Taskeen Lactéa Divina

Never smelled the OG but I have Milkylicious by The Dua. I loved Milkylicious at firs, it smelled divine, milky with the intoxicating indolic white florals, so pure similar league as VS Love Me (my eternal love lol). After macerating a year and a half it's gotten so so powdery-floral pungent and heady - the musk-milk by The Dua probably intensify that. The bubblegummy tuberose becomes too powdery and obnoxious, it gives me a headache and the same issue I had with Cotton Candy Milk by The Dua. Cotton Candy Milk has turned more powdery, heady and pungent and has no tuberose or powdery cacao but maybe the candy note mimics the bubblegummy tuberose in Milkylicious. It's prolly due to the musk-milk overload too, idk. Let me list the Milkylicious notes for reference: Ambrette Seed, Milk Accord, Mystikal, Jasmine Vintage, Tuberose Petals, Mahonial, Incense, Tonka, Cacao, & Musky Vanilla. Heavy loaded. So I took a chance with Lactea Divina also because I love Zara's Feminine Spell (milk incense tonka vanilla) so I figured the base structure is the same but Lactea Divina has the flowers, jasmine tuberose, plus cacao added to it. It's what I expected it to be, lighter than Milkylicious yet pretty identical with the candy-like bubblegum quality of the tuberose. A cold intense almond effect in the opening is beautiful and Milkylicious doesn't have it at least so intense and nicely done. The milk is deep and somewhat watery reminiscent of the milk note in BBW Milk. Yes it likewise becomes powdery somewhat dusty floral as in heady, not as in stale dusty and it gets musky powdery too but much lighter. I mean the indolic bubblegummy tuberose in these scents works overtime but the other notes are balanced so it's more wearable. I'm a tuberose lover with my absolute love being Jimmy Choo Flash - the London Club too. The tuberose here is so indolic, cold, fresh, milky and then powdery, warmer, just as in the JC Flash tuberose. I find them to be very similar given that both have the almondy effect (Flash has heliotrope at the base). They have some differences (Flash is fresher, fruity) but they're sister scents. Despite tuberose's powdery indolic quality at the drydown, I still love that note. The opening's almondy scent is heliotrope-like, waxy, similar to Kenzo Amour's almondy milky vibe, minus the heady cherry scent - common notes: incense, vanilla, and the heliotrope giving that same almondy freshness I perceive from this. Milk and tonka create the almondy impression here just as in Feminine Spell by Zara but the tonka is more dominant there - (different scents tho) no florals there, however the incense is rich resinous in both, so beautiful and the milk is deep watery in both. Along with that cold, deep incense-milk and almondy effect (the almond nuance stays in the background more subtle at the drydown accompanying the rest of the notes) I smell a balsamic accord from the cacao along with the flowers. Its first 30 mins smell like blooming indolic Greek night flower, the white flower that only blooms at night in Greece during the summer. If you haven't been to Greece you prolly never experienced it. The white night flower is like a siren that can hypnotize you. No joke I walked my dogs at 1am here in Attica in a somewhat rural town that I live where the lemon blossoms and night flower smell so intoxicating at night and this stuff on my skin matched the scent in the air! Prolly the jasmine being more high pitched mimicked the dewy lemon blossoms. After that 30 min mark it got more dense, a tad warm, more fluffy powdery and heady but still lighter than Milkylicious. Like a cousin of JC Flash at this point (similar vibe). The milk, incense tonka still offer the cool-toned, calming cloud for the florals to rest upon. It can be overwhelming so don't overspray. My bottle's sprayer leaked at its base at first so I got completely drenched in it. This scent has a pure divine essence indeed. I loved Milkylicious so much that I bought 2 bottles when I lived in the States, oh well. This is better. Now I wanna try Her Confession.

I'm really enjoying Taskeen Lactea Divina both for its actual smell and for the journey it's taking me on in thinking about musks. First of all, I really enjoyed Marketa Rybinova's review, which definitely made me want to check it out. Truthfully, like so many of you here, I both LOVE perfumes but equally love great fragrance writing! Rybinova's rapturous response piqued my curiosity ("I'll have what she's having!") and reminded me of the amazing experiences particular fragrances create for us all because of the way they smell -- truly a marvelous and remarkable thing! So, because it was pretty inexpensive ($30), I decided to give it a try. What interested me especially was that Rybinova noted that LD has a special something that Blanche Bete lacks and, while I liked the sample of BB that I tried, I just didn't love it. So I wanted to see if I, too, noted something different in LD that BB was lacking. Secondly, I love milk (I'm lucky I'm not lactose-intolerant). Back 25 years or so ago, when I used to buy dried milk powder, I would occasionally eat a spoonful of the stuff without even adding water. :D The lactose, which is a kind of natural sugar, gives it a sweetness that I found very yummy without being too sweet. Somehow, LD's smell is reminiscent of dried milk powder. I think you really have to really enjoy milk to enjoy LD. The fragrance itself is interesting! It reminds me of the taste and smell of the aforementioned dried milk powder, of course. But it also reminds me somehow of the smell of my babies heads -- my babies are now 21 and 24 years old, so it's been a while since I actually smelled a baby's head! But from what I remember, babies' heads have an absolutely yummy, sweet, delicious, milky, musky smell. Aside from the sweet milky note, I also get the vanilla and cacao (or maybe it's more the white chocolate note of Raffaello's candies that Marketa Rybinova mentioned in her review). Thus far, I haven't noted any florals (jasmine and tuberose) or incense that some people have noted. But then "incense" to me is the very dark smell of Lush Sikkim Girls, Joop Femme, or Comme des Garcons Avignon or Kyoto so, thus far, no incense here. Taskeen Lactea Divina really makes me think about certain other musks that I enjoy. Even though they don't really smell the same at all, Lactea Divina shares what I'll call a "sweet baby's head musky note" with Issey Miyake A Drop d'Issey. That's another one that inspires rapturous reviews from some folks but definite "Icks" from others. But where LD has vanilla & cacao, AD d'Issey has lilac & almond milk. Both of these scents are, to my nose, lovely, sweet, and innocent musks. On the other end of the spectrum of musks I love are things like ELDO Putain des Palaces, an elegant, powdery, sexy, grown-ass female musk. Or the more unisex Kiehl's Original Musk or Paul Sebastian PS Fine Cologne. So, if you like milk, musks, or the smell of babies' heads, you may very well enjoy Taskeen Lactea Divina. :)))

