Lightsource

So far I am really loving this perfume. It smells familiar but also unique at the same time. As soon as I put it on my skin, I was immediately transported to summer and happiness. It is a very fresh, juicy uplifting and youthful scent, and the fresh-spicy note description is very accurate on the dry down. It is definitely citrusy/lemony and peppery which adds definition and pairs with the citrus really well, but for some reason, the first notes that came to my mind were "sour starfruit" and "orange blossom". I find that orange blossom is an invigorating, soapy, and bitter (in a good way) floral and that's what it smells like to me, but some may not agree. I have never smelled star jasmine or petitgrain notes in perfume before so I'm not sure if these are prominent in this blend or not. In my opinion, it lasts very well on the skin and I cannot stop sniffing myself, but I have noticed it doesn't last that well on clothes and has an okay sillage - compared to something like Baccarat rouge where I could stand far away and my sisters could smell it, they couldn't with this fragrance until I got very close. I think the sillage may strengthen a bit better in warmer seasons. This is also very much a day-time fragrance as it doesn't have that depth and sexiness one might want for night-time. I can totally stand behind the inspiration of Lightsource, which is the 90's rave scene. It isn't supposed to smell exactly like a rave, (cannabis, patchouli, sweat, drugs, dust etc. lol), but it is supposed to be inspired by the glowing lights, colour, energy, dancing, happy/euphoric emotions/serotonin boost one feels at a rave. The citrusy/spicy/fresh floral nature of this perfume can definitely be symbolic of those aspects and makes me feel like I'm embodying them as well with how I smell and how I feel when wearing it. The price is acceptable to me because I like this perfume and see myself wearing it quite often, and it is a good size for the price, but it may not be worth it if people are trying to find a scent with amazing sillage, or one that has an extremely desirable peculiarity. It is still unique to me, don't get me wrong. Even though I want to wear it every day, I'm nervous to because the shipping took so long from Iceland to Canada and I don't want to go through this perfume too quickly because of that (It's fairly brand new so I only found it available directly from Andrea Maack at the time - it should become more readily available on different websites at least). No matter what, I think everyone should have at least one of Andrea Maack's perfumes in their collection. If what I described in this review sounds intriguing to you, I would definitely give it a shot!! (I know that more experienced and hard-to-please frag lovers with high standards may not be satisfied with Lightsource however).

I was genuinely surprised by how much I liked this. This one is greater than the sum of its parts. It's fresh, sunny, and spicy. I get a little subtle rose, but mostly the florals here blend so seamlessly together and with the citrus and peppers that they're hard for me to define. They're more of a feeling, almost. The lemon and petigrain bring a brightness to the whole thing that certainly does give the feeling of the sun shining through clouds. The pepper brings almost a musky quality, almost like the sensation of sweat, but it doesn't smell like sweat. It gives me the feeling of being somewhere crowded on a hot day and smelling someone's cologne around me. I don't really detect any fig here, except maybe that it tempers the pepper a little bit. I also get a licorice quality that I am not sure the origin of. I only had a dabber sample, so it's hard to tell exactly how a fragrance will perform without being atomized, but even dabbed on one wrist, the performance was good. Sillage is gentle but not strictly subtle (I could catch whiffs whenever I moved my hands past my face), and performance has been steady for several hours of office work. Overall, I love it. Probably my favorite of her fragrances. It feels sophisticated without being boring. It could easily be unisex. Will probably full bottle this one.

I like this house. This is niche perfumery that doesn’t bow to tradition. The DNA is fresh, photorealistic, and made with high quality ingredients. Feels like it’s mixed in a cauldron rather than a lab. Let me try to elaborate on the craft bc it’s important to the overall DNA. This scent doesn’t feel as if all the parts were formed together; i.e. how most perfumes come together in a singular cloud bubble. Instead, each ingredient remains distinctly definable in its own bubble. The bubbles bump into one another in the bottle and meld once sprayed on the skin. I find it to be such a unique take on perfume. About the notes here, they lay down crystal clear. A tangy citrus opening and I get the jasmine instantly. The petitgrain is the round eraser of edge. This is a rave homage but I get something softer. I get waking up when the sunlight pours through your window and you are happy. You feel calm but fully present. MDMA has a similar euphoria so perhaps that’s the rave element. Today, when I wore this, I smelled pine needles with the tips coated in cotton. Those notes are not in the bottle but I think that’s the magic of these cauldron brewed perfumes. An exquisite line. It’s made me rethink what is possible for perfume. It’s bottling the natural world.

