Sikkim Girls

This is one of my all time fave scents from Lush, along with my sig scent Lust. I live for jasmine/white/yellow/any florals, I adore them. Seriously. SO MUCH! The more the better, a frag can’t ever be too floral for me. Something abt beautiful florals makes me feel so feminine. And Sikkim Girls is truly a thing of beauty. The frangipani is expertly done, & the touch of slowly evolving vanilla with the jasmine & tuberose... it’s a masterpiece. Sultry, sexy, a bit sweet, a bit spicy, a bit Smokey/incensey, but ultimately a beautiful floral that I can never get enough of. I do pick up on the slight tropical vibes & it really does perform amazingly, both the solid & spray last all day, awesome sillage. Keep getting whiffs while typing, stunning. The solid is just as beautiful, slightly different, maybe a tad sweeter? And a bit waxy, prob from the base? SG is one of my few perfumes that without fail *always* gets compliments from random ppl, but like they immediately want a bottle - like stopped while shopping etc. asking for the name of the perfume I’m wearing, how to spell it, where to get it etc. so crazy! I could go through bottles & really wish it wasn’t discontinued.... I’ll never understand why Lush does that w. bestsellers. I’m going to savor my 100ml & 30ml :( Lush perfumes do really well over time tho & I keep all my frags in a wine cabinet; highly recommend if you have one (god, so out of touch I know lol, but really...) light-proof, constant 56% humidity & 55 F sweet spot temp- perfect enviro for storing frags, esp vintages. And CaAlice is right, we all need to petition Lush to bring Sikkim Girls back! I’ll die if they discon Lust too... I guess there’s always dupes... tons of sites make Lush type sprays & perfume oils for almost every Lush scent ever made & they’re pretty accurate, plus the oils last forever & are super affordable. I love how Lush goes back to basic & creates such brilliantly simple, harmonic blends for their scents. Usually no more than 5 notes. And you won’t find a list of top, middle & base notes anywhere. Not all of them winners, but a lot are. (LUST: jasmine+sandalwood+vanilla+rose+Ylang=orgasmic). Sikkim def does something to me too and it’s just 4 gorgeous notes! For a long time I *only* wore Lush frags bc everything else seemed too perfumey in comparison. I now realize I was missing out on an entire world of beautiful fragrances (vtg, new, designer, niche, I want them all!) I’m back to my usual perfume obsessed self; can’t stop collecting & love almost everything I come across lol (almost...) I do see the similarity to Songes, but initially they’re very different. Compared, SG immediately seems deeper, spicier, smokier and Songes is lighter & sweeter. Their listed notes are almost identical. Songes slowly resembles SG more & more the longer I wear it as the frangipani comes through. I’ll have to check out some of the others in the ‘reminds me of’ section! If you can get your hands on a bottle of Sikkim Girls, I highly recommend. Or find yourself a dupe :)

Lush Sikkim Girls is a box full of Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa Incense cones miraculously transformed into a glorious golden nectar of a liquid and bottled for our delight and revelry. I am completely besotted with it. This incense is unlit, there is no smoke in here. Although there may well be a genie waiting to grant your wishes and get you into lots of the best kind of trouble! Off with the lid then, spritz and Oh! What is this? I was expecting white flowers and this is an old fashioned spicy thing - hang on a minute, what is happening, it's growing on my skin, getting bigger and bigger until I am surrounded by an outrageous triffid like floral spice bomb and now I've got to stand in the queue at the supermarket smelling like this, how embarrassing. Great big wafts of Frangipani (known in India as Champa Flowers) and warm tuberose (made rubbery, moist and naughty by the resinous halmaddi note) sitting happy and smug amongst powdery sandalwood, all larger than life and waiting impatiently to be driven off to a wild festival or concert with after-party and they are not going to calm down for quite a while yet. Whew, this one needs a bit of fresh air and some good fun, devil may care company to go with it. Sikkim girls will gladly stay up all night rocking it's way into the morning, in fact it can probably go without sleep for a couple of days. I can smell traces of it on some of my jumpers (oops, I mean 70's posh hippy Biba dresses ;-) days and days after I have worn it. Please don't be put off though, I am prone to getting a bit dramatic. This is very lovely and has a wonderful way of getting really close and familiar with my skin chemistry. Although it's quite strongly floral, it smells natural and feels like it's become part of me and if applied with a light hand is wearable at any time. It does have a soft rubbery, resinous, woodiness in the base although the notes are not listed, this must be a result of the benzyls added to the gorgeous floral absolutes. When it gets very warm I can definitely smell some naughty rubber of the latex kind - you have been warned. I don't really get any jasmine amongst the other flowers but I get a fair amount of smoothed out spices shimmying around with them, and courmarin is there in the base to sweeten and hold it all together. There is a delicious creamy warmth here. Sikkim Girls is different from, but shares some outrageous type DNA with my 80's favourite YSL Opium 1977 (pre-reformulation). Sillage goes from moderate to massive to good and longevity on my skin is awesome. This one will be staying on my favourites shelf and although I wear it whenever I fancy, really I should keep it as my get-ready-to-get-wild go to. Must-try amazingness 10/10

