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Flickering Lights, Fluttering Curtains

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This should be called Vanilla Lace, because that's what it smells like. Bourbon vanilla, lace and a whiff of cognac. Rich and heady. Good throw and wear length.

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First impression: Vanilla with a bit of an edge that is both warm and bracing, cognac and amber, probably.

After wearing: It just turns into powdery vanilla on me. There is a bit of that edge still, but I just can't pick up the notes like chamomile here, and the cognac and amber are not strong enough to overpower the vanilla baby powder smell.

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I have only tried Vampire Lace, so I can't really do an accurate comparison of this to Antique Lace or other Laces. But this is really stunning and I can see why it's many people's favorite from the 2020 Weenies. It's a slightly boozy amber and smoked vanilla blend. Chamomile doesn't appear at all on me. During drydown, it stays smoky vanilla but loses a little bit of the alcohol note. It goes a tiny bit powdery, but I'm chalking that up to the vanilla or possibly whatever the lace note is.

 

Not something I'd see myself wearing as often as foodies, but it is very pretty and I'm going to hold onto my decant.

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I'm really torn right now. I'm not a fan of vanilla heavy scents usually, and this is heavy on the vanilla.  But on the other hand it's also in the same family of slightly floral pretty feminine scents like The Girl, Black Lace (but way lighter and brighter), Ava (but less floral), and Zorya P - and I have and love those.

 

This reminds me of when I tried Black Lace for the first time (when it was first released and hadn't aged at all). At the time, I was feeling 'meh' about the scent and thought "It's okay enough but not something I need" but then 18 months later I retested it and BL had aged into the most incredible blend and I needed eleventy billion bottles of it.  Flickering Lights Fluttering Curtains is giving me those deja vu feelings (of what happened with BL).  I think this is going to be highly sought after by everyone once aging smooths out that white amber note.

 

edit: it's probably closest to a creamy smoked vanilla Antique Lace, but my memory of AL is from a long time ago.

Edited by rawgirl75

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Vanilla with something boozy and slightly astringent which I suspect to be the cognac and the camomile mixed together. When I first tried it, it dried down a bit powdery but it didn't happen with later tests. I think the amber becomes more prominent when dry but it's rather complimenting the other notes than overpowering them. 

 

A really pretty scent. 

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Wow, so gorgeous. Creamy, buttery vanilla. Not buttery in a foodie sense! Just rich and warm.  Cognac is a note that’s always very delicate and goes into hiding on my skin, but also one that I love. I’m not picking up the davana or chamomile. I just get a light hint of soft florals here and there. Not floral to the extent of Antique Lace, although the scent is similar. Mostly, it’s the most amazing creamy vanilla, and I’m going to need a bottle.

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This has the same note that is in Snow White (which I've never been able to identify since those notes aren't listed, but I assume is Davana?), which is my all-time favorite BPAL scent.  I am 100% here for it.

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Really in love with this perfume- I was worried it would just be another vanilla in my shamefully large vanilla collection, but it is a shining star!

The longevity is surprisingly good for me- about 4-5 hours I'm still getting good wafts of it, which is rare for more delicate scents like this.

 

It is a very clean smelling perfume, like clean linens, but not at all in a soapy way. Thank goodness! I abhor laundry/clean scents generally. This one is just beautifully silky and refreshing with a hint of that herbal edge of the chamomile.

 

It's very much delicate clean lace and smooth, creamy vanilla chamomile tea. If you are a lover of Eternal Ankh from another indie perfume house, I definitely think you'd wanna get your hands on this, as it is the same family of dry, soft, non-foody vanilla without being samey.

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Absolutely agree with the comparison to the laces. Lovely, creamy vanilla with nuances of a gentle floral and cognac. The vanilla gets richer on the skin with time. Low throw, easy to wear; good work scent or snuggle with significant other scent.

 

ETA champaca not incensey; I believe it is the champaca flower

Edited by Minh Scent

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Flickering Lights, Fluttering Curtains gives me the visual of walking towards an open window in the night, layers of sheer curtains flowing into my face as the wind enters the room. The moon is shining outside, and no matter how close I get to the window, I never seem to arrive. Stuck in a bedroom full of dried flowers and antique face powder, aching to see what in just beyond the windowsill, I continue wading through the floating fabrics until I open my eyes in another reality.
Which one is the dream?

