Casablanca
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Everything posted by Casablanca
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This was a friend's decant I got to sample, so I'm going by memory. Winter Sunset opened with tangerine and blood orange, and soon added a broad, earthy smear of red clay and patches of snow. The picture brought to mind for me was a bold sunrise or sunset over a red earthy-clay landscape streaked with snow. I thought of Winter Landscape from the 2017 Yules, but with more citrus (snow-thick scent, chalky with sandalwood and clove, streaked iron-orange and tonka-brown). Winter Sunset was similarly very much a landscape scent. I think this impression of earthy red clay came from the clove, red cedar, and red myrrh combining on my skin. Especially from the red myrrh -- but it blended with the clove to trigger my scent memory of Winter Landscape's clove, clay-like earth. The conifers didn't make an appearance for me: My skin and mind instead made this about the citrus glow on the snow-streaked red clay earth.
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This was one of my friend's decants. It showed up on me mainly as a warm, cozy, chestnut brown musk, with a little dust and wood. Earthy, comfortable, and well-blended. Brown musk scents aren't a go-to for me, but I love the art.
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This was one of my friend's decants. It opened with a burst of grapefruit and chilly yuzu, the latter of which reminded me of Snow Moon 2019. The wet phase was mostly about this cold citrus, but with a touch of moss toward the end. Later, I found a little distant hearth smoke, quite separate from the citrus and bit of moss, but it didn't come out as much of a player on me. This didn't click for me as an aquatic blend, but mainly as a cold, bright citrus.
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I was taken aback by how good this was. I wasn't expecting much, because I don't usually go for tobacco and leather anymore. But it was so much more. We tested my friend's decant, and both loved it. I got plenty of clove and other spices, warmth, sexiness, and gingerbread. I'm not sure now in which order, but this will become a bottle for me, for sure.
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This is a dark gingerbread wolf. On my skin, Wolfman is honey- and molasses-heavy, but each listed note can be found. Honeyed molasses dominate, with chestnut gingerbread close behind. Powdered sugar is sprinkled around; hazelnut and nutmeg are faint presences. The whole is weighty and sweet, but a bit somber, perhaps from the molasses. Moodwise, this is the opposite of Invisible Man's levity. It's more growly and grave.
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Gingerbread Witch is interesting. At first, I was a reluctant "no" on it: Despite the listed notes all looking lovely to me, something in this is unpleasantly funky on my skin at first. I don't smell this funk on the wand, so it might be my chemistry. It seems to arise from whatever is blackening the apple. The closest real comparison I can make is burnt tires. Once the blend dries, though, I'm taken with it. It reminds me of the Shadowed Veil (black pumpkin, leather, pomegranate incense, agarwood, and bourbon patchouli), which to me is the perfect witchy blend. I tore through most of my bottle of that this fall, and was sorry it didn't make a return in the Weenies so I could get a backup. When Gingerbread Witch dries, it puts me in a close mood to what Shadowed Veil brings, so it might work for a backup of sorts. I get a big smear of blackened apple-pumpkin primarily, with plenty of gingerbread backing it up. Traces of lemon and rosemary keep it interesting. The touch of an herb is good in so many blends, and it helps evoke "witch" here.
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Between my friend and I, we got samples of every gingerbread monster except the vampire. Zombie was one of my friend's decants. I got hot mint chocolate cocoa on a background of gingersnap cookies. I imagine this is lovely paired with Ghost Milk, but on my skin during testing, it wasn't placed far from Gingerbread and Leather. And, damn. The two were really good neighbors. Just saying.
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When you have a note that you don't dislike, but you don't think it will ever do much for you -- and then one perfume changes your mind? That was me with champagne, until Champagne and Maraschino Cherries grew on me last year. Pair champagne with these cherries, and suddenly the moment is all sweet Happy Hour cocktails and off-work joy. 🥂 This looked like another playful champagne take, so I had to give it a try. I'm pleased that I did, because while it doesn't evoke the same feeling, it's still quirky, fresh, and joyful. Invisible Man is a spring-time champagne frolic. It's sunny and bright alone, and transformed into a lemon-ginger creaminess next to Ghost Milk. This one will almost certainly join the bottle-hood.
