Miskatonic University

[fireweaver]

The scent of Irish coffee, dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls.

In the imp=ooh boozy coffee!
On me wet- vaguely irish creamy coffee
drydown- moldy butter

Won't be ordering a bottle, but if I had a scent locket I'd definitely try it there!
which reminds me, maybe I should get a scent locket...

[fountaingrl]

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????

 

This has notes of COFFEE, and BOOKS? It's a bookish coffee house smell? This scent should be my signature scent. This blend is probably what my soul smells like, if souls can be said to have smells. But on me?

 

Misk U is STANK on me. It bites up into my sinuses with spoiled oversweet crazy-strong fake chemical chocolate note and horrible buttery alcohol. I don't even get a real coffee smell. It just figures.

 

I think BPALs coffee note hates me. El Dia De Reyes had that same sort of gross plastic candy feel, so I am betting it is the coffee. Which is kind of tragic, but what can you do? I guess I'll have to find amazing scents in the thousand-plus others I still haven't tried.

[coldandsleepy]

In the imp: smells like extremely strong coffee to me. Not detecting a booze note, nor am i getting any dust yet. Smells pretty good, though.

 

On me, wet: heeey whoooah, woah. Coffee like you wouldn't believe. This reminds me of when i was in high school and i used to drink a pot of black coffee every morning. Mmm. I'm getting a very small touch of the boozy/sweet note here, but fortunately i don't smell like Bailey's. The dust of the books is coming in quickly, and this currently smells exactly like what i thought Misk U would smell like.

 

On me, dry: to my mild dismay, the coffee really tones down on me fast during drydown, so i'm left mainly with a dusty smell. It does smell exactly like old, dusty books to me, which is pretty cool. There is still a subtle air of coffee going on here, too, it's just very faint.

 

Throw and duration: not sure about throw, no one was around to ask. I could smell myself fine, though. Duration's on the very good end-- i applied at 10 p.m. yesterday and could still smell it at 10 a.m. this morning. (I'm beginning to wonder if maybe i have superpores or something, since almost everything lasts forever on me.)

 

Overall: delightful! I'm glad it didn't stay all coffee all the time, and i think that it smells exactly as described on me. I'll consider buying a full bottle once my imp is gone, as this is an awesome scent to help me through the long, late nights of grad school work.

[greyroses]

My first review! Hope it goes OK.

 

IN THE BOTTLE: Irish coffee & butter-pecan tarts. Very rich.

 

WET ON THE SKIN: Buttery Irish coffee, same as in the imp. A hinting of oak underneath as it warms up.

 

DRY: Buttery Irish coffee, but that oak undercurrent has soured slightly. Medium throw & lasting power--about 8 hours.

 

VERDICT: This is the closest to an unchanging, one-note scent that I've tried so far--if you can call Irish coffee one-note. ^^ I like Irish coffee & I enjoy smelling it--but I don't want to smell it for 8 hours straight. The concept of this one had me so intrigued...I'm disappointed that I didn't get the full effect of the description. I wanted the old-book smell! Stupid body chemistry.

[waternight]

In the imp: Mmmm... Irish coffee is right. Although to me, it's more "coffee-and-baileys" rather than a whiskey smell, which suits me just fine. It's a very creamy coffee.

Wet: First on - yup, coffee'n'baileys. Delicious! It's a rich, smooth, creamy scent, sweet but not too sweet. As it dries a bit, the dust note starts to waft shyly around. It never becomes a full-blown note in its own right, just adds a slight dustiness to the overall experience, and I really like it.

Dry: Alas, MiskU loses all that luscious coffee'n'baileys, and dries down to sugared cream. And that's it.

[suileach]

I can't believe I've never reviewed this. Miskatonic University is one of my favorite scents. In fact, when I first tried it, I thought that I was done with trying more scents because I had found The One.

 

Wet, it smells like creamy cappuccino doused with vanilla and caramel syrup and topped off with a wee drop of booze. And it has a lot of throw. I've gotten more compliments on this scent than on any other.

