New Fragrance: Decennial (Special Edition Quartet for Luckyscent's 10th Anniversary)

Wow! Cool bottles, cool concept, look forward to smelling them

Interesting assortment, thanks for the heads up.

Interesting to see that one of the four, Lys de Desert, was composed by Andy Tauer.

Bois Bourbon looks quite interesting in particular.

I tried Lys de Desert at Scent Bar last Friday and got to talk to Andy about it. I found it quite rich and classic smelling actually -- iris and amber.

Just ordered my sample set - can't wait to sniff!

Bourbon and Desert sound great.

They all sound good to me. May have to try the sampler.

I am wearing the Bois Bourbon from a sample I received with my last LS order and I am quite impressed. It is slightly boozy, with a very nice light spice and woods combo. Joining the spiced woods is just a faint whiff of rose well in the background that blends with the cinnamon and saffron spice to add a bit of support to the boozy woods. Good stuff that is very classy and subtle, and most likely a buy for me. As an aside, I love all the bottles too.

Anyone tried these? I'm about to place an order and use the Basenotes discount code to get them for free. What should I expect? Some of them look pretty interesting. Nuit Epiceeand and Bois Bourbon sound great.

First post here: Excited about receiving the sampler order I just put in (along with a few other samples) and delve deeper into the realm of fragrances.

Sounds great! Has anyone sampled the rest of the fragrances?

Nuit Epice smells exactly like Black Afgano. For me the best one is Santal Sacre.

I've tried Lys du Desert and Bois Bourbon so far. Both are definitely winners. drseid's description of Bois Bourbon corresponds to my experience. I'd only add that I pick up something quite almondy. Lys du Desert is a very dry, sharp woody scent with an amber base. There's a family resemblance to LDDM, but Lys du Desert is less dense and heavy.

Samples arrived yesterday.

Lys du Desert is not for me. Too sweet/floral for the first couple hours, yet it does settle down nicely. The beginning reminded me of Bogart's Arabian Nights.

Bois Bourbon is impressive; I've had it on for a couple hours, we'll see how it develops. Spicy booze and a great dark dark rose. This one seems to lighten up a little in the drydown. Nice.

Santal Sacre is a clean, high-pitched sandalwood. Maybe it was the spice/citrus element in the first hour, or so, that put this off for me. This one settles down nicely as well.

Nuit Epicee is def gourmand and I'm really not into gourmand. Non-offensive choco/nutty into a woody/amber. Not bad, just not for me. ^I think the Black Afgano ref is apt as it has that vibe... however, BA has a deep(er) incense backbone to it that make these two different enough.

Interesting lot, definitely. Bois Bourbon passes my skin test and deserves a full/thorough wearing.

I've tried them all now. My rank ordering would be 1)Lys du Desert 2)Bois Bourbon 3) Santal Sacre 4) Nuit Epicee.

Santal Sacre is very high pitched and sharp; it reminds me a little bit of Le Labo Santal 33 in that regard. I honestly don't enjoy it very much.

Nuit Epicee is sickly sweet. Especially at the top, I almost find it unwearable. I'm pretty sure the note that's rubbing me the wrong way in this one is the advertised praline note. I agree completely with DuNezDeBuzier about the comparison to Black Afgano.

This is what I think of these:


BOIS BOURBON - by Jerome Epinette. Sweet spices, booze, leather, cinnamon, woods, oakmoss. This is an alpha male scent with spice, booze, woods, leather but then, not so fast, it reveals a gourmand side with cinnamon and heliotrope almond like warmth. A more boozy and less incensed fragrance than Olivier Durbano's Heliotrope. Smells great! It is not an uncommon scent idea among men's fragrances, but is well done nonetheless. rating: 3.5/5
LYS DU DESERT - by Andy Tauer. A dry powdery peppery floral that veers into incense ground because of the wood base. There is a soft floral note that is a blend of green lilly and rose which is a very soft, dry powdery floral almost smokey floral. Think Midnight in Paris smokey and floral. Powdery desert flowers layered with iris root (orris?) gives it a chalky powdery dryness reminscent of empty desert landscape. This followed by a sweet incense base of ambergris, cistrose (cistuis, rockrose or labdanum) and cedar. So an ambery, salty wood base. An odd fragrance that feels sweet but very dry, desolate. rating: 3/5.
NUIT EPICEE - Jerome Epinette. Gourmand with almond, praline, cumin, rhubarb and cistus, but also is dark and masculine with violet, woods, and black amber (amber + frankincense). The result is a very masculine, dark scent that is also a "good enough to eat" fragrance. This reminds me of Arquiste Anima Dulcis in concept. My favorite scent of the group but I am not drawn to gourmand fragrances for myself. rating: 4/5.
SANTAL SACRE - by Jerome Epintte. This smells, like the name - a sacred version of sandalwood. All aspects of the expected sandalwood scent odor are complimented with notes that enhance this sandalwood esperience. Sandalwood opening is given teeth with ginger and the added resonance of a couple kinds of incense followed by Australian Sandalwood - this is the sandalwood accord. The light woods with an elevating refinement for the base comes from papyrus wood and white musk - a very elevating sandalwood. Simple but pleasant. Edit: After wearing Santal a number of times I realize I don't like sandalwood by itself that much. Rating: 3/5