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Between my friend and I, we got samples of every gingerbread monster except the vampire. Mummy was one of my friend's decants. This was quite bourbon vanilla on me, like the vanilla was drizzled over the gingerbread. Gingerbread was behind it, with a mallow chewiness and whiff of sandalwood. Thankfully, the butter wasn't White Larry-ish on my skin, but more mellow and ghee-like. Mummy was pleasant. It was just the kind of blend I would have been happy to have as a decant, even if I didn't feel compelled to upgrade. I wonder how it will age.
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Soft, goat-milky, slightly dusty cashmere with plenty of white chocolate and marshmallow, and a drop of honey. The whole blend is quite muted on me, almost skin-scent soft. But it is as cozy as you might expect. The cashmere is enough to cast this into the sweater-scents hamper. I'd put a bottle of this next to Cozy Sweater and Apple Cider, in my box of milks and vanillas. This perfume is muchly my kind of thing. I'm inclined to bottle it and hope for a little more strength with aging.
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This is a deep, inky well of black pomegranate and black currant/cassis, a long space in which to sink down and down into lush, dark fruits. Shadow Room offers that depth. D o w n... woo. After drydown, the blend develops a lot of red sandalwood and pink pepper on my skin, giving it more texture. Hints of other wood and amber waft around. I also get hints of pink roses, though no such note is listed. Mostly, this dries into black pomegranate and currant, red sandalwood, and pink pepper. It remains a rich, full, rounded blend, even fresh out of the frozen mailbox.
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Exceptionally cozy apple laundry. When this first arrived, I hardly got any apple or fabric scent from the blend, just cozy dryer sheets. But a few days of settling has shifted the balance. When applied, this smells like slightly powdery apple laundry with faint cider spice. In drydown, I actually find angora! Not just wool but, somehow, specifically bunny-influenced angora. It has a soft, fiber-yarn quality, like I'm sniffing inside a bag of yarn (as someone does somewhere, I'm sure). As this dries, it loses much of its apple, but the yarn-like laundry scent lingers. It also grows more powdery, the one aspect leaving me on the fence about a bottle upgrade. This will be a decant to enjoy, regardless.
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This is my third test of Woman at the Edge of the Woods and, each time, it reminds me so much of The Earth Mother from the Tarot blends (I miss those -- good times). I thought this was a more patchouli but less dirty/pitchy version of Earth Mother. They are different enough that I'm happy to have both bottles, yet they're equally evocative of the forest floor and mood. Looking at the notes now, they list patchouli, mandrake, and sage in common. So I just put on Earth Mother as well to compare. Earth Mother has the burgundy pitch, vetiver, and hay adding some weight, and it brings to mind the very bottom of the forest: the tattered, mulchy leaf layer and rich earth beneath, where the roots nestle. Woman is cleaner, and more airy with sage, yet still woodsy and herbal enough to remind more of the next layer up from the forest floor: the scrubby plants, the bramble thorns, sparse wild roses and berries, the woody trunks. The roses and berries are scant occasional whiffs, barely there; mostly I get patchouli and other woods, and sage-led herbs. Woman is softer on my skin, but it's also two years younger. They go well together but also stand well alone.
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Opens with a burst of herbal lavender, vanilla buttercream frosting, and a slightly odd, waxy note that I think is the sprinkles. The lavender is potent to start, but it settles back into its seat before long, present but relaxed. Lavender is chilling because it smells lavender. I don't smell cake from the cupcakes, just lots of sugary buttercream frosting. Happily, the sprinkles lose their slightly chemical oddness as they settle. They smell waxy and candy-like, and even multicolored, and bring images of themselves to mind. The blend fades quickly from its early potency on me. After about 10 minutes, it's a soft vanilla buttercream with faint hints of lavender and candy.