 

Drydown is old, dusty paper and books. Stunning. I think, though, it might actually be the cream note that does this on me. I've noticed a similar, though not identical - Miskatonic University is a unique and fabulous scent - drydown from other scents with cream in them.

 

In conclusion:

[crazyredhead17]

In the imp, this was a sweet caramel scent, which would normally scare me but I figured the other notes would tame it.

 

Wet, the caramel is there but it's more like a drizzle of caramel in a good cup of coffee.

 

As it dries, the book note (haha) comes out a bit, but the coffee stays ever present. Never gets too boozy or too caramel-y.

 

I quite like this one, but the husband really doesn't like this one, so off to swaps.

[vampkat]

Wet: COFFEE!!

Dry down: coffee!

Dry: um...still coffee, with some sugar and milk in it. yummy. Not a fan of coffee on me, but I still like this one.

6 out of 10

[Aldercy]

This is a really fun scent, and I think almost certainly on the short list for a 5ml bottle. It's definitely a warm, rich coffee smell, and though I'm not coming across any bookish/dusty/woody notes (yet, at least) it's mostly what I'd hoped for. I don't find it particularly alchoholic, and though I wouldn't mind a hint of that now and then, it's probably good that it's not there since I'll probably be wearing Miskatonic U in class now and again. Just seems like an appropriate scent for studying. Really evokes a dim, quiet, comfortable place where a person can read and think. Lovely.

 

It's rather... buttery was well. This may be what other people are saying smells like caramel, because I can kind of sense that as well in this note. It reminds me very slightly of the Jelly Bellies jellybeans "buttered popcorn" flavor at times, which I think is the only negative thing I have to say (as I really hate that flavor).

 

3-9-08 Edit: Um... I think I was too quick in writing my review of this. A little while after putting this on the "sickly-sweet popcorn" smell is all there is. It smells like a conglomeration of food scents, kind of like a kitchen saturated with a bunch of different smells that don't go together. I'm really disappointed because I was trying to force myself to like it, but it really bothered me.

Edited March 9, 2008 by Aldercy

[Shannihilation]

I've heard people rave about this scent since I was introduced to BPAL but because it was so hard to find and in such huge demand, I'd never tried it. I wanted to though. The scent sounded perfect for me. Coffee and books? Heaven! I recently got a bottle and I have to say, I'm really disappointed.

 

In the bottle this is scorched caramel with maybe a hint of coffee. No dust. No woods. Just burnt sweetness. That holds pretty true on my skin as well. Except that there's also an added "plastic" odor. Every now and then I get a slight whiff of something pleasant but it's not constant and the other stuff isn't worth the occasional goodness.

[laforetnoire]

In the bottle: caramel, butter, coffee and alcohol. On me, the coffee and caramel gets stronger. When drying, the oakwood appears. It's very faint, but it's there!

 

That's a very foody type of scent, and it's delicious!

[nali]

I popped off the imp's cap and was greeted by the aroma of very, very boozy coffee. It smelled more like coffee and liqueur than coffee and proper Irish whiskey, though.

 

I was eager to put this one on, and I thought my excitement was justified when I caught the first whiff of creamy coffee. Much to my dismay, it morphed rapidly to... dust. The cofee was still present underneath, if rather Play-doh-esque when I held my nose very close to sniff, but the dreaded Doh wasn't as apparent from further off.

 

Time went on... Eurgh. Dusty Play-doh. There was a kind of sugary, creamy coffee underneath, but the dust note made me feel a little ill. An hour or so later, it was getting creamier on my wrists, but the dust continued to dominate in the crook of my elbow. Then the sweetness decided to take a sharp increase. I kept wishing the dust note would disappear entirely.

 

When my husband got home and took a sniff, he thought he was smelling a candy shop. A sadly dilapidated and dusty candy shop. "This would be a lot better without the dust," he said, "which is a shame, because the Irish coffee is excellent."

