Les Bijoux

[Casablanca]

Skin musk and honey, blood-red rose, orange blossom, white peach, red apple, frankincense and myrrh.

 

On the wand: A curious mix. I smell orange blossom, peach, and honey musk, in that order, but something also gives me a dusty smudge of dirt in a way I usually link with patchouli. No patch listed, though? I smell grainy frankincense, but that's not it. I usually love myrrh, but is this myrrh reading as somehow dirty to me? Almost as an afterthought, I smell a little rose and apple. I'm a little put off by this mix, despite liking everything in the official notes list.

Wet on my skin, this isn't much better. Kind of a sickly or overripe peach, which is also over-sweetened with honey-orange peach syrup. I smell nothing else at this point.

Bijoux dries and settles into an orange-peach-apple-rose honey musk blend on my skin, no longer dirty. I like the honey musk, as always, and once dried, this is better than I expected. But it's too fruity for me to love. I also barely detect the frankincense, and kind of miss it.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Casablanca

[Psycry]

In the Imp: Fruity and flowery and incensey. This already has promise...

 

Wet on my wrist: Oh, this is pretty. It's not an overly heavy scent on me, but it's not light, either. Well-rounded. I'm getting something like pine in the background of it, but the incense smell is picking up. (For the record, I can't pick the incense or resin notes apart. Musks, either. Though I have found to my surprise, that black musk loves my skin.)

 

Drydown: I really like this. BPAL's honey note seems to turn to play-doh on my skin, but there's so much else going on here, that it's almost like a creamy backdrop, if that makes sense.

 

There's a brief almost-soap stage, but it never quite gets there.

 

Thankfully.

 

It's the closest to The Temptation that I've found yet in the GC blends.

[roseus]

In the imp: honey, orange blossom, and peach.

 

Wet: all apple and skin musk.

 

Dry: very soft peach, skin musk, and honey, with a little bite from the resins. It's a warm, better-than-your-skin scent. Sexy in a very natural, relaxed way.

[lizabelle]

This is so pretty. The honey note here is light and borderline-sparkling, with a lot of floral undertone and some fruitiness. It's well-blended enough that all that just smells like natural parts of the honey rather than individual notes. There is a little extra apple there, though. I do smell the resins mixing with the honey, adding just a little spice and extra warmth. It's subtle and springy in the best possible way. Definitely a full bottle for me.

[freyasfae]

At first this smelled very fruity on me with anise (ugh!) on the corners, but it calmed down pretty quickly - still sweet and fruity, but more nuanced and the anise quality (which could be the frankincense and myrrh?) become more background. The skin musk and orange blossom give it more complexity, and you can pick up the notes individually sometimes - it walks you through a lot.

[achildoftime]

It's a very fruity blend for me. Apple and peach drenched in honey is all I get when it's first applied. As it dries, the rose comes out to join the others. The extreme sweetness from the fruit mellowed out and is now mostly a rosy peach scent. It's not quite so overwhelming and actually relaxes into a skin scent. I can see where this would be right up someone's alley, but it's not for me.

[yewberry]

Apparently I ruin everything. In the Imp it smells like a lovely apple floral. On me, it's an unending source of old lady perfumey funk that amps endlessly. Much disappointment.

[garbagewitch]

Les Bijoux starts out delicious, sweet and golden with a slight spicy-floral edge, honey mingling with frankincense and orange blossom; this opening actually reminds me a bit of a lighter, brighter Blood Kiss. As it dries down, the spiciness of the incense backs off and the fruits come forward, creating a sweet, delicate scent that’s a perfect blend of floral and fruity and honeyed. It strikes a lovely balance between the fresh, juicy sweetness of an apple and the thick, golden sweetness of honey. Once it’s dried down, the honey gets a little lighter and the musk warms everything up, making this sheer, golden veil of scent that’s just unbelievably alluring.

This smells like sitting in the middle of fragrant garden with someone radiantly beautiful, eating crisp, pale slices of apples and peaches drizzled with ribbons of golden honey. It smells like licking honey and juice from their fingertips and breathing in the scent of their skin, flushed and glowing in the sunlight. Sweet and golden and ripe, Les Bijoux occupies that space of unselfconscious sensuality that so much of Victorian porn seems to take place in; it’s the kind of scent you instinctively want to sink your teeth into, the kind of scent you just want to ravish.

Like Oberon, this one straddles the line between smelling perfumey and natural pretty well, though it veers a little closer to perfumey than Oberon does. I think it could work whether you want to smell like you’re making an effort or you want to smell like you’re not trying at all.

A+, would recommend to anyone who wants to smell delicious and biteable.

[JuliskaMarie]

In the imp: Oooh, this is warm & fruity, with a hint of floral & rich frankincense & myrrh base to it. Interesting & pretty!

Wet on skin: Very different! Much colder & less floral, the frankincense & myrrh have melted into the musk & are *just* barely there, adding a hint of dusty spice to the fruit.

Dry on skin: This is not an especially strong scent. Dusty, warm resin & musk with a small hint of fruity-floral. Very pretty & quite subtle without being dull. (2:43pm)

After a few hours: Very similar to dry. Sweet, fruity, resiny musk. There's a tiny hint of floral if you're looking for it, but not much. Still almost the same strength as when dry too.

Verdict: This is a very pretty & warm scent. Interesting, while still being subtle. Seems to be quite long-lasting as well!