Breath of God
Lush (2007)

Few perfumes in my collection could be labeled as completely unpredictable, but Breath of God is one of them. From one minute to the next it is a completely new vignette. Church. A smokey bar. Ham. Heaven. And back to Church. This takes woody-fruity-floral to every extremely possible (is that ham again?). It is a lot of fun, but don’t expect to know what might happen when you wear it.

Put your nose to a church pew.
Closer.
No, closer.
Breath of God.


One of my favorites, hands down.

Odd, oil and water concoction of a deep, incense/woody/vetiver half and a frivolous melon/citrus/floral half fighting for dominance throughout the development, with each claiming moments of fleeting victory and retreat. They never come together or cooperate, but the nose / mind amalgamates the signals into something interesting and compelling and more than the sum of its disjointed parts. A funky, fun fragrance that is the antithesis of formal.

What a rush. A lot of people described the cornucopia of smells that come spilling out the first 20 minutes. I could describe my experience also, but don't think it's necessary, except to say it's like the Void opening up and spilling out a cacophony of smells with no association, on a dark curtain of a backdrop that gives it all a stage. The background is important, like the shadow and negative space in a painting.
BOG reminds me of the scenes in ‘Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' when they engage the ship's Improbability Drive, and morph into all manner of unlikely things - couches, flowers, etc. This fragrance is like that.
SteveofCaley's review made me laugh - I think he totally got it. Another two reviews really gave this fragrance context. Leontion said it smelled like the potions class at Hogwarts. Then RichNTacoma added it smelled like the perfumed sheets after a middle earth love-fest between a dark wizard and a fairy. These cracked me up; then when I sniffed, they were right! Fantastic associations really. It says something about this fragrance that these are the images that spring to mind. Much better than trying to parse this fragrance.
Perhaps you can take this fragrance seriously, but I think it's genius is in the free-association that happens, on the scale it happens. I have it for the enjoyment it gives. There's nothing else like it.

Hard to understand how a store such as LUSH can produce such a polarising scent: I've long said how off-putting LUSH is as a store for a man to visit. But in this day and age, this should be no excuse.

Breath of God really surprises. As a totally unisex scent, the scent opens with florals underpinned by a certain smokiness that is fruity-fresh and yet addictive. It is never over-powering, even with several sprays, and lasts well into the night or the next day.

The dry-down though is really sublime. Gentle, incense-like smoke, neroli, ylang-ylang, pepper and rose really do stick out. But the juice is blended together so well, it's hard to tell exactly what you are smelling at any one time.

The trail left behind is really something else and appeals to even the most conservative noses. I find it's one of few scents I would wear again in the same week (maybe even the same day).

I may never find out what God's breath smells like, but this one sure took mine away!

I find BOG similar to Sombre Negra, only with a tiny bit more depth as it has a bit of the rose come out in the dry down, whereas SN stays darker throughout. If you like a dark Vetiver, I think you will like this. As others have mentioned, the is a uniqueness about this to where some might think they smell mismatched notes, but I think it works well. My thumb is angling towards up.