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Yep, this is what i had imagined and hoped Antique Lace would smell like (the re-release). It really has a fabric/paper feeling to it in a way i can’t really understand! Super complex. Not the strongest throw, however, so I may not reach for it very often, but it’s lovely. 

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sheer, cool vanilla with a light floral/herbal edge.  as it dries down, a very gentle cognac peeks out, and the amber turns it a little perfumey and powdery.  this is lovely, i can see why it's so popular.  the herbal chamomile makes it feel very soothing, like a vanilla herbal tea. it wears very close to the skin on me. 

Edited by MamaMoth

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Warm, smooth vanilla—gourmand, but in a very mellow way, the pleasant scent of a freshly baked cupcake with a bowl of frosting at the ready, rather than a fully iced cupcake shoved right in your face. It gets sweeter as it dries down, with an almost buttery note to it? Definitely a foody scent, but not at all heavy or cloying or unpleasant. There's a smidge of something floral or herbal along the edges that balances things out, and something cool and breezy that gives the makes the scent as a whole so much lighter than it seems like it should be.
 
Makes me think of baking in a cozy, sunlight little kitchen—a breeze through the window ruffles your curtains, skates along your shoulders to send a gentle little shiver down your spine. When you turn back to the counter, you realize that you're short a scone or two, but there's no one around who to play thief.
 
I've never tried any of the Laces, but if this fits into the Lace family, then I understand why people adore them as much as they do.

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"Brittle smoked vanilla lace" is such a good description of this scent. The vanilla is sweet and a little earthy, given a soft and melancholy layer of smoke over it, and knitted into a pretty pattern that hugs the skin. Brittle in the sense that it has more history and sadness in the vanilla that something like Antique Lace; there is a bone-china, porcelain quality (like an old and possibly haunted doll) in Flickering Lights, Fluttering Curtains that makes it a Weenie for me rather than an all-year layering piece.

 

Of the listed notes, the pale cognac is the only one that stands out to me, with perhaps a light and cozy chamomile, and a powderiness like the skin of a porcelain doll that I am ascribing to the white amber. The overall scent impression is sweet and nostalgic, very old-fashioned in the best of ways, and with an air of sadness (davana?) that keeps me coming back for more sniffs. This is not just a basic vanilla!

 

A quiet scent, but one that does warm on the skin to be present enough for me to smell it on myself. Lovely and delicate.

 

I would wear this while: enjoying any fall day where I wanted a whiff of sweet sad vanilla

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-This seems to have that delicate vanilla and phantom floral of Antique Lace
-Also a smokiness that gives it a bit of depth of heft and an almost bitter 70% dark chocolate quality.
-A great many people will like this one!

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Doing a side-by-side comparison...

 

Flickering Lights vs Antique Lace (original)

Not that similar to my nose, though both are beautiful. Flickering Lights is more golden to my nose, more amber-y, almost beeswax-y. It has much less throw than original AL, which has incredible throw with the lightest application. Both are definitely sweet, lightly floral non-foody vanilla though so I get the comparison. AL original is just in its own class, imho. Whatever component it was that led to it being discontinued is hard to emulate, I'd guess.

 

Flickering Lights vs Antique Lace (res)

Again, not that similar. AL res is quite a bit sweeter, somewhat more foody/marshmallow-y than the original. Flickering Lights is more subtly sweet, subdued. 

 

Flickering Lights vs Tattered Lace

This is definitely the closest lace that I own to Flickering Lights. Tattered Lace is a tad more cognac, a touch of woodiness, less floral, less sweet frankincense-vanilla (the herbaceous/green has calmed down a LOT with age). But if it wasn't a side-by-side comparison I'm not sure I could tell which is which. 

 

I love all of the above dearly, so I'm super happy to have gotten my hands on a bottle of Flickering Lights! This scent is definitely "Tattered Lace Curtains" in my books. 

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I pulled this bottle out tonight and without looking at the notes, it came across as a honey-type scent wet from the bottle to me, but incredibly similar to other softly sweet  florals such as The Girl and Zorya P. Curious as to why this was, I searched the notes. There's no honey here, but the combination of notes gives it a certain sweetness to begin with. Once on the skin, the vanilla becomes creamier and far more prominent. I adore cognac, the way it dries down on my skin is dusky, intoxicating, like a female's natural pheromone musk. Davana lends a subtle bright sweetness which pulls all this together beautifully. I don't think I've really rated this much since it's original purchase, but for sure it will be one I reach for when I'm looking for those creamy vanilla florals.

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