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Helpful Review
One of the tamer Lush concoctions...
Lush SUPERWORLDUNKNOWN has the same strong citrus oil facet as most of the other perfumes of this line. Fortunately, it is tempered and tamed here by the presence of sweet notes, including cocoa, but also tonka or vanilla, it seems to me. These sweet elements help to smooth out the rough edges of the citrus oil, which I personally find pretty difficult to wear as a straight-up perfume. I have a large sample set of the Lush perfumes which I've been slowly meandering through, trying to be as fair to them as possible in reviews, but I have to confess that I only test them when I have a bath on the horizon. They're just too intense!
Never one to complain about excellent longevity and mega-sillage, the problem I find with the Lush citrus oils and base is that they seep into one's pores and all the way into the marrow of one's bones. Well, that's how they feel anyway. In my experience, the only other house with perfumes as penetrating as these may be Serge Lutens. My sense, however, is that the Lutens perfumes have been much more thoughtfully composed. It may be that I am prejudiced against this whole flurry of 2010-2011 Lush multi-launches, but I do find them pretty difficult to take seriously as perfumes. To be perfectly frank (quoi d'autre?) I am not even impressed with the alleged masterpiece of this house, BREATH OF GOD, and I felt vindicated somewhat to learn that it was the perfumer's very first perfume! Well, that's another story...
Back to SUPERWORLDUNKNOWN. Here we have the Lush base plus the Lush citrus accords with their usual frontal assault on olfactory receptors, but then the cocoa-tonka (or whatever) sweeps in like a deus ex machina to save the whole composition from disaster by muting the nosehair-singing effect of the citrus oils. Those listed among the ingredients of this particular perfume are lemon, lime, and neroli oil. Rose absolute is listed way down in the list somewhere, and thankfully this composition does not appear to contain the killer lemongrass oil favored by this perfumer.
The overall effect gestures toward gourmand territory and might call to mind vague memories of the house of Lolita Lempicka, but the Lush base abides like a fingerprint, marking this perfume as a Simon Constantine creation. Nonetheless, all things considered, this smells pretty good--for the "house" of Lush.
Never one to complain about excellent longevity and mega-sillage, the problem I find with the Lush citrus oils and base is that they seep into one's pores and all the way into the marrow of one's bones. Well, that's how they feel anyway. In my experience, the only other house with perfumes as penetrating as these may be Serge Lutens. My sense, however, is that the Lutens perfumes have been much more thoughtfully composed. It may be that I am prejudiced against this whole flurry of 2010-2011 Lush multi-launches, but I do find them pretty difficult to take seriously as perfumes. To be perfectly frank (quoi d'autre?) I am not even impressed with the alleged masterpiece of this house, BREATH OF GOD, and I felt vindicated somewhat to learn that it was the perfumer's very first perfume! Well, that's another story...
Back to SUPERWORLDUNKNOWN. Here we have the Lush base plus the Lush citrus accords with their usual frontal assault on olfactory receptors, but then the cocoa-tonka (or whatever) sweeps in like a deus ex machina to save the whole composition from disaster by muting the nosehair-singing effect of the citrus oils. Those listed among the ingredients of this particular perfume are lemon, lime, and neroli oil. Rose absolute is listed way down in the list somewhere, and thankfully this composition does not appear to contain the killer lemongrass oil favored by this perfumer.
The overall effect gestures toward gourmand territory and might call to mind vague memories of the house of Lolita Lempicka, but the Lush base abides like a fingerprint, marking this perfume as a Simon Constantine creation. Nonetheless, all things considered, this smells pretty good--for the "house" of Lush.