Full disclosure – I have someone that was able to get me one of these fragrances below as a decant while they were still only available in China so I WAS able to smell this ahead of time and it got me super excited about the rest of the lineup. Now that they’re here we can test them, wear them, get complimented about them, refill them, the cycle continues.
It’s now officially Fall and I still find it crazy how the weather flips a switch right after Labor Day. Goes from 90s in New England down to upper 40s in the morning without any warning. What better way to combat the impending sun going down at 4pm bringing on seasonal depression better than three new LV fragrances. I gotta tell you, this has me super happy and excited to bring this blog to you, I’ve been waiting for over a year and we’re doing it! Let’s just get straight into this.
Ink Mark
First up is the one that has received the most questionable responses when I’ve seen people review this online and on YouTube. Ink Mark, to me, was the one I was most excited to try to be honest, and while it DOES have some odd qualities, it’s not as bad as some may say.
This has three notes to speak of – sandalwood, incense and amber. I can honestly tell you…I get zero of that. It smells like ink. Not like a BIC pen broke in your bag and spilled ink everywhere and it has a very distinct smell kind of ink, I mean a well of ink that’s used for old-school fountain pen writing and is probably expensive kind of ink. Like…$360 plus tax kind of expensive ink, if you get my drift.
I will say this and the more and more that I repeat this over in my head and the more I think about it the more it makes sense, but it smells like Lovers. Straight up. It’s Lovers re-bottled, re-branded, and re-used. It’s a little less bright and maybe a tinge more on the woody side but it’s so close to a 1:1 of Lovers it’s undeniable. If you have Lovers, I bet you’ve already ran over to the bottle, sprayed it on your other arm, compared and you’re now also scratching your head. It’s ok. I did this too.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a GREAT fragrance. The bottle presentation is beautiful, the fragrance is beautiful, but the scent is a repost, it’s a reboot, a replay, and a remake. This one, for me is a skip for my PC (personal collection) but I’ll sample it here and there with my decant and enjoy the fruits of LV’s labor. If you don’t already have Lovers and you want a fantastic scent or the fall/winter this one is very good. I could smell it off my skin for about 4 to 5 hours and it was a skin scent for around 8 hours. Not a bad start Louis, not a bad start.
Moon Tale
This one is the most polarizing. It’s a shampoo styled feminine-leaning fragrance that is very floral heavy but not out of the realm of possibility to be worn by a guy. The notes are; raspberry, peony, magnolia, jasmine sambac and rose geranium. Sooooo ALL of the flowers and one lonely fruit. Got it.
The bottle design on this one is also very beautiful and I’d say it fits the fragrance scent in a weird kind of way. Off skin this scent is radiant. There’s no doubt that this fragrance will push off of you if you give it some dense sprays so I’d be careful when laying this one on – too thick and you gotta start washing some of it off. On-skin I’d say this one lasted about 8 to 10 hours. Again, a really good and solid fragrance.
If I were to compare this to any other LV fragrances I wouldn’t really be able to help because I’ve mostly only sampled the men’s and unisex fragrances and none smell like this. This could either be a good thing or it could smell exactly like another one that I’m not familiar with – who knows? If you know, comment below.
Tea Storm (formerly Rain Tea)
If someone can enlighten me on why they changed the name, I'm all ears. I've read theories, reasons, and explanations all over the internet and they all sound weird to me. Rain Tea was a perfect name – it told you exactly what you were getting and it had this poetic, almost cinematic quality to it. Tea Storm sounds like a fighting game move. But hey, what do I know – I just wear the stuff. What I do know is that whatever you call it, I LOVE this scent and that's what actually matters here.
This is the one I mentioned earlier in the post that I had already smelled before sitting down to write this. The second I sprayed it I knew. You know that moment where a fragrance just immediately clicks and you don't need any more convincing? That was Tea Storm for me. No second guessing, no "let me sit with it for a while" – just an immediate, instinctive yes.
And here's the thing – it's so simple. Lemongrass, rose, magnolia and tea. That's it. That's the whole list. And that's genuinely all you need. There's something almost zen about a fragrance that doesn't try to do too much and Tea Storm nails that completely. The lemongrass gives it this bright, slightly citrusy lift right out of the gate, the rose and magnolia add a soft, clean floral quality without ever going full-on floral, and then the tea note just wraps everything together in this calm, sophisticated finish that is just... perfection. Tea done right. Not the synthetic, sharp, been-wearing-it-too-long kind of tea note that some fragrances go for – this is the real deal. It smells like someone brewed an actual cup of high quality tea, let the steam rise and somehow captured it in a bottle.
It's not offensive, it's not loud, it doesn't announce itself before you walk into a room. Out of the three fragrances in this post it sits right in the middle in terms of projection – present but never overpowering – and it outlasted both of the others on my skin in testing, which genuinely surprised me given how light and airy it feels on the spray.
And who is this for? Everybody. I genuinely mean that. This doesn't lean feminine, this doesn't lean masculine – it sits perfectly down the middle in a way that very few fragrances actually pull off without feeling generic or safe. This isn't safe, it's intentional. Any season, any occasion, any person. Tea Storm is for all of it.
Final Thoughts
I mean, it’s a great day when Louis Vuitton releases a new fragrance but it’s a spectacular day when they release three. While technically these came out over a year ago, they’re still new to us and I urge you to go and get your decants and test these out for yourself. They are crafted masterpieces and we’re glad they’re finally here. Test them out for yourself and let me know below which one was your favorite? Happy testing everyone and I’ll catch you in the next one. Peace!
