Jasmin 17

You want to attract a strong gentleman with sad eyes and a delicate constitution. You want the accomplished, academically-minded woman in your life to wonder why she can't stop thinking about you after you leave the room. Regardless of who you are or who the object of your affection is, this perfume will have them losing their mind. I know I lost mine. Imagine it: You're a flower-selling peasant who's caught the eye of the recently widowed monarch. You're the creature's would-be prey, rescued at the last moment by the (also recently widowed) monster hunter. You're sweet and innocent and naive, and the ancient unknowable being who lives in the dark depths of the forest suddenly feels alive again when it's with you. Le Labo wasn't kidding when they said this will wreak havoc. This perfume will ruin lives. My only gripe is with the price-to-lasting-power ratio. No way I could justify spending this much in my current financial situation without afterpay. It feels like it's cheating to take points off for this at this point, but no matter how long I've been in this hobby, the absolute audacity of some perfume houses to charge prices like these continues to astound me. Maybe it's kind of a wild idea, but I think everyone should be able to access fragrances that aren't, like, B&BW and Aeropostale.

Jasmin 17 takes me back to sitting in the garden with clouds of jasmine and mock orange blooming all at once, it's really lovely. It's almost over the top sweet, it has that realistic thick/honeyed white floral quality that can feel cloying, but in this fragrance it's balanced perfectly with a sparkly sweet orange/lemongrass kind of citrus. Everything in this scent is sweet, the citrus is sweet, the vanilla is sweet, the flowers are sweet, but somehow it all works perfectly with just enough structure. It also smells like fresh lemon leaves in the top notes, that is the fruit loops smell people are mentioning. Nothing synthetic about it though, go smell a lemon tree sometime! It only smells botanical to me and photorealistic in the best way, no weird sugary fakeness, just citrus and flowers. Simple and straightforward and dreamy, like a summer afternoon in a bottle. I really love this fragrance! It's probably a specific kind of style and wouldn't work for everyone if you're looking for elegant or complex, but it is artistic, this is one of very few niche that actually justify the price for me personally. It's pleasant and wearable too, I can't imagine anyone being offended by it.

Wearing this right now. Picked up a sample at Nordy. I'm 6 feet tall, beard, brown hair, moderately masculine guy and I love this! The description on LL's website talks about amplifying femininity, but to me, this is firmly in unisex territory. This smells EXACTLY like the pot of jasmine green tea you get at Chinese restaurants. I've tried other jasmine scents (e.g., Gendarme) and found it to be too distracting, but the jasmine in this is ramped way down, which I think is what makes it so successful. If it weren't so damned expensive I'd scoop at least a 1.7 oz right away. I think the biggest competition in my mind is Atelier's Oolang Infini. Not that they're super similar, but they are both extremely pleasing tea scents that really give me that, "this is exactly what I want to smell like" feeling. Oolang is way cheaper though, so that might tip the scales. Not sure where all the comparisons to orange cleaner are coming from. I get a perfectly equitable jasmine/neroli mix on top of a bitter green tea accord with a slightly sweet (vaillic to some people, more brown sugar to me) backstop. This is a definite winner in my book.

[SEPT. 2021] Lovely. Having worked making bubble tea, this is the accessible tea scent I'm looking for. The expensive, home-produced import jasmine tea used for the boba. Osmanthus Yunnan has more personal flair and is very cute, perfect for Osmanthus, but Jasmin 17 has more depth and smells like the country stuff. I decided to not get Do Son again and save for Jasmin 17 instead, merely for nostalgic and tea-appreciating purposes. Real typical jasmine smell with nice wood-red-brown tea brew steam impressions to expect from brewing in hot water in the pot for 7 minutes then add ice to the pot and cool for 4 more minutes. (Just don't expect a mix of other teas, I just personally love this because poured hot Jasmine tea is one of my fav scents. Jasmine 17 is a bit more tonally lukewarm. Only mildly hot... as base prepared for bubble tea should, lest ingredients melt and you scald your hands from the pot's tap.) PS: They sell orangeflower water in the import section of James St... and this is not as shrill, happy, citrus, and cute smelling as orangeflower. Or anything like a Piguet, which makes darn realistic orangeflowers.

The first time I sniffed this perfume was a mix of surprise and astonishment. I just thought ¿..? Rational as I am, I was speccing a light jasmine, but after the surprise abandoned me, I let my nose guide me, and is just pure emotion. The opening is soft, a creamy, light and extremely elegant citrus welcoming you. Not the sharp smell of freshly cut fruit, but the aura left behind when you cut down the fruit from the trees. Neroli, litsea cubea and orange taking you in a trip of joyfulness and happiness. As is meant to be, the opening is just the beginning of the trip, and is not about the trip, but all about the destination. The most ethereal skin-like aromas will start to dance, calling your name asking you to sniff over, and over again. The heavy, hard to handle aspects of the jasmine had been removed, restructuring the formula to a new level of floweriness. A warm vanilla in the background will make this perfume very comforting, and yet not sweet. Just the right amount of everything.