doomsday_disco

Iris and Wild Patchouli.

Every leaf tells a story.

“O father, my father, and saw you not plain, The Erl-King’s pale daughter glide past thro’ the rain?” — “O yes, my loved treasure, I knew it full soon; It was the grey willow that danced to the moon.” Moonlit mist clinging to skin the color of ghost lilies, pearlescent and cold. A spectral musk possessing the sheen of river water at night.

Pine sap and amber ashes.

I purchased this bottle back in 2015, but I didn't review it due to life events, and now, here I am, 11 years later, reviewing the scent. Aristocratic Couple is a delightful apricot scent. I applied my Bourbon Vanilla Hair Gloss yesterday, before I tested this, and it really helped me to isolate that note in this scent: it's a sheer vanilla that has a bit of brightness to it, and isn't floofy or foody whatsoever. I think that note has gained strength as it has aged over the years, but of course, the apricot is the star of the show here. The cardamom, on the other hand -- well, there's really only a light dusting of it. I didn't test them side by side (despite owning both scents), but I agree with another reviewer's comment about this being a cousin to March Hare. March Hare has its sprinkling of clove, and this has its dusting of cardamom, but the both lightly-spiced apricot scents. I am glad I ordered a bottle of this back in the day. I really should wear it more often.

If you love ginger, this scent is for you, for it has it in spades! The ginger root is the strongest note throughout wear, and it is somewhat effervescent, reminding me of ginger beer. The lemon is next in prominence, and I get touches of the other notes, but they don't hold a candle to those two. This smells like the sort of tea you would drink when feeling ill. I don't think I need a full bottle of this one, but I'm definitely going to hang onto my decant for those times when I'm not feeling too well and drinking lots of lemon and ginger tea.

Green tea, mate, mint leaf, lemon peel, ginger root, and white cedar.

On me, this goes on with what I believe is the white ginger, which is reading as a sweet floral on me, followed by a rush of brandy and the apricot mash. It is very sweet and boozy at first, but then the brandy wins out, and the sandalwood joins in, so that it is mostly a sandalwood-infused booze scent on me. The vanilla wasn't noticeable on my skin, but maybe it just needs some age. In any case, of the two apricot Shungas in this update, I prefer Apricot Vulva, since it doesn't contain any booze.

Vanilla-soaked sandalwood, apricot mash, brandy, and white ginger.

Well-worn, soft leather encircled by spiky gilded amber.

Peru balsam, champa absolute, sugared patchouli, toasted cardamom, black pepper, labdanum, and coffee bean.

I went the decant route on this one in case it would be too similar to Aristocratic Couple. I gave this a full-day slather during the day yesterday and then deathmatched this with Aristocratic Couple (while also testing Workman Displaying further down my arm...). During the daytime slather, this was predominantly bright apricot and bergamot -- the bergamot really brightens the scent. I don't get any of the bourbon vanilla from this, or the cream musk, but maybe they will emerge with age. Unfortunately, I do get a waxy quality from the scent after it has been on my skin for a few hours, especially in the crooks of my elbows -- it's almost more like a dried apricot, even though it started off like a fresh one. Compared to Aristocratic Couple, this is much brighter, and while the apricot and the sheer bourbon vanilla are really noticeable in Aristocratic Couple, I am not able to detect the bourbon vanilla in Apricot Vulva. Since the bottle of Aristocratic Couple is 11 years old at this point, it's possible that Apricot Vulva's bourbon vanilla will also be more noticeable as the scent ages. But fresh, Apricot Vulva does not smell as good to me as Aristocratic Couple, which also has the bonus of being infused with a tiny bit of cardamom that makes it even more appealing. On the other hand, Workman Displaying His Sexual Prowess and Gigantic Size of His Member in a Variety of Situations is quite different to Apricot Vulva. It does not feature the same apricot note, is very boozy from the brandy on my skin, and it has the woodiness of the sandalwood. Of the two, I prefer Apricot Vulva. I don't feel the need to upgrade my decant to a bottle since I prefer Aristocratic Couple and March Hare, but I'll be hanging on to my decant.

Apricot, cream musk, bourbon vanilla, and golden bergamot.

Dried Strawberries and Dragon’s Blood Resin.

I loved this as soon as I smelled it, and as it bloomed on my skin, I knew that I would need more than one bottle in my life. The Indolence of Resting Men predominantly smells like sugar cane and cucumber on me, with a squeeze of lemon swirled with some black tea. It smells like the most wonderful, sugared cucumber and lemon-infused iced tea, and I know I'm going to love to slather this on every summer. I'm not getting any of the cream from this, but that's fine with me. I went the decant route on this because I wasn't sure how the cucumber would go with the other notes, but it turns out, they complement each other perfectly! I will definitely be needing at least 2-3 bottles of this before it goes away!

Sugared lemon cream, lemon peel, raw sugar cane, cucumber, and black tea.

