rogalal's Review of Bolt of Lightning by JAR

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 the royals, 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 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. And it smells like a decent Etsy perfume.

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