Mandarin, Black Vanilla, and Patchouli

[Seajewel]

No further description.

[LavenderCoffee]

It's just so good. If it sounds good to you, get it! The mandarin/vanilla kinda reminds me of juicy fruit gum at first, but then the patchouli is right there being awesome and that is definitely not a food smell. It reads as a sweeter patch to me, but obviously it's blended with fruit and vanilla, so who knows. The black vanilla really opens up with wear - not blackened, btw, just kinda deeper in tone. So good!

 

Plus it does indeed pair delightfully with Erotic Drops of Flower Petals hair gloss from this year's Shungas. Gonna go out and knock people over with all this mandarin patchouli goodness.

[dancingchair]

Wet, this is realistic mandarin zest, like the spritz of citrus you get when you peel an orange. The patchouli at this stage is really good to me. Combined with the black vanilla, it's sweet and more incense-heavy. As it dries, the mandarin fades and the patchouli takes the spotlight. It morphs into a lighter, more floral patchouli, which isn't really my jam. The black vanilla is light and a little powdery. In the end, it's more delicate than you would expect from the opening. Lightly floral patchouli enshrouded in a cloud of black vanilla powder, finished with a spritz of mandarin.

 

I adore the wet stage of this perfume, but the dry stage sillage too pretty for me. I think I was hoping for a dirtier patchouli, like the patch in Schrödinger's Checkmark. If you prefer a more delicate and floral patchouli and you like citrus, this ménage is probably a good fit for you.

[samanare]

The patchouli dominates on me. I can't pick out the mandarin on it's own, but there's a citrus zest, almost carbonated quality to the scent. And I can just pick out the vanilla. It's a very woodsy vanilla, not foodie at all. It does bring a sweetness to the patchouli. Overall, a sweet patchouli scent, slightly woodsy, but with a noticeable amount of zest. Pleasant, but not for me, I was hoping for more of a sweet, spicy citrus scent.

[doomsday_disco]

I almost blind bottled this one, but I decided to get a decant since I had a lot of scents that didn't work out for me in my April order. I am glad I went the decant route.

 

This is more about the patchouli (which is a black patchouli) and black vanilla. The mandarin is most noticeable in the beginning, and it's realistic, and you can smell the pith, but sadly, the pith is all that carries over into the drydown on my skin, where it's become mostly black patch and black vanilla with just the ghost of mandarin. Although it's a nice patch and vanilla, I'm not in love with it like I love Banshee Beat/Revenant Rhythm and would not say the are similar scents. Honestly, I just don't know why I'm not swooning over this one -- the patch is smooth and the vanilla really blooms out in a cloud with wear. I guess it's because I was so hoping for a lot more mandarin.

 

No bottle for me, but I may hold onto my decant to see how it ages. And I'd like to see this vanilla note pop up in more scents!

[marared]

I don't know that I would have bought this on a blind sniff. BPAL mandarin is a chilly sort of citrus here, rendering the bottle very cool and honestly a little intimidating. On my skin, it takes a little while, but the mandarin recedes to the background, the black vanilla warms things up, and makes them almost a little toasty. The patchouli never really comes out to play - it's there but it just grounds the scent and adds to the overall toasty impression. Don't get me wrong, this is not gourmand or foodie-sweet at all, or even particularly cozy, but I went to sleep with the test dab on my hand, and it was really nice when I woke up. I'll have to try it again in a few months and see how it's changed.

[Little Bird]

I don't love this as much as I thought it would, and I have given it some time to rest in the hopes that it would wow me with a little time to settle.  Patchouli and vanilla are my two favorite scents, and I don't even find them to be distinctive in this blend.  I might never guess that there's patchouli in this at all because I really have to search for the hint of it in the drydown.  Mostly this smells sour and hazy white, like the scent/taste of orange pith.  I guess there's some vanilla sweetness, but it's more of a vague sweetness, like a sprinkle of sugar trying to make the orange more palatable.  It kind of smells like sour orange, sharp white musk, and sugar.

[twilighteyes]

This smells fantastic in the bottle and wet on my skin, but the dry down morphs into something that smells not great with my skin chemistry.  boo.