The Comforter Liquid Perfume

After my less than pleasant experience with a really old solid version of this perfume, I was determined to get The Comforter back into my good books. I stocked up on the bubble bar, invested in a couple of You Snap The Whip Body Butters and slapped a bottle of the shower gel in my bathroom - all in the hope of renewing my love for the beautiful scent. It was only then that I remembered I had a couple of bottles of the limited edition liquid perfume, and I had yet to review them on here.

As you can imagine, this is one of the most popular limited edition perfumes from Lush - having only made itself available for the 2008 and 2012 Forum Special releases. These bottles are like gold dust, which is why I was really excited to try the fragrance out. When Lush revealed it would be one of their 2014 scents, I was interested to get my hands on a fresh bottle and see what it was like. 

The famous combination of bergamot oil, cassis absolute and cypress oil creates a sweet and very fruity fragrance - something that slightly resembles the smell you'd expect from a fruit compote or a sugar syrup. It smells heavily of black currant, which is my all-time favourite smell - hence why I love The Comforter so much. 

Unfortunately, although my experience with the liquid perfume was not a disaster, it was still a bit of an anticlimax. In the bottle, you can immediately pick out the signature smell. Surprisingly, the scent I detected is the closest to the bubble bar that I've ever encountered - I could make out the blackcurrant element but there was also a sherbety element which softened the cassis absolute a little. 

However, on the skin, this perfume gave off a very sickly-sweet, acidic note, which took away from the warmth of the blackcurrant and gave it a nasty sourness. When left to mature for a little while, the blackcurrant note subsides quite a bit and you are left with a rather lovely powdery, fruity smell. If the perfume had only offered me this experience, I can imagine I would have grown to love the gentle sweetness of The Comforter. 

Unfortunately, alongside this is a rather nasty stale element which I can't quite describe, but which dominated this smell for me at the beginning and made it very off-putting. I can only describe it as being similar to when you use too much of the shower gel at once - you get a sort of tartness that smells rather synthetic, almost plasticy. 

This whole experience was very disappointing for someone who loves this fragrance family so much. A small part of me is wondering whether my aversion to this scent is because I've been exposed to so many wonderfully complex perfumes from Lush over the years. Perhaps this one is just too simple for my newly-educated palette? 

While I did enjoy it once it had settled on the skin, and it did last a good 3-4 hours before it had fully dispersed, I am really starting to think that The Comforter is limited to the format that it can be successfully used in. While I continue to bask in the wonderful bubble bar, shower gel and shower jelly, I'm beginning to think that this perfume needs to be revamped and remade so that it represents the beautiful, sugary smell that we all love. 

Quantitative Ingredients: DRF Alcohol, Perfume, Bergamot Oil (Citrus Aurantium bergamia), Cassis Absolute (Ribes nigrum), Cypress Oil (Cupressus sempervirens), Limonene, Linalool, Citral.

Vegan?: Yes.

2014 Price: £28 for 30ml. 

Scent Family:
The Comforter Bath Bomb
The Comforter Body Conditioner

The Comforter Body Lotion

The Comforter Shower Gel

The Comforter Bubble Bar
The Comforter FUN Bar
The Comforter Liquid Perfume
The Comforter Solid Perfume
Free Rangers Bath Bomb
Luxury Lush Pud Bath Bomb

Oopsie Daisy Bubble Bar
Poppy Soap
Reindeer Rock Soap

Sweetie Pie Shower Jelly

You Snap The Whip Body Butter

Cherie Ripe Massage Bar

Cherie Ripe Body Lotion