Another scent that hit the market in 2013, as part of the line of fragrances called "Volume 2" (released in 2012) and took inspiration in a tale related to the musician Sheema Mukherjee. She met a coffee-owner in Darjeeling, who claimed that his son-in-law had been attracted by two sirens (mythology) that lured him by shaking their sexy bodies, leaving him in a trance, with her feminine wiles. Sikkim Girls is an exotic and seductive floral that captures the warmth of Darjeeling – a town in West Bengal, in India. It is known for its tea industry and its name translates, literally, by Land of Thunderbolt. In the fragrance composition, notes of jasmine absolute, frangipani absolute (aka plumeria), vanilla absolute, Angelica (tuberose) absolute and tonka bean, in addition to chemical compounds such as Farnesol and Geraniol, which enhance the floral aspect, Linalool, which gives sweet floral aroma and Eugenol, which is clove oil. The result is stunning. Like all perfumes that carry notes of tuberose, the floral output is strong and vibrant. Here, the absolute that was used is almost narcotic: hot, sharp and fruity-type (smells like peach). To give an idea to those who are reading this review right now, in one of the tests that I ran on my skin, I applied a drop on each wrist and received praise from my parents, who were in another room in the house. This perfume exudes a lot! Actually, there is a touch of vanilla in the middle of the story, but amidst the scent of Tuberose and Jasmine absolute, it's almost imperceptible, mere supporting role. Luckily, there is a strengthening of this vanilla nuance, thanks to the frangipani absolute, which must be of pink color, creamier and with more vanilla than the white, which is fruitier. On my skin, the nuances of jasmine appear more isolated after about two hours, when it's easier to distinguish what has gone and what is yet to come. Some say that jasmine's powers are associated with the secrets of fertility, magic, and healing. For a scent that symbolizes an almost magical tale, nothing could be more consistent. For comparison purposes, I would say that Sikkim Girls is part of Carnal Flower's family, recognized as the fragrance that has the largest volume of Tuberose already used in perfumery. Although it is marketed as unisex, some people judge this fragrance as more feminine than masculine. In this case, maybe those sirens have bewitched me too because I would be able to wear it very easily. It's been more than 12 hours since the last application and I'm still in a trance.

It seems that comments about this scent is so mixed. I'm on the positive side. It depicts a seductive, mysterious, exotic beautiful girl, people past by her will turn their heads to see who that girl is, she throws you a mysterious smile, she quickly she walked away. The scent is strong, the smoky white flowers hit you right in your face. But the scent of these white flowers like no other girlish white flower scent which is commonly found in the commercial perfume. Strangely, I don't feel like it's thick, smoky, heavy white flower scent depicts a lady, an granny, but a <>. This frangipani is strong, but not like the frangipani scent you found in Asian frangipani scent - they are sweeter, and has no bitter smell. The performance of this perfume heavily depends on weather, body temperature and humidity. I've used this perfume in Norway's winter and summer, Hong Kong's summer and Singapore's spring - it smells different in all these occasions. The bitterness in its opening lingered for 30-45mins in cold weather. If the hotter the weather, the sooner the powdery, smoky white flower complex comes out. For a time, its scent got onto my jacket and watch, it smelled very different again. What I detected was a mix of soft jasmine and tuberose - doesn't smell like any of those you could easily found on the market. It lingers in my room for almost a week. Its longitivtiy is good, it last over 5 hours even in hot weather. In all the Lush boutiques that I've been to, this is always put in a very un-obvious location of the perfume shelve, it tells how unpopular it is in the Lush perfume family :( For those who want to give it a try, please try not to be frightened by its bitter opening, leaves it on your skin for a while, and smell it again after an hour. When the bitterness has gone, it takes to you to a warm, sunny (not the kind that the sun hit your head and roast you as a barbecue pork), exotic no-man island in the East.

