Butterfly Dancer

[zankoku_zen]

Blush amber, red benzoin, rose sandalwood, sweet vetiver, and red oud.

[Rane.]

This one is divine! Smells exactly like this LE body wash I used to buy a lot of. Flowery, warm, blushed. That rose sandalwood is something I've never encountered before, but I can tell that is a major note singing in this wonderful scent. The red oud & sweet vetiver is heavenly too!

[Desirabbit]

To me it smells like the sexuality of a mature woman; confident and direct, a master of eroticism in silk red sheets.

[zankoku_zen]

Rosewood, amber, and a whiff of oudh. It smells mature, dark, and powerful. It's sexy, and slightly foreboding. Good throw and wear length.

[VetchVesper]

At first whiff, this reminds me of Joy and Fear, but with prominent red oud and more complexity.  There's nothing funky about this oud.  It's woody and a bit sour/acidic. Red oud insn't a note I particularly care for, but I actually like what it's doing here.  I smell a hint of rose and vetiver, but the overall effect is of dark, ruddy wood over incense.  I'm liking it more as it wears and the oud becomes less ferociously center stage.  This will probably come into full glory with a bit of aging.

 

If you liked the rose/sandalwood combo in Joy and Fear or The Little Wooden Doll, or you like red oudh, this will be up your alley.  

[starbrow]

Sparkly pink poo. The fanciest poo you will ever meet. This really does have the sparkly amber from Awake and Abalone Vulva, plus the red oud you all know and love from the duets and trios. I don't get a lot of rose, but there is something very faintly rosy over all the resins, though none of them are particularly standing out to me - no sweet vetiver rising to the surface, alas. Just pinky blushy notes over some considerable stank.

 

What an odd little sip. It's a rosé all day. It's very, very pretty. I just cannot shake the indolic fancy pooudh off of the blend for at least an hour or two on my skin, and I think I would like Butterfly Dancer much more without it. Hanging onto my couple of MLs without upgrading, for now.

[whipwaif]

this is a naughty one. i'm oud obsessed so I may be biased, but I adore this. 

 

the benzoin and oud make this a little stanky, be warned. so beautiful though. very heady and woody. the "blush" rosy aspects of this blend really pop and the sandalwood helps to soften it out. one of the few oils where I can pick out each note, despite it blending so well together. 

 

very glad I picked up a full bottle of this sexy oil! it's mature, and certainly evokes images of "red."

[Threemoons]

Very glad that I got this one; was on the fence because oudh can go poudh on me real fast.  In the bottle:  Almost poudhy oudh, roses, and sandalwood.  Very volatile in the bottle; it practically jumps out at you--not bottle tight at all.  On, wet:  The sweet notes of the benzoin start to come out, and the amber and rose rise to the top.  A VERY heady, dense, rich scent.  Drydown:  The sharper notes of the vetiver float to the top, and the sandalwood aspect stays on a very long time, along with a tamed oudh.  Really a very sexy scent.

 

[Teamama]

Insta-bottle! Rose & oud predominate, backed up with sandalwood & vetiver, sweetened by amber & benzoin. It's basically perfect (sigh...)

 

Like my all-time fave, Entertaining the Heian Court Maiden, the oud in this blend is on the wood/resin end of the spectrum. Butterfly Dancer goes on sweet & rosy. As it dries, the woods & resins bloom. I love it from start to finish, & need to budget for a backup bottle.  

[rivetted]

i really thought i'd like this one more? i actually quite like it in the bottle, but i think it's maybe too feminine for me, since i never seem to grab it to wear.

[Llanval]

I wanted Butterfly Dancer to take my hand and lead me somewhere magical so badly. It came so close. SO CLOSE.

 

Thanks to rivetted, I got to test a full imp of this bad boy and I still don't quite know how to explain this little bottle. I love it, and yet, I do NOT. It has a glorious, resinous, rich opening full of character. The red oud behaves perfectly on my skin, and it takes this dancer into a dark fluttering red silk sheer with a weight and presence I really enjoy. But then time passes and as the scent dries it shifts from this almost darkly foreboding floral scent to heaps of the IDEA of red and pink florals on much quieter woody resins. That unique opening quiets down so quickly it immediately falls off the peak it was climbing up to, straight down into this oddly conventional, ultra lux femme scent. I've smelled this in a perfume bottle somewhere else.  Not the opening, that's 100% bpal magic. The end. The end of this dance is in a bottle of Lolita Lempicka, or Juicy Couture, or yes, Betsy Johnson. But I like smelling like a wizard, dragon, witch, or demon, so this doesn't do it for me. It's just too conventional. And YET, this scent is ALSO a high-end French hooker (thank you VetchVesper, you were right, this bottle is so hard to describe lol). I just don't know, it's such a weird little dance!

 

I do wonder what it it will be in a year, so I may stash the imp and come back. This one frustrates me because I think if it had the smouldering wood/embers found in Under the Foot Warmer or Gokugetsu this would have been an immediate buy. I wish this worked more for me, and I'm annoyed it didn't, lol.

Edited August 11, 2021 by Llanval

[Rane.]

Swapped for a second bottle of this! This bottle smells sweeter than my first one. I don't get any stinky oudh in this thankfully. The rose sandalwood combined with blush amber is something I can't get enough of. Sweet vetiver & red oudh are playing friendly in this bottle. Oh it's so nice. Planning to give a decant to my mother.

Edited September 9, 2021 by Rane.
*updated

[groovyrooby]

Can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet! This turned out to be my favorite of the Lupers this year. I blind bottled a few things with mixed success this year, but this is the only one I scaled up to a big bottle. 

I've been searching for something perfectly coy, innocent feigning but really wild beneath it all, and this totally hits the spot! It starts out pink, fruity, almost bubblegum sweet on me, but it continues to develop a creamy sweet richness with just a little funk to suggest the humidity and lust below the surface. Love love love it.

Not something I would wear to work, with family, even just with friends unless I was trying to put the red light on. That oud is really quite suggestive. But absolutely a go-to in the bedroom.