Franco Wright and Adam Eastwood of Luckyscent

As another year comes to a close I often look back to check the road traveled and to see how far I’ve come. There are many of these kinds of signposts in life like scenic overlooks on a long car trip they afford an opportunity to remember that things were different before. Ten years is a good place to pause and take stock and one of the first internet niche fragrance e-tailers is celebrating having been in business for ten years. Franco Wright and Adam Eastwood created Luckyscent back in 2002 and in the ten years since they have often been the first stop for perfumistas looking for the most unique niche perfumes and they have also supported the early independent perfumers by giving them a broad outlet for their fragrances to find an audience. In the ten years since Messrs. Wright and Eastwood started Luckyscent they opened a store in Los Angeles in 2006 and just recently they moved to an even bigger storefront location. Like visiting Beverly Hills or Graumann’s Chinese Theatre a trip to Scent Bar has become a part of most perfumista’s travel itinerary on a trip to the City of Angels. When it came time to celebrate this milestone Messrs. Wright and Eastwood decided a collection of four fragrances would be needed to appropriately commemorate the occasion and so the Decennial collection was born. 

Joshua Tree National Park

The Decennial collection is a celebration of everything Luckyscent has stood for over the past ten years. One of the fragrances Lys du Desert is by independent perfumer Andy Tauer. I suspect many, many fans of Mr. Tauer’s work probably bought their first sample or bottle from Luckyscent. I’m not 100% sure but I am pretty sure I bought my bottle of L’Air du Desert Marocain from Luckyscent. The theme of the desert and the American Southwest has cropped up previously in Mr. Tauer’s oeuvre and Lys du Desert fits comfortably on the shelf next to those earlier fragrances.

Lys du Desert opens with bergamot and lily which is followed by rose. All of this is place setting for the iris at the core of Lys du Desert. This is the parched arid root of iris and that means it isn’t powdery in the least. In point of fact this makes the iris almost diametrically different as it has sharp edges which are enhanced by the use of cedar and cistus. It isn’t until the ambergris, in the base, where twilight sets on this latest olfactory desert landscape by Mr. Tauer.

Jerome Epinette

The remaining three Decennial fragrances are by Jerome Epinette of Robertet.

Santal Sacré was a surprise to me. I’ve become accustomed to the name of M. Epinette’s perfumes to be very descriptive of the fragrance in the bottle and so with Santal Sacré I was expecting a deep introspective sandalwood. What I experienced was sandalwood that has been burning the candle at both ends. I find most sandalwood soothing but the sandalwood in Santal Sacré is surrounded by a spiky incense which tickles my nose and ginger adds a lot of kinetic energy. With the drier Australian sandalwood in use it makes this exceptionally dry and M. Epinette uses a suite of white musks to keep it on that sharper side. This is a very unique sandalwood centered fragrance and it carries a bit of bite.

If Santal Sacré has a little bite those who go out wearing Nuit Epicée might find themselves getting bitten. Nuit Epicée is a spicy sexy fragrance and it covers me in the promised spicy night. It opens with woody nutty almond and then violet, rhubarb, cumin, cistus, and woods arrive in a rapid sequence. The cumin here does not dominate it is part of an ensemble and it adds it’s uniquely pungent facet in perfect symmetry with the other notes. In truth this is really a dark spice accord and if you just let it ride it is an excellent piece of olfactory construction. There is a deep amber in the base to add warmth to the final stages of Nuit Epicée. This is the style of perfumery M. Epinette excels at, finding the light in the deepest night.

The final fragrance in the Decennial Collection follows on the same aspect of constructing a flawless accord which re-creates something specific. If I thought Santal Sacré was mis-named, Bois Bourbon couldn’t be more appropriately named. Want to know what Bois Bourbon smells like? Imagine owning a bourbon distillery and after you have decanted the bourbon from the barrels they were aged in you destroyed the barrel and picked up a shard; that’s what Bois Bourbon smells like. It is liquor soaked wood and if that sounds good to you, as it does to me, Bois Bourbon is definitely your perfume poison. M. Epinette constructs this bourbon accord from saffron, lavender, heliotrope, rose, and cinnamon bark. The metaphorical barrel is made up of cedar, birch, and oak. Put them together and you have whiskey soaked wood. There is no development to speak of your enjoyment will all come down to how you feel about Bourbon Wood.

All four Decennial fragrances have excellent longevity and average sillage.

Mr. Tauer and M. Epinette celebrate the past ten years of Luckyscent but their creations show the future is as bright as what has come before.

Disclosure: This review was based on samples provided by their Publicist.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor