Warm Bulb

while drying myself from the cold and harsh wave that The Point slapped me with, I notice a light at the end of the tunnel, maybe not everything is lost. at last, it has carried me over to the place that started my deep interest for Clue as a brand. my love for niche and indie perfume houses is still very recent, but concepts like Warm Bulb are what made me realize that art comes in different shapes and forms, and the sense of smell is something I hadn't realized could be used for that purpose as well. as a vanilla disliker I can proudly say this is a vanilla I can't get enough of. the dust, paper and electricity in the air wouldn't be as enjoyable without it. how could someone trap static in a scent? it's quite unexplainable but fascinating to me how perfumes can have texture, it feels crinkly but at the same time there's something soft and comforting too. it's usable in the sense that this reads as a perfume, but I suppose finding the right moment to wear it could be challenging as well. it's so liminal, otherworldly and REALISTIC, this really does smell like how that one photo of the backrooms looks like. leaving the best for last, I end my journey through their discovery set on a high. my only gripe is with the brand itself because their bottles are too expensive for their size, they include a discount towards a full bottle if you purchase the discovery set but I still wish their prices weren't so high either way. unfortunately, for my wallet, this one will be a beautifully weird addition to my collection and I'll gladly wear it even if it's just to enjoy it at home by myself. oh what a joy that I'm able to breathe, smell and experience the magic of inspired projects like these. 10/10 💡

For a while I didn't recognize much of a paper note until about a week ago when I printed something out and took a whiff of the page while it was still warm. Warm bulb does not smell like a light bulb to my nose, but it does smell exactly like freshly printed paper! When I first got this perfume I was a little let down as I had expected it to smell more... metallic? Definitely more burnt. I was picturing the smell of my snakes old heat lamp when it died... the bulb, not the snake. In reality, Warm Bulb is much more approachable. I was actually a bit shocked by just how wearable it was. It has such a lovely, dusty, peppery opening that hits you high in your nose. The more I smelled it the more I fell in love. It dries down to a very cozy sandalwoody vanilla. Sweet, but not gourmand or heavy. Extremely smooth... a little creamy, maybe? I cannot stop smelling my wrist when I put it on. It's just so interesting. On first impression the sandalwood and vanilla notes together ever so slightly reminded me of the bath & bodyworks bonfire bash lotion I wore in middle school which had notes of both LOL Overall an extremely beautiful and well blended perfume. Stupid addictive. The only drawback is that she's gone in an instant. You really have to douse yourself to get proper mileage, and even then it's never long enough...

"she took the wires to my playstation, she doin too much..." this smells like the air coming out the back of a ps4. in the best way. it literally hits the back of your throat in that same way that dust does, and accompanying the olfactory signals you anticipate the texture of dryness and powdery dust to irritate your nostrils but it never comes, instead opening up into the warm powdery tail end of the scent. there's something - immortelle, i think - that spoils the fantasy just a little in that it smells ever so slightly more bitter and less powder, veering into the territory of canned black olives or pickles for a little while, but it seems to twist and change and alter itself with time, and by the time it's dried down it smells ghostly, industrial, electric, and a bit like a museum archivist after a shift at work. clarified car exhaust. hot glue gun. objectum erotica. if ELDO's ghost in the shell is an uncanny valley silicone robot girl, this is a janky old steam-powered automaton with lightbulb eyes and a burning coil of red-hot wire for a heart. doesn't last very long but what can ya do. DUST!!!

this is like my absolute favorite fragrance thus far there's really nothing like it. i don't think it smells like a lightbulb (when i smell lightbulbs for comparison which to be fair i've been doing a lot of lately because people who don't feel strongly about this say that they have to admit it DOES smell like a lightbulb) but it's just so good. i want to smell like this all throughout the cold weather times which is why: i hate that this doesn't come in a bigger bottle and like i get that clue is indie but 30 mls only is a little crazy. also ofc the clue bottle design is beautiful but i don't like that the cap isn't flush with the glass bottle. EDIT: literally morning after i posted this i started getting the REAL warm bulb that smells like olives. i miss my girl but thats what you get for wearing this every day fuck me for not wanting my 140 dollars to go to waste i guess

I ordered a few Clue samples from Lucky Scent and was captivated by this one in particular. I've read accounts of fragrances evoking vivid imagery or childhood memories, but I'd never experienced it myself...until now! This one transports me back to my parents' guest room/office, playing on the family computer with the desk lamp on. It was an old incandescent lamp, usually tilted so the bulb faced up, which meant it collected a lot of dust. Somehow Clue has managed to capture exactly that smell -- burning dust on a hot lightbulb -- and I'm genuinely impressed, both by the feat itself and by how precisely it conjured that specific time and place. I'm also reminded of dust settling on warm electronics -- the old modem, the computer -- all from that same room. This is a really cool, cozy fragrance. I'm seriously debating committing to a full bottle come fall and winter.

