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| Here's what other people are saying about Passage d'Enfer... |
| Post a review >> |
| This is one of the most beautiful scents I've encountered; and, next to Timbuktu, my favorite L'Artisan. I would give it ten stars but for the lasting power. I literally have to pour it on, and an hour later - it's completely gone. Not even a whisper. I'm so sad about this!! |
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Kashmir -artist from Washington, DC
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| Before I read the ingredients or anything about this particular perfume, Here are my thoughts: walking into an antique store and sitting in an old heavy wooden high back chair.
I should have know there were lilies in there! I love lilies whether fruity, spicy, heady or incense inspired, as in this one. It's likable, but it took the whole 1 ml sample to perfume me up. Maybe I'll stick to Lily and Spice by pennholigans. |
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| Jane -living healty from Eastern WA
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| Liz -gardenand layer hens from
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| This is my favorite L'artisan so far and perfect to wear on a crisp autumn or winter day. Definitely a fragrance for a night on the town but probably not so much for work or everyday. The white lily contrasts nicely with the incense and smoke. Defintely evokes memories of an old church. This one is both dark yet feminine at the same time. |
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| Anonymous - from
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| Incense for those who are afraid of incense. It's incense, but somehow soapy and clean smelling at the same time. Soft yet still compelling. Extremely inoffensive and something I might wear every day. |
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| Anonymous -Real Estate from Charlotte, NC
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| Ordinaire malheureusement dans la mesure où saturent ensemble olfactivement le lys, le musc et l'aloes. le "frankincense" ne dure qu'à peine 10 minutes, timide et evanescent. Dommage vraiment ! Parfum Ordinaire aussi parce que l'aloes prend le dessus sur l'ensemble ce qui donne au parfum l'impression d'une odeur de fond type creme hydratante banale en vente libre en pharmacie. très léger comme odeur, pas suave tel qu'espéré. |
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| Mme K. - from Montréal
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| Such a perfect fragrance...lilies, incense, cool stone, say in the church where you are walking slowly and soundlessly listening to the organist practice...Faure, then Messaien, from the Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant Jesus; Christmas Eve is coming and the air is cold and threaded with lilies, incense, your desire for this man and the beauty of his hands on the keyboards and stops...This is a fragrance with a breath of great memory. |
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| Anonymous -Paralegal from Cincinnati
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| This is a lovely summer scent. Despite the incense, it has a cold feeling that would probably make it difficult to wear in winter. When I put it on, I can only smell the lily for about an hour, then the incense comes out and lasts 8-10 hours on my skin. It's so calming and relaxing, I can't stop smelling my wrist; I wish I could say it is sexy too, but I don't find it so. This is a perfect everyday scent for me in the hot greek summer. I was close to choose Jaisalmer over this, but in the end this was too unique to pass by. |
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| Fani - from Greece
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| well! my sister bought it for me.
i am SO glad i tried this twice.
so clean and fresh and lovely all
day into night. perfect for spring summer!
perfume is amazing. at first it was not
me but now... i love this. |
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| louise -agent from st pete
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| i do believe with our changes in
body chemisty you have to always
give perfume a second chance.
first time i walked away.
this time i love it. clean incense.
i can enjoy it all day. so always give
perfume a second try! |
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| LOUISE -agent from St. Pete
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| This smells like dill pickles floating in Mr. Bubble on me. |
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| Horrified - from
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| I love l'Artisan ... their scents are so well-balanced and lovely. However, though I WANT to like Passage, I just don't. It is almost pure aloe on my skin ... much too acrid and cold. Perhaps I will try this again on a very hot day, though an "incense" scent seems like a really weird hot-weather scent to me? |
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| Anonymous -teacher from Syracuse, NY
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| r8pnz22x22j2v0ex
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| Clifton Allison -Tiffany Grant from Napoleon Hopper
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| This was my favourite for quite a while, as the first proper incense-scent i ever encountered. However, Passage d'Enfer leads straight to Avignon (excuse the pun) - now I laid it off in favour of Avignon which I'm besotted with.