My review is for the solid perfume, sampled during the coldest and driest winter my area has had in a long while. Some other reviews mention Sikkim girls is very weather dependent, so maybe I should do a Spring review. I think Sikkim girls is a timeless, ageless classic. If I pulled the label off, I could see this on the grandmother I never had from Brooklyn, wearing a Hawaiian floral print muumuu and a big straw hat on Rockaway beach. I can see it being worn by a mom at a water park, wrangling small children with floaties on their arms. I can see it worn by a tween girl, maturing into hipness over the summer between school years. The girl is at a pool in LA designed to look like a lagoon. And on myself, I picture the vacation to Thailand I’ve always dreamt of. I’m on a small, fairly isolated beach laying in the sun at waters edge and the air is thick and heavy with flowers. My skin is oiled, and basically being singed by the sun but I don’t care because I am VACATIONING. Maybe toasty skin is the expression of the animalic note others say they pick up in Sikkim, well bended so it’s more of perception than an actual note? The inclusion of water in these scenarios is not meant to convey aquatic or salty tones to sikkim, but the message that the wearer is summering, HARD. It’s linear and simple. The comparison to Chanel no. 5 doesn’t really register with me because No. 5 is aldehydes, aldehydes, aldehydes, but I see where some of the notes could connect for others. I get frangipani and vanilla mostly. The frangipani is realistic and smells amazing. I get some wafts of vanilla candle occasionally, but I think it might be due to the fact that it’s a wax solid perfume. I like it enough to buy the liquid version, but I looks like production has been discontinued? The good ones are always so difficult to get.

One of the reviewers below called this a dirty version of Chanel No.5, and I agree! Though I prefer to use the word ‘raw’ rather than dirty. It’s like Chanel No.5 with indoles instead of aldehydes, more natural smelling, and I’m loving it! I’ve always loved the creamy, warm, sweetish floral drydown of No.5 and was never too crazy about the chemical soapiness of the aldehydes, some days I’m okay with it, other days I find it annoying. But this, this is straight up warm, creamy, white floral (with frangipani) from the start, with a natural (but subtle) indolic sweetness. Hearty and satisfying, not loud. It’s womanly, exotic and more sensual than sexy. The sillage is pretty moderate and stays close to the skin after a couple hours, but I find the scent lasts almost all day on me. It’s very inoffensive in my opinion, not as strong as Lust (which is probably more polarizing). As a floral lover, Lust and Sikkim Girls are definitely my 2 favorites from Lush. I’m really enjoying the raw quality of those 2, they don’t smell synthetic at all. Scents like this will probably not garner too many compliments or attract attention, they might be too ‘authentic’ or old-fashioned for the average nose...synthetic perfumes are what most people are used to smelling on others, or ‘photoshopped’ flowers with the waxy or indolic aspects erased and replaced by trendier notes like patchouli, musk or any fruit...which is fine by me, as I do like those too. So don’t get these Lush fragrances if you need your scent to wow or even please those around you. But if you like your florals ripe and sensuous with some textured realness, give them a try.

