Fragrance Review: Le Labo
My first fragrance review post was all about Maison Margiela Replica, and this time, it’s Le labo!
If this is first time visiting my blog, I suggest checking out the “About My Fragrance Reviews” post first.
This posted is not sponsored; the products mentioned are what I personally purchased. None of the links in this post are affiliated either.
Le Labo was created in 2006 with their first store in New York. They are known for their hand-blended perfumes and they refer themselves as “slow perfumery”.
Their fragrances have their main ingredient as their name, along with numbers.
Some brands name their perfumes by the number of samples they’ve made or chose the final version from, but that’s not the case with Le Labo.
The numbers in Le Labo’s fragrance names mean how many ingredients are used to make that perfume. Isn’t that interesting?
Le Labo only uses carefully selected ingredients and their perfumes are made-to-order which makes their product expensive (but understandable.)
It’s not something I can just buy without testing first, but luckily, they offer samples for all of their existing fragrances! Yay for a good service!
Fleur d'Oranger 27
Fleur d'Oranger 27 is an orange blossom scent perfume.
It’s like taking a stroll through an orchard when the trees are at full blossom. It’s a sweet floral scent but very light and refreshing.
The scent of the flower in here is so natural that it feels as if it might attract bugs just like the real flowers do. Not in a heavy sticky way at all, but rather, transparent, bright, almost sparkling way that is perfect for spring and summer.
I would say this was a linear scent that doesn’t change dramatically along the way. Some might find that boring, but if you like the opening smell, you won’t be disappointed all the way until the end.
I think scents like orange blossoms or neroli are often categorized as “soapy” but this one doesn’t feel soapy, at least on my skin, it’s more clear and bright.
It’s such an uplifting scent that would put you in a positive state of mind instantly.
Fleur d'Oranger 27 and Thé Noir 29 were my two faves from Le Labo so far.
That being said, I’m not sure if I appreciate the Fleur d'Oranger 27 in colder months as much as I do during spring/summer. This just feels right in a warmer weather.
Thé Noir 29
By glance, I thought this was called “The Noir” and assumed it would be a dark, mysterious, and heavy scent.
But it’s actually “Thé Noir” which means black tea!
It’s not a sticky sweet but somewhat fruity scent, and I can smell the freshness of tea leaves time to time.
In the opening I can smell fig well. It’s not a green nor soft creamy fig, but very ripe fig juice like scent.
It’s got some depth but not too heavy, it’s rich yet clean. I think this is a unique, multi-faceted scent just like how it’s described on their website.
It has a pretty good projection, so I’d want to be mindful of that. It’s a mature scent, more suitable for evening occasions, and is very androgynous.
I really like this one!
Neroli 36
Floral (orange blossom) with creamy vanilla.
Neroli 36 and Fleur d'Oranger 27 are both orange blossom scents and some might find them similar to each other. While Fleur d'Oranger 27 is bright, flower-nectar type of sweetness, Neroli 36 is creamy-sweet.
It’s a pretty scent, but since I’m not a huge fan of vanilla scents, I prefer Fleur d'Oranger 27.
If you’re someone who loves creamy, rounded, mellow floral, you probably would love Neroli 36!
Jasmin 17
Pretty floral with a hint of roasted aroma just like jasmine tea.
This one has vanilla, but because of that little bit of citrus, it’s well balanced and not overly creamy (which I like.)
When I first tried this in early summer, it felt a little too vanilla-y for me, but now that it’s cold out and the air is even more dry, it feels quite nice.
Some jasmine perfumes are very rich and sort of sensual, but this one is light and cheerful.
I always thought of vanilla as just sweet but Jasmin 17 surprisingly feels clean!
After a couple of hours, the roasted aroma fades away and it became softer and gentler floral vanilla scent on my skin.
Thé Matcha 26
This one is called matcha, but I couldn’t really detect matcha so much. Rather, it felt more like a Japanese incense.
It’s not offensive, it’s a relaxing scent.
This is something one can wear anytime and anywhere.
The fig is one of the main ingredients but it’s not really sweet; it’s more woody to me. The woody-ness isn’t the wild kind, nor dirty, muddy kind. It’s like a well-loved and well-taken cared, modest and clean Japanese older wooden house, if that makes sense.
Not sure why, but after a few hours of wear, it had certain soapy, clean quality at the end.
Ambrette 9
Ambrette seed is a plant based alternative to musk (natural musk is an animal product.)
Ambrette 9 is a very light, fruity scent. I think this is one of the lightest scent of all Le Labo fragrances. It sits very close to the skin.
In the opening, it smells just like pears.
It smells nice, but even to my sensitive nose (I usually doesn’t prefer strong scents), this one is quite weak. If you’re looking for a fruity skin scent, you’d want to give this one a try!
It eventually turned into very musk-like scent; musk is a tricky scent for me, but this one remained very soft, light and inoffensive.
Rose 31
Traditional rose fragrances are considered very “feminine”. So Le Labo created a modern, gender neutral rose that can be worn by anyone—the Rose 31.
From the opening, you can smell both the floral quality and the earthy, woody quality. On my skin, floral scent faded away in the mid way and became more woody afterwards.
Upon first spray, it feels like you’re smelling the rose that you just took it out from the soil. You can smell the rose petal, as well as the stem, leaves, and the dirt all together.
This is unique and I can see why a lot of people love this scent, however, it felt a little too strong for me personally. (I tend to stay away from wild, earthy scents.)
If you love woody notes and are looking for a wild rose scent, then I think this could be your go-to.