I find it (Passage) way too soapy-light, 'clean and fresh' for my liking. For those who feel a bit let down about it, I'd recommend d'Humeur Massacrante (from the 'Moodswings'(?)-series): it deliveres quite a kick, nut much unlike CdG's Jaisalmier (minus the woodsyness).
(BTW the name Passage d'Enfer is simply the name of a small street in the 14. arrondissement where l'Artisan's lab is (or was) located...) |
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| Anonymous - from hibernia
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| Light and airy, yet sultry and mystical at the same time. For those who have said soapy, I can relate to the clean smell and it is a wonderful clean smell. It’s a nice light floral out of the bottle that dries down to something much more mysterious. Close aura of fragrance. Husband snuggled in close to keep smelling this. |
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| Paula -Finance Manager from Greenville, SC
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| Tried the sample once, wasn't impressed, tried it again today, am in love, can't quit sniffing my arm.....the incense-y smoke is smouldering in the Texas heat. Had 3 strangers tell me, you smell good.... the drydown on me is a little woody, sultry, not flowery, and it lasts. Not gothic, but definitely darker and sexy. |
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| efaker -Educator from Texas
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| Stinky, stinky then soapy.
I too anticipated great things
from L'artisan but, I am in
agreement with all who say that this fragrance line is impotent and ordinary.
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| Anonymous -healthcare professional from goleta
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| What more positive things could I say about this wildly popular little gem? First off, I never knew I was a fan or could even pull off an incense until passage. I'm a fresh floral kind of gal, and this has all the qualities to make it almost perfect for me. The lily is there giving it an airy feeling, and the aloe well that gives it a raw earthy quality that satisifies my fresh craving. I've sampled almost all of this line, and yes most are fleeting w/ this as an exception. FB worthy if I had only one to choose from this line. |
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| Anonymous - from san diego
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| This is what I wanted Costas to be, but wasn't...dark, inviting, sophisticated. It makes me feel dangerous and beautiful, and like I want to gnaw on my own wrist, but in a good way. Subtle, intoxicating, and lovely. |
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| aventurista -law student from playa del rey CA
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| It smells like the spicy older sister who hangs out at hookah lounges of Nuits de Noho by Bond No. 9. I can't decide if it smells like this older sister just left from spending hours at the library with her head stuck in really old classic books, or if she just got out of bed with a dark, mysterious, sexy man and left his place with her tight black dress and heels, looking perfect other than tousled hair. If you can't decide if you like this then try Nuits de Noho which is brighter and cleaner. If I had not already discovered that then I would enjoy this sultery fragrance. |
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| blondfriend - from Laguna Beach
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| Sadly, same problem that I have with all the scents from this Artisan line - they only last on me for 30 min. And yes, I have gone up to someone else who hadn't been around me an hour later, and no, they couldn't smell it either. My body just swallows them up. Lovely scent, though. Wish it would stick around on me.... |
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| xtine -film editor from NYC
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| what is wrong with all of you who smell death in this? I find Passage to be one of the most perfect perfumes. The strongest impression I get is the Frankincense. At the end of a long day, it smells perfectly clean and fresh. I love it. |
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| Anonymous -psychotherapist from chicago
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| Okay, I have to post an update to my previous review. In an effort to give this one a second chance, I wore it once more to work. I was surprised when a couple of female co-workers declared that they absolutely loved it. I had not been fond of it at all. I started to wear it and I have to admit that it grew on me. It is now one of my favorites. In summary, I'll just say that the fragrance definitely grows on you. |
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| Angela -Attorney from New Haven, CT
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| Don't like it, maybe too flowery for me. Kind of smell like a men's flower scent. |
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| Anonymous - from
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| amazing how perfume can bring you back
in time. i had initially smelled this
at my fave beach resort SEASIDE
florida. so the clean scent of the
beach... woods nearby...