This is a review of the new bottle in white label (may be reformulated?) I wasn't a lover of this scent when I took a sniff of it few years ago in the bottle with illustrations. However, Lush scents have a tendency to grow on me (as did All Good Things) and I wanted to give this one another shot. I pat myself on the head for deciding to give it another go as I have grown to love the scent. In the past I thought Sikkim Girls was too harsh and exotic. I remember the top notes being a bit too smoky and incense-like for my taste. However, after you get over the initial shock (which is actually quite brief) the scent is unbelievably pleasant. Now I don’t really get the smokiness at all to be honest. For some reason, Sikkim Girls settles down on my skin as a flowery soap scent. I don't remember what frangipani smelt like but this definitely smells like a combination of white flowers of some sort. I don’t get the jasmine prominently as I do in Lust but I can definitely smell it in there. I don’t get the vanilla but I guess that’s what softens the overall scent. I can still smell it on myself after 10 hours and I think the sillage is also not bad though I cannot be sure since I tend to layer lot of different lush perfumes together. More appropriate for the colder months though I will try to wear it as long as I can. I don’t know if I have grown to like it as they have changed the formula over time or if it’s just my nose, but I love the scent and will buy a bigger bottle when I go through my 30ml.

Sikkim Girls starts out with the only, exact replication of the scent of plumeria (frangipani), that I've ever encountered. I had a plumeria tree in my back yard, and the white and yellow flowers smelled just like this! Then the tuberose does what tuberose does, and takes over in a big way, and it, somehow, melts into magnolia champaca. How does this happen? Clearly it's the work of a genius nose! Overall, perhaps because of the name, the whole of the scent connotes huge, purple orchids and cardamom. This is Sikkim in the summer; there's no mountainous, frozen expanse here...it's humid, and sweaty. Lush marketing claims this is the "heat of Darjeeling" (which is in West Bengal, south of Sikkim). I would likely buy this if the cartoon on the bottle, and the name didn't bug me so much. Maybe if the "Darjeeling" claim hadn't been there, it wouldn't seem exploitative. The whole ideais taken from a photo, (which can be found by Googling "Sikkim Girls photo) not a memory, which is certainly acceptable when it comes to creativity. It just seems to take the individuality out of the two women in the photo, and referring to them as "girls" seems patronizing. The perfume is lovely, and my critique may be inspired by pessimism. As a perfume, there's nothing else like Sikkim Girls, that I've ever smelled, and it's fabulous that a mainstream brand still treats perfumery as an ART.

This is a really brave fragrance. All creamy florals (heavy emphasis on frangipani) with a slight incensey vibe lingering beneath it all. I was surprised to see it voted as mostly a fall and winter fragrance because on me, Summer is the only season I can even dream of wearing it. In cold weather it smells like a traditionally "masculine" cologne and wood chips. And there's not even any wood notes in it! lol It's possibly the most weather dependent fragrance I've ever owned. In the heat of late spring and early summer it's one of my favorite fragrances of all time. But when the weather cools and I attempt to wear it I have to talk myself out of giving the entire bottle a one way ticket to the trash bin. Very odd and polarizing in that respect. That said, we get a very stark contrast in seasons here where I live. I would wear it every season if I could get away with it. Perhaps those in warmer, milder climates could. When I am able to wear it, I adore it! It has amazing longevity and decent silage. It has a immediate calming effect on my mood. Possibly because it reminds me of the temples I visited in Thailand and the Ashrams of India. Imagine that, something called "Sikkim girls" reminds me of none other than Sikkim India. lol Anyway, This is how perfumery was meant to be approached... as artistry. This is truly a LOVE.

An exceptional elixir of flowers and more flowers, especially the white flowers that are able to last more than 24 hours on the skin, with the very indie-organic footprint that Lush manages to imprint on ALL its eccentric creations! I wasn't immediately delighted with his departure, for bringing a very big blow from Jasmine and with that making the presentation a bit too dirty too much. However, it is noticeable after a few minutes a slightly bitter touch, characteristic of the flower itself, which reverses such dirt in a deliberately opportune aroma. In the middle it becomes more delicious, it is pure Frangipani, a dense, full-bodied and slightly heated odor that quickly envelops the environment. I appreciate the grandeur of the fragrance of Frangipani (Jasmine Mango) which to my nostrils is not at all dirty, however, reverberant and courteous. After many hours, a Vanilla appears, as if it were an absolute concentrated essence, it is not at all sweet gourmand, it is something syrupy and complex; A combination with Tuberosa is also felt slightly, which makes Sikkim Girls an almost lifelong stay on the skin. This fragrance really sticks! If you abhor complexity in fragrances, steer clear of Sikkim Girls by Lush, because if he touches you, he won't be leaving anytime soon!

