A Bright Flame Between Two Jacinths

[Violaine]

A glittering golden amber chypre whose facets reflect bright flickers of cardamom, galbanum, guaiac, neroli, and sharp cedar.

To my nose, on my skin, this is a dead ringer for Obsession and it is GLORIOUS! I get mostly amber with this black pepper like spiciness that I can only assume is the cardamom. It's absolutely gorgeous. This is the scent of being curled up in front of a fireplace on a winter night after a terribly fancy dinner party.... perhaps naked on a fur rug. The throw is heavy enough to envelop you in the scent but not offend anyone near you, and it's one that only gets more beautiful with wear and heat.

[aiobhan]

I'm reviewing this based on what happened to my husband - this was one of his purchases!

 

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First off, in the bottle it's very woodsy. Almost dry, actually, despite the amber and neroli - probably due to the cardamom. The cedar is very prevalent.

 

Initially after application, the amber was starting to bring some of the sharpness down while also warming up the deeper wood notes. The spiciness kept things interesting.

 

After a while it was amber-woods, with a top note of neroli and cardamom, and the galbanum was a lovely dark bottom note, almost like balsamic vinegar that's been cooked down into a sweet syrup.

 

I loved it on my husband - it was super sexy!

[annemathematics]

I like the smell of galbanum, but that is the only note I can smell in this in the imp and dry on me. Similar to tacitus' phoenix from 2013, this is a single note on me.

[Myria Jean]

This is a nice amber that reminds me of the amber in Hesiod's Phoenix. The cedar keeps it from being as floaty as that one. The other notes are hiding in the background but I bet they will come out with age.

This is really lovely and complex, but again like Hesiod's Phoenix, this is more of an elegant, dressed-up scent than the scents I usually wear.

Edited December 21, 2014 by Myria Jean

[Lani]

This scent bears a lot of structural resemblance to September Midnight--another of the Lab's amber chypres. However, instead of the tart facet of pomegranate and powdery myrrh, this one has a delicious spicy accent and a more bitter, leathery, earthy base. Then, once it's dry, the cedar comes out--smoldering smoky cedar incense, like a woodfire in winter. This is a glorious perfume.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: Woohoo, my first chypre! Sharp and herbal, with the amber surprisingly difficult to discern. The cedar is definitely there, providing a dry, woody facet.

 

Wet: Hellooooo, cardamom! The neroli also really comes out. But, alas, no amber. Overall, it's slightly sharper and much more bitter. The cedar still isn't immediately apparent as cedar per se, but it still keeping everything dry and sharp. Luckily, after a few minutes, it settles down into something much more amber- and galbanum-dominant, with the neroli still providing a citrus-y edge. The sharpness is still there, but now it's much more manageable.

 

Dry: A gentle, soft herbal-resinous amber. As much as I love amber, it sometimes goes powdery on me, but thankfully it seems that either this is one of those that doesn't, or the herbs/resins are preventing it from doing so. Final verdict: Omnomnomnom.

[skyelyric]

In the imp and wet, this is a beauitful woody, green herbal scent, like that sharp weedy smell of crushed plant stems, but underlaid with a hint of powdery amber sweetness. I love amber, but I've never come across an amber scent that smells like this, it's fascinating in its greenness.

 

As it dries, the sharp herbal scent fades back, and the amber takes center stage. I catch some faint wafts of neroli rounding this out, but overall it's a beautiful sweet amber (my skin chemistry does a little bit of a powder trick with amber, but I actually like it) with a hint of woodsy cologne underlying. I'd say Bright Flame falls just on the masculine side of unisex.

 

In the less detailed and more poetic reaction category, this is remarkably comforting. The impression I get is snuggling on the couch late at night with my boyfriend's arm around me.

[zankoku_zen]

Chypre, amber, hints of cedar and cardamom. This is a primarily perfumey amber to me. It's sweet, rounded, and with enough whiffs of other things to make sure it isn't one dimensional. Decent throw, decent wear length.

 

Cozy, perfumey, amber.

[somacat]

This is indeed an expensive perfume note. Very elegant and perhaps a bit intimidating. I often am pretty dismissive of perfumy blends, but I'm going to come back to this one a few more times as it has anntrigueing complexity and interesting throw. It is a reedy type of high pitched blend similar in timbre to YSL Opium in it's shape if not in promary scents.

[Wwindy]

Not at all what I was expecting based on the flavor text! I don't really pick up anything glittery or flickering out of this. Instead, after a slightly daunting initial sharpness from the borderline harsh green galbanum (don't worry, that note does die down and blend in), it dries down to a smoky, sophisticated, dark green amber. I agree with previous reviewers that this is a big, perfumey chypre -- maybe with more of a hazily elegant glow than a bright flame.

[milo]

Weird and herbal. Theres an odd note here that may register to some as fire, but it is just weird to me. Disjointed and unpleasant.

[boomtownrat]

After a year, A Bright Flame Between Two Jacinths is even more beautiful than it was fresh from the Lab. I don't need to put on much, just a dab on each wrist. Following an initial sharpness in the wet stage, it dries into a scent that manages to be sensual, comfortable, and sexy all at the same time. If I stick my wrist up to my face and huff it's a little sharper, almost animalistic--almost certainly the guaiac--but its throw is sweeter and almost powdery, but not baby-powdery.

 

It's a night in front of the fireplace on a soft bed of thick blankets and pillows with the one you love. The only light is coming from the fire and you're wearing silk pajamas the colour of dark chocolate.