Black Cat With Tomato Plants

[doomsday_disco]

Tomato fruit and leaf, a skritch of soil, spicy geranium petals, orange blossom, marigold, and sultry musk.

 

 

Takahashi Shōtei
 

[Little Bird]

Starts off with fuzzy tomato stems and a dusty sharpness that I didn't enjoy, but it thankfully went away after a few minutes. 
Then it shifts into a phase where it's a little animalic and a lot earthy, and I love this midstage where it smells like some sort of dark patchouli musk.
After about an hour, Black Cat With Tomato Plants settles into its final form and stays there for about 5 hours before it fades away.  It's the clean musk of a men's department store perfume and a zesty orange blossom with a sharp orange note. 
It's interesting how this goes from earthy and animalic to a clean, masculine, slightly soapy, proper men's fragrance with a dose of orange zest and orange blossom that leans just slightly bitter, but it works as a men's fragrance.  I happen to love wearing traditionally masculine fragrances, so I love this one.  It winds up being simple and clean with a bit of a bite from the orange tones, softened by the creamy blossom part of the orange blossom.
I was expecting a very literal scent of a tomato garden interspersed with the herbal-spicy scent of geranium and marigolds and dirt, but this is more refined and the musk and orange blossom are the drydown for me.

[AutoroboticTribal]

Wow, I can't believe it. I have finally found the ONE perfume that didn't make me hate orange blossoms.

 

I've always been super-obsessed with green scents (mostly because I grew up in an arid desert which made growing things very difficult, and I grew up surrounded by childrens' books which showed lush and evocative drawings of forests & gardens (like 'The First Tomato' by Rosemary Wells) which left me and my siblings absolutely wondering what those places were like).

 

So when I saw this perfume, I immediately wanted to try it because it claims to smell like tomato leaves and the fruit. The only problem is that I can't stand orange blossoms--they either get too astringent to my nose, or come off smelling like sunblock.

 

Luckily, I found someone who was willing to destash half a bottle to me--and I must thank this person because it's a VERY evocative and tomato-y perfume. As soon as I opened the bottle, it instantly smells like a glass of fresh tomato juice. Practically the smell of summer in a bottle.

 

Once I put it on my skin, the tomato juice vanishes and all I could smell are tomato vines and savoury-and-dried tomato leaves. It's delicious, and within 5 minutes I start to smell tomato-skin and fresh, crisp orange blossoms. 

 

It's now been 20 minutes and sadly I don't smell any soil, but I can detect something minty underneath the tomato, vines, and orange blossom (I looked it up and saw that geraniums can smell like mint to other people's noses). I can't get any whiff of seductive musks just yet, but I'm just loving this whole combination of herbs, tomato fruit, and summery flowers. I'll need to compare this with Soup (another good BPAL scent, but sadly LE), but this truly smells like being in a tomato garden. It's a joy-inducing perfume and I'll definitely wear this whenever I want to take a break from cold, rainy England.

 

EDIT: Aaaaaand I'm back (40 minutes later) to report that the tomato doesn't stick around for long. Like Little Bird has commented above, I've been left with a predominant scent of orange blossom (though weirdly I don't get any sharp or masculine notes). I think my skin chem absorbed the musk completely, because all I could smell is just orange blossom but in a faint, aquatic way. I basically smell like a glass of water with an orange blossom dropped inside. Thankfully the blossom isn't overpowering, but I do miss the first 20 minutes of the perfume.

Edited November 25, 2024 by AutoroboticTribal

[supreme_c0rt]

Black Cat with Tomato Plants rushes the gate with a flood of bright, grassy earth notes and the sweaty, juicy tang of a dewy tomato in the summer sun. The orange blossom is skillfully restrained here -- far less poofy and floral, more "beam of sunlight." The spicy geranium is the genius balancing note here; tempering the cloying aspects of the orange blossom while giving the whole thing a sharp pop of life. And truly, of all the BPALs I have tried this one feels the most ALIVE. It is positively thrumming like the backyard garden in the full flush of summer. As it dries, the black rich earth notes emerge (more patchouli than dirt, but maybe a cousin of both) and that delicious musk -- I want to say it's a darker growly kind of skin musk -- comes along to swaddle the whole thing in an almost erotic embrace. Sexy garden. Sure, I'm into it. Like a lover's neck after they've been digging in the garden all day in the summer heat. Yes please.

 

Ecstatic to report that my skin doesn't blast the orange blossom at the end of the ride the way it usually does; no small feat there! The musk and the earth notes are holding it tight in a fine balance, and it's giving dewy summer skin with wafts here and there of patchouli and salt and earth. Absolutely delightful, and a beautiful sonnet to the simple pleasures of a tomato garden in its full glory. I'm wearing this in the blustery early days of March and it's a beautiful reminder that life ... uh.... finds a way. 

 

Another stunner in the Cats line and I will be harvesting a bottle. 🐈 🍅