Gigil. I don’t think there’s an exact translation for this in English, but this is basically Cuteness Aggression, Filipino-style. Good gigil is the feeling of being absolutely overwhelmed by cuteness – VIBRATING because of someone or something’s intense cuteness – like you JUST CANNOT HANDLE THIS LEVEL OF CUTENESS. It’s a feeling somewhere between adoration and agitation? The uncontrollable urge to squeeze someone’s cheeks? Clenching your teeth because you cannot handle the cuteness you are experiencing? The feeling you get when you see a puppy or kitten so cute that you want to cry or scream? I know y’all know what I’m talking about. So, what does nanggigigil ako sayo translate to? It’s sort of… I CANNOT HANDLE HOW CUTE YOU ARE. IF I DON’T SMORSH YOUR CHEEKS I AM GOING TO LOSE MY MIND. Ok, that’s not the literal translation, but you get the gist. (Bad gigil, on the other hand, is when you are about to go volcanic with irritation. When your eyes are watering and your hands are clenching and your teeth gnashing because you are frothing with frustration. There’s too much of that in the world right now, so we’re not going to go there. I’m all bag gigil’d out. I’ve had enough bad gigil to last me a hundred lifetimes.) A scent for all of us who have been exploded by someone else’s cuteness: ube candyfloss and rice paper-wrapped red bean custard candy.

Japanese wineberries, ti leaf, osmanthus, and a dribble of plum wine.

White musk, green mandarin, moonflower, oolong tea, crushed grass, ume blossom, and green amber.

Jammy blueberries folded into creamy chocolate and dusted with cardamom, cinnamon, black tea, and warm milk.

Death had come into the land from the time Osiris had been closed in the chest through the cunning of Sêth; war was in the land; men always had arms in their hands. No longer did music sound, no longer did men and women talk sweetly and out of the depths of their feelings. Less and less did grain, and fruit-trees, and the vine flourish. The green places everywhere were giving way to the desert. Sêth was triumphant; Thout and Nephthys cowered before him. And all the beauty and all the abundance that had come from Rê would be destroyed if the pieces that had been the body of Osiris were not brought together once more. So Isis sought for them, and Nephthys, her sister, helped her in her seeking. Isis, in a boat that was made of reeds, floated over the marshes, seeking for the pieces. One, and then another, and then another was found. At last she had all the pieces of his torn body. She laid them together on a floating island, and reformed them. And as the body of Osiris was formed once more, the wars that men were waging died down; peace came; grain, and the vine, and the fruit-trees grew once more. And a voice came to Isis and told her that Osiris lived again, but that he lived in the Underworld where he was now the Judge of the Dead, and that through the justice that he meted out, men and women had life immortal. And a child of Osiris was born to Isis: Horus he was named. Nephthys and the wise Thout guarded him on the floating island where he was born. Horus grew up, and he strove against the evil power of Sêth. In battle he overcame him, and in bonds he brought the evil Sêth, the destroyer of his father, before Isis, his mother. Isis would not have Sêth slain: still he lives, but now he is of the lesser Gods, and his power for evil is not so great as it was in the time before Horus grew to be the avenger of his father. – Padraic Colum In the account preserved by Plutarch in On Isis and Osiris, Osiris is betrayed by the cunning of Set and sealed within a chest, a king slain and committed to silence and darkness, his body later torn and scattered across the land he once made fertile. Death enters Egypt with that closing of the lid of his sarcophagus. Destruction engulfs the kingdom, and the fertile soil of grain and vine yield to the encroaching desert. Isis refuses the reign of fragmentation and shadows. In a boat of reeds, she searches the marshes, patient and relentless, gathering one fragment and then another, though the gods’ penis has been consumed by a river fish. She laid the pieces together and reformed Osiris through spell and sacred utterance, enacting the mystery that Plutarch describes as the restoration of the good and ordered principle against chaos and devastation. She fashioned a phallus for Osiris through her craft and magic, and conceived their son, Horus. As Osiris was reconstituted, peace returned, the fields bloomed green once more, and through their union, a third god is created. Alchemically, the body is dissolved into multiplicity, scattered into chaos, and through the labor of love is gathered and consecrated into renewed form. From this restored polarity emerges a third: Horus, the child born of their union, guarded by wise Thoth and steadfast Nephthys, raised to confront and overcome Set. In Horus, the Lovers create continuity and correction, a living reconciliation that tempers destruction without erasing it, for even Set remains, diminished and bound within a larger order. Esoterically, this is sacred marriage enduring beyond death, the Lovers as integration and reconciliation of life and afterlife and the power of the passion and devotion of the lovers to create new life from death. Isis does not deny mortality but transforms it. Through her love and labor, Osiris lives again, enthroned in the Underworld as Judge of the Dead, dispensing justice and granting immortality through balance. The union of Isis and Osiris is altered yet unbroken, shifted from earthly kingship to eternal dominion. This is the Lovers as cosmological force, the force of the reassembly of creation itself. Isis and Osiris embody the Lovers as divine covenant transcending death, unconditional devotion that restores wholeness, and the sacred act through which two become not only one, but three. Their bond does not end at the tomb; it passes through it, transforms it, and returns bearing life immortal, a testament that love, when joined in true polarity, does not perish but remakes the world. Blue lotus incense and kyphi resin dancing in a dusk-shadowed temple, black loam of the Nile and green papyrus crushed beneath bare feet, myrrh and cassia steeped in date honey, a glimmer of lapis and gold leaf pressed into linen, and a surge of floodwater returning to parched earth.

A talisman of pleasure carved from the stone of the heart. Blushing rose cognac, sugared pink grapefruit, iced strawberries, and creamy sandalwood warmed by skin musk, vanilla bourbon, and glowing pink amber.

Honey Dust, Patchouli, and Orris Absolute.

A salty skin musk dusted with pink pepper.

Polished santol wood warmed by sun, the faint sweetness of coconut husk and rice powder, crushed sampaguita blossoms, pandan leaf, and a touch of palm sugar, oud, and chocolate suman.