Cassionympha

I purchased this because another user said it was identical to Blanche, but it is not. I have both and have tried them alone, both in the skin and a blotter, and one on each wrist. If you do not want to spend £££ on Blanche, this is a great alternative, but do not expect it to smell exactly the same.

Lefko is not as soapy smelling as Blanche. Blanche has a particular clarity to it, and the aldehydic notes are far stronger versus Lefko leaning towards the powdery, soft musk notes. Blanche is fresher, Lefko is much softer.

With regards to performance, Lefko being an EDT is far weaker in terms of projection and longevity. It's very, very subtle.

I'm not disappointed with it as it was under £25 and I will likely use it as a room and linen spray. Since I own Blanche, I will favour that for an actual perfume.

I absolutely detest this perfume. In fact, it is my most hated perfume of all time. I hate it on me, on a blotter, on other people, in a room someone has left - I just hate it. It is vile. Truly nauseating. I cannot comprehend its popularity. Every bad note people detect in it is all I smell and it is overpowering. Burnt plastic, rubber, chemicals, and saffron (oh how I detest saffron in perfume).

My partner actually begged me to never wear it again because it is so offensive.

I'm almost convinced people have fooled themselves into liking it because of the weird prestige social media marketing attached to it and because it is expensive. Remember when this was everywhere, with influencers shilling it as smelling expensive, like old money and luxury? Nonsense from shills.

L'Orpheline is an elegantly minimal, almost austere fragrance. It is intimate in the manner it cloaks your skin. It lacks the journey more complex scents take you on, but it is exactly what I wanted. A strong, dry, smoky incense with a musky dry down. It smells like midnight mass in a remote church. It makes me feel like a ghost bedecked in antique lace sitting in the wooden pews, mournful but serene. Undeniably gothic in the old sense of the word, the gothic of cathedrals, Victorian literature, and memento mori jewellery.

And yet, this is also a comforting fragrance. It is reminiscent of the incense soaked wood of old churches, and I find church to be as comforting and peaceful a place as exists in this world.

The sillage on this fragrance is not great, but I do not mind as I wear my perfumes for me, and this is definitely a divisive fragrance and not a crowd pleasure. The longevity is the weaker side of average.

I want to be the kind of person who could brazenly wear this cold beauty, but I'm not. I don't reach for it often and I have to apply it lightly, and only to my wrists as it is quite overwhelming close to the nose for the first 30 minutes. I do like layering this one quite a lot, as it's so unique and adds an interesting dimension to other perfumes. I wear it with Musc Noir Rose. I'm not usually into layering but this is my exception.

Sugared violets. Powdery iris, a tease of orange blossom, a subtly woody vanilla dry down. It retains that delicious, syrupy parma violet scent from first spritz to final lingering whiff.
Imagine a 1950s cheesecake pinup - sweet, coy, seductive in a coquettish way. Not too risqué, charmingly playful, confident, the kind of girl to infatuate men with a wink and a smile.
This is not old lady scent, it's vintage young woman scent. Far too sweet to be old ladyish, and even then I don't understand the bandwagon disdain of classic perfumes people under 25 have.

The other vibe this gives is: sugarplum faerie innocence. Pastel floral dresses, lace lingerie, ballet slippers, twirling barefoot in a cottage garden. This is nymphette/coquette in a bottle.

This is a delicate, shy perfume. I adore it for the brief time that this lasts, but sadly it has the most abysmal longevity. For those fleeting moments it is a beautiful smoky lily, but the incense is not as pronounced or complex as I prefer. It has no projection, which I'm not too fussed on but if you have to have your nose pressed to your wrist to smell it then it is just not worth it. This fades to a skin scent in astonishingly fast. For the price, it is not worth it. I am glad I did not purchase a full size immediately.