it all came back to me.
this is very pure. uncomplicated
and unique. |
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| louise -agent from st pete
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| this smelled awful , from the description i tought i would love it , but it smells sort of dirty. Like walking into a shady hostel in amsterdam |
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| sakurako -student from new york
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| I have to agree with the previous review. Not that dark and sexy, but i do appreciate it for what it is; a well done white floral scent. |
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| jeff -Chef from NYC
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| Unfortunately, I couldn't really share in the joy of my fellow luckyscent patrons. Yes, this is a fairly enjoyable perfume, but i didn't find it had any sort of Edwardian charm. No secret gardens or misty mountains or mysterious meetings. I did however enjoy the very 'white' quality of the white musk and white lily. The top note is sorta weird like a urinal cake. The dry down is much better but too fleeting, at least on me anyway. |
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| Michelle - from Toronto
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| Heavens to Betsey, Poet from London! What a review.
Given all of the varying reviews, I am truly looking forward to my large bottle, sight-unsniffed to pair, as recommended by many a wearer of Passage d'Enfer, my large bottle of L'Artisan's Vanillia.
I'll let you know the outcome!
Jeannemarie |
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| Jeannemarie -Gardener / Wife / Mother / Perfume Whore from Chicago
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| Lovely. A very clean white floral with just the faintest whisper of incense behind it. The lily note is the strongest by far, and I actually find this fragrance quite similar to Banana Republic W -- though Passage d'Enfer is somewhat more complex. |
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| Anonymous - from Atlanta
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| Forget making out in church, this is sex in a cemetary. Sexy....in scary way. |
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| Anonymous - from chicago
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| My favorite scent (of the moment)! Passage d'Enfer is a haunting study in contrasts. It is dark yet light, austere yet inviting, somber yet still uplifting... and even a little sexy. Another review I read of PdE likened it to 'making out with an altar boy in the back pew.' It's that tension between somber and sensual that makes this scent so entrancing. |
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| Molly - from Arlington, VA
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| Its amazing. One of the most unique fragrances I have ever smelled. |
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| George - from NYC
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| Yuck! This is not at all my type of scent. I received a large sample of it, and it reminds me of a cemetery. Freshly dug up earth and lilies, a combination not even my dark side would entertain. |
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| Anonymous - from san diego
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| Absolutely incredible, just got a bottle in the mail. I've been looking for this all my life. I collect rare perfume, but have never smelt anything as beautiful and mesmerising as this ! |
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| Pinkmagenta -Singer from UK
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| I bought this one because of all the rave reviews. I love woodsy, incense fragrances. However, on me, this one smells more like a trip to the morgue. I smell a bloody body, a few sweaty cops, and feet. There is nothing sexy, seductive, or hypnotic about this one on me. It gave me a really bad headache. I just took some sinus medication. I recommend buying the sample first to see how it smells on you personally. Maybe it would smell better on a guy. I don't know. The good thing about it is that it does disappear in less than an hour. |
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| Angela -Attorney from New Haven, CT
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| Strangely enough, the moment I tried "passage d'enfer" , it took me back to Bulgakov's "vol de nuit" and "the yellow flowers on Tverskaya" just to find the review from London worth Luca Turin. I wonder if Olivia Giacobetti read "Master and Margarita"(just being funny). Expectation of wonder scent (well, not those expected in the churches). So far, my favorite fragrance for now. |
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| Margarita -MD from NY
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| dear POET from london -- oh, i wish i knew how to get in touch with you. reading these marvelous lines -- all i can say is: i want you (and i am not kidding.)
mynona
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| Anonymous - from Los Angeles
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| The poor man's version of Armani'sprivé collection, "bois d’encens" that is a more intense version with better sillage but it costs. Worth it of you love the incense-like gothic church smell. L'artisan's version is a close second and I own both!
