Lurid Bonbon

[bheansidhe]

LURID BONBON

Dark chocolate dotted by cacao nibs, laced with black currant, Bulgarian lavender, white musk, and thick resins.

Terry Pratchett invented a color called octarine, described as "alive and glowing and vibrant, and incidentally a kind of greenish purple." So, if this analogy helps at all, Lurid Bonbon smells like octarine dark chocolate to my nose. Chocolate itself is warm and fuzzy and matte, while lavender and currant and white musk are sharp and scintillating, so you would logically expect this combination to fight itself, but it doesn't at all. The resins marry the two poles beautifully.

The chocolate component is dark, and has the same feel as the chocolate in Chocolate Stout Cupcake, but where that was a brutal chemistry mishap, Lurid Bonbon was a bottle purchase after I skin-tested at Will Call. This reads as a musk/resin perfume with a chocolate haze, rather than a foody-forward chocolate blend, though YMMV.

Very sexy and adult, with tons of throw. One of the very few chocolate BPALs that succeeds against my weird chemistry.

[zankoku_zen]

Lots of dark chocolate, resin and black currant. Sadly, the lavender is present and makes for an ODD overlay over the rest of the foodie notes. Whereas bneansidhe has two poles married beautifully, I have a scent that seems to want to rip itself apart at the seams.

 

In other news, this smells like interstellar chocolate - the kind that heralds black holes and event horizons. I mean, this is a seriously oddball chocolate.

[agirlnamedfury]

In the imp: syrupy, fruity chocolate.

 

Wet on skin: Much the same. This is a lot lighter than I expected, and not actually all that chocolatey, except at first. I'm not getting any lavender, which is great because that was the note that scared me.

 

Drydown: This doesn't seem to morph a lot, it just fades. And very quickly. This seemed really strong when I first applied it, but only about half an hour later and it has zero throw. Bummer!

[barilace]

In the imp: black currant chocolate.

On my skin: bitter fruity chocolate with a dash of lavender.

I really love it but it just completely vanishes on my skin within a few minutes.

[TorchedEarth]

In the bottle I get mostly chocolate, a little black current & the teensiest bit of lavender. In the wet stage, it reverses & there's almost no chocolate. On the dry down, the chocolate is completely gone & I'm left with a pretty black current.

Whatever chocolate note is used in all of this year's bonbons, my skin eats it up & makes it disappear. I usually don't have that problem with the lab's chocolate notes.

I have the same problem with everyone else. After about 20 minutes, this scent is completely gone on me, but it smelled lovely while it stuck around.

[LiberAmoris]

I love Lurid and I love chocolate, so I'm glad I got to test this. The chocolate is strong when wet but burns off quickly and I get a darker Lurid, like it's casting a shadow on itself. I've tested this a few times and it's been a little different each time, but I consistently get strong black currant and lavender. With the chocolate, it's a very gourmet, relaxing scent.

[Haltija]

Decadent lavender dark chocolate. It's delicious and It's beautiful but it fades after 30 minutes, so sad!

Edited April 14, 2015 by Haltija

[milo]

This is all chocolate at first, dark chocolate. After a bit, it is a lovely, slightly berry and floral blend with a touch of chocolate. This tester is pretty scant, I wish there were a bit more oil, just a touch on the wand and not enough for me to judge for this slatherer. It is quite nice, and I may consider more of this one.

[annemathematics]

dark chocolate and lavender with a burst of berry. very beautiful and wearable. a brighter, sweeter sister to wulric the wolfman. alas, this disappears on me within about ten minutes. nice while it lasts though!

[Xanon]

I absolutely love this blend. The coco stays soft, and blends with the lavander and currant beautifully - but it is the resins that bring this all together on my skin. I must just amp resins, but it really is beautiful. Luckily my skin doesn't eat this up, either. I put this on 3 hours ago and it is still there. My friend said I smell like chocolat-fruity incense. Love!!

[grnwoodtree]

So, I had to apply this twice. The first time, my skin ate it in minutes and I couldn't even find where I'd applied it.

 

The second time, the chocolate amped quickly, and then it faded just as quickly until only the faintest scent of lavender and white musk remained. I am so sad.

[DazyG]

Last year, this was just cocoa and not a lot else. It did very little for me after 10 minutes. As others have mentioned, It just disappeared. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, but very short-lived. I decided to keep the full bottle to see how it would age, so I set it to work on its own and forgot about it. I tried it today, as I'm on a diet and seriously craving chocolate, so I went foraging for something to curb the cravings. I just bought a bottle of Boomslang from another member and although I have an original bottle too, even the richness of that wasn't enough. Even with the white musk and lavender, there is something undoubtedly 'edible' about this now and it definitely has better longevity. It's doing the trick! I'm not saying it lasts forever, or that it'll do wonders for your diet, but after an hour, it's still going strong. If you still own this and didn't give up, try it again.

 

New puppy was causing chaos, so it's been two hours since I wrote the above. Still there, but fading. I'd say that's a massive improvement on the new bottle last year.

 

Overall, Lurid Bonbon is still powdery cocoa, but more indulgent than I remember. The blackcurrant, white musk and lavender are so well blended, it's difficult for me to really pick out each of the notes. They are there and far more prominent than before, but so much better. I'm so pleased I held onto this.