Invigorating Boadicea the Victorious 2010

"Invigorating" is indeed an uplifting, mood-enhancing perfume for me, as the name suggests. It smells like warm sun on bare skin, without sticky sunscreen, of course. A reminder and much longing for summer, light, and warmth in this gray, depressing season. Perfect for sun worshippers like me who tend to suffer from winter depression.

The fragrance opens with a wonderfully rich, tangy fresh bergamot, signaling to the pineal gland that the sun is spreading light and warmth and should promptly release the happiness hormone serotonin. I have rarely smelled a perfume where the mood-lifting, invigorating effect of a component is so immediately perceptible as here. The only one that spontaneously comes to mind is Lorenzo Villoresi's neroli fragrance "Dilmun."

The bergamot, with its bitter tang, proves to be very enduring on my skin and accompanies the truly beautiful, subtle floral accord.
The cistus, with its warm, musky scent, is also a true soul warmer and fits perfectly into this friendly, stimulating elixir. The rounded combination of the musk-like warmth of amber and labdanum, the hint of jasmine, and the light, resinous touch of fir awaken in me the illusion of lying relaxed by a forest lake in the sun on a warm summer day, until it sets and leaves only the wonderful scent of stored sunlight on bare skin. For me, one of the most pleasant and also subtly erotic scents. Who would have thought it comes in bottles too...

I can only agree with Apicius and seem to be developing into a fan of Boadicea fragrances. To my nose, they smell of high-quality ingredients, are wonderfully harmoniously composed, and are exceptional without having to be ostentatiously extravagant.

Addendum:
I just read something about bitter chocolate and licorice in the description at EN and in the review at NST, which left me quite confused. I can't smell either of those in Invigorating, even with a lot of imagination. Gourmand haters should not be deterred by this. On my skin, the fragrance is not sweet at all, even though pleasant scents usually turn into syrupy goo on me at every opportunity.