This one's got brawn and narrative. Three distinctive personalities come to mind; - A grandma who has a colorful and complex past and therefore gives amazing advice. And smokes secretly..... - A conservative, well-off woman who joins an essential oil MLM for the company. - Someone who owns or works part-time in a little boutique that sells crystals and tarot decks and there's always incense burning and the smell gets stuck on their clothes and hair. The first hour or so is intense, it's like an incense S&M sesh, toeing the line between the sting and the salve. And then finally comes to a point where it decides to stick to the soothing effect. The floral composition is very fleshy, I get why people find it so sensual. And well, anything's sexy on the right person. I'm not the right person, but I enjoy smelling like smoke! It's a little confusing and I like it. I mean white florals can mimic something animalic and it's a near-universal fact that people like to make themselves smell like fruits and flowers and whatnot, even when those aromas don't speak of humanity. Smelling this made me question what I want to smell like and I appreciate that greatly. I need to try the liquid version of Breath of God next.

My word this is intoxicating. I'm hooked. This is herbal, smoky and incense-laden, buttery, and floral. I'm not that familiar with frangipani as a note, but if this is the predominant note as other reviewers have said, I'm eager to bury my nose in all things frangipani. Like many of Lush's fragrances, it's a bit rough around the edges, but deliberately and effectively so, giving off a carefree bohemian vibe. In the case of Sikkim Girls, though, this is tempered by a gorgeously rich and sophisticated facet. I had an Uber driver ask me if I was wearing Chanel N°5, and he wasn't so far off the mark. It lacks the characteristic aldehydes of N°5, but Sikkim Girls may be a distant head-shop cousin of that scent - Chanel as a socialite going through her hippie pothead phase, in the best possible way. I'm not picking up on much of the animalic quality on my skin after the first 15-30 minutes, but I can't imagine that a bit of lasting dirtiness would hurt, and I might even try layering it with one of my more animalic scents to give it a bit of grit. I'm a conservative sprayer, but I think that this would be beautifully sexy if applied with a heavier hand on the right occasion. This is truly swoonworthy.

Discontinued unfortunately! In my opinion it's not similar to Lust. Lust is a very indolic jasmine, which is nice too, but difficult for me to pull off. SG is much more of a tropical floral bouquet. I find this quite sexy, but in a bohemian and retro way. At first when you spray it, it is very heavy and spicy, almost herbal and currylike. It then softens quite fast into this incensy white floral, with frangipani and tuberose and vanilla. Very raw-smelling and quite rough. But the florals smell so natural. I this it has a shapeshifting quality to it, in the winter it smells a bit like a old-timey soap and in the summer it transforms into this opulent, blooming floral cloud. It's strong, narcotic, spicy and slightly fleshy! The solid perfume is easier to wear and goes straight into the more vanillic dry-down. I only wear this in the warmer months since I don't love it in colder weather. The cold brings out the soap and incense, which is not my vibe. In the summer it's divine! Edit: If you miss Sikkim girls I recommend trying Moon bloom by Hiram green. MB is much higher quality and completely different, but shares the naturalness, narcotiness and the tuberose.

Goodness, this is so beautiful, I almost don’t have words, but I’ll give it a go! Agreed that this comes off as incensey. This scent makes me think of being at a beach boardwalk, specifically in the shops that sell tapestries, figurines, hemp bracelets, incense sticks, posters, and body jewelry. It has a tropical/beachy edge to it in addition to the smoky bohemian aspects, yet comes off as a warm and sophisticated floral that also smells honeyed. It’s tangy, sensual, boho, yet well-rounded and quite unique! I have both the solid and perfume and find the solid to be stronger in some ways, especially with the smoky incense. Although not completely similar, from my perspective (based on blind testing all of my fragrances), I’d place this scent in the same category as Dior Tendre Poison and Alfred Sung Sung. Edit: this is one of few fragrances I’ve received compliments on! Not that some have told me I’ve just smelled nice, no — it’s the fact that people have asked me the name and that I’ve actually written the name on a piece of paper for someone.

