The Empress and the Chariot

[Seajewel]

Motor oil, lavender oil, dust, oak bark, and leather.

[katharina]

This was love at first sniff! I know I will need a 2nd bottle, and now my roommate and my mom want a bottle. Fair warning!!

 

Bottle: It's difficult for me to pick out any single note while in the bottle. It smells like expensive perfume; sophisticated and sensual.

 

Wet: First on, I smell a slightly sweet, almost melon scent. I think it may be the motor oil note. It recedes fairly quickly to the background, where it remains as a soft base. The lavender is present, but it's so well blended that it's difficult for me to find it's edge. It flows beautifully into the leather and wood notes which add a very perfumey and elegant  maturity to this, but again, it's so incredibly well blended that I am having difficulty picking them out individually. I do not smell any dust.

 

Dry: I will say this again and again: the blending in this is so masterful that it feels like a complex whole and not simply it's individual parts. The label for this reads cheerful day scent, but it definitely smells like an sexy, evening perfume. This is something I could see people using as their special occasion, date night perfume. It's darkly sensual, slightly sweet, and achingly beautiful. This is Streets of Detroit's sexy cousin from Europe coming to take all your lovers.

Edited October 24, 2021 by katharina

[Threemoons]

Another total morpher on me.  Been wearing this for the past 2 days.  In the bottle:  Getting smooshed green grass, lavender, and a bit of mud.  On, wet:  The leather and dust start to come out, along with a hint of the motor oil--I LOVE that note.  Also getting little hits of the Lab's Dead Leaves note, but it's not presenting as sharply to me as it does in other blends that have it.  Drydown:  The motor oil note lingers a LONG time, along with the dirt note and a hint of leather.  This really does capture a sort of dirt-bike rally feel to it!  The lavender keeps it from being a total Festival Garage Pit Stop Area scent.  This is a really interesting androgynous scent all by itself but I bet it would also be a total hit layered with any incense-heavy blend.  I also really REALLY want to layer this with Zombie Green HG for the grass/mud amp, and/or Nosferatu perfume for same.

[doomsday_disco]

At first, I get motor oil, lavender, and oak, which combine in a way that smells perfume-y and, like katharina mentioned, more like an expensive perfume than a dirtied up lavender scent. Over time, the dust and leather emerges (but it doesn't smell dusty, if that worries you) and they cozy up to the oak, which is somewhat sharp and probably at least partially contributing to that expensive perfume quality. But it is hard to pick out the notes in this one after the wet phase of the scent.

 

This does not smell like Virgos Love Power Tools, in case anyone has tried that and was curious about this because they share some similar notes. That one went sharp on me due to the rusty screws, but this one's sharpness isn't due to a metallic note.

 

If you're waffling between this one and It's All So Damn Beautiful, I will say that the motor oil and petroleum (respectively) seem to be strongest during the wet phase of both scents, so it depends on what you want to end up with. If you want something that's sweeter and almost cola-like with your industrial note that is accompanied by plenty of moss, go for It's All So Damn Beautiful. If you want your industrial note to mingle with notes that might make someone think you got this at a perfume counter, try this one.

 

I'll retest this one before it goes down, but it may be too sharp for me.

Edited November 10, 2021 by doomsday_disco

[starbrow]

Ow, this one is not for me. A biting, nose-singing burn of oakmoss and whatever else has crept into 2021 Liliths that makes me want to rip off my sinuses and trade them in for new ones. I am a huge motor oil fan, and it barely ever shows up for me here. The lavender also never makes an appearance, and scarcely a dance of dust and leather; instead, it's the oak show, with lots of jabby aromachemicals supporting it that make this a real headache fest. I really regret skin-testing Empress and Chariot every time I put it on. Alas!

[LavenderCoffee]

This scent is blowing my mind and I love it so much. ♥️ In the bottle it is almost overpowering, I get motor oil with lavender dancing around in the fumes.

On my skin, the notes all blend into an unexpectedly exquisite cologne-like smell, skewing towards bright/sharp, but settling into sexy leather jacket person territory.

A little goes a long way, it has great staying power, and I can't wait to see how it ages!

[Rayleigh]

I love the motor oil, and the lavender actually sticks around on me. Beautiful, wafting fumes. The leather enhances the motor oil without becoming plastic-y as fresh leather sometimes does. The problem is the oak. Oak on me smells like wood polish, and it gives the scent a soapy, sharp undercurrent. As the scent dries, the oak only gets louder and the motor oil and lavender fade. I like the rest of it so much that I'll keep trying it as the decant ages, but so far I amp the oak too much to enjoy it.