This is a scent I have been Truly dying to get my grubby little hands on. It has enticed me since day 1 of seriously getting into fragrances. Also I will give almost any fragrance with a vanilla + black pepper note a chance as some of my ride or die fragrances have that combo (Lord of Misrule by Lush and Vanilla Black Pepper by Bohoboco). For me this is very much vanilla-forward scent, very warm and a little spicy. However when you breathe it in a little too hard, it sort of singes your nostrils and smells of an electrical fire. It's warm and inviting, yet feels so wrong to breathe in. Which I find incredibly cool! I will 1000% purchase a full bottle when my sample runs out cause I can't imagine Not having this around to sniff. An almost perfect 9.5/10 I honestly wish it was little weirder and dustier on my skin (could just be a skin chemistry issue though)

This is really one of those scents you have to try for yourself. When I smelled it at first, I thought it smelled exactly like an old light bulb that had been on for too long and was warm to the touch. It was odd. I wore it today, and that scent was there for a moment before turning into a light vanilla, not-quite-gourmand soft scent with paper smells. Like lighting a vanilla candle in a used bookstore. My partner tried it the same time I did, and his results couldn't have been more different. On him, Warm Bulb smells prickly, like static in scent form. There's a milky quality to it, as well as a little of vanilla. It reminded me of smelling the back of an old TV after it had been on for awhile. Clue perfumes, I think, require you to try them yourself and not just rely on the descriptions. You really have no idea what you're going to get until you try it.

This scent is completely unlike anything I've smelled before. I would recommend trying this if you get a chance - even if you don't end up loving the scent, the experience of smelling it is a worthwhile journey. I absolutely love this. A very nostalgic, magical scent that transforms completely over the duration of wear. Starts off the first couple of hours smelling like sweet tv static, and evolves into a very cozy scent. It reminds me of being a kid and sticking my face up to those big bulbous vintage tv screens. Then, after a few hours, it begins to smell like the home of someone you love. Not in a cleaning supplies, detergent way, but in the way you feel smelling a borrowed sweatshirt of someone you love. This scent starts off so foreign and strange, and evolves into something so familiar and comforting. I would love to purchase a full bottle of this.

A nice, comforting, sweet, metallic scent. This reminds me of being inside an air-conditioned pastry cafe. Or toasting a piece of bread that's already been buttered before putting it inside the toaster. I've also heard someone describe this as having the smell of those old 90s Windows computers (the ones with the chunky grey body) when they overheat. To me, this smells quite warm and plasticky upon the first few seconds. The vanilla note becomes more apparent over the course of time while still maintaining that synthetic plastic smell. It's kind of a gourmand-adjacent fragrance in that way, but absolutely not a full gourmand at all. Would repurchase as I only tried a sample for a few months and would be curious to see if the longevity would be improved by applying a lot more vs just my pulse points.

Incredibly interesting, the dusty accord is honestly incredible, so realistic and even gives a feel of unusual dry tickling in your nose when smelling it up close, like electricity in an old light bulb. The vanilla is detectable, but in no way does it take the spotlight, just creates a pleasant warmth for the dusty, electric notes. It smells exactly like that faint buzzing from old overhead office lamps - if that makes sense. So nostalgic, weird and unusual, while being perfectly wearable and cozy. My only complaint is that it’s quite expensive for the tiny bottle and with the price of shipping from the US it’s kind of an overhelming amount :,) Other than that I heavily recommend this it’s perfect and exactly what it’s said to be

wow. what a special one. vanilla/tobacco through and through, but not in a way that comes anywhere near feeling sickly or cloying. instead it is slightly dampened by whatever the steam and dust accords are. there is just an edge of wet mustiness that is rounded out by the sweetness of the vanilla. and then a spark of something (driven in part by the pepper) that smells like static electricity feels. like, hairs standing up.... maybe some goosebumps.... but then, gone? mesmerizing scent. for something so subtle and sneaky it lingers quite well and the balance on the projection is juuuuust right. it isn't invasive, but it'll get whipped around a bit with gestures and movement... really delightful

Photorealistic exposed wire and chlorinated electricity. It’s a dinky lamp you found in the attic cleaning while moving out, dust setting on the edges, the lampshade having yellowed from its original white gleam. You can hear the buzz of the bulb’s filament flickering and hissing before it’s drizzled with the warm, plasticized madeleine vanilla current that takes up the perfume’s dry down. This push and pull of Bulb’s journey from top to base notes do the impossible task of conjuring incandescent mystique over something as simple as a lit lamp, and furthermore the warmth of our fondness over these now archaic objects as we revisit them in wake of time passing.