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Beeswax, Cedarwood & Bourbon Vanilla
Casablanca replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
One for the beeswax lovers. Sweet bourbon vanilla beeswax, a bit honeyed. In drydown, some warm cedar emerges. It adds a reddish-brown woodiness to the vanilla beeswax, but doesn't blend as closely as the other two notes. At least, not at this age. This has rested a week and the throw is good enough that I would only wear a little dab to work. -
Black Currant, Patchouli & Grapefruit
Casablanca replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This needed several days after arrival to settle and become a thing. It still doesn't smell like much on me for the first minute or two, just the odd whiff of grapefruit. But, coming into the drydown, it comes into its stride. The deep black currant comes out, backed by a soft, woodsy patchouli. The grapefruit adds a bright citrus lift to the trio, so that it reads like a top, middle, and base note harmony. Soprano, second soprano, and alto... The currant is wonderfully dark and rich. The patch, softest of the three, becomes more noticeable later, but never takes over. I've been looking for a black currant-strong blend for a while and, of all other notes, patchouli is the dream pairing. I never imagined grapefruit with it, but I'm grapefruit-friendly and happy I jumped on this menage. 💕 -
Fudge made with Hershey's Kisses. (I'm all up in the brand naming today...) Chocolate, straight up. After drydown, the musks finally make their way out of the chocolate jungle. Unfortunately, when they do, it's mostly the red musk turning off on my skin, as it often does. I had better luck with some other Smut variants in this line, though.
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This is light during the early phase, but settles into sugary Good & Plenty candies at the movie theatre when I was a kid. 😊 The licorice-anise blend is finer than that, though, so perhaps a gourmet version. Despite that, this isn't especially gourmand. The backdrop of almost-boozy sugar-musk puts this closer to gourmand-adjacent or gourmand-twisted. I haven't been a licorice person as an adult, but I find myself drawn to this. It's very Weenie.
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Boozy pumpkin. The Smut booze is really coming out on my skin in this one, but the pumpkin also smells off... And in short time, the off-ness resolves itself into something like butter. But it's one of the bad butter notes on me, like in White Larry. Then the Smut sugar comes out, and improves things. But this one is still rather a mess on me.
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Sour, candy-orange bubblegum lolly. It's like an orange Dum Dum you grab from a teller counter at the bank, but with a massive doop of sugary bubblegum inside.
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The sugar-crunchy honey from O meets a beeswaxy taffy candy in the haze of musky booze at a party. That's pretty much it. Chewy O-honey beeswax candy party. This doesn't change on me during its life. Good party.
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Lemonheads joy! It seems I can even smell the bit of white powdery sugar you could find on those lemon candies to keep them from sticking together. In drydown, I get a little honey from this on my skin, so that it's sugary lemon-honey hard candy. I don't notice any Smut musks; the blend stays all honey Lemonheads on me through its life.
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A mildly tangy green apple in warm, syrupy sort of gentle brown toffee. The toffee goes from warm and syrupy to creamy. After drydown, the apple settles a bit and I get whiffs of boozy musk as Smut peers out. After a while, though, this turns a bit weird on my skin. Red musk doesn't play usually nice on me, but this smells more like the apple went off. Starts pleasant, but not for me.
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My best friend hates candy corn. Like... hate, as in there isn't a dark enough, filthy enough ring of hell to house the conical, candy-striped demons. On the approach of each Halloween, we used to play a clip of Lewis Black ranting about them for annual candy corn catharsis. Candy Corn Smut came out; I perversely convinced her to get a sample. She got a Smut set (we do know she likes Smut) and I'm writing about this set today. On both our skin, Candy Corn Smut was black coffee out of the gate, like others describe. As it warmed on me, I got the Smut musks and a creamy, faintly fruity candy note that is candy cornish. As the blend warmed on her, she fell for it. She kept huffing it, as though it were the room's only supply of oxygen, and looking chagrined. "I can't believe this is my favorite of the lot." Later: "One bottle might not be enough." I have glee. 😊
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Faded leather and cedar, faint touches of rose and vanilla porcelain -- all covered with a layer of dust. This is very soft on me, but I get mainly dust, soft leather, and cedar on a background of long-forgotten things.