L’Aventura Perfumes Lions in the Library courtesy of the perfumer
When I was a fledgling student at Oxford, I thought that burrowing into one of the private snugs in the basement of my college’s library was the studious thing to do, that their ascetic environment would single me out as a serious scholar. Oh boy, was I wrong. They were daytime party rooms for the trendy kids who brought pizza and tins of Stella for their “study sessions” and made spitball target shooting at the old law volumes no one ever read a competitive sport. But wander by one of these dens in the hours before the library’s midnight closing, and you might interrupt some action that was anything but legal.
Scene from the multi-award Golden Globe winning movie Atonement starring Keira Knightly and James McAvoy, 2007
And which library goer hasn’t shot furtive glances at the hot guy at the next table or pretended to read while checking out the legs of the babe perusing economic treatises? Libraries can be epicenters of sexual tension – the hush and low light, the vanillic, leathery smell of old bindings, an expectation of good behaviour and the irresistible risk of an illicit fumble – it’s a wonder anyone ever gets anything done in them. L’Aventura Perfumes Lions in the Library captures all that with delicious lasciviousness. Brand founder and nose Jessica Mara explains, “I wanted to create a fragrance to capture the sexiness of libraries and the intoxicating effect of someone touching your body with their mind. It’s a scent study of being caught in the act.” With its generous helping of labdanum – fragrance’s most bodily resin – and undercurrent of civet, this is a scent for seduction in the stacks.
Jessica Mara of L’Aventura Perfumes
Lions in the Library is perfect for getting some growl in your prowl. The first spray gets down to business with labdanum and worn leather. Now, I know labdanum is not everyone’s cup of tea – its sweaty, off-sweet animalism isn’t for those who prefer a bit of unruffled propriety in their perfumes – but I happen to love it. Here, it is paired with bitter orange, which is a brilliant choice; the citrus complements the resin’s warmth while providing an astringent counterbalance to the resin’s fleshiness. Imagine that grad student in the tortoise frames and biker jacket doing, well, you, behind the anthropology books and you get the picture of what the opening smells like. It’s warm, snuggly, sexy, and definitely belongs in the restricted section.
Old Books via Unsplash
The labdanum is overlaid with the foliage of its source, cistus, or rockrose, which offsets the resin’s carnality with some balsamic sturdiness. Cashmeran’s satiny vanilla-woods odor stands in for a more overt vanillic note to give an echo of old volumes rather than a more literal reading of aged paper. Lions in the Library doesn’t broadcast its civet note as you might expect. Rather, it adds a musky, almost dusty smell in the base that reiterates the sense of being among antiquarian books. Over time, Lions in the Library gets a sprinkling of spice like white pepper, although it is not listed in the notes, while the labdanum, leather and bitter orange linger. An hour later, cashmeran has come forward, and the composition takes on a deep woody, spicy aroma like old tobacco mixed with gnarled oak bookcases.
If you’ve ever wanted to indulge those sexy librarian fantasies, check out Lions in the Library.
Notes: Labdanum, bitter orange, old books, cistus, cashmeran, civet.
Disclaimer: Sample of Lions in the Library kindly provided by L’Aventura Perfumes. My opinions, as always, are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Lions in the Library courtesy of L’Aventura Perfumes
Thanks to Jessica Mara we have a draw for one 50 ml bottle of L’Aventura Lions in the Library in the U.S. and Canada only. Register here. To enter the draw, you must be a registered reader. To be eligible, please comment on what appealed to you in Lauryn’s review and where you live. Draw closes 2/15/2023.
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Jessica Mara is 171st in our American Perfumer Series.
Please see Ida Meister review of The Faraway
Art Direction Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief
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