[Casablanca]

This is a friend's decant, and not really my style of blend, but it's fun to test.

 

With that disclaimer: I tested this alongside It's All So Damn Beautiful, as they have a similar garage thing going on. This one begins with oak, leather, and motor oil on me, but then it swerves much airier and sweeter -- and kind of soapy -- with lavender. It actually reminds me of lavender and soft white floral soap. The earlier notes have completely vanished.

 

Later, the lavender and white floral soap regains hints of its earlier leather and motor oil, but mostly the blend stays oddly floral and soapy. Not for me.

[monocainsheresy]

Starts very strong on the motor oil, which is similar to the oils/lubricants notes in the Steamworks collections and presents like fancy, sharp cologne. As it dries the leather (black, I think), comes forward a bit, carrying soapy lavender and a hint of oakiness. Settled, it's a slightly dirty herbal soap. The motor oil and soapiness dominate.

Was hoping for everything else to be stronger than the motor oil, which was probably silly of me, but I'm very curious to see how this ages and will be keeping it for that purpose.

[melandie]

Leather, oak and motor oil. It was a purchase for me, but it's absolutely amazing on my husband. Once I smelled it, and tried it on me, it was clear it was destined for his (growing) BPAL. So this one was a happy accident in discovering a new scent for him.

[zankoku_zen]

This to me was a gleaming metal aldehyde. I got the motor oil, the metal, and the lavender turned into this frosty bubbly lavender whiff, and a tinge of leather on the drydown. This reminded me alot of a Kabuki blend, but with lavender instead of cherry. Medium throw and wear length.

[fairybites]

This was predominantly lavender and motor oil. A touch of leather and oak in the background. As it dried down, the lavender faded some and become more of a motor oil and leather scent. I like leather, but sometimes black leather can be too much for me. In this, I think the motor oil really compliments it. 

 

I wish this motor oil was in It's All So Damn Beautiful! I'm really enjoying this, it's so much nicer than I thought it'd be!

[Lucchesa]

This starts out strong with lavender and motor oil.  Lavender never lasts on me, and sure enough it's mostly gone within half an hour or so, while the black leather takes its place.  There also seems to be a green note here, but it's mainly motor oil and leather with a little woods, very unisex.  It wears close to the skin but for a long time. 

[simpletwice]

I keep going back and forth on this one. It reads very masculine to me - which is interesting because other reviews don't seem to share that? I have big love for oak and leather, and don't generally shy away from masculine blends, but this one may be Too Much for me. That said, wow, this is SEXY. It's a sharp, slick, lavender-sweet cologne, and I'm not sure I want to wear it, but I am in full swoon over it. Prolly going to save my decant for when I need to roar around on an imaginary badass motorcycle.

[alyelle]

Can't remember the last time I was so overwhelmed with wanting a scent on first sniff. This one was amazing, and I purchased a bottle minutes after sniffing my decant.

 

In the imp: Leather, lavender-smothered engine grease, and dusty fields lined with ghost gums.

 

Wet: Honestly, I LOVE this. There's a sharp, almost citrus-like, note to the motor oil, tempered by oak and dust. I don't read it as masculine at all (far from it, actually, it's a very sexy non-binary scent to my nose) but I know my partner will love it as much as I do. I may require another bottle for him, to be honest.

 

Dry: Not too citrusy on the drydown, just enough to give an astringency. The lavender isn't obvious but does lend a softness to the earthy leather, and the final effect is of gentle sun shining down on hard-packed fields. Medium throw, long-lived, and utterly divine.

 

Stars: ★★★★★

[Little Bird]

A lovely lavender cologne.  The Empress & The Chariot reminds me of scents like Maison Francis Kurkdjian's Masculin Pluriel, bpal's Wilde, and that familiar smell when you approach the men's cologne counter in a department store (a mix of chilled, dark musk and bright aquatic, vibrant citrus, and overall clean man scent).  I can pick out the realistic oak in the bottle, but not so much on my skin, where the cold, black leather comes through instead.  This is musky, sweet, clean, chilly yet bright and cheerful, with lots of sweet lavender and dark leather.  I love wearing scents with that edge of masculine cologne in them, so this works for me, and I was happy to not smell any of the motor oil.