Lignum Vitae
Beaufort London (2016)

Fresh sweetish aromas of biscuits, cinnamon biscuits to be precise - I did not expect that, although it is the season for such frolics - Xmas time. This is given a slightly salty undertone as if it was a biscuit kept on the beach exposed to the salty breezes. Bondi Beach anyone?

Later on I get a metallic touch, which mingles well with the earlier notes, as does some white smoke that is added in now. In the base this is rounded of by a nonspecific woodsy background impression. A light hint of a soft suede leather appears closer towards the end on me.

I get moderate sillage very good projection and nine hours of longevity on my skin.

This bright scent for cooler summer days uses evidently very synthetic notes that by themselves hare somewhat mundane, but in this combination they result in stretches of quite original aromas and smells that are enthusing in spite of their nigh-random arbitrariness of their recombination. Christmas cookies on the sea shore? Released 2016. Overall 3/5

I've come across quite a few cookie jar fragrances in niche land recently – or to be more precise an accord that a kind of gourmand roasted flour with a touch of butteriness to it. There must be an aromachemical I have no knowledge of behind this effect, but it does have the tendency of pretty much taking over the composition. Lignum Vitae is in that line of perfumes but is quite the most accomplished I've smelled so far. It holds together a variety of disparate impressions that one feels shouldn't belong together quite happily in its cookie-cut universe.
The biscuit here is bone dry, stingy on the butter, like the ‘glucose' biscuits I used to be given as a kid that made me reach for a glass of water. But here it's lifted by lemon accents. More remarkable is a marine whirl that accompanies the top – which brain paired biscuits and aquatics together? It shouldn't work, but somehow it does. And then it moves beyond, the wave washing out, and lovely juniper and ginger flash among the impressions, there is reassurance from vanilla and woody notes – this is a gent in a high-end barbershop being served a biscuit with his hot cuppa. A perfume to relax into.

Smells part oatmeal-raisin cookie, part ozone, and part ocean breeze at low tide. There is kind of a hot, electrical thing, too. Weird. Hot rubber tires. It eventually settles down a bit. Light sweet stuff still here. The other odd notes still prevail. LV resembles something I'd expect Filippo Sorcinelli to invent. It has a strangely dark, or civil twilight vibe. It's a special occasion fragrance. It's offbeat, oddball.

This stink bomb grows on me. I wouldn't buy a full bottle as I wouldn't wear it often. I do enjoy its quirkiness.

Oceanic and rubber smells last long. Cookie smell goes away in about 40 minutes. Then a couple hours later, cookie gently returns in the air. Overall, it is different - not for everybody.

Woods, metallic notes, salt?
I don't know how they made these notes to smell like a cookie.

This is most realistic cookie perfume I ever smelled.

Cookie. Period.

I'd say there are quite a few notes missing from the tree above. Madeleine Cake accord and caramel, in particular. Beaufort London is known for canon smoke, riding leather, horse hide, shipping strap, beard oil type scents, redolent of early Industrial Revolution era Britannia. This is the one that breaks away from the rest. A great sweet/salty gourmand with strange woody/smoky facets. Really strange. Really pleasing.