Rentless

Patchouli and incense with a twist of bitter citrus, a whiff of cotton candy and aged whiskey barrels, then a dry down of sweet smoke, molasses, leather, and more patchouli. It's a confusing scent. The sales associate sprayed me with it and I regretted it immediately because I knew it would stay with me all afternoon and it didn't immediately strike me as something I liked. It smelled like some fruitchouli nonsense, a discordent attempt to make patchouli and citrus and sugar into a unisex frag. But 20 minutes after I left the store, I had to turn around and come back to buy a bottle of Rentless. It had mellowed and surrounded me in a rich, bittersweet cloud of fragrance, woody, smoky, herbaceous, spicy, sweet, sensual but standoffish and complicated, and I fell in love with it. Sometimes it reminds me of Tabu, or what I imagine Tabu originally smelled like. No cheap, one-dimensional root beer and nag champa but a well-thought out combination of darkness and sweetness, masculine and feminine. I was on the fence about it even a month after buying a bottle because it's such an almost spiritually evocative scent for me, and I was only wearing it when I planned to be alone, but I was in my cups and spritzed some on before going out with my boyfriend the other night and he loved it, said that this perfume was made for me, and I was gratified to know that he thinks that this odd little perfume that I have come to love so much actually smells good on me and suits my personality. The solid perfume does not do it justice. The reviewer who said the solid smells like pickles is not entirely wrong. There's a weirdness to the solid. Sometimes I throw it in my purse or luggage, thinking I'll get my Rentless fix from that but it's a very different scent, thinner and flatter and with a weird tang in the top notes. Some of Lush's scents are like that, just totally off and disappointing in the solid form. The liquid perfume is where it's at. Longevity is 24+ hours on skin. Lasts until laundry day on clothes. Projection is massive if you're heavy-handed like me. This is my current favorite from Lush, after Breath of God, which is a more cerebral and contemplative smoky scent, and Lust, which is an appropriately named raunchy jasmine.

I recently (in December 2025) bought a 1 oz. bottle of this off of Mercari for a price I don’t want to admit... I’m an admirer of almost everything LUSH makes, but I’m a newer fan. So, there’s several scents in the LUSH family I’m unfamiliar with. I don’t remember how I initially found out about Rentless, but I was instantly intrigued. Maybe it was the price? I was like WHY is any LUSH perfume going for $200+?! Well, I splurged and blind bought this and let me tell you — it’s everything I hoped for and a little more. To me and my nose, it reminds me of a foamy, overflowing, boozy cola. It’s decadent and rich. Very strong and long lasting. I feel like it’s a perfect fall / winter scent, but I plan on wearing it year round when I want something a little more niche. I adore it, and I wish LUSH would bring it back in some form (body spray, perfume, or hell - even a bath bomb). True story — yesterday I went to Buffalo Wild Wings and I had THREE different people comment on it. One of the bartenders told another bartender how I smelled “so freaking good”. She probably complimented me 2-3 times. But then one girl walked up and asked the bartender “why does it smell like a Christmas tree right here” and I laughed... The bartender said “she’s crazy, please never change what you’re wearing”, but the other girl said I smelled like a bag of pine cones, lol. Really, scents are subjective things. This one is easily my favorite LUSH scent ever, but you might hate it... I don’t know how? But you might. I know this scent was discontinued years ago, but I beg the Lords of LUSH to please bring this back. It would be the ultimate “LUSH Club” release, and would be a smash hit sell out.

This was the first fragrance I ever tried, and it's my absolute favourite still. Rentless is deep and warm, but at the same time sweet and sharp. It opens with an incense-like scent: it's woody and spicy - a very rounded and deep scent, if that makes sense. After half an hour or so, the citrus cuts through. It's sharp, but not overpowering: the woody/spicy notes ground the fragrance so that it's warm and mellow despite the sharpness of the grapefruit. And then by the end of the day, it becomes a sweet vanilla and caramel scent. It's very warm and comforting to me, but not cloying, because the wood/spice and citrus are still there. When you smell this fragrance, the different notes are not really distinct: it's more like adjusting a sliding scale, where different notes lead the fragrance at different times, but the other notes are alway still present. It's a coherent, rounded scent all the way until you wash it off. For longevity, I usually find myself wanting to touch up after six hours or so - Lush scents tend to fade quite quickly on me, but Rentless seem to be slightly more long-lasting (and the solid version is easy enough to use on the go) . As for sillage, I'd say arm's length, but I only use three sprays in the morning, so I think you can definitely jack it up by using more. Like I said, this was my first ever fragrance, and I honestly think it's ruined me forever for any other fragrance. None of the other perfumes/colognes I've tried has this amount of complexity and depth. If Lush discontinues Rentless I'd actually cry.

A slow and strangely enjoyable death by sticky-pine-sap-patchouli. ... To my nose this is a rich, super-naturalistic fougere with patchouli and other elements combining to stand in for the oakmoss. A generous dose of sweet and comforting coumarin, plenty of sticky leather labdanum, mossy, very green and woody patchouli, a hint of herbal lavender, a lick of natural liquorice and an uplifting zesty infusion of grapefruit peel. Rentless reminds me of the aromas of newly sawn pine trees and rubbing my fingers on the gummy underside of freshly unfurled fern leaves. It's a walk in a slightly surreal evergreen forest, where the dark emerald vegetation crushed underfoot is pungent, sweet and larger than life. Heady, fulsome, earthy, verdant and bittersweet. I imagine it to have been whipped up by a Shakespearean apothecary. Tenacious longevity and it is strong, the first time I wore this I overdid it with the spritzing and it nearly killed me - I felt as though the ferns were curling themselves around me, sticking to me, squeezing. The forest floor had taken on a treacly quicksand quality and was sucking me into its green viscous depths. I really like it. p.s. I'm not usually into layering perfumes but this works well with dark rose scents - it's good under Miller Harris rose en noir (which is perfectly beautiful on its own, by the way) - it adds a green, herbaceous mulch and the grapefruit zest keeps the rose lively for longer.

I don't know what's going on with the notes here but the most obvious note missing is patchouli. Here are the ingredients: DRF Alcohol , Fragrance , Patchouli Oil (Pogostemon cablin) , Water (Aqua) , Glycerine , Labdanum Resinoid (Cistus ladaniferus) , Tonka Absolute (Dipteryx odorata) , Grapefruit Oil (Citrus paradisi) , *Anise Alcohol , *Citral , *Coumarin , *Eugenol , *Farnesol , *Geraniol , *Limonene , *Linalool . The perfume is absolutely incredible. It is one of my favorite patchouli perfumes ever, along with Lord of Misrule, also by Lush. The patchouli is earthy, sweet, and sort of reminiscent of a damp forest. When you combine that with tonka, labdanum, and a touch of anise, it's an incredible combination. I don't know why people voted anise as super prominent because it disappears after about 10 minutes. (Maybe they reviewed the perfume right after application?) The stars of the show here, imho, are that lovely, sweet, earthy patchouli, and labdanum. If you like patchouli, orientals, and unisex perfume, you really have to try this. It is so well done and so yummy almost. Spicy, sweet, earthy, and super sexy, imho. I've also layered this with Lush's I'm Home, which is cacao pod, vanilla, and benzoin, and it is delicious. Who doesn't love a chocolatey sweet patchouli?! I own around 30 Lush perfumes and this is in my top 10 for sure, maybe even top 5.