I’m slowly but surely catching up with A Lab On Fire, a New York-based “niche” line that hasn’t always been easy to find, even in New York. Liquidnight, developed by perfumer Carlos Benaïm, was released in 2012. It was inspired by “the hidden depth of the night in New York City” and it includes notes of bergamot, lime, saffron, sage, lavender, hinoki wood, incense, vanilla and musk.
I wanted to try Liquidnight because I’m very fond of some other fragrances from this line…
Over the past year I’ve enjoyed reading reviews of fragrances from Imaginary Authors (see Angela’s thoughts on Cape Heartache and Kevin’s on Bull’s Blood) and visiting the company website, but I didn’t have the chance to experience the fragrances myself until I saw the line at Twisted Lily in Brooklyn. A kind friend recently sent me a few samples, so now I’m ready to write a review of my own, focusing on two fragrances from the line: Falling into the Sea and Violet Disguise.
Falling into the Sea is inspired by the work of (imaginary) author Nica Galas, and includes notes of lemon, bergamot, grapefruit, lychee, tropical flowers and “warm sand” in a story of tragic summer love. I’m a person who typically avoids hot-and-sunny beaches, yet I have a long list of favorite beachy fragrances…
Nothing sells a perfume (at every price point, for nearly any demographic) like the promise of romance, right? The prestige brand Krigler, which emphasizes its five generations of luxury perfumery, recently released Lieber Moment 214, a “moment of love” designed to complement Lieber Gustav 14, “an early Krigler fragrance inspired by a love letter from WWI.”
I tried Lieber Gustav 14 a long time ago, and I liked it. It reminded me of Caron Pour Un Homme, since it’s a masculine lavender-vanilla-musk blend that can also worn by a woman with certain tastes. Lieber Moment 214 is described as “smoother and more powdery” than Lieber Gustav 14, and its composition includes notes of grapefruit, aldehydes, lavender, violet, rose, ylang ylang, white musk, vanilla and patchouli.
Although Lieber Moment, like Lieber Gustav, is “created to suit both men and women,” I find it intensely feminine and I can’t imagine it finding a male audience…
Independent perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz recently launched two new floral fragrances, Peony and White Lilac. I have to confess that I don’t always stay abreast of this line’s new releases and projects, only because Hurwitz is quite prolific and the line is still primarily online-only, so I was happy when these two samples came my way. In case you were wondering: no, I will never tire of feminine floral perfumes!
Peony is an evocation of an entire day in the life of this springtime flower, from a dewy bud at dawn to a duskier blossom at nightfall…
French niche line Jul et Mad recently released its fourth fragrance, a “green chypre/citrus amber” scent called Aqua Sextius. It was developed for Jul et Mad by perfumer Cécile Zarokian, and it includes top notes of bergamot, lime, lemon, orange, grapefruit and green notes; heart notes of eucalyptus, mint, marine notes, mimosa, white flowers and fig; and base notes of labdanum, ambergris, cedarwood, guaiac wood, oakmoss and musk.
“Aquae Sextiae” was the ancient name of the French city Aix-en-Provence, founded by the Roman consul Sextius and famed for its thermal springs. Jul et Mad’s Aqua Sextius is designed to evoke a summer evening in this “City of a Thousand Fountains,” complete with cool breezes, sun-warmed stone and garden greenery as well as distant forests and the Provençal countryside. The official description reads in part, “Only the crisp sound of ice cubes in the glasses and the burst of joyous laughter mark the soft melody of the running water that slowly fills the sculpted basin, coupled with the murmuring of the [plane tree leaves] all around us…”