 

Just goes to show that you never know until you try, because this was one of the ones I was most excited about based on the description. I mean, coffee and a library filled with old books? Yes, please. Unfortunately, it seems my skin has no desire to smell like such a delightful place. I don't think I'll be matriculating at Misk U.

[bryghtrose]

Bailey's Irish Cream.

[scarletgenesis]

In the imp: Coffee w/ LOTs of Irish Cream. Very sweet.On skin: coffee is fading and is more of a background note now, with the Irish Cream and a strong caramelly note.After maybe an hour, the irish cream/caramel/coffee sweetness all mellow down and OMG! I have no idea how the lab was able to do it, but there is a definite dusty old book smell now. It's truly amazing! After wearing this today, I am very impressed with the morphing that goes on in this scent. I am also quite astounded at the ability to actually make a dusty note that really smells like dusty books.That said, I won't be needing a bottle of this. The sweetness phase is just TOO sweet for me to want to want to get a whole bottle.

Edited March 9, 2008 by scarletgenesis

[SarahScent44]

In the imp, this is sweet, creamy coffee - with just a hint of whiskey.

 

On my skin - mmmm, so nice - the coffee scent dominates, but it's all really lovely.

 

This is going to be my Pinched methadone - when it dries, it's got the same delicious coffee scent, but instead of the tobacco, Misk U has a clean linen-y, paper-y scent that I really enjoy.

[septima_pica]

Wet: LOL, flavored coffee! Like a big whiff of hazelnut-flavoured coffee with sugar, cream and a shot of whiskey. It's damn sweet, but I actually...kinda like it. Huh. I usually don't like foody much, and I don't even like DRINKING flavoured coffee (urgh).

 

And there goes the sweetness. It's just coffee now. Smells like I spilled flavoured coffee on my arm. Where are the books? I got this for the books, dammit! ...Oh, there they are. Wow. This is amazing. The coffee's actually getting a little bit oxidized-smelling -- you know, old and musty and sour? Not a bad thing, I've always kinda liked that smell. (Full confession: I had a crush on a teacher once, and he always smelled like clove cigs and coffee breath.) And it's boozier and boozier, but not overly so -- I like boozy scents. It's a little dusty, but there's something weird there -- spicy, almost? I'll have to give this a full-body test drive.

 

Interesting. For once, I really like one of the uber-popular foody BPALs. Just have Shub-Niggurath to try now, hah.

 

Edit: OK, this is officially up there with the best scents. It turns out that when I apply more of it, that "old books" smell comes out waaaay more, and the sweetness never gets too heavy. Old books and coffee breath and faint caramel sweetness. And it's still going strong 15 hours after I applied it. Then again, I have been in a library all day, drinking coffee, now that I think about it.

 

I can't help thinking that applying this and Dee together would make me smell like Clement Hollier from The Rebel Angels, in the best possible way. I'll have to try that sometime when I want to get my Respectable Academic hat on.

Edited March 21, 2008 by septima_pica

[GingerGunlock]

This was absolutely scrumptious on my fiancé! So scrumptious, in fact, that wearing it made him constantly hungry so he had to stop On him, wet and dry, it was the same, very caramelly Irish Coffee scent that's in the imp.

 

When I wore it, however, the lovely very caramelly Irish Coffee scent lasted only through the wet period, and then I smelled like freshly-varnished wood. I'm keeping it, because it's Miskatonic University, come on here, but only to mournfully sniff at every once in awhile. I wanted it to really work out on me, working in a library in a college town and all, but my skin had other ideas. Perhaps I'll scent-locket it.

[goth_huntress]

This is just pure fun. I got it for my sister. She loves it.

[cassandrakfreaq]

misk u is EVERYTHING i wanted and more which is good because I bought a 5ml without trying the imp first. its super sweet coffee with a bitter espresso note on me with just a tiny bit of woodiness at the end. perfect description of a scent love love love!

[clawsight]

Miskatonic University, for me, is a scent that is at best masculine, at worst, well... a room.