Lys 41
I think “lys” means lily in french, if I’m not mistaken.
Lys 41 is a white floral scent; it reminds me of tropical, sweet flowers. This one has a strong projection and sillage.
On my skin, the lily is the dominant scent along with some creaminess which I think is the reason why I think of tropic flowers.
This one is for someone who loves elegant floral scents. With vanilla, I think it’s more suited for the colder months than summer.
Neroli 36 (orange blossom), Jasmin 17 (jasmine), Lys 41 (lily) are all white floral family; one might find them similar to one another.
Out of the three, I think I prefer the Jasmin 17 the most, just because Jasmin 17 is the lightest and brightest.
Ylang 49
Floral mixed with tropic forest is what comes to my mind with this one.
Just like the description from Le Labo says, it’s like holding a flower bouquet and walking through the forest.
In this case, the forest scent isn’t the clean and refreshing kind, but an earthy, dirty, and strong woody one.
It felt way too heavy for me, especially at the opening. This is the type of scent that you need to choose the time, place, and occasion carefully. (Perhaps an outdoor occasion in summer might work.)
With the woody, earthy quality, this is somewhat a gender neutral floral.
Baie 19
This is the scent of the rain—a heavy rain after a long dry spell.
“Baie” means berry in french. In this case, it’s a dry juniper berry, and not sweet berries like strawberry or raspberry.
Baie 19 is an androgynous scent that leans slightly towards “masculine”, since there’s not sweetness.
You can really get the feel of the rain smell, which is amazing!
This perfume somehow reminds me of “sumi” which is a kind of liquid ink used for Japanese calligraphy. It might sound odd, but I do like the smell of the calligraphy ink. It’s very relaxing and clean to me.
This one is one of my husband’s favourites.
The fragrances above are from Le Labo’s classic collection. You can purchase them anytime at any Le Labo’s locations and/or from their website.
In addition to their classic collection, they have the City Exclusive collection. I believe there are 15 of them and you can only buy them in each city.
But the month of September is an exception. Every year, they offer the city exclusive collection online during September, so you can order them from anywhere in the world! (As long as they ship to where you live, of course.)
The last two that I’m sharing are from the City Exclusive.
Gaiac 10
Gaiac 10 is Tokyo exclusive.
I chose this one thinking that my husband might like it.
Gaiac 10 is not a stereo-typical Tokyo or Japanese smelling fragrance. But rather, it smells like something that Japanese people might want to wear.
To be honest, I wouldn’t know what the stereo-typical Japanese scents would be, maybe green tea or Japanese incense that smells like temples? Either way, Gaiac 10 isn’t anything like that.
It’s a very light, clean, and fresh scent.
It reminds me of a forest, but not a wild and harsh one. It smells like hinoki (Japanese cypress which is often used for furniture including traditional wooden bath tubs.) It’s soft and soothing. It’s the type of scent that is so inoffensive.
It’s calm and not overpowering.
It’s not very perfumy.
Very gentle and relaxing.
Japan has high population which means everywhere you go is packed with people (especially in big cities) plus the humidity is high; in those situations perfumes can easily be offensive to others, hence a lot of people tend to avoid wearing perfumes in Japan.
But I think this is something that a lot of Japanese people would actually like.
Gaiac 10 isn’t the stereo-typical Japanese scent, but if this was meant for people who live in a modern days of busy Tokyo, then I think they got it just right.
Tokyo has the reputation of being one of the cleanest large cities in the world; and the Gaiac 10 is no different, it’s one of the most clean and modest scents there are.
And when I say clean, it’s not the sharp citrusy scent, nor aquatic. It’s soft and has slight very subtle sweetness (that is not sugary at all)—just pure calmness.
As I predicted it, this one is my husband’s favourite of all.
Tubereuse 40
Tubereuse 40 is New York exclusive.
I’ve never been to NY yet (would love to one day), but my impression—and probably a lot of people would agree—is that NY is an exciting city in which people with big dreams dwell.
In reality though, there are only a handful who can actually make those big dreams come true. Maybe New Yorkers all know that, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try.
The brighter the light is, the darker the shadow gets—I think of NY as a city just like that. And the perfume that represents such a city must be exciting and complicated—is what I thought.
But surprisingly, this one doesn’t feel unique. To be honest, it didn’t make a strong impression (at least to me).
Just like the Gaiac 10, maybe Tubereuse 40 also expresses NY in an unconventional way. I’m curious to know what New Yorkers think of this scent.
In the opening I got a little bitter citrus, then it turned into floral with a hint of green. Some might find this “soapy” or “detergent-y”.
It’s not my personal favourite, but it is a gentle, fresh floral that many would like.
The citrus and green help to prevent it from being overly sweet; for anyone who’s looking for a floral scent that’s not sugary or candy-like, this one might work.
Over time, it turned into powdery musk on my skin.
I’ve been collecting these samples slowly, and I didn’t realize I had so many!
My favourites are “Fleur d'Oranger 27” and “Thé Noir 29”.
My husband’s favourites are “Gaiac 10” and “Baie 19”.
When I first sniffed some of the samples from Le Labo, I was pleasantly surprised at how high quality they smelled!
Of course I’m not an expert but…
When you eat fine meals prepared with the best ingredients, you can really taste the flavour of the ingredients. It’s like that with Le Labo fragrances too. They don’t smell synthetic, you just get the rich fragrances of the ingredients.
I love the simplicity of their bottles too! One day, I hope to add one of their perfumes to my collection.
Jan 25, 2023
