Only Lovers Left Alive is a vampire movie from 2013 directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab recently released a limited-edition series of scents based on the film--there are five scents based on the characters in the film, seven based on songs from the soundtrack, and eleven based on specific plot points in the movie. Only 350 bottles of each perfume were created, and when they're gone, they're gone. I picked up decants of a few of these, and the one I'm reviewing today, Ian, is based on one of the main characters. I previously reviewed Hal, a soundtrack scent.
Price: $30 for a 5 mL amber glass bottle of perfume oil with polyseal cap.
Samples: Not available for this scent.
(More details about price and shipping can be found in our Company Overview post about Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.)
Description from the website: "Y’know, for a zombie, you’re alright. A flicker of hero worship, tempered by naivety and an innately kind nature: shaggy leather, sweet rum absolute, and patchouli."
I'm a fan of masculine scents, but not always a big fan of boozy ones. This scent walks the line of leather (yay!) and sweet rum (nay!)--it smells a bit dirty and smoky to me as well, probably partly the leather note and partly the patchouli, or perhaps there's some tobacco thrown in as well.
The leather note is very pleasing and realistic, without the oddly powdery undertones I sometimes get in leather perfumes. It becomes stronger the longer this wears on my skin, and hence the more and more I like it, but it's never as pleasing to me as more pure leather scents like The Black Rider, which is probably my favorite leather scent ever.
Still, I think this is a fantastic perfume for men and women alike--anyone who wants to smell like a sexy pirate or a rockstar in a leather jacket. Smoky, badass leather and rum.
(Also, as an aside, I didn't like BPAL's cult classic Perversion, which sounds similar in theory, but did not smell much like leather or tobacco at all to me--I found it excessively sweet and boozy.)
For a review of Ian and other scents in the Only Lovers Left Alive collection, you can also check out Gothic Charm School.
Note: this scent is vegan.
I was just going to ask of it was vegan because of the leather part, but I saw it is. The picture is kind of ummmm , are those two men?
ReplyDeleteI don't like the smell of leather, curious about this fragrance.
BPAL states that their perfumes are vegan except the ones containing honey. Birch tar is often used to simulate the smell of leather in vegan perfumes. If you don't like leather, I wouldn't recommend this scent to you!
ReplyDeleteThe picture is the cover of a comic book called Henry and Glenn Forever.