Unknown Pleasures

sharp lemon really hits you after spraying but then it turns into like a sweet lemon cake. i like it

Forgot the notes before smelling this sample and was smacked in the face by lemon caramel. Potentially the most abrasive thing ive smelled in my life and im an EMT

This is kind of interesting because you have to be careful with lemon accords for fear of smelling too much like a cleaning product Unknown Pleasures does a good job of just that but this is so unbelievably gourmand and cloying. Especially on a hot summer day. The opening notes are sharp citrus and bergamot but immediately dry down into strong vanilla accords that create a photo realistic lemon bar scent. The sillage to me is very intimate, always sitting there just right under your nose, a sweet dessert scent. I had to go home and change. It’s pleasant, just not for me.

This is a BLAST of citrus when you first spray it. Like almost overwhelming at first. Then it dries down and you can smell the vanilla and tea. To me this is very summery or for spring because of the citrus heaviness and also... it smells like.. bug spray? Not in a bad way like it's kind of nostalgic but not what I was looking for 6/10

Starts with a beautiful citrus that's loud but not sharp at all and very pleasant, then dries down into a DELISHESS iced lemon dessert with a lil sip of tea. Has me wanting to take a bite out of my own wrist 🍴😁 eat eat eat

Ok guys don't get mad at me but some parts of this especially the lemon notes smells like IndoMie Beef Rendang/Beef Lime flavor. It's not bad but it just keeps reminding me of that which distracts me from the perfume. I like it, definitely very food and delicious smelling without being cloying

this gives me a headache :( i think i am quite sensitive to candied + citrus notes, so this is just not the scent for me. accurate notes. i wish i could like her.

Unknown Pleasures was a pleasant surprise (no pun intended). The opening is a bright, zingy burst of lemon that feels edible and vibrant without veering into the territory of cleaning product. To me, the lemon in this fragrance smells natural, fresh and is beautifully executed. After a short while, the citrus is joined by the comforting aroma of a warm herbal tea with a spoonful of honey mixed in, giving the fragrance an incredibly cozy and inviting character. For me, this fragrance also has great staying power without being cloying. I was happily able to notice it all day. Overall, I found that this is a gourmand that strikes a beautiful balance between freshness and warmth.

Sooooo good. Opens with a more fresh lemon scent and dries down into more of a very sweet lemon cake. Might not be for everyone but it is definitely for me.

The perfect sweet tea. Don’t drink those sugar bombs but it sure does smell good. I like to layer it with Assam of India and other tea scents so it’s not so cloying.

Smells like a lemon tea (not earl grey) that you accidentally dumped too much sugar in because you were occupied reading the label of the milk carton only to realise that it’s expired and you’ve just put it in your tea. I’m glad I got a tester because it just isn’t for me. Everyone marketed it as an earl grey tea but it’s not at all! I barely get any tea I mainly smell lemon and caramel and the lemon isn’t like a zesty fresh lemon it’s more of a candied/cleaning product lemon scent. I never at any stage got any earl grey which is a shame because it’s my favourite western tea. Unknown pleasures wasn’t very pleasurable and it reminds me of Soft by Al Rehab which I ended up giving away because it would have ended up being toilet spray otherwise. Sad about not liking this but glad I didn’t blind buy.

this is much more gourmand than i typically go for but i like it! smells like a lemon pastry being dipped in tea. i’ve tried a handful of tea fragrances recently that were super fresh, but this is much cozier because of the caramel and vanilla. i wish this was a bit stronger, the citrusy scent petered out after about 4 hours and i was just left with a warm skin scent.

No, this smells exactly like warm, buttery lemon cake & Earl Grey ice cream & powdered sugar.