8/10 Wowww I got a sample and I’m shocked at how well it fits the description like omg yes....that does smell like burning dust around an old light bulb with a touch if vanilla wtf.... The smell isn’t extremely strong but it stuck to my skin all day from just a little dab and I was smelling my wrist all day lol. BUT!!! I feel like the smell is so natural that even if someone smells it it’s hard to pinpoint or notice, I feel like only the soft vanilla would be noticeable since the burning dust and bulb aspects already fit so well with an average home, if that makes sense? Overall loved it, but not very good for a statement smell/noticable

It smells like the Backrooms. If you don't know what that is, go look it up. This was exactly, precisely what I hoped it would smell of. And...it's also a very wearable vanilla. I've been obsessed, intrigued, fascinated, and extremely into in liminal space visuals for a few years now, and Womanity so far has been the only fragrance to capture a degree of liminality to me (a dark, cold, and eerie beach). This isn't exactly as dusty as I thought might be, but it's fuzzy and almost out-of-focus. It smells of pale yellow, it's quite warm, and it's just strange. Unfinished, in the best sense. It's the Backrooms bottled. Freaking phenomenal.

extremely nostalgic and almost unsettling, but so beautiful my grandpas house always had dusty vintage lamps being left on for hours, cluttered papers surrounding them on the tables, a too old to use computer from the early 2000s collecting dust and processing the air it blows through its fans and creating static near the bright monitor screen, a frilly carpeted pink bathroom with fake plants being exposed to the ancient lightbulbs above the mirror that would slowly flicker on when you hit the light switch. this smells like that. this scent is thought provoking, strange, yet very beautiful and wearable. I need a full bottle immediately

what begins as a nearly photorealistic basement lightbulb dries down into a beautifully wearable vanilla. the opening is hot TV static, a warm VCR tape, the electric hum of an old incandescent bulb. there's a hot burning plastic sensation, more of a texture in the sinuses than a scent. the static buzz smooths down into hot printer paper before transitioning to a light vanilla and warm musk. the notes all scream heat, but not in the style of a heavy gourmand this is warm to the touch and lightly sweet, a nighttime walk through a dusty and yellowing hallway, sticky vanilla ice cream on your fingertips

This perfume smells like I'm in a giant, old house in Maine that was built in the 1800s. Many different families have pasted through it, so it feels cozy and lived in, but there's something eerie about it. Maybe there's a couple ghosts that live in the attic, but no one goes up there any way. It's a chilly night so everyone is cuddled up inside. The lightbulbs have never been changed from the halogen bulbs so you can feel the heat and smell the dust burning. There's a softly sweet vanilla candle lit on the mantle. It all feels weirdly comforting. Laura Oberwetter is a genius. I wear this to bed.

Warm bulb is a scent that is so nostalgic it brings a tear to my eye. A smell I've always thought about is vintage lamps with a light bulb in it and just wow. This fragrance captivates that smell perfectly. As weird as it sounds when I was a kid my grandma had this lamp. It was vintage and the color it emitted was a bright yellow. I used to put my face on top of it and feel the warmth and simply for the smell as well. Electrical and dusty. So ofc when I found it this smell was a perfume I had to smell. This is an absolute need for me for when the fall weather comes back around. 8.5/10.

A magic trick. Vanilla can be cloying, but this one is beyond-cozy and so wearable. If you've ever wished the Hydrating Facial Cleanser from Cera Ve could be a fragrance, this is for you. Doesn't overpower in a workplace setting, but definitely lasts. Steam accord and dust notes are reminiscent of pulling a vintage heating pad out of a closet filled with acrylic blankets. The comfort and potential danger of a heat source. Specifically one my parents had from the 70s covered in ditsy florals with a yellowing cord. It might set the house on fire, but it's also the best part of my day.

The most interesting vanilla I’ve ever encountered. Ridiculously weird and charmingly wearable. Smells like turning on the reading lamp in your grandmother’s living room. I am 99.9999% sure Laura’s using aldambre to recreate the hot dust note. I love wearing this scent anywhere, but especially in my room after I’ve showered and am in bed winding down for the night. It carries surprisingly well. The immortelle and black pepper in here give the scent a more perfumey quality, which is what makes this scent so wearable. My only complaint is that it doesn’t come in a bigger bottle.