thanks Buzzlepuff! I just placed an order with Luckyscent for a Heeley bottle, and am looking forward to my free samples of the Decennial frags. They actually all sound wonderful to me from your descriptions.

The reviews sound quite interesting so far. Ordered my samples last night, can't wait to try them out!

nuit epicee is my scent of the night. On first impression I get a waxy iris with sandawood. Indeed I would say this is a sandalwood frag. I could be wrong, as it says "oud-like wood sweetened with almond and praline." I suppose it could be a different wood with the praline sweetness making me thing sandalwood, but I don't think so. Pretty linear; the only thing to change has been the iris, wich softened a bit but never became powdery. There might be cedar, but is not astringent or strong. The praline and almond are either faint or well balanced, and so I would not call this gourmand, which I typically do not enjoy.
Bottom-line: a sandalwood frag with a little wax iris.

Got a few of these unsolicited samples with a recent purchase made. Wasn't too impressed.

Bois Bourbon is the scent of the day.
I am liking it. A dry wood with wet whiskey. I think there is also some apple and mulling spices.
It is like the barrel of hard apple cider (the real home made kind.)
I am really liking this one. Or maybe it is just the recovering drunk in me being nostalgic...

I received my samples today and I kinda enjoyed them. My favorite of the four was Bois Bourbon. I enjoyed Nuit Epicee also. It smelled like a lighter version of Black Afgano. The other two were blah.

I recently got a sample set. First wearing was of Santal Sacre. When I sprayed a bit on it seemed a bit weak, so I used the whole sample...and I had a half dozen people note that my office reeked of sandalwood/incense. One person even made note of it outside my office door: "are you burning nag champa in there or something?" Kind of funny actually since I could only smell it on myself when I put my nose in my shirt. Clearly SS has powerful projection.

I put the other three on test strips tonight, and each seems pretty interesting to me. I definitely get the Nuit Epices : Black Afgano comparison. Nuit seems a little brighter, less dense, but with some clear similarities to BA. Seems pretty powerful too.

Here is a more complete mini review of Bois Bourbon now that I have had a complete wearing on skin today...

Bois Bourbon opens with a fabulous combination of dark cinnamon spice and deep cedarwood that comes off as very much like the smell one would expect from a boozy Bourbon-laced cedarwood cask. The boozy, almost gourmand spiced cedar is enhanced by just the faintest hint of Gothic rose in the heart, combining with an almost bitter-sweet saffron spice to deepen and enhance the dark woody nature of the scent further. During the dry-down, the booze-laced cedarwood softens and begins to recede as a powdery, almost almond-like heliotrope joins the fold and takes the fore late. Projection and longevity are both excellent.


Bois Bourbon is quite the amazing scent early-on. While tobacco is not a listed note (and indeed it probably contains none), the early and middle stages of the scent's development very much remind me of the smell one gets when entering a fine tobacconist. The dark cinnamon spice giving off a tobacco and bourbon vibe, and the cedarwood resembling the scent of cigar boxes within. I could definitely see one enjoying wearing Bois Bourbon while smoking either an old traditional pipe or a fine cigar, as the two scents complement each other so well. Unfortunately, the fun comes to an abrupt end as the slightly powdery heliotrope softens the scent and dispels the illusion during the dry-down as the party of excesses comes to a close. That said, it is a great journey getting there and what a great time was had at the party while it lasted. Bois Bourbon earns a very good to excellent rating of 3.5 to 4 stars out of 5.

Here are a couple more mini reviews:

Lys du Desert

I usually start my reviews with an assessment of the individual notes I detect that drive the scent's development on skin... I can't do that here as Lys du Desert is so well-blended I can't really detect individual notes. So what does it smell like? That too is a difficult question to answer as it is pretty unique.

The best way I can describe it is a powdery cross between natural orange soda and a real root beer float. If that does not sound very appealing, well, in truth it isn't. It *is* quite different though, and having worn Lys du Desert to work I find it is not as difficult to wear as I expected. I can safely say it is not my kind of scent at all (as none of the Tauer compositions are to date), but if my descriptor meshes with your own tastes better, Lys du Desert is a very well-made scent that may be worth a sniff. It has above average projection and excellent longevity.

