Toil & Trouble

This is an amazing perfume, and it's an absolute shame it was a limited edition. I loved the scent when it was released as a seasonal body scrub. I was excited to see it turned into a fragrance and yes, Lush did deliver. This is a green, herby patchouli - the green earthiness is emphasises by clary sage. Very sophisticated, and a completely unisex combo. On top of that, it has this fizzy quality that reminds me of parma violets, which I absolutely adore, probably due to iris/orris root. Three simple ingredients, but done so well! This is what powerful witches smell like, and I'm all for it. It's also completely different in it's vibe from Lush's Lord of Misrule, which is a warm, sexy, vanilla patchouli. CONS: not many, but probably wouldn't please you if you're not a patchouli fan. I wouldn't recommend it as a blind buy either. My mum said it smelled horrid, like a dirty street smell, and my husband said it's a rather elegant, more professional scent.

I was gifted this last week and honestly did not think much of it. At first, this reminded me of a classic retro mens fragrance but with a twist. Its sweet, slightly green reminded me of John Varvatos Vintage. After wearing it for a whole day my wife asked if I was wearing my sample of 2nd Soul. I did a comparison to the 2 and they are extremely similar. 2nd Soul has more spice, Toil and Troubles patchouli note is more dominant. Performance is amazing! I got nearly 12 hours of this on skin, the first 3 hours radiate about 2 meters after that it begins to sit closer to the skin.

Opening is sweet and almost fruity, dry-down is a very nice resinous, earthy iris scent. Shame this was limited edition, I had to buy a half-used bottle secondhand to try it out. Its not an overly complicated or overwhelming scent, I would definitely buy a big bottle of this if it were available. The perfumer behind this is the creator of my all-time favorite, The Bee's Knees, so I will be keeping an eye out for others she makes. I feel like this would be a safe all-occasions perfume since it sits close to the skin, at least in the cold weather I am testing it in at present.