deadofnight and lostinflowers are two scents created by Christophe Laudamiel for strangelove nyc. deadofnight was released in 2014, and lostinflowers was released in 2017. Both of these fragrances are built around natural, organic oud oil, distilled from agarwood trees grown on a sustainably-managed 600-acre plantation in Borneo.
Notes from the brand on Luckyscent say that this oud is “the equivalent of the Slow Food Movement” (but for oud). I purchased the samples for this review, and for Part One, from Luckyscent.
In Part One, I talked about strangelove nyc, its founder Elizabeth Gaines, and some background information about the perfumer, Christophe Laudamiel. I also reviewed two of their scents, meltmyheart and silencethesea. This time, I’ll be talking about some of Christophe’s other interesting work, and reviewing two more scents, the brand’s first, deadofnight, and most recent, lostinflowers.
CHRISTOPHE LAUDAMIEL
Some of Christophe’s most well-known works are Polo Blue, Abercrombie & Fitch Fierce, Tom Ford Amber Absolute, and S-Perfumes S-ex. But a lot of his work, smelled all over the world, isn’t even in bottles. In 2010, Christophe founded DreamAir®, an innovative perfumery which creates ambient scents and body- and mind-enhancing products for major hotels and companies around the world, including Hotel Americano, Armani, Azul-Japan, Bliss, Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos, Mercedes-Han Sung, Nest fragrances, New Balance, L’Olivier Floral Design, and The Pierre Hotel. He has also made Air Sculpture® designs for the WEF in Davos, the Swiss Pavilion at Shanghai Expo, the first olfactory retrospective of the EU at the EU Parliament in Brussels and for the US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Christophe has had five solo museum art shows in three years strictly devoted to olfactory art: Dillon in New York City and Mianki in Berlin, Germany. He also composed and scent-jockeyed the 30-plus scents for the scent opera Green Aria at the Guggenheim Museums. And, along with Christoph Hornetz, he created the 15 scents for the book and movie Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (which was released by Theirry Mugler as the “Le Parfum Coffret”)
Christophe’s newest venture is a perfumery called The Zoo. The Zoo is based on artistry, honesty, customer-centered experience, and fun. The Zoo has four collections — Fresh, Sexy, Raw, and Forbidden. On the labeling, he notes the year that the fragrance was manufactured, and the “version number” of the formula. If the formula ever has to be redesigned (due to a discontinued ingredient, or new legislation), he promises to identify the change on the bottle label and explain it on the website.
Christophe won an Art and Olfaction Award (Artisan Fragrance) in 2018 for his scent Club Design (from The Zoo). Some of his scents for The Zoo are sold as “garment fragrances” because they exceed the “limits for skin use” of certain aromachemicals. This is an interesting way of getting around some of the regulations related to potential allergens — at least for now.
The Zoo offers two different sample sets. I bought them both, and have found the scents to be very unique and intriguing.
Christophe has also created all of the scents for strangelove nyc so far, beginning with deadofnight.
deadofnight FRAGRANCE REVIEW
deadofnight was strangelovenyc’s first fragrance. It is described as “an addictive potion with a lingering sensuality.” Like all of the offerings from strangelovenyc, deadofnight is available in both EdP and oil perfume, and has a 24-karat gold cap.
deadofnight opens with leathery oud. At first, it is very camhporous, but quickly settles into a sour leather smell. It reminds me of leather work gloves, along with the tart-funkiness of kombucha.
After about 15 minutes, I can start to smell the rose. It’s been strangely well-hidden before this. It starts as just a hint, but eventually rises up to be noticed for a while. The rose is plummy and dark, and the oud surrounding it has taken on a nutty character. The leather is still there, but something about it reminds me of tahini.
The rose phase lasts for about an hour, and by 90 minutes it is gone. What is left is a nice, mellow oud. Leathery, a little sour, slightly medicinal, with little animalism and no barnyard funk. Once in a while, I could detect just the slightest hint of rose, as though the oud had been sprinkled with pink peppercorns. It’s smooth, pleasant, and a little disappointing. After a few hours, I got bored.
deadofnight DETAILS AND FINAL IMPRESSION
deadofnight lasted about 6 hours on my skin. It is a perfectly unisex, quality oud fragrance. The rose is muted and not too feminine or powdery. The oud is agreeable, and of unquestionable quality, but not really distinctive in any way. There is nothing groundbreaking going on. If you’re looking for oud that is safe for the office, this is it.
Perfumer’s listed notes are violet leaf, jasmine, rose, amber, sandalwood, incense, and oud. For more details, visit strangelovenyc.com.
lostinflowers FRAGRANCE REVIEW
lostinflowers is stranglovenyc’s newest perfume, released in 2017. It is described as “ethereal and profound.”
lostinflowers starts off smelling like orange blossom, honey, and shampoo. It’s very heavy on the shampoo. In fact, it smells like a shampoo scented with orange blossoms and honey (as opposed to the three things being equal, or in balance). This sounded so amazing to me as a shampoo, that I found one online. You can get it at Beekman 1802’s website. I have not smelled this particular shampoo myself, but lostinflowers smells so much like an orange blossom and honey shampoo that I am willing to bet that they are very similar.
As lovely as the idea of an orange blossom and honey shampoo is, I’m not sure that I want to wear it as a perfume. lostinflowers actually goes through orange blossom shampoo phases — from shampoo in the bottle, to shampoo in your palm under the hot shower, to shampoo in your hair, to watery shampoo bubbles running down the drain.
After about 30 minutes, as I’m still slightly amazed at the “watery shampoo” effect, lostinflowers starts to shift. Now it smells more like tepid bath water, full of epsom salts. I smell tons of salicylates. So much salt. It’s slightly metallic, and musty. It smells like salt on skin, with just a hint of orange blossom shampoo-water running down from the hair.
After an hour, I feel like I’m slogging through the worst part of a gardenia nightmare. It smells like a huge pile of brown public restroom paper towels soaked in honey-water. I also smell mushrooms, and iodine. Iodine on hot skin. And a hint of something like anise, maybe tarragon? I wrote “terpy, bitter, tangy, acid, metallic.”
As if all this wasn’t enough, then the oud shows up to the party. After two hours, I can smell its leathery sourness under the brown paper towel smell, salt, and iodine. Somehow it manages to be both pungent and musky, not unlike the very first, ever-so-slight whiff of raw meat that’s gone rancid. That moment when you know that you have to either get closer and fully inhale, or ask someone nearby “does this smell bad to you?”
lostinflowers DETAILS AND FINAL IMPRESSION
lostinflowers sounded so lovely, but it missed the mark for me. Although a lot of wonderful ingredients went into this perfume, I didn’t feel pretty while I was wearing it. It lasted for about 6 hours and has a feminine edge due to the sweetness.
Perfumer’s listed notes are Indian red champaca oil, lily of the valley, tagetes, saffron, gardenia enfleurage, and oud. For more details, visit strangelovenyc.com.