This frag low-key kinda blew me away! I love how odd and approachable most of Andrea Maack's offerings are. But let's talk " 90s Rave" about this... I was on the cusp of being of age in the 90s (coincidentally, as someone mentions CK1 below, I was stealing my dad's sample of it like a totally newbie - I don't find Lightsource to be any bit similar), so I don't have a direct correlation to draw on, but stepping into any room of the contemporary dance scene - this makes perfect sense. I actually found myself at a rave the day I sampled this. This scent is candy colored and bright, unique but approachable. It's totally fun, but super wearable. It matches the neon light aesthetic, but also evokes an image of high design. To me, It's all based on the context of the wear - I think it's a chameleon of a scent in that way. It's lemony but not traditional, it's been updated for todays artsy tastes. I get a little powder, but it maintains a clean edge through the whole wear. Every note blends well so as to mask the other, aside from lemon. 10/10 from me!

#855 in my "Tour de Fragrance" Got this as a decant. My first Andrea Maack scent was "Coven." I actually bought it for a woman but almost kept it for myself. "Lightsource" falls into that same unisex category, and I especially like the bright opening and the greenness of the petitgrain giving it a tea-like vibe. Oakmoss gave "Coven" it's likeable green lean, but I probably like this a bit better for the hint of sweetness. Like "Coven" the performance here is moderate, inoffensive, I think men or women can wear this, but older guys may find this too unisex. $135 and up for 50ml is more than I'm willing to pay for this as I think it's just nice, but not memorable and doesn't project much or for long. I'm not sure I would actually recognize this on a woman as anything more than being shower fresh. But if someone was wearing this in the car with the windows up it wouldn't be bothersome, like so many scents can be. So certainly car pool, elevator and small office safe.

A beautiful bright rose citrus that has a bit more soul and artfulness in its complexity. Like a sunrise in a fairy-filled rose garden, Lightsource feels like the perfect name because it has some sort of intuitive connection to the smell of sunrises and sunsets while witnessing them out in nature. Truly beautiful and one of my top favorites in her line.

Sharp, bright, astringent, a little citrus. Then flower and incense as it dries. I have no idea where that soft smokey incense smell is coming from. Soft & delicate. Kind of reminds me of some kind of ultra hippy, new age shop in Haight & Ashbury or Cincinnati's Gaslight District.

I recently fell in love with most of Andrea Maack‘s fragrances, but this one stands out for me. I normally prefere warmer, spicier cents (love love love pavillion and entrance) over freshies, but lightsource is just the perfect fresh citrus fairy scent. It makes me SO happy!

it's a heady summer evening and you've been outside all day with your friends. after a couple of glasses of twilight rose, you escape the heat in a super air conditioned bowling alley with 1980s neon carpet and disco ball lights.

Extremely brilliant use of pepper to ground the bright and airy notes. Genius, subtle candy-like sweetness conveys neon lasers and 120bpm. Round and expansive, this night is endless and so am I.

So different and light from the other perfumes I have tried from her line. I love this one! Reminds me a bit of Rosestruck by Liis due to the rose/citrus background, but it's different.

Best classic freshy on the market. Powerhouse, complex, invigorating, with depth. Try it.

Sharp, spicy, peppery, green. Dries down subtly floral in a way that's more stemmy and photorealistic than delicate. The fig here is riper and stands out far less than I expected, and the citrus notes are nowhere to be found on my skin. This is beautifully blended and unlike anything I've ever smelled before, but unfortunately I don't know if this is for me. I'm on a fig scent sampling spree after falling head-over-heels for Imaginary Authors' Yesterday Haze, and this was the on I was most hopeful for. This feels more woodsy and aromatic than citrusy or sweet, and almost feels a little masculine to me. It's really pleasant to my nose but I just don't know how wearable it is - those labelling it as a freshie or everyday scent confuse me. It's interpretive, artsy and evokes the exact imagery it goes for, but I don't know what kind of lifestyle would constitute smelling like a spicy greenhouse on a daily basis. I would absolutely die for this as a room spray and it could be really sexy on a man, but I'm just not sure if I'm as into how this unfolds on the skin as I am the idea of it.

