L de Lolita Lempicka

I'd like to answer my own question and add to what the reviewer before me said about L Concentree. I sought a bottle of L recently and wasn't so happy with what I found online. I thought the concentree would be a good alternative for now. Happy to report I was right. Concentree does look thick like maple syrup in the pen. It applies like glycerin. I was a little surprised by that because I was expecting liquid perfume before I saw it in person. But I'm very happy with this formula! Perfume oils, solids, anything except a spray, are never my first choice, but with this, because of the means of application with a rollerball, it goes on in a thin layer and absorbs into the skin quickly and beautifully. No rubbing! It doesn't take much, so it will last a considerable length of time. It would make sense that this is indeed more concentrated and has higher % perfume oils than the edp. The orange top notes are more pronounced in the "oil" than edp, the vanilla/cinnamon combo is always there but it takes a little longer for the orange to fade which I like. Once it's reached mid point, the vanilla/cinnamon carries it out until it has turned into a yummy, mostly baker's vanilla scent after 5 hours or so. The immortelle flower was not my favorite part about the edp. It gave this delicious fragrance a dusky overtone that made it feel stale (atleast I always associated it with that, could have been the musk but I don't really think so). With the concentree, i find that immortelle is toned town but still noticeable in the overall smell. The concentree acts like a pure parfum in my opinion that projects more like an edp or edt. It is hard for me to guage distance because I don't know where my scent bubble ends with any perfume I wear. But I sense it's strength and get wafts of it regularly so it is not a skin scent! It's about average in projection I'd say. Lasts 5 hours on my skin before fading to baker's vanilla. I recall the edp being average as well in both projection and longevity. L Concentree is exactly L De Lolita Lempicka edp with less duskiness. 100% satisfied with this alternative and I plan to buy more since most of the remaining bottles of the edp for sale are dark and scary looking. Mine smells fresh, hasn't turned in the least bit. Lastly, I noticed for more intensity to wait for the first layer to absorb then apply a second or third. It's like spraying two sprays instead of one when applying liquid perfume. Hope this helps someone!

Lolita Lempicka seems to specialise in perfumes that are fun and feminine yet deceptively clever. I have loved several scents from this house, most notably the original Lolita Lempicka in the purple apple-shaped bottle - my favourite gourmand. I was keen to try L for a long time, it being frequently recommended as a good sweet amber scent, and I recently acquired a miniature from c. 2010. The pretty bottle is mermaid-like, another whimsical fairytale-inspired creation from this brand, and happily, the scent inside lives up to my expectations. A warm, rich amber-vanilla scent, it is just the kind of thing I crave in cold weather. Good quality and surprisingly timeless and mature despite its marketing, L is really good stuff. Vanilla is present from initial spray, sweet and rich but not syrupy, forming the backbone of this scent. A lovely orange note is evident at the opening, adding some citric freshness. Alongside the smooth vanilla, it feels like orange blossom, creamy and sweet. The amber develops as the scent progresses, initially soft and increasingly musky, slightly animalic. It marries beautifully with the vanilla, forming a rich, cosy and satisfying amber-vanilla accord. Cinnamon adds a hint of warm spice, complementing it to perfection. The drydown is slightly powdery, with the vanilla becoming dry and a hint of tonka bean adding soft spice. Some woodiness creeps in here, and it becomes a musky amber-vanilla skin scent as it fades. Sillage is strong and longevity is long-lasting. One of the best amber-vanilla perfumes I've tried, L is sweet and feminine, yet high-quality and sophisticated despite its simplicity. Rich, smooth, creamy and just the right amount of sweet, it is a great winter scent featuring an unchallenging amber note. It is a real shame that this has been discontinued - but worth the eBay mark-up I paid for it. Excellent. 4.5/5.

