The Butterfly 2021

[zankoku_zen]

Fuzzy brown tonka bean, golden amber, bergamot, nutmeg, and petitgrain.

[Estamets]

He is fizzy! He is sparkly! He is warm & friendly! 

 

I love this scent, not least because it reminds me of a scented sticker from when I was in grade school: a joyful, carefree scent memory, not a plasticky sensation. 

 

The effervescence here is so strong and so unique. The top notes truly fizz off the skin, while the grounding notes are like lovely spiced soda - vanilla and warming spices and sweet homeyness (no sarsparilla or sassafrass).

 

After 5 hours, the amber dominates, with just a hint of the bergamot fizz brightening up the joint. 

 

Every stage of this scent has brought me joy and comfort. I'll leave it overnight and report back if anything interesting happens by morning. 
 

ETA: the next morning (14 hours after application), the amber is still there very close to the skin.

 

EATA: I’m giving this a full wear today (behind ears & ‘twixt boobs), and I keep getting whiffs of that 1980’s scent… a scented sticker? A “children’s perfume”? A room freshener? I can’t place it exactly but it’s making my inner child feel very fancy and my outer grownup feel very childlike and overall it’s a fucking joyous experience. 

Edited July 27, 2021 by Estamets

[Casablanca]

The Butterfly reminds me of the Lab's Genius Loci butterflies: a blend of notes that read as a bit quirky and off the track, but somehow naturalistic.

 

Fresh on my skin, this brings lots of fuzzy, dusty brown tonka and a fizzy orange tang from the bergamot and petitgrain. The nutmeg adds a brown spice and some extra quirk, and amber is a smooth background presence. The overall impression is of a brown and orange butterfly flapping by and leaving wisps of brown and orange powder in her wake.

 

This one lives hours on my skin, much longer than most blends survive on me.

[zankoku_zen]

Fuzzy brown musk powder. It smells fuzzy, brown, and musky. Hint of nutmeg. Medium throw, great wear length.

[doomsday_disco]

I tested this against the bottle of The Butterfly I bought from the Lab when the released a bunch of The Last Unicorn scents on Etsy in 2020.

 

The original Butterfly (non-aged) starts off really strong on the sharp, neroli-like petitgrain, but over time, that calms down, and it ends up being a cuddly golden amber scent sweetened by the tonka and tinged with the citrusy bergamot and petitgrain. I'm not particularly fond of that blast of petitgrain during the wet stage of the scent, so I prefer this version of The Butterfly aged (I have an aged decant, but I didn't think it would be fair to test this new one against that), as the aged version is much smoother and less citrusy.

 

The new Butterfly (now with nutmeg!) is love at first sniff. There's no harsh phase from the petitgrain. It's sweeter from the get go, with warm, fuzzy amber, tonka, citrus, which is smooth and not harsh in this version at all. There's almost a syrupiness to it -- not like maple syrup, but perhaps like the nectar from a flower, as was mentioned in 15 Minutes of Fume? I also get an effervescent quality from this. It teeters on smelling like orange soda, but after a few hours, when the nutmeg has gained strength and the citrus isn't as prominent, the nutmeg brings out this cola quality that nuzzles up to the golden amber that I really enjoy. By the end of the day, it smells closer to the original -- mostly golden amber tinged with citrus. So you can tell the scents are related, but I prefer the new, sweeter, more sparkly Butterfly to the old nutmeg-less version and will definitely be upgrading my decant to a bottle.  

Edited August 6, 2021 by doomsday_disco

[feyofthefellwood]

I (perhaps foolishly) never tried the original Butterfly, but I love this version of it a lot. ❤️ It's tonka, but effervescent and sparkling; the bergamot adds a citrusy note and the nutmeg a golden spice. I am not sure what petitgrain smells like really, so I can't comment on that. To me, this almost smells like champagne at first (champagne and orange juice?) before becoming more fuzzy and cozy on the dry down. Like other Last Unicorn scents, this has an ethereal quality, but in a cheerful, uplifting way. I think it will be a good work scent too because while it has some staying power, it doesn't have a lot of throw and seems generally pleasant. Glad to have a bottle.

[freyasfae]

I get the slight, delicate fuzziness which seems at odds with the citrusy bergamot. I suppose that gives it the sense of erraticness that does capture the butterfly from the book. I can't decide if I like it enough to keep it...which also seems apt.

[VictorianLass]

I just received this scent and am over the roof in love!  When I opened the bottle the first sniff was so strong that I wondered if I would care for it at all. But I kept sniffing through those layers and was intrigued enough to put it on!  

 

I am getting major nostalgia moments with this perfume.  The warmth of the tonka bean and richness of the golden amber, tinged with citrus and an underlay of soft wood kept reminding me of something.  It smells exactly like one of my favourite antique stores nearby!  Sun shining on dry old wood, lightly scented hand-dipped candles in the corner room, bunches of various dried herbs getting dusty hanging from the ceiling, soft citrus of orange peel and nutmeg in a bowl.  Every time I move I am immediately transported into that store, which was closed for a year during the pandemic and just starting to occasionally open its doors.  Hoping to wear this and go there this weekend for the 1st time in 1 12/ years!  So happy to have it stored in a bottle!  

[hhelix]

I am not getting the fizziness that some reviewers mention, nor do I get any sharp citrus. This blend is sweet, smooth, creamy and almost gourmand due to the vanillic and hay-like coumarin note of the tonka. The nutmeg, tonka, and amber are well-balanced and play gorgeously together. Very evocative of a fuzzy brown butterfly's soft wings. Average throw and wear length for me.

[roseus]

In the decant this smells so fizzy, it has a bit of citrus and a smells like a really light cola. On my skin it is instantly less fizzy, more fuzzy. I get a deep base of amber with nutmeg and tonka. Sort of vanillic, and hay-like, with a soft glow of citrus around it. It's so gorgeous, very warm and inviting.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: A big, bright, effervescent blast of something fizzy - at first I wanted to say ginger ale. There's also some sweet tonka in there somewhere, but the petitgrain/ginger ale note is very nose-catching - it actually feels like bubbles going up my nose!

 

Wet: The ginger ale-esque bubbliness quickly burns off, leaving a more distinct citrus note. It blends *beautifully* with the glowing golden amber and soft, fuzzy, brown-gold tonka - most of the time. The citrus occasionally veers a little high-pitched for me, especially at the beginning, but overall I found they balanced very well.

 

Dry: As usual with most citrus notes, almost all of them have burned off an hour or so in, leaving only a hint of petitgrain to round out the amber and tonka. I'm also getting whiffs of something my brain keeps wanting to interpret as baking bread - so the nutmeg, maybe? My husband picked up on vanillic notes, which I didn't, so it might be the tonka as well.

Edited September 6, 2021 by Lunasariel

[VetchVesper]

This one is all fuzzy caterpillar on me - no wings. 😕 The amber is so fuzzy it's almost scratchy, and the effervesce is on the verge of cleaning supply territory.  The citrus is very bold but a little more woody than a sweet bright orange. This reminds me of last year's Rising Sun, which also was, sadly, a miss. Overall, I can smell potential, but it's like the butterfly just can't quite come out of its chrysalis for me.

 

However, a friend of mine tried it, and there's a lighter, brighter quality on her, more like neroli often has. It smells light and golden and delicate, and she declared it positively did smell like a butterfly.