Dead Leaves, Bourbon, and Bitter Almond

[zankoku_zen]

No additional scent description.

[AprilB]

This goes on sweet and heavily boozy, settling into something warm, rich, and almost buttery. The dead leaves note in this is more subdued than in the other dead leaves blends I have tried so far, this year (DL and Cinnamon Buns, Dead Leaves on Fire). It doesn't have a lot of staying power on my skin, but it's a wonderful scent. I kind of wish it was a cocktail?

[white_jenna63]

Whew, this has some throw to it! Strong almond from the start. Bourbon comes out while wet, but it's not overly boozy. Dry, I can make out the DL but it's pretty far buried. Not for me.

[zankoku_zen]

I mainly got almond and green leaves, with a whiff of booze. But mainly almond and dead leaves. Medium throw and wear length.

[Argentwolf]

In the bottle: A very dry, rustling, dead leaf smell, peppery and strident.

Upon application: It reminds me of a pile of leaves that has been lying around long enough for the undersides to get black and crumbly; they're dry, and bit musty, and there is a bittersweet, rather sour smell along with it, the bourbon I assume. I have doubts. 😧 However! After a few minutes, there is an almond aroma that comes forward. This thankfully remains foremost for the rest of the experience. It's mostly a sweet and pleasant almond, though every now and then I can detect a bitterness to it; by this time, though, it's a pleasant sort of thing, adding an edge to the perfume that isn't too sharp. 

Final verdict: It's quite tenacious, which would have been a nightmare if that initial sharpness had been predominant -- but it ends up being a good experience. Sweet in an almond way, not a boozy way. I don't know that I'd want to smell like this every day, but it's nice!

[puellacaerulea]

I've struggled to describe this one after multiple tests, hence taking so long to finally review it. It's mostly peppery dry leaves and strong almond, but there is a sweetness to the almond that I'm guessing is the bourbon -- it's otherwise not noticeably boozy. There's a weirdly powdery-sweet quality to the dead leaf accord that I've noticed in some of the other 2020 DL blends -- not sure if it's the other notes in the blend making that happen, or something specific about the DL accord this year. So: green, peppery, sweet almond, and a little powdery. It's nice, but it doesn't quite wow me like some of the other dead leaves in my stash.

[Lucchesa]

I was hoping DL, Bourbon, and Bitter Almond would be 2020’s DL & Scotch, my favorite DL ever. Instead, it didn’t wow me then, and wearing it again today, I was still underwhelmed. Dead leaves and almond at first, more a sweet than a bitter almond. Then I get a kind of sweet husky note that must be the bourbon, but it’s kind of non-specific. The dead leaves fade, the almond fades, the bourbon fades. It’s pleasant enough but just didn’t stick around for long on me, and that’s a 2-year-old decant.