An Oiran on New Years Day

[Seajewel]

Polished mahogany, black tea, green cardamom, russet peppercorn, and ginger root.

[ShadowEtienne]

I'm sampling this today, and I'm impressed! It smelled nice in the bottle and my decant (split it with a friend who kept the bottle), but I wasn't sure how the woody notes would balance with the tea and spices on the skin.

 

There's a sweet, sun warmed wood note, like sitting on a dark wood bench outside on a warm spring afternoon, and I could certainly interpret it as mahogany. The black tea is a rich, malty note that holds up to the spices well and balances them. All three spices are clear but blend beautifully: a sweet but earthy ginger, and sharp warm earthy pepper, and sweet warm cardamom. Nothing is too aggressive, and the scent is sweet and rich in my skin in a very good way. I don't always go for sweetness (baked goods or candy type sweetness in scents is very not my thing), but this tea and warm wood and spices is excellent.

 

Both of the Lupers I've tried so far have had ginger as a note, and both have used it so well! Ginger one of my favorite scents in general, so this pleases me immensely.

[ghoulnextdoor]

Dark, fruity woods, rich, rosy, and resinous. This is a scent that becomes darker and darker and begins to smell both rare and obscure and somehow a bit crafty and cunning, something you’d find on the black market from a dealer whose expertise lies in acquisition rather than provenance.

Edited March 20, 2023 by ghoulnextdoor

[ScarletGryphon]

This reminds me of a fancy furniture store in the best way. The polish note is strong at the start on the skin for me, but it chills out to a nice remnant as time goes on. The wood and tea come out after the polish goes down. I don't find a lot of the ginger or cardamom, but I think they're lurking more in the background with the peppercorn to create a subtle spice.

[Karaline08]

This opens with a big ginger kick, it's a very sweet/almost fruity ginger (possibly the tea note making it more fruity). It's similar to Kumiho at this point, but with a warmer/deeper background.

After drydown, the ginger is mostly gone and it's a very bright spiced woody scent. I think the tea and pepper add just enough brightness to make this feel more like a warm weather scent than a cold weather one. It reminds me a bit of a men's fragrance, but in an androgynous way if that makes any sense haha. It's lovely, it fits the spring days where it's just starting to be sunny, but the air is still cool, a good seasonal transition scent.

[roseus]

Despite not being a listed in the imp I mostly get cinnamon, the soft sweet Ceylon kind. I think it is something about the combination of spices, as on my skin I distinctly get cardamom, and a light dry ginger. I think the peppercorn is adding the heat my nose read as cinnamon? As it dries I get tea and just a hint of wood, but this is very spice forward on me. Very cozy!

Edited July 18, 2023 by roseus

[GalliumSpider]

This is really lovely.  At first I get mostly ginger--fresh ginger root, not gingerbread--which then picks up some sweetness, like candied ginger.  After a bit the tea comes out.