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Helpful Review
4
candied skin
I smelled Lys du Désert when it was first released and not long after I first sampled Orange Star. The similarities seemed apparent. The salty, umami ambergris note in Orange Star radiates from Lys du Désert as well. The two also share a mid-range sweetness, not sugary, not resinous. Mmmmm… Candied Skin™. The real point of comparison, though, is the mood. Both have a tidal quality, ebbing and flowing almost imperceptibly.
The first scent of each is thick and enveloping. It's blanketing, and fills your nose and upper respiratory tract the way a drop of oil on paper infuses and becomes part of the paper’s structure. Both Lys and Orange Star play a bit of hide and seek. They seem to disappear or fade about 15 minutes after I apply them. Soon, whiffs of the perfume return, strong in scent but elusive in location. Is it still on my wrist? Is it just behind me? Is it somewhere else in the room? Or has it, as with the oil on paper, somehow become a part of my respiratory tract and my sense of it is internal?
The other shoe dropped for me when I smelled Lys du Désert again after having tried Noontide Petals. Lys du Désert is the bridge from Orange Star to Noontide Petals, and makes perfect sense. Imagine the musky rose of Noontide Petals without aldehyde ‘wings’. Without the lift from the aldehydes, Lys du Désert doesn't sing with quite the angelic range (read: castrati soprani) of Noontide Petals. Not one whit less beautiful, desert Lily is more of an Earth Angel.
LuckyScent were lucky indeed to get this fragrance. I don’t mean any disrespect in pointing out the similarities of these perfumes. Art deserves to be discussed in terms of an artist’s body of work, and a perfume resembling its immediate predecessor as well as the one that would eventually follow it is the sign of a creative mind bubbling away. And though Andy Tauer doesn’t seem the type to spike the ball after a touchdown, three winners in a row is nothing to sneeze at.
I’m not a perfumer, and I’m not versed in the construction of perfume. I can’t speak to the simplicity or complexity of the construction of any of these perfumes. But as a perfume wearer, I recognize that the the legibility of these perfumes enhances the experience of wearing them. Clarity and intelligibility don’t often equate with effortlessness, and the chance to see how an artist works with ideas he’s honed to their essentials is a pleasure.
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