Lamplight Penance

Smells like the captain's quarters aboard a whaling vessel. On application: Pensive, smokey, woody and boozy, it smells like a grizzled but well to do sailor updating their ledgers in the middle of a choppy voyage. It's not a chill or a happy scent, but it is fascinating. But then, after 30-40 minutes it loses a lot of its pensiveness and starts to smell genuinely wonderful. It keeps that fascinating quality and still smells like almost nothing else I've ever tried, but is a bit less emotionally challenging to wear. After a few hours it dries down into a manly but passive skin scent, musky and warm, and stays like that for the rest of its long lifespan.

I am really surprised that there are not more summer recommendations. This smells like a Tennessee Williams play. Humid summer nights on the back deck watching the fireflies and listening to the cicadas. Never have I experienced a perfume that so accurately achieves what it sets out to. There is a lovely scent of sweet summer flowers and berries with a light undertone of smoke, musk, and lamp oil that acts as a proscenium for the main act. Very nostalgic, complex, a unique and exciting experience. As the sweet floral notes fade, It leaves behind a strong scent of lamp oil that is almost lonely in is assertiveness, leaving you longing for what once was.

I hate to write such a negative review. I love the concept of indie houses and own many fragrances by many different indie houses. And I wish them the best. But I can't deny that I loathe this fragrance. I think the peach/berry/woods/ambergris combo as implemented here just doesn't work for me. It's an odd combo. The musk tying it together is screechy and metallic to my nose. It also didn't help things that after I removed my watch, I could smell the unmistakable smell of fresh puke where my watch was(I had sprayed this on my wrist to test) . Longevity is near eternal as it survived multiple scrubbings. This just my opinion.. It didn't work for my nose or my skin. And I'm not a beginner in the fragrance world. So don't be too scared off. Just try before buying. What didn't work for me may work wonders for you.

Now this is a very complex piece of olfactory art. Wow, what a journey. This stuff smells different in the air, close on the skin, on paper, and it changes all the time. It has that same smoke accord you'd find in Lita, Rex, and Serin, but I prefer this one over the others, as it just conveys what it wants better. The story behind it pretty much tells you what you are to expect here. Buttery Daffodils, ripe peaches, dusty-old furniture, and of course, the smell of a burning lamplight, with the oil and everything. One of those telling-a-story type of perfumes. It is smoky, but not overly so, it has this oily texture to it. The fruits balance out the smoke and the dusty woods, but they are perfectly dosed, not too much, nor too sweet, and the daffodils are very buttery, and creamy, providing even better texture and a sense of the outdoors. The woods are dusty and smell like old furniture. I can't pick up a leather accord, but there is definitely a boozy, scotch-like nuance flowing through. Blind bought this and I don't regret it at all. This is interesting, very complex, and unique. Big like. EDIT: It also kinda feels like a child of Kiste and Serin lol:), so yeah, it's a weird one, in a good way.

Lamplight Penance evokes the atmosphere of ‘last call’ at an Irish seaside pub. Polished but worn mahogany bar and dim, flickering lamplights. Sticky spills of booze on the floor, fog rolling in from the shore. Fruity pipe tobacco wafting through the gentle, quiet walk home.