I had the luck to receive a largely used bottle of L today. What's left of it has turned yellow, but its beauty is intact : sweet cinnamon and vanilla heaven. I love cinnamon and L has the most intoxicating kind of cinnamon in a perfume. It doesn't have any of the same syrupy character that more recent sweet fragrances have, and yet it manages to be much more gourmand and yummier than any of them. The lightly powdery base that's typical of Lolita Lempicka gives even more of a soft, cosy, christmassy feeling. But at the same time, there is something tropical about it, that makes this fragrance just as pretty and wearable on warm days. How come can a perfume evoke both Winter and Summer holidays at the same time ? L does. It's versatile and unique enough to be a year round signature. And I'd be tempted to make it my signature if only it weren't so hard to find and crazy expensive. I'm so happy I got this stunning blue bottle, even though I know I can't get attached to its content as what's left of it won't last very long. I'm tempted to buy backups, but they're so expensive and hard to find. I now get why people are fighting to get the last bottles online. I agree with ForrealMe2 and drklttllght. If you love cinnamon, you need to try L at least once. Edit : Laurence Dumont Tendre Madeleine is a pretty good dupe of L, at least in the opening. In the far drydown, Laurence Dumont Vanille Noire is an excellent dupe of L, closer than Tendre Madeleine IMO, although L and Vanille Noire have very different openings and you'll need to wait a couple of hours to see the similarity. If you want a nice cheap dupe of L, if you love its citrus and vanilla, get Tendre Madeleine ; if you prefer longer longevity and love L's vanillic cinnamon, get Vanille Noire.

@davisdm61 L is available from Fragrance X at the time of writing this edit (Monday 27 August 2018). I own and love L - and also have two of the "similar" perfumes listed above (the Laurence Dumont Tendre Madeleine and Les Senteurs Gourmandes - which is the one I have - are the same perfume). Try Meharees from L'Erbolario. It's not discontinued and is available direct from them online; they also have a shop in Miami which sells online - it's $44 from there and you wouldn't have to worry about import taxes on entry to the US. L'Erbolario are an ethical company and don't test on animals. If money isn't an issue, Xerjoff Lira is also a good substitute - I've tested it but don't own a bottle, as I can't justify the expense. Hope this helps you (and any other US citizens in mourning for L). B x ETA: OK, so I've just sprayed Meharees on my inner left arm, LSGTM on the back of my right hand and L on my inner right arm. I only had a sample of Lira and have no idea where it is, so can't compare it. In my opinion, LSGTM is the most conventionally "feminine" and is the sweetest. Of the two, Meharees is closest to L, although it's not quite as complex, rich or sweet and you have to give it a chance to dry down. I honestly can't remember whether Lira is closest to L, but I'd suggest Meharees is your best alternative, particularly when factoring price into the equation! I personally see few similarities with L and Musc Ravageur - but I have a sample of pre-reformulated MR, which I think predates 2008; it may be that the later formulation is the one to which it's being compared.

Just like with the Fleur the Corail version of this I never quite understood why they marketed this as a youthful ocean/summer kind of scent. It's one of the most cozy scents I ever owned. The vanilla is clearly dominant, but there is some soft spicy depth and tender sweetness to it. It's so cozy but never boring. I loved this back in the days as a winter scent. Even sitting down in a subway train with my thick woolen coat I'd still time and again get a whiff of that soft cookie like vanilla. This might sound weird but as an added personal bonus this really really reminded me a lot of my late aunt Mary. She must have been using a very similar scent as perfume or body lotion, because the very first time I applied it I instantly thought of the scent that enveloped me when getting a hug from her as a child. Nevertheless I find this scent equally suitable for all ages. Some notes are just quite timeless. If you love vanilla and you can still get a hold of it somewhere grab yourself a bottle. I'm not sure what's going on with Lolita Lempicka these days but they are drastically discontinuing loads of their old classics and as far as I can tell at least in Germany are currently only on the market with three scents (Sweet, So sweet, Le Premier Parfum, that only occasionally). On their social media they are advertising some new fragrance now but as far as I can tell even french people have a hard time finding them in stores. Hope they recover from whatever is going on right now and really hope they'll revive this one some day.