Neutral Reviews of Bolt of Lightning 
JAR (2001)

I completely fell for the Jar hype back in the 00's. They were almost impossible to try, ludicrously expensive (for the time), legendarily weighted down with almost impossible concentrations of expensive natural essences, the passion project of a super-rich jeweler to royalty, and they wouldn't tell you how much they cost until you actually bought one.

Rediscovering it now, Bolt Of Lightning just smells like a decent but cluttered essential oil perfume. There's that jumbled smell you get when you combine too many essential oils, buzzing around a coalesced core of cinnamon, clove, and sweets that smells like a Yankee Candle at Christmastime. There's also a milky lactone floral that seems to be the structural core that everything else sits atop. I'm guessing this is the tuberose essence that other reviews mention, but I would have assumed Ylang because of the creaminess.

Lightning performs like a natural perfume, starting crowded and slowly coming into focus as elements burn off (instead of the typical top/heart/base structure of chemical perfumes). As the complications fade, the milky floral comes into full view, slightly green and vaguely indolic, palpably pretty but probably not improved by its surroundings.

Overall, Bolt's not bad. I've smelled much worse from other untrained perfumers working with expensive oils. But it doesn't stand out as anything special. It's funny, or at least ironic, that for a moment, Bolt Of Lightning was pretty much the ultimate luxury perfume, requiring a trip to Paris or New York, highly priced and highly prized as the jewel of the Jar collection. But it smells like a decent Etsy perfume...

Bolt of Lightning opens with a super "high-pitched," piercing bitter-green accord before very slowly moving to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart the "high-pitched," piercing green accord loses just a bit of steam, still remaining relatively acrid; while a faint white floral tuberose starts to grow in the background. The further the composition moves into its heart, the piercing green recedes more and more as the tuberose increases to the point that it eventually takes over as the star. During the late dry-down the piercing green accord is all but absent as the tuberose turns milder, even a bit sweet and creamy through the finish. Projection is below average and longevity average at about 8 hours on skin.

Bolt of Lightning is indeed a shock to the system. Immediately after application the acrid high-pitched green accord is enough to scare away most anything in its path (and many wearers, I suspect). At this point the tuberose goes near completely unnoticed, as the greens are so potent and off-putting one can't help but focus all their attention on them. Luckily, the extended open starts to very slowly soften, and by the one and a half hour mark the tuberose starts to take some of the sting away from the greens until eventually it all but swallows them up. Those that hang around for the finish are in for a treat, as the fine tuberose turns a bit creamy and a hair sweet, as maybe just a touch of sandalwood is used to soften it late. The real question at hand is can one (and indeed *should* one) hang around for the payoff?... Each individual will have to answer that question for themselves, but in the case of this reviewer the torturous open and early heart sections are not outweighed by the relatively pleasant late dry-down. In short, the answer in my opinion is "No." The bottom line is "Bolt of Lightning" is a very apropos name as the composition is one half initially intolerable and shocking and one half excellent, earning it an "above average" 2.5 to 3 stars out of 5 rating on the whole and a neutral recommendation.

My overall impression was that it was a nice, long-wearing perfume that smells almost exclusively of gardenia. I never picked up the indoles and cadaverine scents of which others spoke, and I do not find it in any way redolent of the ozone and lightning strike odor others extolled. For this type of scent experience, I suggest trying the Shadow scent. Still, Bolt of Lightning is pleasant if not a little ordinary. It wears well and doesn't grow stale or fetid.

This fragrance is tuberose, top to bottom. The decaying smell at first, the white floral dry down, the absurd price tag, all it comes down to as far as I can tell is the juice is mostly tuberose absolute, which does cost a lot, but not upwards of $700/bottle unless there's really nothing but tuberose absolute in there. Honestly, there is something fantastic about being pampered and wowed in smelling fragrances, and they are generous with the time spent with a customer.