Gorilla perfumes(Lush) Tuca Tuca scent.

I tried it weeks ago and actually bought the small 10ml size.
Have to say I did like it, having bought it. I got a soft pretty violet fragrance, infact not big sillage on me at all. The violet was not overly sweet as in some others, some violets are so sweet I can feel my teeth start to ache at the thought.

I never got to try the Never B range but did buy the older Cosmetics to Go fragrances. Tuca Tuca is very much in their style.

Was surprised to get compliments wearing the Tuca Tuca which I never get from SL,Creed,Guerlain, Malle or MPG.

I keep seeing Luca Turin in the title of this thread!!??

And I keep humming the Tuca Tuca song :/

It's certainly on my radar, I do so love violet, especially with naughty vetivert bottoms!

Smells like a really good Head shop....... Was covered in this by an over enthusiastic assistant in Lush and spent the rest of the day very conscious of it! Although I was not impressed I do not dislike it.

Alhough Fredric Malle is my favourate house; I would have to say that MUSC RAVAGEUR is a gorilla scent. It seems to put me in mind of a savage neanderthal with lots of hair on his chest.

He he to Eleanore's gorilla moment!

With no offense intended to Nuka or any of BN's good friends at Lush, their scents make more sense to me as soaps or bath bombs than proper perfumes (in fact, most aren't sold as proper perfumes here in the USA). I have a soft spot for Go Green and have a mini perfume solid of it, but it's pretty simplistic - the topnotes are great but it doesn't really go anywhere. And I have to to be a little bitchy and say that Karma is one of the most unpleasant and relentless odors I've ever smelled.

I was really hoping B Never would make it's way here so I could experience the Lush ethos (which I love) expressed in proper perfumery, but alas....

(Also, I totally would have bought something that Nuka designed, just because of the BN connection!)

Way back when Cosmetics To Go were still going they did some perfumes like Tuca Tuca, but others which I think must be like the Never B range. Ginger was a fabulous hit powerhouse in the vein of say Opuim or Posion. Elemental which I still own was not hippy earth mother but in the mode of Jil original by Jil Sander. Twenty Nine and a Half the name of the shop in Poole Dorest was a lovely rich floriental. Himalaya a soft clean musk.

Another one which I am sorry I cannot remember the name had notes of coco not sweet chocolate but the dark powder.

These came out at the end days of Cosmetics To Go before they went under in the recession in the 90s.

Lush should release these again, they have brought some soaps back into the Lush range.

LOL! Don't worry - many of Mark and Simon's perfumes cause a love-or-hate reaction! There was one compounder who'd nicknamed Breath of God to Breath of Dog. I, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of it from the moment it hit my skin. It's my favourite scent from the B Never line, after which it's a tie between B Scent, 1000 Kisses Deep and Dear John. I find Superworldunknown too sweet for my skin (I turn scents really sweet) and Vanillary goes super syrupy too.

From the new line-up, I was really surprised to find that I loved Lust - a really heavy hitting jasmine and ylang scent in the style of A La Nuit by Lutens. I don't like A La Nuit, but I was rather baffled to find Lust suits my skin perfectly. I do need to wait 2 hours for that to happen though, as the scent is in at 20% in alcohol (some companies sell their extraits at that concentration), so when you spray from a bottle it's a bit much at first!

Incidentally, I have never really worn Karma as a perfume, but I love the soap a lot. It leaves a great scent on your skin for hours afterwards. It seems completely unisex to me too, which probably explains why it's so popular worldwide.

When you said above that you're sad that you never got to experience "the Lush ethos expressed in proper perfumery", I had to show that sentence to a colleague because it exactly summarised what we're up to with the whole 'Gorilla Perfume' concept. That's it - exactly.

I think the Tuca Tuca might confuse people because it's a VERY 'Lush-style' scent in the Karma/Vanillary kind of sense; it started its life as a massage bar fragrance...

The rest of the new fragrances are much more 'perfume-y' in the best possible sense. They are much, much stronger than what you'd get at the department store and they have a certain hippie edge to the stories and inspirations, but actually I think in style they are somewhat related to Lutens, (old) Guerlain and Neil Morris.


Almost all of the B perfumes will also be coming back, so you'll be able to sniff those at some point too. I think this new work is better than what they did for B. I was completely speechless when I smelled the woody accord that went into The Smell of Freedom (yes, the names are still terrible - don't let that put you off! ). It's a blend of sandalwood, oudh and orris, among other things.

I'm also anxious to hear what Ody, our pine-obsessed perfumista will think of Dear John, as that's an unexpected mixture of coffee, lime and pine!

I never got to smell Himalaya

We're bringing Ginger, Icon and Flower Market back as part of GP.

That sounds like fun, as does the lime/coffee/pine one.

I'm out of the loop, being a halfway around the world - are these sold at the Lush stores? Or do they have wider distribution? Will they be leaving the UK or does that really depend on how the market reacts?

Hey rogalal, in another thread, Nukapai wrote...

Looks like the beginning of the website sales has since been pushed back a month or more...

We're launching the website after the gallery now, yes It would have been weird to buy the scents before the launch

There are 8 scents launched into Lush stores worldwide (starting with UK this August; the others will follow later). The whole range, including several B fragrances will be at gorillaperfume.com and will ship internationally.

Hi Pia, I was wondering: are there any of the new to be released scents you've been personally involved in making?
I saw a video of a new ballistic in a grapefruit scent (I think it is called dragon ball?) and that reminded me of your grapefruit x-mas scent you wrote about in your blog

Not yet... Maybe one day I'll be in that extremely fortunate position! I think it's really appropriate for Mark and Simon's work to be strongly highlighted through this new project. I'm learning so much from them!

There are a few Lush products in the shops now with some of my work in them; nothing huge - just little tweaks to existing formulas or new bases for Simon to work with, that kind of thing. That was tough enough as a newbie perfumer! It's pretty difficult to get the result you're aiming for.

I do have one fine fragrance that I've been working on for a few months now. Both Mark and Si liked it, but it's not ready yet. Mark called it a 'very Finnish fragrance - it radiates warmth all around it from a central point'. I thought that was interesting! Who knows, maybe one day, eh?

That's great news, Pia, your fragrance sounds very interesting Keep up the good work!

I love cocktail and adore most jasmine perfumes so I am getting a Lust bottle.

I'm intrigued!

The London Beauty Queen had mixed feelings about the event itself (because she got invited on the Lush forumite/insider night instead of the press night and was shocked by the lack of explanations and press kits; quite understandably!), but she has nice things to say about the scents themselves.

I remember Himalaya, it was a nice musk scent with something very indolic in it. l used to buy Ginger for my mother, because my dad loves ginger!! Woohoo, l love Flower Market! l first tried the soap years ago, (please bring that back!) & got a bottle of the scent from the Lush "Retro" range, it's my favourite rainy-day frag.
l found Tuca Tuca to be a very peppery violet scent, reminiscent of a head shop, in a good way, & very much in the style of Lush's ballistic scents. l liked it, but l loved Lust & Vanillary more, & bought them on the spot!
l'm intrigued to try The Smell of Weather Turning, WHY is it only available online??

It's interesting that you say "head shop," teardrop. I tried Tuca Tuca in a store and my first thought was: "This is the head shop version of Le Dix!"