*This is a review of the 2014 reissued version of Lux.
Lux goes on with a dulled lemon with slightly powdery vanilla support. As the composition moves to its early heart the vanilla spiked lemon remains, gradually adding relatively potent animalic musk and amber to the fold until the musk takes control. During the late dry-down the lemon vacates the composition as the slightly powdery vanilla and amber infused musk smooths out, shifting the accord to co-star with natural smelling cedar emerging late with vetiver support adding effervescence. Projection is average and longevity excellent at around 12 hours on skin.
Lux is perplexing at times. It opens quite nicely with the dulled lemon that smells quite lovely, but slowly turns into something unexpected and not pleasant... The musk that comes out and increases in intensity through the heart kind of resembles the ingredient found in Mona di Orio's later Les Nombres d'Or Musc composition, but in this case it makes for an odd fit with the lemon and the powdery vanilla and amber that come along for the ride. The overall accord was somewhat off-putting, making one pause and wonder if the composition had gone over the deep end... Luckily, the late dry-down redeems things rather nicely as the musk and vanilla accord tones down on the animalics, becoming more refined while pairing in its revised state very nicely with the cedar and vetiver base notes leaving the odd additional lemon in the dust. The whole experience resembles riding a scary roller coaster that while exciting is near unbearable at times, but as with the best roller coasters with Lux there is a great payoff before the end of the ride. The bottom line is the $195 per 75ml reissued Lux is far from a complete success, but it is rather unique smelling and the late dry-down is extremely enjoyable, earning it a "good" 3 stars out of 5 and a sample first recommendation as its middle section can be quite polarizing.