Lactea Divina is hard to describe because its like trying to explain how oxytocin feels. This is one of the most beautiful perfumes I have ever smelled, and it is the scent that made me fall in love with milk perfumes. I'm about to describe it to you as an ethereal, dreamy baby's head. It opens with the softest breath of cocoa and incense, but gentle, not smoky, just warm. Then the florals: jasmin and tuberose, not loud or overly white, but weightless and tender, like (super delicate) petals drifting through cream. And then, the base of milk, vanilla, and tonka bean creates the ethereal comfort that smells like a baby’s head. But not just any baby, this one’s angelic. You smell it, and your brain clicks into love and safety. You’re bonded. You’re calm. You’re safe. You’re home. You're comforted (I would underline this a whole bunch of times if I could). I reach for this when I need softness. Before bed, after a long day. I also wear it when I want to be the angel for my friend. It's now my funeral perfume. It’s the scent equivalent of the world’s best hug - offered freely, without fixing anything, but making it all a little more bearable. It’s beautiful and kind so that you can be beautiful and kind. And of course, angels don’t just comfort. They enchant. (The name refers to a unicorn after all.) Notes: -the baby's head thing is maybe out of context if you've never smelt one, and might put people off, but I think it's one of the most powerful human experiences you can experience. I'm trying to evoke how your brain feels. -I prefer this perfume to the original. I like the original, but I love this (cue *pocketbook sighing with relief*). To my nose, this is a bit sweeter, less musky, subtler jasmine. -This perfume lasts a full 24 hours on me. It’s ethereal, angelic, intoxicating, and an absolute beast. A floating, glowing, otherworldly powerhouse. -I like layering this with eclair; it somehow it makes Lactea Divina bloom even more. Adding soft light to already perfect lighting. -I often wear this to bed, and since it lasts forever, I wake up in it, so I’ve also sprayed other perfumes over it (lazy wake-up and go mode), and it plays well with nearly everything. It’s versatile.

Aphrodite is taking a milk bath with flower petals and a warm vanilla candle is wafting through the milky steam 🌬 🛁🌸🕯 It's dreamy and ethereal. Creamy and sophisticated. The opening and heart were an olfactory journey - I wasnt sure what to expect. The floral notes open without being cloying, like they are blooming in a haze of soft, warm, milky vanilla clouds. The dry down is where this is at for me. Utter coziness. Clean girl - no - Clean Goddess with a warm, creamy aspect and soft pillowy florals. Serene. Captivating. Divine ✨️ Honestly this description from Taskeen captures it perfectly: Lactea Divina is more than a perfume; it’s an experience of serene beauty and timeless grace, crafted for those who cherish the gentle and the divine. I've never understood wearing scents to bed until smelling this, this is a perfect bedtime or cozy day in scent. It's gentle and comforting. I feel its a personal fragrance, a skin scent. Not so much for an audience. It's to feel good. To feel in your body. An act of Self care in a bottle 🥰 This is my first experience with the Blanche Bete DNA. And honestly I'm in love. I'm about 8 hours in and its still radiating from my skin in soft whispers 🌬 The only thing I don't like is the bottle - it doesnt reflect the ethereal perfume inside (Blanche Bête captures this well) so I may decant it into something else to enjoy it more 🤍

This is an incredible Blanche Bête twist once it’s had some time to mature. To those who love the original but don’t like the price tag, my suggestion is to buy this one a few months in advance and trust that it will get so much better. There’s an intensely sweet/baby milk thing going on initially which firmly plants this into cloying territory (for me). Thankfully these qualities dissipate over time and the result is very sweet and smooth. While lovely as a twist that captures that unique Blanche Bête DNA, this one amplifies the more dense and gourmand facets of the original, like vanilla, cream and tonka, and lacks that “elevated”, suspended-in-air quality that mystikal provides. There is no ambrette in this version so it’s a bit less nuanced but still beautifully complex in its own right, and the florals still peek through nicely but are not centre stage. Also, this stuff is nuclear, both in terms of projection and longevity. While it’s not quite as strong a performer as the original (which translates to “White Beast” and truly lives up to its name), I still easily get a full day of wear from it. It’s also incredibly soothing and nice for nighttime; my four-year-old daughter will occasionally fall asleep with her face pressed against my inner elbow where I’ve sprayed this.