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| Liz - from
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| "After all" sighed Narcissus the hunchback "on me it looks good". I Created by Olivia Giacobetti in 1999. The original offices of LArtisan Parfumeur are on a street called Passage dEnfer in Paris. So its a kind of double entendre. It has been called their signature scent mainly because of this fact.
It is what one would smell like if one had a depressing journey through hell. Black pepper-grey and of the strangely peaceful melancholy madness of poets and artists. It is a gloomy scent for a rainy day when one is stressed It brings on a fantastically tempting perverse sense of place Much like having sex fantasies in church
How sad the Earth is at eventide! How mysterious are the mists
over the swamps, who has suffered a great deal before death, or
flown above the Earth, bearing a burden beyond his strength
knows this. Someone who is exhausted knows this.
And without regret he forsakes the mists of the Earth, its swamps
and rivers, and sinks into the arms of death with a light heart,
knowing that death alone II
Transparently shape-shifting and morally complex due to a kaleidoscopic quality of lily fading to a dark smoky musk with soft light cedar notes of aloe-wood (landing on top of one another instead of progressing sequentially), reversing upon itself after a few hours, making it mysterious yet eminently wearable.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-cappd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. III
It is the quintessential literary scent of the dying, church-going and cemetery-visiting class whose patrons stick out yet like a bad smell at weddings and funerals because they know the words to all the hymns. Smelling of dry mildew in old books. Old libraries and antiquarian bookshops full of medieval MSs and renaissance folios
Home, home, home, to my woman as the red
Darkens from a fresh blood to a dried.
Home, home to my woman, home to bed
Where opposites seem sometimes unified.
The frankincense and myrrh beckon with an exotic Bite Me quality, oriental and ancient, yet familiar and less sharp because of the lily overtones.
Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. IV It has a funny characteristic of the feelings one gets of timelessness and eternity when at a funeral of the sort that Tennyson wrote about in Cleopatras Needle (beside the Thames):
Here, I stood in On beside the flow
Of sacred Nile, 3000 years ago!
- A Pharaoh, kingliest of his kingly race
First shaped, and carved, and set me in my place.
A Caesar of a punier dynasty
Thence haled me toward the Mediterranean sea,
Whence your own citizens, for their own renown,
Through strange seas drew me to your monster town.
I have seen the 4 great empires disappear.
I was when London was not. I am here.
It has been describes as the patron scent of Catholicism With its overall base and dry-down effect of church incense Invoking stones in very old European churches and castles and the stench of death in catacombs. Though our world causes the stones to be squeezed back into our eyes A crush of diamonds, / Incredibly bright as a crush of tears.
It has been said to arouse a sensation of quite contemplative musings in churchyards or moments spent in church pews. Of Galatean marble statues and Victorian petticoats One can almost hear the rustling as they exit church. Such feelings are above and beyond gender and so the scent is unisexual!
I Auden, W. H. The Dyers Hand. (Faber & Faber, 1962).
II Bulgakov, Mihail. The Master & Margarita.
III Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. (1611).
IV The Holy Bible. Ecclesiastes 1. 2. (King James Authorised Version). |
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| Anonymous -POET from LONDON
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| Another perfect scent from L'Artisan.
Defintely different, but rich and spell-binding. Intriguing Floral-Woody-Earthy-Incense. And very, very ... holy. Amen |
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| Anonymous - from
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| Hypnotic, unique--yes! But I smelled more of the lily; the incense seeps through in nteresting, very quiet ways. I couldn't figure it out, but the blend works. I could sense it around me all day. |
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| KK -College professor from Brooklyn, NY
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| I don't know what to say about this scent....I love it I hate it....I never wear it out of the home yet I hunt it down and wear it as I go to sleep...It is really unlike anything I have ever known.... |
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| Anonymous - from san leandro
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| Not Prays in the Cript at midnight as with Etro' s Messe de Minuit, but agarwood sends me directly on the Lethe's valley, in that mineral country of oblivion... confusing, hypnotic. On me, it has the fidelity a lover can have- it lasts enough to stress my senses and make me fall into Morpheus' arms...ooh, steady...
