Post Tenebras Lux

This is a really subtle skin close scent, but it does last on the skin for a good while! It is really well blended in my opinion. It starts off with a really unusual head note, that kind of reminded me of the smell of latex clothing a little bit, which I do not mean in a bad way. It does not smell plastic, it is just a really subtle sweet note. After about an hour it reminded me more of stepping into a sauna before heating it up, with some remnants of previous runs still in the air, with a hint of essential oils, steam and skin scent. I really love this one. It's not for someone who is looking for a crazy sillage though. It's skin close with skin accords and I really enjoy this!

My opinion of Antoine Lie's creations is sometimes a little divided, but in this case, hat's off to him. To my knowledge, the smell of mistletoe in perfumery is extremely rare. And here, I've got the whole image: the vegetal, wet, woody side, the mistletoe knot at the top of a tree after the rain; at the same time as the little berries, currant-like, that you can imagine as acidic, spicy... It's woody, a magnificent green, a vegetal fragrance like I've rarely seen in the perfume world. An almost scratch-and-sniff scent, particularly photorealistic, clearly one of those perfumes of which I hope the perfumer is very very proud off. I love it, I love it, I love it.

Edited 09/2025: "Mist" is listed as an official note in PTL, and its woody and herbal aspects do appear as though we're seeing them through a haze. The skin accord allows the perfume to feel both intimate and remote, a beautiful shifting presence. Sadly, I was told it makes me smell "clean and old" and "like my grandpa," so I will leave its wear to luckier people than me.

The name for this perfume is so appropriate. Conceptually light, period. There's no amber or aggressive wood notes to detract from the freshness of this fragrance. It's aromatic but not really a green fragrance; it reminds you of a dewey misty day but definitely not aquatic. It's hard to describe but you can breathe in the light. Love !

This is clean and woodsy; water evaporating from a freshly cut birch log in the forest comes to mind. The skin note is a clean musky one and gives the perfume depth and warmth, it is a newly showered skin scent and it all feels very natural. An interesting and well blended perfume, not like any other I have smelled, and I love it!

Really no words, the artists behind this have described it perfectly. I watched the film because I have to if I’m going to buy it and I’ll say it matches. I feel sweaty but clean, green but not fresh or bitter, woody but not dark. Truly shifting.

Very wearable everyday scent for me, but not outstanding in any way. This was my intro into clean woodsy scents which are now my favorite. Can't speak to the price as I received the tester for free

It opens up with the same vibe as White Rice by d'annam except it's floral. Gives off a baby wipe smell to me though unfortunately which gets stronger as the opening notes fade due to presumably the clean skin accord. I've noticed this in Radical Softness by fascent aswell which also has a note of skin

...Just as ineffable is multimedia perfumers Folie a Plusieurs’ Post Tenebras Lux. Designed by Secretions sommelier Antoine Lie, this ranks among my favorite of his works, and is perhaps the most subtly affective perfume in recent memory. An aromatic response to a shower orgy scene in Carlos Reygadas’ film of the same name, the three stated notes are “oriental woods, mist, and clean skin accords.” I find PTL wears on the skin like pure vapor itself, smelling like the act of misting water onto skin. This is sensual, but it is certainly not grotesque. If Secretions is naked, Post Tenebras Lux is nude. If I had to pick a single perfume to wear in a sensory deprivation chamber, this would be it. This perfume smells exactly how it looks, clad in minimal hand-painted bottles that serve as art objects onto themselves. When first applied, you smell a saline sort of musk paired with the watery echo of freshly spritzed mistletoe. Into the drydown pine turns to mahogany and pairs with the evaporating sweat of a well-groomed man, holding tightly to skin, yet lasting for hours. In this sense, PTL is the double entendre of skin scents: a perfume that not only wears closely to the skin, but mimics the skin’s unique smell. Wear this to receive gentlemen callers outside of a remote European spa, or to turn off all the lights in your hotel room and watch the entirety of Jeanne Dielman later that night in silence.

Opens with a smell and sensation that is reminiscent of standing in the water vapour at the foot of a waterfall. For the next 2 hours it smells like old, musty carpet. Dreadful and confusing. It then retracts to a barely noticeable skin scent that smells like lightly perspired skin before the bacteria makes it smell funky. I blind bought this and regretted it, as I was intrigued by the description and there are no brick-and-mortar retailers in Australia. If you are reading this and have tried other perfumes from this house, please leave reviews as I am eagerly reading them!