Unknown Pleasures – Kerosene I reached for Unknown Pleasures because someone wrote: tea, citrus, gourmand, elegance. It sounded like an afternoon in a dark tea room. Earl Grey, lemon zest, a buttery dessert, warm light, maybe an old armchair, maybe a touch of nostalgia. Something between a British parlour and a patisserie that understands sugar does not need to behave like an unsupervised child. And it arrived. Only not as an elegant gourmand. More like a tea room after an electrical short, where someone left soggy wafers in the back, a lemon floor cleaner, and a vanilla cream that has begun questioning the meaning of its own existence. First contact The first hit tries to say "Earl Grey." Tries. But this is not freshly brewed tea in porcelain. This is black tea that has steeped too long, turned bitter, metallic, and tired of life. Like a mug left on a windowsill in a hotel room where the air conditioning does not work, the curtains smell of dust, and a lemon sits on the saucer so long it has stopped being a fruit and started being evidence. The citrus does not brighten this scent. It scratches at it with a fingernail. It gives a sour, yellow flash — not fresh, more like lemon cleaning fluid poured into a cup by someone who decided "at least it will smell hygienic." It does not. It becomes suspicious. When the dessert starts sweating After a while the gourmand emerges, but not the kind you want to eat. This is not lemon cream with a buttery pastry in a nice café. This is a dessert that has been through things. A wafer gone soft from damp. Vanilla that has lost its class. Tonka sitting in the corner like an aunt after her third liqueur, convinced she is still elegant. The sweetness is not appetizing. It is sticky and tired. Like the counter in a pastry shop at the end of the day, when everything has slightly melted, slightly stuck, slightly absorbed the air, and nobody has the courage to say it needs to be thrown away. The worst part is that this scent has ambition. It genuinely wants to be cosy, tea-like, dessert-like, a "comfort scent." Only something went wrong in the kitchen. As if someone set out to make an elegant lemon curd but along the way confused the saucepan with the mop bucket. At the bottom In the base, Unknown Pleasures becomes more vanilla, softer, creamier — and that is precisely when it becomes most irritating. Because instead of fixing the situation, it preserves it. The tea is still over-brewed. The lemon still has that detergent grimace. The wafer still lies somewhere underneath, soggy, sweetish, sad. The whole thing smells like an old tea shop that once had a soul, but then someone taped the windows with foil, replaced the espresso machine with a cheaper one, and started selling "homemade pastries" from a cardboard box. There is something stifling here. Not heavy in a beautiful way. Stifling like a small premises without ventilation, where sweet tea, old cream, damp cardboard, and lemon air freshener have formed a pact against common sense. Unknown Pleasures was supposed to be an unknown pleasure. For me it is a very familiar displeasure: the moment you take a sip of tea and realise the mug smelled better from a distance. Longevity? Like the smell in a bag from a patisserie you will never return to. On a blotter it sits too long, like a guest who did not notice the party ended. On skin it tries to play warm dessert, but every so often the over-brewed tea, sour lemon, and soggy wafer resurface with the expression of someone who knows they have failed. On the psyche it remains as the question: who named this "pleasures," and are they doing all right? Marketing says Probably something about tea, lemon, vanilla, caramel warmth, gourmand pleasure, and nostalgic comfort. They should have written "For people who want to smell like over-brewed Earl Grey in a musty tea shop, lemon floor cleaner, a soggy wafer, vanilla cream after an identity crisis, and a dessert that only looked good in the photograph." Rating: 3/10 Three points for the idea, because tea with a lemon gourmand could have been beautiful. But the execution smells like an elegant tea salon after the back room flooded. These are not perfumes. This is a cup of disappointment with a slice of lemon that has seen too much. A gourmand after a breakdown. A dessert that arrived in a lovely description, sat down at the table, and then turned out to have wet socks and to smell of a mop.

Want to be a cake? Here you go.. It’s way to gourmand for my liking.

I literally smelled like cake all day.

Lemon iced pound cake. Smells pleasant but is very strong as is kerosene’s wont. Purely gourmand here. You will smell like food. Strongly like food. If you’re into that kind of thing this is it.

Coconut lemon meringue pie Pina colada Rumchata One of the most realistic and scrumptious gourmands I've ever smelled! I know there's no coconut note, but that's the dominant vibes I get on my skin. Yuuuuum.

this opens with such a bright and realistic, juicy lemon that it actually made me smile when i first smelled it. I couldn't really smell it on myself after two to three hours, though my friends could. Later in the evening I actually started getting some soft wiffs of toffee and cake again.