One of my favorite scents, so strange and interesting. It does smell like an incandescent lightbulb heating up dust, but in a very wearable way. There's a subtle vanilla but it's not very sweet to me. It has this delicious like, almost buttery way about it. It reminds me of walking into an antique shop, or the warmth of a loved one showing you their old belongings that have been tucked away in an attic. Definitely has a bit of that like old book smell? But again, wearable! That's the magic of it! The balance is so satisfying to me, impossibly unique. Love her !

This fragrance is a subtle yet incredibly accurate representation of a hot lightbulb that's been forgotten and caked with dust for many years. It transports you to a workspace where yellow light embraces old paper, dusty books, and something steaming in the distance. The amber and vanilla notes come out at the end, offering the perfume a well-rounded close, adding a more wearable touch while keeping the fragrance unique to your everyday sweet scent. If you love a good academic, dusty yet subtly sweet perfume give this one a try !

A warm, peppery vanilla with a dusty amber glow that really reminds me of an old lightbulb that’s been left on for hours and is hot to the touch. It feels like a sibling to Dead Air by .Oddity in that it’s atmospheric, warm, and a little uncanny. Dried down on my skin it turns into this soft, static-y vanilla that sits beautifully and lasts a long time. Unique, comforting, and smells amazing on both me and my fiancé. I really want to smell like electricity and this is a great option for something warm and intimate.

Clue only makes safe blind buys. All the perfumes are exactly what they claim to be. I don't even know how they made this. I've never smelled anything like it. You think you don't even know what a light bulb smells like, then realize you've always known what a light bulb smells like, and now you have that smell in a bottle. The electricity of it does fade away, but then you're just left with a really interesting dusty vanilla. This is magical and then just plain great.

Best vanilla scent ever? It's really a case study on how indie perfumes should look, feel and smell. The titular warm bulb accord is perfect. The yellowed pages are there. The main ingredient, vanilla, is perfectly dusty and burnt with a really dry amber undertone. The only thing that could be better is the longevity, but it's certainly not the worst. It's my first purchase from this brand, but I'll definitely look through more keyholes whenever I get the chance!

Like hot steam rising out of a steamed vanilla custard. This has this wonderful dusty aspect and really does smell like a lightbulb. This is so uncanny valley and offputting, but in a scrumptious way. I think this would pair very well with a rice perfume. The top notes are making my nose sing. Smells like stating outside an oven with nothing baking....it smells like the a sensation of warmth - not the comfort, or the companionship, but the tactile feeling.

Smelled this at Merz in December and haven't been able to stop thinking about it, and got a sample. This is gonna be a full bottle buy for sure. The opening is SUCH a realistic, well, warm light bulb smell. The dust and warmth reaching the back of your nose. As it dries, it retains the realistic dust smell and warms up into a wonderful, round, mysterious vanilla. Like if you stuck a vanilla pod and old paper in your PC and huffed the fan air. I LOVE IT!!!

It’s actually a really comforting scent. Musk and sawdust. Reminds me of being in the closet my grandparents kept their board games in with a dusty old light bulb and dust particles floating in the air when you pull the cord. The old cardboard of the boxes. Little bit of tobacco makes it homey to me since my parents smoked cigarettes and a pipe when I was little. It’s weird but I feel like you can smell the warmth in this one.

Warm Bulb is one of the more photorealistic fragrances I've smelled. It genuinely captures the warmth of a dusty incandescent lamp that's been left on for hours. Instead of feeling sterile or overly conceptual, it's comforting. I get memories of sitting beside an old table lamp in my grandmother's living room, with a subtle toasted marshmallow warmth, but with just enough pepper edge to keep it from becoming too sweet.

I got a sample of this and it is pure artistry. It smells like 15 year old me wearing some vanilla body spray sitting at my overheating pc that I didn't know yet you needed to clean. That MIGHT sound bad...but it's not its a hot dusty light bulb, hot electrical wires and this creamy dreamy vanilla undertone. I may get a full bottle once I revisit it in the fall. Till then, just a lovely fragrance experience.

This is my favorite "weird vanilla." I say vanilla because when it dries down it smells like a musky vanilla with a static charge. The initial spray is like you just stuck your nose against a super old light bulb. My nostrils literally sting from what smells like hot electrical wires. I love smelling like a hot light bulb thats been wiped with a thick vanilla bean. I'll wear this quite regularly. Magical.

Finally got to smell THE warm bulb from clue. Especially exciting because I got my friend's raw reaction without her having any idea what it was supposed to smell like. She said it "smelled like technology," which is awesome. But yeah it was pretty cool. It was dusty, it was vanilla, it was the ancient windows computer that lived in the attic of my old house. I mean, what a concept, and what execution!