Sikkim girls is a very intriguing perfume. Under the tropical frangipani and tuberose, there's a very nice smokiness. That particular smoky effect also feels lightly incense like. I'm not sure where it comes from, but I'm guessing the vanilla used has its rough aspects enhanced rather than blurred. After Lust, I was expecting a bomb, but Sikkim is less in your face. Strange, considering it is tuberose rich! What I mostly get is the frangipani, which combines aspects of gardenia and jasmine, and a banana like sweetness that could be related to ylang ylang or the frangipani star of the show. Up until the third hour there is hardly any change; it's all white creamy dreams. But tuberose is invited to the party, so she has to make her presence known. Mostly in the form of a cool camphor breeze that cuts through the sweetness as she briefly exits the scene. And this is Sikkim on my skin. White flowers, small intervals of tuberose camphor, and smoky tendrils in the background. Utterly beautiful. Quietly meditative. Long lasting with average sillage.

I guess it's one of the most worst selling Lush perfume in where I live LOL All other Lush perfumes were not covered with dust or just with little dust. This one, there was a thick layer of dust on all four bottles on the shelf LOL However, I like this most among the 'white-labels', and I've bought its 'wash-cards(?vaskekort)' for my cupboards :) It smells very bitter in the beginning, however, after the bitterness is over, there's the frangipani+jasmine+tuberose scent, and I like that very much. I've found that the warmer my body gets, the sooner the bitterness will gone. I've wore once in a warmer day (like 20degree celsius), the floral scent came in within 45mins. The other day which the weather was pretty cool (around 8degree celsius), the bitterness was there for over an hour. It lasts for 4+hours on my skin (usually EdP don't last that long on my skin, EdT last less than 2). Although it smells like a winter scent, however, for me, it works better with a higher body temperature, i.e summer.

Just a little "heads up" to fellow fans of Sikkim Girls - The UK LUSH site has a limited edition product available which smells exactly like Sikkim Girls but at a fraction of the cost of the liquid version and priced even lower (for more product) than the solid perfume version. It's cheap as chips but it smells craaaazy strong! Added bonus is that you barely need to use any to be left with hands that are super soft and wonderfully scented with Sikkim Girls! The product is called "Frangipani Glove" and it is available from the UK LUSH site right now. :) (I don't work for LUSH. I just bought this stuff myself and was actually hoping it might smell like their discontinued product "African Paradise" based on the description of the notes but instead got a shock to find that it absolutely reeks of Sikkim Girls!!)

Oh wow... I absolutely love this. It's sultry, smoky, floral and tropical. All of that packed together. The smoke scent is noticeable even though it's not in the official notes. Not sure how they managed to make that one... It smells like an indie bohemian shop incense mixed with some tropical flowers. Beautiful and so different. Also It's a bomb, 1 spray and you will smell for hours. Perfect for scorching hot Summer days. I've never smelled such an intense "exotic" perfume such as this one. So sad Lush does not produce this one anymore. I just hope my FB stays fresh forever. Edit : To these days this is still one of the most impressive female perfume I have ever smelled. Yeah. It smells like bold femininity and complete freedom. And I really don't care if it's not coming from a prestige or luxury brand.

I have this perfume but I'm not used to wear this kind of scent. I bought it because when I sampled it on my skin, people went crazy about it. I think 3 people asked me that day what I was wearing, and that it was amazingly sexy. I do feel sexy with this, it responds very well with my skin chemistry.The floral notes slowly calm down, and turn smokey with a bit of resin sweetness, strange isn't it? The longevity and sillage in this is WOW. I have to be extra careful with it because a tiny bit travels away miles! Two little dots on the wrists, and behind each ear. When I wake up more than 20 hours after, i can still smell it on my wrist. It is one of my signature scents for winter.

In the LUSH store, after being nasally bombarded by everything else, I smelled mainly the strong frangipani note in Sikkim Girls, but having brought it home I find the opening initially dominated by incense. Strong & long lasting, indeed! (When I tried rinsing this off and applying my usual dose of LUST, I discovered that this makes a sensational base! Also works the other way around, of course!) Sikkim Girls has a wonderfully intense presence. Two sprays turned my living-room into a bazaar. Apply with a light hand and don't breathe it in too closely - this is a room filler. A beautiful, powdery, heady floral, frangipani and burnt woods kind of room filler.