At first you get hit with a very intense, juicy lemon, which soon after spraying blends beautifully with caramel and vanilla. The scent creates a vivid picture of a cafe with freshly baked lemon pastries and hot caramel. As the scent settles it becomes more warm and amber. It feels like we’re watching the day pass at the cafe, witnessing the lives of different people walking in and out. The lemon gets fainter and the warmth fades into a light vanilla before the fragrance loses it’s scent Really beautiful experience I enjoyed smelling this on my hand throughout the day (lasted around 8-9h with one spray) I might look into getting a full size for the fall season

very fascinating scent!! I smelled it side-by-side with Akro’s “Bake” and much preferred “Unknown Pleasures” as a scent I’d actually want to wear, whereas “Bake” was sickeningly sweet lemon dessert. It’s quite complex as it starts to drydown, but overall pleasant :)

very intense lemon opening. it almost leans into cleaner or dish soap territory, and also reminds me of the kind of tea i drink when i am sick. both of those comparisons sound negative but it actually is not unpleasant. i was just hoping for more of a gourmand experience! it fades much faster than i expected after such a strong start. i do like how it develops on my skin, but the performance is just not there for me. the dry down is actually really nice. it leans almost photorealistic, like a lemon loaf or a soft lemon baked good. i even got flashes of something like starbucks lemon loaf, which i loved, but it stayed so subtle that i could barely enjoy it. :( throughout the day it kept disappearing. i reapplied multiple times and each time it came back with that same sharp opening and then quickly faded again. not sure if i went nose blind, but it really felt like it just did not last. overall it is a pleasant scent while it is there, but it becomes too soft way too quickly for me to justify. it just does not seem to agree with my skin.

If you love lemons this one is for you.

Smells like warm lemon and butter in the best way possible. I don’t usually want to smell like food but I can’t stop smelling this. It’s just so good. A cheerful, happy smell. There is a “burnt” smell as some people mentioned, but it’s the caramelized sugar edges of whatever you’re baking in the oven. This is so delicious and I’m obsessed!

this has everything that i love about supermilk, without everything that i hate about supermilk. yay! love my lemon gourmands. will need to compare with devotion and bake side by side

I love love love this fragrance but it's ultimately a disaster as it has ZERO longevity on me. My skin just gobbles it up. I get the intial delicious blast of lemon, then it settles into a lovely waffle cone/caramel scent, then 30-45 minutes later it's basically gone. I've experimented with spraying it in different areas, different amount of sprays, spraying it on clothing/linens, and every time it has nonexistent longevity. It's a real tragedy! I just want to smell like a lemon cupcake all day long but this has the longevity of a soap bubble :'(

I would like to preface this by saying I love nothing more than a citrus fragrance. I love a sharp zest of lemon - but do yall know that lemon juice that comes from the weird plastic yellow lemon bottle from the grocery store? This perfume felt like taking a bump of crystallized lemon concentrate and the stickiness left on your hand from icecream. Weirdly enough I don’t hate it, I feel like it’s just sort of the uglier sister of Akro Bake or Lush Super Milk.

A more mature, refined version of Lush Super Milk. The Earl Grey notes in this are perfect for the gloomy, grey British spring days (it is raining as I type this lol). On me, the first note to appear is a very realistic lemon note, specifically lemon peel. This is what makes it stand out to me, the slight bitterness to it that is so irresistible. Super Milk is lemon juice which is tart, not bitter. Most perfume notes blend together on me but for Unknown Pleasures I can smell each note the longer it's on my skin. The caramel is delectable and I had the urge to lick my wrist the first time I wore this. Whilst the notes are individual, they somehow blend together to create the most delicious harmony on my skin. It isn't loud but I get whiffs when I move my arms around hours later. It's a cosy, warm, yet sunny lemon. This is a chilly day but the sun shines through and warms your skin every so often. Dare I say this is close to becoming my signature scent.

This smells like straight up Thai food. I love Thai food though so not a bad thing just very interesting and unexpected. Not a sweet gourmand lemon cake bar scent to me, but more lemongrass and coconut milk. Still yummy but unsure if this would realistically be something I wear day-to-day.

The best citrus fragrance i have smelled so far. It reminds me of a lemon bar, sugar and also coconut, for some reason. Others have told me i smelled like coconuts when i wore it. 9/10 fragrance could last longer tbh.