I finally finished testing the LesNez samples and wanted to share my views on the three samples The Unicorn Spell, Let me Play the Lion and The Anti Matter:
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The Unicorn Spell was designed around the concept of frostiness, violet, moonlight and transparency." To me it smells anything but transparent or frosty. Vegetal and very green, it should have been named The Unicorn Breath instead.
Violet flower forms the main heart of the fragrance. Its all about raw vegetal violets. The opening smells like salty cold cucumbers lying on a dinner plate in a hot and humid room. I dont know how this is supposed to convey frostiness and transparency. I doubt you will smell anything like this at the Himalayas or the North Pole. A floral (berry?) heart provides much needed sapidity to the droning violet accord, and the drydown introduces a pleasant but muted tea note. Longevity is 5-6 hours.
The Unicorn Spell fails to live up to its original flowery (no pun intended) description. Judged solely on its composition, I dont find it to be a particularly appealing violet fragrance either. If you are looking for a fragrance which highlights the vegetal dirtiness of violet, this might be worth investigating. I would recommend you try the classic Green Irish Tweed first, a fragrance which not only showcases the vegetal side of violet extremely well, but flanks it with notes of lemon verbana and sandalwood to form a very compelling potion. If you are on a budget, look no further than the excellent Grey Flannel - a superbly blended fragrance which is a must for violet lovers.
2.5/5.0
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Let me Play The Lion (LPTL - theres no way I am going to type that entire name again in this review) smells a lot like L'Artisan Fou D'Absinthe (FDA). I am guessing that the middle and basenotes are similar, with cedar replacing the absinthe heavy top of Fou D'Absinthe in LPTL.
Cedar is the first observable note, and is immediately followed by a not-so-roaring spicy sweet accord of spices and anise. Pine/Fir provide a tranquil frosty base to the spicy composition. Its not too hot, and its not too cold. It smells like a Moroccan spice market in winter (add some flacon loads of candied honey and sugar, and it would qualify as a Serge Lutens fragrance)
I think I prefer LPTL to FDA - while equally watery, it lacks the blackcurrant note which nearly ruined FDA for me. Its not intriguing enough for me to wear on a regular basis, and the name is too wordy and stupid for me to say it out loud in case I am complimented on it - for that reason alone, I might opt for FDA most of the times. Let This Be a Lesson for LesNez to Choose Less Doltish Names for its Fragrances (LTBLLCLDNF).
3.0/5.0
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"Thou shall not cheat the customer with a misleading headnote", say LesNez. How about "Thou shall not cheat the customer selling a perfume concoction which skimps on notes and passing it off as an example of sophisticated niche minimalism", eh LesNez ?
The LesNez perfumer has been working on L'Anitimatiere (The Anti-matter) for 10 years....TEN years !! And this is the end result ? A faint alcohol opening, followed by a mineral water smell (i.e., nothing), before settling 20 minutes later into a trifling musk base which is barely perceptible 2 hours later.
I like the concept of anti-matter: from Wikipedia "Antimatter is not found naturally on Earth, except very briefly and in vanishingly small quantities (as the result of radioactive decay or cosmic rays). This is because antimatter which comes to exist on Earth outside the confines of a suitably equipped physics laboratory would inevitably come into contact with the ordinary matter that Earth is made of, and be annihilated." However, uninteresting minimalism demonstrations like L'Antimatiere deployed using basic notes like alcohol and musk are *not* interesting. Skip this alcohol + water + musk travesty and try Gendarme: minimalism done with panache, quality, and longevity. Heres a physics lesson for LesNez - after this one bombs, their lofty hot air ambitions will come down to earth.
1.0/5.0
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The Unicorn Spell was designed around the concept of frostiness, violet, moonlight and transparency." To me it smells anything but transparent or frosty. Vegetal and very green, it should have been named The Unicorn Breath instead.
Violet flower forms the main heart of the fragrance. Its all about raw vegetal violets. The opening smells like salty cold cucumbers lying on a dinner plate in a hot and humid room. I dont know how this is supposed to convey frostiness and transparency. I doubt you will smell anything like this at the Himalayas or the North Pole. A floral (berry?) heart provides much needed sapidity to the droning violet accord, and the drydown introduces a pleasant but muted tea note. Longevity is 5-6 hours.
The Unicorn Spell fails to live up to its original flowery (no pun intended) description. Judged solely on its composition, I dont find it to be a particularly appealing violet fragrance either. If you are looking for a fragrance which highlights the vegetal dirtiness of violet, this might be worth investigating. I would recommend you try the classic Green Irish Tweed first, a fragrance which not only showcases the vegetal side of violet extremely well, but flanks it with notes of lemon verbana and sandalwood to form a very compelling potion. If you are on a budget, look no further than the excellent Grey Flannel - a superbly blended fragrance which is a must for violet lovers.
2.5/5.0
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Let me Play The Lion (LPTL - theres no way I am going to type that entire name again in this review) smells a lot like L'Artisan Fou D'Absinthe (FDA). I am guessing that the middle and basenotes are similar, with cedar replacing the absinthe heavy top of Fou D'Absinthe in LPTL.
Cedar is the first observable note, and is immediately followed by a not-so-roaring spicy sweet accord of spices and anise. Pine/Fir provide a tranquil frosty base to the spicy composition. Its not too hot, and its not too cold. It smells like a Moroccan spice market in winter (add some flacon loads of candied honey and sugar, and it would qualify as a Serge Lutens fragrance)
I think I prefer LPTL to FDA - while equally watery, it lacks the blackcurrant note which nearly ruined FDA for me. Its not intriguing enough for me to wear on a regular basis, and the name is too wordy and stupid for me to say it out loud in case I am complimented on it - for that reason alone, I might opt for FDA most of the times. Let This Be a Lesson for LesNez to Choose Less Doltish Names for its Fragrances (LTBLLCLDNF).
3.0/5.0
------------------
"Thou shall not cheat the customer with a misleading headnote", say LesNez. How about "Thou shall not cheat the customer selling a perfume concoction which skimps on notes and passing it off as an example of sophisticated niche minimalism", eh LesNez ?
The LesNez perfumer has been working on L'Anitimatiere (The Anti-matter) for 10 years....TEN years !! And this is the end result ? A faint alcohol opening, followed by a mineral water smell (i.e., nothing), before settling 20 minutes later into a trifling musk base which is barely perceptible 2 hours later.
I like the concept of anti-matter: from Wikipedia "Antimatter is not found naturally on Earth, except very briefly and in vanishingly small quantities (as the result of radioactive decay or cosmic rays). This is because antimatter which comes to exist on Earth outside the confines of a suitably equipped physics laboratory would inevitably come into contact with the ordinary matter that Earth is made of, and be annihilated." However, uninteresting minimalism demonstrations like L'Antimatiere deployed using basic notes like alcohol and musk are *not* interesting. Skip this alcohol + water + musk travesty and try Gendarme: minimalism done with panache, quality, and longevity. Heres a physics lesson for LesNez - after this one bombs, their lofty hot air ambitions will come down to earth.
1.0/5.0
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