25:43 is the perfume that Mark Constantine created specifically for the wedding of his son, Simon. It is named after the amount of time - 25 minutes and 43 seconds that it took the LUSH founder and Gorilla Perfumer to compile the ingredients, create and perfect this fragrance.
When I first purchased this perfume on eBay, as with every Lush perfume that I have ever bought, I had no idea what to expect from the scent. I had read reviews on 25:43, I had ingested the lists of scents that had been added to make this product. Yet I was still unsure exactly what smell would greet me on sniffing it for the first time.
Containing notes of lime, tonka bean, lemongrass, vanilla, ylang ylang and litsea, this perfume is a marvel if there ever was one. In the bottle, this is a very citrusy perfume - one that has a lemon-y, limey note that reminds me a little of Dragon's Egg Bath Bomb. Yet the addition of ylang ylang, vanilla, and tonka bean prevent it from being simply another citrus fragrance. While the initial smell is lime and lemongrass, once on the skin the undertone of vanilla makes itself very present, and this element dominates the overall aroma very quickly. Not only does it dampen the citrus sting and makes it all the more appealing with it's warm, sultry blanket of sweetness, it rounds the whole perfume off and makes a very wholesome, yet equally gentle fragrance to wear in the warmer months.
25:43 is a fresh and citrusy perfume that I believe smells a lot better when left to mature on your skin and clothes. Some perfumes can be sprayed and immediately smell amazing, others need time to breathe. 25:43 is definitely of the latter group. I tend to spray this all over myself and within 5-10 minutes, the vanilla, ylang ylang, lime and lemongrass soften and release a soft scent that doesn't smell acidic or overpowering and leaves me feeling very happy indeed.
This is definitely a spring/summer smell - one that compliments the warm weather and suits the sunnier, happy times more than the colder ones. Although I don't wear this very often, I find that I get a lot of positive compliments when I do - a perfect reason to get a bottle if there ever was one!Lush recently re-released this to celebrate the one year anniversary of the opening of the Gorilla Perfume shop in Islington, and while I loved the perfume beforehand, the new bottles and general freshness of the perfume has made me fall in love with this all over again.
Quantitative Ingredients: DRF Alcohol, Perfume, Tonka Absolute, Lemongrass Oil, Litsea Cubeba Absolute, Persian Lime Oil, Benzyl Salicylate, Coumarin, Geraniol, Benzyl Benzoate, Citronellol, Famesol, Limonene, Linalool.
Vegan?: Yes
2015 Price: £31 for 30ml.
2016 Price: £32 for 30ml.