This is a very realistic smell of a lemon sorbet. Sweet, refreshing, delicious and very pick-me-up summer scent. I am usually not a huge fan of lemon in perfumery but Lightsource plays with it in a way that is unique and interesting. In my case it evokes a memory of seating at a beach restaurant with my mom and eating a cold delicious lemon sorbet she just bought me. I am a kid and I am happy. Nothing more, nothing less. I personally don't get the reference to the rave culture of the 90s that is mentioned on Andrea Maack's website, for me this is more of a calm holiday trip to the south and a day at a beach rather than "endless arctic summer night". This perfume is a definition of good vibes. I highly recommend this as a summer scent if you're tired of the sea of the same smelling citrus-based boring freshies out there.

Rose is the most prominent note during the opening. It's dewy and metallic, not powdery or dry. At first spray, I went "This smells exactly like my California Naturals Rose Garden leave in conditioner!" After the opening, the rose fades and the scent settles into a more citrus-forward phase with an herbal quality and an ever-so-soft metallic note still hanging around. Finally, it ends with a dry, aromatic lemon that smells unisex to me. Very soft, very pleasant. Nothing subversive about this one, but that's fine by me. Had this been put out by a mainstream designer, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. But, I'm easily influenced and as we know, half of a scent's experience is tied up in its marketing and brand.

Really beautiful scent. I have to do side-by-side comparison with CK one because this reminds me of it. I don't quite get the reference to rave culture scent-wise. I mean I used to wear CK one when I was a teen and went to raves, but that's about it. That said, I enjoy this fragrance very much. I don't think I would spend 150 euros to this, so maybe with a good discount I could buy it and be really really happy. Sillage is intimate and it lasts about 5 hours on my skin. Lovely, but not worth as much as it costs.

Smells like aromatic lemon. I picture visiting your mother you haven’t seen in a year. She’s wearing a long, loose dress and a bandanna. She goes outside to gather herbs and a lemon and then places them on the stone table. This is refreshing and simple, but not TOO simple. Nice if you are a fan of lemon. Would use up my sample but not purchase.

"A crystal clear light shaft of citrusy rose, climbing jasmine blossom, glittering pink pepper, and green fig. A euphoric ode to 90s rave culture with invigorating green tea grounded in midnight black pepper and illuminating petitgrain." My experience is none of the above. I'm getting rhubarb vibes.

A beautiful citrus with a hint of black pepper. I don’t get any fig or jasmine. This is light and airy but it does stay longer than I expected. It’s very office/small space friendly. It’s not a wow fragrance so I won’t buy a full bottle but I’ll use up the sample I bought from Andrea Maack.

Perfect scent for summer. Very sour, lots of petitgrain, very pretty. Can see myself wearing this in the south of Europe in the summertime.

Citrus tea Green tea Elizabeth arden Lemon peel

Hmm. To me this opens very lemon pledge-y but that only lasted a few minutes. Dries down to a nice drier lemon, a bit of bitterness from the peppers and petitgrain, and to me there’s something slightly animalic that’s just shy of being pissy. This is good. But every now and then I get a 2 second whiff of something that smells like pink bathroom soap? I wish I got more jasmine and fig but those notes are almost missing for me. It’s just kind of meh as a whole on me. Maybe this one is just not meant for my skin.

On paper: A very real smelling citrus-y scent, high quality materials no doubt. Sadly I smell absolutely nothing of the star jasmine which was my reason for buying a sample of this in the first place. Will edit after trying on skin!

It really, really smells like a fruit-scented plastic doll to me. Or like scented silly putty. It definitely gives toy.

This one is a total weirdo. I always love the opening. It’s uplifting, bright and warm. But one day it goes sour on my skin, the next it dries down soft and sweet. Today I sprayed it on a Kleenex and it now has an ammonia type smell that I associate with ambroxan? I sprayed it on a shirt last week, and there was none of that, and it smelled amazing until like hour seven, then it turned sour again. I have no idea. I love her, but she’s bipolar. Edit: final assessment is that it opens beautifully, dries down to a masculine cologne type scent.

Andrea Maack's openers always slap me in the face. Lightsource is very spicy in the beginning! I get a ginger matcha tea vibe in the dry down. Perfect if you're looking for a green witchy scent for Spring. P.S. if you want a harder slap in the face, try Andrea Maack's Coven!

From a decant, I assumed this was all marketing. In the vial it smells like a typical summery citrus-floral. On skin, the brightness of the mixture really reveals itself. There's something in here that scratches my nose in the way only cypriol/nagomortha can.

First impression, it reminds me of Acqua Della Regina by Santa Maria Novella. Will compare more closely after I spend some time with it on its own. Beautiful. Fresh citrus without being sharp. Other intriguing notes offer depth and complexity. Will update