Lurker and Strange Perfumery Review

Hello bats! Today I'm going to be reviewing a recent purchase from Lurker and Strange Perfumery, a small business that sells hand-blended perfume oils made with natural, vegan-friendly ingredients. The scents are inspired by Wicca, witchcraft, mythological figures, and the like. The perfume oils are made in a historical concentration that isn't widely used anymore called esprit de parfum. This class of perfumes contains ~40% aromatic ingredients, so they last much longer and don't need to be applied in large amounts.

I had a really hard time picking which scents I wanted, so I had to pare down my original order of like 10 bottles to 4. I ended up choosing 1mL bottles of Brimstone, Ostara, Aura, and Dragon's Blood ($6.50 CDN each), and I also received a free sample of Brigid's Wisdom! Really good value for the money here.

Tiny little bottles!

The crystal decorations on each bottle are so cute!

I placed my order on April 3rd, and it was shipped out by lettermail on April 5th - very quick turnaround. The parcel arrived on my doorstep on the 14th. The shop is located in the same province as me, but the pandemic is seriously interfering with local delivery times. Anyways, let's have a look at what's inside the package...

Brimstone ("spiced cocoa, caramel, smokey vanilla") is a really interesting scent! It smells like fragrant smoke and spicy hot chocolate with a little caramel underneath. The vanilla notes is light but still noticeable, especially after the top notes of smoke fade away. It reminds me a little bit of Tom Ford Noir de Noir, which I'm also a huge fan of - and this is like 10 times cheaper! Brimstone is the perfect name for this fragrance. I think it's best suited for autumn or winter. It had great longevity through the day and faded to a nice, lightly spicy smoke scent with a little bit of dark chocolate.

Fun fact: Ostara is one of the Wiccan Sabbat holidays celebrated on March 21st at the Spring Equinox. The word Ostara comes from Ēostre, a Germanic pagan goddess of spring and dawn. The word "Easter" comes from Ēostre, too!

Ostara ("sweet rose buds, juicy apple, ripe melon, plumeria, raspberry") is a delicate, girly spring floral. It smelled very strongly of apple candy and sweet rose when first applied, with the apple settling down quickly to make way for the florals. There's a raspberry scent underlying it all, but I couldn't really detect the melon note at all. It's mature and feminine, but still very sweet. I quite like this scent, even though it's not what I'd usually go for in a perfume. It's a very elegant scent and I'm...not, so I'm going to give this one to my mom instead. The longevity on me wasn't as good, but the scent didn't change too much throughout the day either.

Aura ("lychee, rose, honey plum, white patchouli") is another feminine floral scent, this time fruity instead of floral. And it's soooo fruity! It smelled like straight up lychee when I first applied it. It quickly faded to reveal the rose and plum, and the patchouli started to come through within minutes. It ended up being a rather subtly fruity type of scent on me, and lasted a long time too! The pajamas I was wearing still smelled like it the next day. I can definitely see this becoming one of my everyday scents.

I also ordered their take on Dragon's Blood ("damask rose, cloves and spices, bourbon vanilla, black patchouli"), an iconic scent that every goth who lived through the 90s will instantly recognize. You know how they say that scent is the sense that is most strongly linked to memories? This scent immediately transported me back to the neighbourhood Wiccan shop I used to frequent as a teenager. It smelled of incense, dusty books, and patchouli with the sweetness of roses and just a little bit of vanilla underneath. So nostalgic and lovely! This perfume oil had the best staying power of all, even though the scent became softer and lost its incense notes by the end of the day.

They also included a free sample of Brigid's Wisdom ("candied strawberries, tart rhubarb, warm amber, sensual musk") which sounds like something I'd enjoy based on the description. I liked the scent in the bottle, but unfortunately, this one just didn't agree with my body chemistry at all for some reason! I got faint strawberry candy and rhubarb notes, but it smelled oddly plasticky on me. Still, I appreciate the thoughtfulness of the shop including a sample, especially because my order was so small.

I also received a discount code for my next order. I definitely plan on purchasing more since I'm incredibly pleased with what I've gotten so far - lovely scents and great service! The price point is If you like witchy scents, they have a wide variety of scents to choose from.

Thanks so much for reading!

[Current Music: Delphine Coma - Tension]