kind of scent that one would find on old yellowed fabrics tucked into a closet, left to their own devices after a passed lifetime of use. It's *definitely* a scent that belongs to the Lace family, I just wish it had a bit more of the lavender note left over...

[Lucchesa]

Lavender is usually a fugitive note on me, so while Lavender Lace goes on in a blast of lavender, tempered with a grassy green note, it doesn't last very long. The smoke note emerges quickly then twines around a chewy sweet tobacco with a backdrop of bourbon vanilla; the smoke keeps everything from going too sweet. The only lace I've been lucky enough to try was Krampus, so I don't have a good grasp on the "lace" concept. This is lovely but has very little to do with lavender once it hits my skin. And it doesn't seem as though the rest of the notes are going to last very long, either. Stupid middle-aged skin.

[LizziesLuck]

It's taken me ages to actually review this, as I already knew I loved it. I knew because it leaked all over my package from my decantress and I smelled it for days. LOL.

 

Wet: Lots of herbal lavender (but not so herbal that it gets astringent, like it sometimes does at first) and that unmistakable vanilla/tobacco/cognac Lace scent underneath. This actually smells a lot like Black Lace to me, only with the addition of Lavender. It's like the Lab has boiled down the essence of a "Lace" scent and dumped lavender in it. Brilliant.

 

Dry: More lace (heavy on the tobacco) and less lavender, but still absolutely gorgeous. The most recent Laces (Solstice, Krampus, Emerald) have utterly rocked my world. So glad I grabbed two of these. I don't normally wear lavender other than to bed, but this is way too good for bedtime.

[milo]

At first, I wasn't really into this. I felt that someone butchered my lovely lavender. I'm not sure if it settled a bit, or I grew to love it, but I really dig it now, its a different take on your traditional lavender blend. It's dark, shadowy, silky. Really kind of bad ass. It's more of a nighttime blend rather than sleep, and when the smoke and cognac settle down and whatever dark nighttime activities you are into are finished, you are ready for the lavender to finally envelope you into a comfy velvet darkness. Glad I went for a bottle and back up.

[AirimirOfGondor]

I got this Lace, even though I knew lavender is one of my death notes. I should have known better, I actively dread wearing it. 😅

It's nothing against the Lace blend, lavender in general just gives me bad headaches (which is bad for me, because I amp the heck out of it!).

 

For me, the lavender overpowers the other notes, though the sweet vanilla is there. I think I get a bit of the smoke and tobacco, but it's not enough to counteract just HOW MUCH lavender I get.

 

But hey, if you're like me and amp lavender, but also like lavender, you'd definitely like this!

[Kytha]

I'm painfully working my way through the various laces, and received a bottle of this off a purchase in the forum. I'll preface this by saying lavender can be a kind of hit or miss on me -- I like it in Frostbitten TKO, Serpentine, and in Mysterious Warning, but don't particularly care for it in Lurid, The Mountebank, or Hypnotize Me. It seems to depend heavily on the other notes it's paired with, and for me Lavender Lace sadly falls into the latter category of scents for me.

 

All that being said ... my 'BPAL of the Day' review/first impressions of Lavender Lace was:  "this smells a bit like 'muddy' florals -- likely because of the 'smoke' that doesn't often work well with my skin, in combination with the lavender and cognac. None of the notes sing or harmonize, they just kind of come out in a dissonant chord all at once." Someone for whom lavender (or any of these other notes) works with greater consistency may enjoy this blend more, but I know for a fact that I amp anything 'smoke' or tobacco a LOT (and sometimes it's great -- huzzah Red Lantern -- and sometimes it's terrible) and that likely interfered with how the other parts of this blend came off. 

[starbrow]

I am on a quest to learn to love lavender, as so many in the BPAL community do. Its therapeutic properties are legendary, and its blends are so often gorgeous. On this quest, I took the blind-bottle jump into a Lavender Lace. Holding my breath until it arrives....

 

Welp. I might just be a lavender convert.

 

Just a sniff, and I could tell this was a strong herbal lavender blanketing a lot of other good stuff in the bottle. I couldn't wait to see what was lurking in there. It emerges once on the skin: a delicious sweet tobacco that is rich, warm, yet not too chewy, with some coy drops of cognac lending a faint waft of boozy green to the dusty purple. The more it dries, the more the lavender dissipates into a soft cloud of vanilla-lavender poof that I am adoring. This throw is doing something magical, something more than the sum of its parts. I love it from a few feet away, just as much as I love the stronger mouthful of caramel-tobacco-vanilla confection right up against my wrist.

 

For those looking for a big, bold, vibrant lavender start to finish, this lace may be a little anticlimactic. What starts out as fierce as lavender oil very quickly fades into the coziness of a lavender sachet made many years ago, tucked into the vanilla-tinged folds of vintage lace that was once worn around a sweet pipe tobacco. It is so perfect for this lavender-shy wearer.

 

In short, Lavender Lace is beautiful. I could not be more astounded by my instinctive reaction to this blend. I don't have to learn to love it. I already love it.

[Missanneshirleyofgg]

This is lace that seems to show on destash lists and I wondered why. A friend gifted me a bottle and I got to find out!

 

So this is heavy lavender out of the bottle which to lavender fiends smells like a winner, but to lavender suspicious, or cautious probably freaked you out. It is so strong in bottle. 

 

Wet more of the same. I get just a hint of the tobacco and lace notes, but it remains predominantely lavender. I have a feeling at this stage those who are not lavender fiends scrubbed it, and those who are were jumping up and down. But. hold on dear scrubbers, save your soap and water for The Rona!

 

At dry down this becomes a very dominant lace scent with lavender only supporting. It is soft, and almost a skin scent for a lavender blend, but a really good lace blend. I was instantly enthralled and have used this as a sleep scent. I love tobacco and sugary notes and while not gourmand, Its very wearable and pretty without being department store.

 

If you are a lavender curious perfume enthusiast I say watch for this on destashes. It might surprise You! and regardless, ots an interesting lace blend.

 

[dancingchair]

Wet, it's mostly astringent herbal lavender. Dry, all the other notes come out and they are stunning! The lavender calms down into something cuddly and sweet. The base is a really lovely vanilla blend. It's creamy and sweet, made caramelized by the tobacco note. The smoke is subtle on me and I can't really tell it's there unless I'm looking for it. The cognac adds a little bite but it's not boozy. It all comes together to make a delicately sweet and complex lavender blend. I really love this! 

[kaileycatface]

 🤨

<((>

  / \

 

 

well this is MUCH different than expected. why do i smell apple? the lavender in this is not astringent to my nose, it’s buttery. i smell buttery lavender and apples. specifically pink apples. 

 

okay wait, maybe the tobacco is reading as apple on me? after reading the notes, i can now tell i’m smelling tobacco. i don’t know why my nose thought it was apples. 

 

i don’t know if this is a winner for me, but it is really pretty. 🥰

Edited October 7, 2022 by kaileycatface

[Amoraexcena]

This one's a big morpher on me, unfortunately not in the best of ways. In the bottle I get a lovely gentle lavender with just a touch of airy sweetness. Immediately on my skin, the caramelized tobacco and cognac amp up and almost completely smothers the lavender. I like those notes, though I mourn a little for the lavender, so if it stayed there I wouldn't be too sad - but unfortunately, soon after it dries, the smoke poofs into the forefront and stomps all over everything else. It reminds me a little of how the smoke note in Liz behaved on my skin. It's like the cognac was set on fire and left to burn a little too long. 

 

I'm pretty sure this is a skin chemistry fail, so I'll be sure to test it in a scent locket before letting it go.