Harlow's Lace

[Ina Garten Davita]

This is a first for us -- a pup fundraiser to help out our friends at DD, whose dog Harlow has had a terrible medical emergency requiring surgery.

 

To that end, we present HARLOW'S LACE:

"A gentle, soft blend of sugar-spun vanilla, honey absolute, warm puppy musk, ambrette seed, sweet labdanum, tabacco absolute, and white cognac."

[abejita]

On smelling this in the bottle, my first, overwhelming impression is a rich, honey caramel/butterscotch. Once on my skin, the honey absolute and the tobacco absolute recede enough to be more distinct on their own. It dries down one of those scents that is gourmand, but not foody. Sweet vanilla musk and butterscotch tobacco honey.

[tuvili]

In the bottle, I smelled almost pure vanilla. But once applied, it got warm with musk and tobacco, and dried down almost spicy. I grabbed two, and i’m so glad I did!

[doomsday_disco]

In the bottle, I, too, get this caramel/toffee-like vibe, likely due to the combination of the honey, warm musk, and perhaps the tobacco.

 

On my skin, this immediately made me think of Lush's Honey I Washed the Kids soap, but there's some effervescence beneath the sweet layer, which I think is probably the labdanum at play (the sweet variety is always cola-like on me). It stays that way on me throughout several hours of wear: the honey and warm musk hold the center stage, but the fizzy quality in the background ends up fading over time.

I can see this being popular among those who love sweet scents. It's like a honeyed hug in a bottle.

Edited July 20, 2019 by doomsday_disco
I typed opoponax instead of labdanum.

[Teamama]

I got my Harlow's Lace yesterday, & let it rest til today. It's sweet musk tobacco lace. The first couple minutes it's boozy butterscotch musk,  almost like The Other Miss Forcible meets Grog.  Then the tobacco comes out, followed by labdanum & the vanilla lace note. I foresee heavy rotation for this blend come autumn, because it's so cuddly.

 

Edited to add: Still cuddly! My skin eats Harlow's Lace in about 4 hours, which is a lot shorter wear time than is usual for me with BPAL musk blends. It lasts & lasts in a scent locket, though. 

Edited August 29, 2020 by Teamama
Age

[Dark Alice]

Teamama is on the nose with her review: sweet cuddly musk, vanilla, lace and tobacco...but on me I get a hint of Juniper for some reason. I really love it!

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Tobacco and honey. The tobacco smells really, really.. thick? for lack of a better word. I agree with previous reviewers; there's something caramel or butterscotch-esque smelling here as well.

 

Dry: Oooohhhhh. This dried down to a light, sweet musky vanilla-tobacco, with a slight fizzy soda-esque scent (thanks to the labdanum). 

 

 

I really, really like this. Keeper!

[zankoku_zen]

Caramel toffee tobacco with a whiff of musk. This was sweeter than I expected. This is a great cross between butterscotch and tobacco, and very sweet. Medium throw, average wear length.

[mishi-bear]

I'll be honest in that I'm one of few who normally hates the Lace blends, something about the tobacco in them is a tobacco that does NOT sit well on my skin. Still I'm a sucker for anything to do with 'puppy musk', so I gave this a try, and I'm glad I did. The tobacco in this is the tobacco that i actually do like, a warmer and richer more caramelized tobacco. It has a sort of butterscotch or butter rum smell to it that I just adore, made even more rich and warm by the honey and labdanum. Definitely sweeter and more foody than I thought it would be. The musk is mild but present, but I can't say I get any cognac or any spun sugar, and barely any vanilla.

[Lunasariel]

In the bottle: My first impression was "warm cookies," but after reading all of the "caramel/butterscotch" descriptions, I can see butterscotch chip cookies, warm from the oven and making the whole house smell amazing. It's a warm, sweet, vanillic hug in a bottle - thanks, doomsday_disco!

 

Wet: From afar, it's still sweet, sweet butterscotch cookies. Up close, that effervescent note that I think is the cognac briefly comes to dominate, and distinctly honey and tobacco notes also emerge. Oooooohhh boy, this is delicious! I would have been 100% happy with a sweet, warm, foody hug of a scent, but up close it's an intriguing medley of sweet, smoky, and effervescent - especially once the cognac calms down.

 

Dry: It settles into a honeyed-burnt sugar-tobacco scent, with just a lingering hint of cognac-y effervescence and the tobacco becoming stronger as time goes on. It's still a sweet scent, but less of a foodie, butterscotch-y kind of sweet, and more resinous and honeyed.

 

This is an AMAZING warm, sweet, comforting scent, as well as being for a great cause.

[LizziesLuck]

Something in this is very caramelized. And the cognac is almost effervescent, or maybe that's the musk. So far, totally not what I was expecting of anything including "puppy musk", but I don't dislike it. It has that unmistakeable sweet and clean yet somehow also gritty and dirty "lace" quality that I have come to love so much in most of the Laces I have. More and more it weirdly reminds me of something - it look a while for me to put my finger on it. I had this old slightly "stale" bar of Lush Honey I Washed The Kids soap - this smells like that did, which is still pretty fantastic. It's not a honey note that I have smelled from BPAL before. I'm into it. If I had to describe this is would be "weirdly antique caramelized honey". I am sure I will wear it, but I don't need the two bottles I accidentally ordered.

[artisjok]

 When I first ordered Harlow’s Lace last year, I was still unsure about my relationship with tobacco, so I ended up destashing it. 
This year, I’ve officially fallen in love with tobacco, so I wanted to revisit this scent. 
 

I agree with the Lush Honey I Washed the Kids comparison. I have a shampoo bar and it smells incredibly similar. The labdanum lifts the thick musky honey with some effervescence. And when I say thick, I sure mean it. The scent was all-pervasive in my nose the entire day, an anomaly on my skin! Unfortunately, I think it being so strong made me queasy. I don’t think I can rock this one, even though I’ve matured in my perfume tastes. 

[Little Bird]

Super sweet honey and champagne (slightly fizzy and very boozy and sour).  The sweetness is intense and cloying.  The drydown doesn't change much, except something starts to turn baby powdery mixed in with all the sugary honey and boozy champagne scent.  I had to scrub this one off after about a half hour because the sweetness was too much for me and I didn't care for it with that dry, powdery quality mixed in.

[dancingchair]

Wet, the labdanum is prominent and very fizzy. I'm not a big fan of effervescent perfumes (for some reason they make me queasy?) so this stage made me a bit nervous. As it dries, the honey, vanilla, tobacco, and cuddly puppy musk come out more. The labdanum is still fizzing away but it isn't stealing the show anymore. The honey and tobacco pair together beautifully, it's a lace tobacco but sticky sweet like honeyed shisha.

 

I really like this! I don't think the labdanum is strong enough to put me off of this, thankfully, and I love how the rest of the notes come together. It's very sweet and comforting.