Completely obsessed from the moment it hit my nose. Like an abandoned doll left under a window in the attic, collecting dust, bugs, and odd smells for years. Strangely intimate in the same way. Has a really erotic hair note. Maybe youre going to visit the thing and brush out her knots every few days. You DO care about that decrepit doll you’ve locked away! Pervert.

Incredible, it smells just like a workday warm old school 90s computer monitor, the kind with that specific the thick plastic. The vanilla note is lovely and mellows beautifully throughout the day. It does exactly what it says, something weirdly warm and dusty and electric, lit bare bulb in a basement with windows that open out to the grass. I genuinely love it.

Incredible work of perfumery. As a perfumer, I'm always impressed when I smell an accord and can honestly say "wow, I haven't the faintest idea how they did that." It seems to have something to do with a sandalwood molecule adding to the illusion, but it really does smell like a hot lightbulb. 9.6/10, difficult to wear but an absolutely beautiful piece of art.

This really does smell warm. A little spicy, weirdly sweet. This is a magnified version of a lightbulb. It smells so realistic, you don't even realize it at first. Then, the more you smell it, the more you come to understand it. It's dusty. It's creepy/ It's comforting in a way. I love this scent. Scent profile: 10/10 Longevity: 6/10 Sillage: 7/10

This is a very nice dusty, warm, heavy vanilla scent on myself. So far out of the three Clue's I've tried so far it would be 1) the point 2) warm bulb 3) morel. I would consider buying this either second hand or at a discounted price since it smells very nice, but doesn't last a long time on my skin. Definitly a colder season perfume.

Clue has done it again and I am constantly impressed with how accurate their fragrances are but also how wearable. A true unisex fragrance that wears well on skin but is reminiscent of a winter reading in a public library or cleaning our the attic with a grandparent. The smell of dust has never been so heavenly and nostalgic.

8.8/10 By far the most accurate description to a perfume I’ve ever smelled, it genuinely smells like an old lamp illuminating dusty old books. It has a very dusty and warm vanilla to it- which I really admire considering I’m not a vanilla girl. It’s both strong and lasting yet soft enough for me to even wear to bed

A crazy scent, not sure how they did it. You do get a genuine tingle of static like if you put your nose to a warm lightbulb or next to a hot crt tv. Adored it so much I immediately purchased a full size. Wish the longevity was better, but a few hours before dying down to a normalish vanilla is just fine for me.

It smells...yellow. Goldenrod yellow. I get the image of a small lonely room lit by a bare, dusty bulb. Like the attic from Courage the Cowardly Dog. A little feminine warmth from the sweeter notes but not overtly so. Its nice and very wearable, but it is a little sharp on the first spray.

This is such a comforting scent. I never thought I liked vanilla, but this is a vanilla I can get behind. It smells even dustier and more present on my skin. I don't care if anyone around me thinks I smell weird. It feels like an old friend to me and I enjoy having that feeling with me.

it really does smell staticky reminds me of the old closet in my room at my grandma's house, or the computer room that she had. also reminds me of when i used to lick chargers as a kid to taste/feel the electricity...... dry down is reeeeally nice i can smell the vanilla and pepper

can't get enough of this staticy freaky stuff hot, dusty lightbulb and old paper pepper and tobacco and ambery vanilla situation on the dry down very satisfying, exciting, nostalgic, and perfectly creepy. will be wearing this all winter long.. it promises to keep me warm

This is the scent version of the dusty scenes from Interstellar and I stand by that. This scent is incredible (but I also love Ganymede, I have a thing for the Immortelle note in general). Can’t wait to try layering this one! Yes, I bought the full bottle ;)

A little sharp at first, dusty, but then the warmth of vanilla comes through and it starts smelling like hot steam with some spiceness and a tiny bit of sweetness from vanilla in it. As if someone is steaming black pepper and a drop of vanilla extract.

This really, truly does smell like a hot lightbulb with a little sweetness to it. So strange, but so good. I would buy a full bottle if it weren't for the absolutely absurd price of $140 for only 30ml. I know it's a niche house but give me a break 🙄

Absolutely obsessed with this. The weird, unique vanilla of my dreams. There's a plastic-doll-left-out-in-the-sun vibe to this, specifically, like, Barbie hair. Very quickly became my signature winter scent.

this broke my brain. i could not conceptualize what warmth smelled like until i sampled this. the heat comes on late, like an old camera’s flash cube?? but its shockingly wearable and sexy. love her

Truly unsettling, it’s so accurate somehow to a hot light bulb that I have a Pavlovian reflex to pull my face away