The bottom line is I can only give Lys du Desert a generous "good" rating of 3 out of 5 stars, since I just don't care to smell like a walking orange-spiked powdery root beer float... Whatever floats *your* boat, however, will determine if this one is a good fit for your own tastes...

Santal Sacre

Santal Sacre opens with just a dash of ginger before moving full-on with its smooth radiant non-smoky incense that resembles the kind found in a church (and in wonderful scents like Incense Oud). The incense calms down just a hair, allowing a very nice relatively dry sandalwood note to emerge and play a supporting role early-on before growing ever so slowly as the scent continues its rather linear development. During the very long dry-down the incense still hangs around but it swaps places with the sandalwood as the star, sweetening the scent just a hair while also melding with a relatively clean light musk from the base that just leaves enough of a "dirty" trace to keep things just a hair off-balance (in a good way). Projection is excellent and longevity exceptional.

Santal Sacre is a fine release indeed. It is quite minimalist and linear, but very well-crafted and extremely fine smelling. It appears the sandalwood and frankincense used here were just made to go together and are blended in just the right proportion by Epinette, while the introduction late of the white musk keeps things interesting throughout. Is this release super-innovative? In a word, "no"; but while Santal Sacre may not win any innovation awards it excels at the most fundamental test of all, smelling good. The scent's performance is also notable as Santal Sacre projects very well for most of its life cycle, and what superb longevity! The bottom line is the excellent smelling and performing 4 to 4.5 star out of 5 Santal Sacre should be on anyone's short list that enjoys sandalwood and/or incense scents.

Have samples on the way. Will let everyone know what I think when I receive and sample them.

Santal Sacre sounds fantastic.

Picked up a vial of Santal Sancre and Bois Bourbon last Tuesday when I was at the Scent Bar. Still haven't tried them out yet though. I'll probably through one into an atomizer today and test them out.

They both smelled pretty good when I sprayed them on paper last week.

Bois Bourbon
Semi-sweet booze and spices with woods, as others have described. It has a nice radiant smell, but I find it not overly appealing up close. Pretty good overall but I prefer other fragrances with this note profile. It's strong at first with limited longetivity.

Nuit Epicee
I smell exactly cream cheese frosted cupcakes in the opening. There are some elements holding it back and darkening it, though not exactly sure what (cumin possibly from the note list?). I also get some some sort of chalky powdery smell. The cream cheese frosting mellows out quickly and chalky powder intensifies, leaving a bizarre scent. It is definitely gourmand but with a weird aspect which I dislike.

Lys du Desert
It smells like Tauer's Orange Star, with a hint of LDDM added. This is too close to Orange Star for me, though it is slightly better. Very unique, and I could see how that appeals to some, but I just find it too strange.

Santal Sacre
My favourite of the four. It is a modern minimalist incense sandalwood, clear and direct. A little too minimal for my taste though, but something I would recommend to people who enjoy this category.

Bois Bourbon is my favorite of the set. It's rich, round, comforting, and mild, without being boring.

Finally here is my mini-review of the last of the quartet (and it turns out my least favorite)...

Nuit Epicee

Nuit Epicee opens with a quick rhubarb note that near immediately transitions to a dark spicy cumin heart. The cumin here thankfully is well-implemented and does not come off on skin as "BO" like so many do. Permeating the spicy heart is a unbelievably strong synthetic woody accord that is near certainly the handiwork of norlimbanol. The faux woods absolutely begin to dominate the spice and any other underlying notes there may be. Finally about 5 hours into the development, the synthetics begin to dissipate, allowing a very nice violet and only slightly sweet amber driven dry-down to take the fore, with the faux woods now much more manageable in their new supporting role. Projection is well below average, but longevity is excellent.

There really is a decent scent to be had here if you can make it past the first few hours of norlimbanol torture. That said, if I were not specifically trying the scent out for a review I would never have hung around long enough to get to the great violet driven dry-down as the synthetics are just way too much here and I can't stand norlimbanol unless used very sparingly. Spice was what I was expecting to be the star, and it really never does take on that role. Having now made it to the dry-down I have to increase my rating of the scent to a below average to average 2 to 2.5 stars out of 5, but the early heart is a definite 1 out of 5 for sure. Be careful with this one if you do not enjoy synthetic woods.

Received samples today. All four are decent frags.

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Kind of reminds me of New Harlem.

Good comparison. I wore Nuit Epicee today and when I got in the elevator, the woman standing next to me said I smelled wonderful!

Bois Bourbon is very good. Can't add too much more to Drseid's review. Dry and spicy, with a slight boozy feel. If luckyscent would work out a more affordable international shipping option I would gladly buy a bottle.