Assassin Liquid Perfume

When I saw the word 'Assassin' underneath the list of perfumes that Lush were going to bring out as part of their Lush Labs release, my heart skipped a beat. It takes a lot to impress me when it comes to shower gels, and Assassin Shower Gel completely bowled me over when I first received my order from the Lush Kitchen.

You can imagine my confusion and disappointment then when I first sprayed the perfume on my skin and found myself scrunching up my nose at the rather disgusting smell that greeted my senses. Okay, so perhaps the word disgusting is a little overdramatic when describing this perfume, but you've no doubt understood by now that I am not a fan in the slightest. 

Let me start by saying that the ingredients list looked really promising when I first read about what was inside of this perfume. The fact that the words 'blackcurrant absolute' and 'vanilla absolute' featured as prominent components, excited me to no end. However, the realisation that this perfume was probably very unlikely to share its scent with the shower gel also dawned on me, as they don't have very much in common in terms of key notes.

From the bottle, you initially get a strong, wet note of what I think is comprised of both the blackcurrant and the oakmoss in unison. To put it simply: these two ingredients just don't go well together in my opinion, and the fragrance they gave off reminded me of what it would be like to stick my head in a load of damp weeds, and take a big inhale inwards.

The oakmoss itself offers its usual earthy, moss-like smell, whilst the blackcurrant is sweet, fruity and slightly sour. The juxtaposition of these two layers appears to contradict each other for quite a while on the skin, and for this reason the fragrance just didn't settle for me whilst I was wearing it. 

Alongside this, the pine oil delivers a very delicate crisp, green note, although it hasn't been given the freedom to fully develop its or its character. The same goes for both the lime and the vanilla absolute. I could detect that both ingredients were there - the former more strongly than the latter - but I believe I could only really smell them because I knew that they should be there somewhere.

After a good twenty minutes on the skin, the perfume does settle a little more, and the headiness that first greets your senses does simmer a little on the heat of your skin. When this happens, the blackcurrant comes forth a little more, intertwined with the lime oil to add a little more sourness. However, the oakmoss is still very much present, yet doesn't appear to interlace with the other notes as much as I would expect a perfume to do. 

Ultimately, the dynamics of this perfume just don't work for my nose, although that's not to say that someone else won't find it incredibly beautiful. While I would always encourage Lush to bring out weird and unique smells, there are just some that I'm not prepared to wear on my skin, and this would be one of them.       

Quantitative Ingredients: DRF Alcohol, Perfume, Water (Aqua), Geraniol, Glycerine, Pine Oil, *Limonene, *Linalool, Lime Oil, Neroli Oil, Blackcurrant Absolute, Vanilla Absolute, *Anise Alcohol, *Citral, Oakmoss Extract, *Farnesol.

Vegan?: Yes.

2018 Price: £29 for 30ml.

Year Of Original Release: 2018.