only a negative note, this terrible white lily of Florence...it corrupts the pureness of incense, and mystifies that quintessential note agarwood only could have. |
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| Artemisd - from Italy
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| Bought this for hubby. Alluring to say the least. Like no other men's fragrance I've smelled. I hug him in the morning before he leaves so it rubs off on me, and I have it with me all day. Masculine, complex, mysterious, and seductive. Eats away at you until you give in. The name is intriguing and has almost a Dante's Inferno feel to it! Awesomely unique! |
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| Laura - from Los Angeles
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| This scent is cool, astringent, and green on me. No ancient castle walls, no incense, no shadows. |
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| shy chai - from austin
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| strange, somewhat pleasant, but not *dirty* enough. the "white" smells overtake the frankincense for me. I get the damp castle wall thing, but it smells like sterile ozone to me. it's unusual, and not too sweet. like, but somewhat narcotic. I just hate those damnn white flowers! go for CdG Avingnon. |
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| Anonymous - from
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| This scent is haunting and beautiful at the same time. One of my favorites. |
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| Anonymous - from
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| i need to ask if any others find l'artisans so so pretty
but they do not last on
me at all!!!! i liked this
and zing but POUF gone
in minutes??? |
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| louise -talent agent from st pete
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| Do you know what the name of this perfume is in English? I do...kind of scary. |
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| Anonymous - from
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| Lucky Scent's description is 100% on target! I have never smelled anything like it--and I have smelled many. I can almost feel the wet stone walls of a tomb as I wander around trying to find my way out of the darkness. |
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| Debbie - from Louisiana
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| A quick re-post note: there are dozens of opinions on this site (for all perfumes) about scents that "disappear" or otherwise go away quickly. No, folks, 99 times out of 100 you have simply gotten used to the scent! If you really feel that the scent is gone in 15 minutes, walk up to someone you know that hasn't been in the same room with you during the prior 15 minutes, and ask them what they think about the staying power. I bet you'll be surprised! In fact, if you're someone that loads up on perfume or resprays throughout the day, you're probably driving people crazy you smell so strongly. Just my two cents. |
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| Phyllis - from Atlanta, GA
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| This is torture! I adore the scent but it lasts for 5 minutes on me. It smells like white flowers with a dash of spice, my favorite notes. |
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| Heather - from Sacramento
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| I realy wanted this to work for me because of the notes; floral, incensce, and musk. The problem is that it dryed down too nothing on me. Perhaps if it were in a eau de perfume or parfume it would work for me. |
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| R Miller-Chavez -Executive from San Francisco
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| Seductive. Seducing. Confusing, yet comforting. This scent is much less strong than Tea for Two, but much more seductive and mysterious. I love this scent! |
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| Phyllis - from Atlanta
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| WOW! Luckyscent's description is dead on this time. This is one of the most unusual scents I've ever come across--it is very cool, dark, and dry--like a crypt in some long-forgotten temple. Absolutely gorgeous--but sadly, better suited to my boyfriend. |
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| J. -Student from Minneapolis
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| This is, without a doubt, one of my all time favorite fragrances. Very unique. Lasts all day on me. |
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| Melissa - from Florida
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| I guess I don't enjoy woody, dry scents. Luckily, it didn't last long on me either. |
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| Anonymous - from
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| I LOOOOVVE this scent. It is mesmerizing, hypnotizing, and all around unique. My only complaint is that it doesn't last very long on me. |
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| Anonymous - from
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| Entrancing, bewitching, yet still light. I find this oddly comforting. A must for anyone who enjoys slightly dry, woody scents. Perfect Fall and Winter scent! |
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| Bridget -Gallery Owner from Montana
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| This scent is not to be reconed with. Highly provacative and entrancing. Always a crowd pleaser. |
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| Lars -entrepreneur from Scottsdale
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