Lionora Mind Games 2023

I have just gotten to know Lionora, and yet the scent has caught me so off guard that I feel the need to write something about it.

Actually, I tested Lionora mainly out of habit. I associate the scent of apricots, peaches, mangoes, and some other fruits with beautiful memories, so I quickly become interested in trying perfumes that promise these aromas. Well aware that these tests usually leave me rather unimpressed. I often like the scents quite well, but I usually feel no urge to wear them myself. This was the case recently with Peche Mirage. I was excited about my sample and tested the scent enthusiastically, but since then I have never felt the desire to use it again.

Lionora seems to be different. My sample arrived just as I was getting ready for work. I still had a little time, so I opened the envelope and sprayed the scent onto a piece of paper. Not bad, I thought. Maybe a bit too milky, and I detected the kind of sweetness that I didn’t like in Queening. Still, something about Lionora appealed to me so much that I decided to wear the scent directly to work. This is, in a way, a small risk and a real stress test for a perfume, as I usually cannot tolerate most of my scents at my workplace, where I am exposed to extreme temperatures and odors.

Right after applying it, I noticed that the scent is quite intense. Although I had only sprayed a little, I was enveloped in a veritable cloud of apricots. But not a bad one. During the drive to my workplace, I had to smile for the first time. Hmm, what is that? A creamy freesia, unusually sweet yet very beautiful. I liked that. I wondered if I could also detect a bit of tuberose, but it was mainly the freesia.

After working for about an hour, I suddenly caught a scent that felt very familiar to me. I couldn’t get enough of it, I kept enjoying it, and at the same time, I couldn’t figure out where I knew it from.
After pondering for quite a while, I suddenly remembered Passiflora by Guerlain. The passion fruit in Lionora is quite perceptible to me, and I was a bit surprised that I had only discovered it now during the process.
But there was more. Something else that I knew well. Something I had once liked very much and then forgotten. It took surprisingly long until I suddenly found myself transported back years, in the perfume department of a department store, on my way to a date, casually testing a few scents until I finally held the sparkling green heart in my hand and sprayed some of the perfume that would enchant me for the rest of the evening and beyond. That was "Aura (Eau de Parfum) | Mugler," and unexpectedly, Lionora has something of that scent for me. They are by no means identical, yet the slight similarity is enough to evoke vivid memories in me and give me a familiar sense of well-being.

I don’t know if there has been any other scent lately that has brought a smile to my face as often throughout the day as Lionora. I don’t think so. I know so many others, some that I would probably objectively rate as ‘better.’ But what good does it do me if I find the scents great but cannot wear them well? If they feel like a foreign body that I am dragging around with me.
With Lionora, it’s different. Although I perceive the scent as intense and long-lasting, it uplifts me. Almost like a little energy booster. This is probably due to the beautiful memories. Not just of Passiflora and Aura, but also of the apricot shampoo I always used in my youth, which is associated with that feeling of unrestrained zest for life. It fits well with the first signs of spring that are just appearing. It’s a bit crazy what scents can trigger, but above all, it’s very beautiful.

Lionora smells a bit artificial. However, it’s not the relatively new, extremely piercing kind of synthetic scent that I know from Erba Pura and similar fragrances, but rather the kind known from scents like Aura, which many fruity-sweet perfumes and body care products have had since the 90s. I don’t mind that. The hair care associations don’t bother me at all.
Only this strange, lactonic sugary sweetness that I already know from Queening and can’t quite place could ruin the scent for me. That’s also the only reason why I haven’t ordered a bottle right away, but will test it a bit further just to be cautious.

For me, Lionora primarily smells of passion fruit, apricot, osmanthus, and freesia. I perceive the scent as sweet, fruity, and somewhat creamy floral/milky. There’s also a slight hint of green freshness, so the sweetness doesn’t completely overwhelm me here. In the base, I would have guessed vanilla. However, tonka is listed, which I don’t perceive here.

Lionora smells as if you’ve just taken a fresh shower, washed your hair with apricot shampoo, and then applied a body lotion that smells of freesia and a bit of vanilla. On top of that, a few spritzes of a passion fruit perfume and a forest fruit gummy candy in your mouth.
Does that sound beautiful? Probably not necessarily. But who cares, I like it.
It might also be interesting to note that I liked the development on the test strip significantly less than on my skin.

I perceive the longevity and sillage as good, or just right for me. Lionora lasts a long time and is also well perceivable by others. With normal dosing, however, you probably won’t fill a room and overshadow everything else. Despite the intensity, it’s a scent where I feel like I am wearing it, that it accompanies me, and not that it completely overwhelms or suffocates me.

It’s quite a bright, cheerful scent, and when I think of the occasion and the season, I see Lionora more during the day, in everyday life, and especially in spring. At the same time, I think the scent is versatile and will be wearable almost anytime and anywhere, as long as you like this type of fragrance.

When I woke up this morning, I didn’t have to think long about which scent I wanted to wear. It was immediately clear that it would be Lionora again. So I spent the day once more in an apricot cloud and was delighted every time the cheerful passion fruit flashed.

Lionora is really not the best and not the most beautiful perfume I know, but it evokes a kind of happiness in me like hardly any other, so I wonder: how can a scent be more beautiful?