 

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the smell, but it's not anything I'd wear. At all.

 

In the imp it smells of Irish coffee. It's... lovely. If it stayed like this when it hit my skin I'd be unable to keep myself from rolling in it, much as dogs are wont to do when they encounter a particularly wonderful corpse. Not to imply this is corpselike. I just like the scent of coffee. Yeah.

 

Once it hits my skin we have what we like to think of as the Happy Shiny Coffee period for about 15 minutes. I smell like a Starbucks, and, well, as you've probably guessed I'm cool with that.

 

However after that 15 minutes the coffee smell dies down and the paper and polished wood smells come out. I'm fine with the paper, but, the polished wood smell is far too potent for my liking. I think this might smell good on a dude, and would definitely be a cool room scent. But, on me, the dissonance between my femininity*/personality and the heavy polished wood scent is headache inducing.

 

All in all, this is something I'll use to scent my room, and possibly my clothing, but not myself.

 

Rating:

2.9 out of 5 dogs rolling in corpses.

 

 

*I'm a person who is Female. With a capital F. This does not mean I'm girly, it just means mistaking me for a male when meeting me in the flesh is all but impossible. I have a figure which could kindly be called "Gaia the earth mother".

[windbourne]

I got an imp of this in a swap, tested it out, and had to come give it a glowing, snuggly review. Not a long one, as, somewhat sadly, it's fairly straightforward on me, but a good one.

 

I like sweet, foody smells a great deal, so was one I decided I had to try -- and it was precisely as promised, almost. Sweet Irish Cream-soaked coffee beans with a particular dusky dust that mellows it just enough to not overwhelm me with whipped cream. It's warm, it's cuddly, it has a fireplace somewhere and a book I've been wanting to read for days, and it stays that way for hours. When I want to smell like this, this is what I'll turn to, bar none. If I want a more complex scent, I'll look elsewhere. It has a moderate throw, and is very mellow and definitely work-safe; decent longevity to the scent, and excellent strength-to-time ratio.

 

Final verdict is that I'm keeping this imp, and when it's gone, I'll order another one from the Lab, but I'll never need a full 5 ml.

 

ETA:

So, after some years of feeling this way and going through a couple of full imps of the GC Misk. U., I finally got my mitts on a bottle of the original Springtime in Arkham release. It is so much better (to my nose) it's not even -funny-. It's milder and less sweet, but more complex, more wood, more dust, just -more-. The scent profile is basically the same, all the notes are still very present, but the proportions feel different. Maybe it's because it's aged, or maybe the components were just a bit different back then. I don't know, but this one, this one I am totally in love with and very happy to have a full 5 ml bottle.

Edited January 9, 2012 by windbourne

[donnatron]

Imp: Baileys in coffee. I have disaterous frosh year memories of Baileys and so I'm not sure I want to go through with this.

 

Wet: Hooooboy. My skin, she loves the coffee. This amps up super sweet and doesn't smell so much like an Irish coffee as a giant whipped cream-topped Starbucks confection with lots of syrup and steamed milk in it.

 

Dry: I get a touch of the woodiness, but this is overwhelmingly a coffee and cream scent. It's one of the truest foody BPALs I've tried, and I'm not fussy about giving off such a literal smell. After awhile, the strong scent and throw gives me a bit of nausea.

 

Throw: I am in the living room and my roommate could smell it from the kitchen.

 

Overall: It's the sweetness that kills this for me. I can smell the coffee and the dusty books and it's perfect. It's just that my stupid skin is amping the hell out of the sweet aspects and it's not working well for me. If your skin can handle sweetness in a reasonable manner, definitely try it out. It's a really interesting scent and it's unlike anything else you'll find.

Edited April 9, 2008 by paperrose

[Pika]

Mmm, caramelly, coffee-y, Irish creamy goodness. I don't generally like foody scents, and I probably won't wear this one around much, but I have a weak spot for Irish cream, coffee, and books. And this smells yummy.

 

As this is drying, it's getting much dustier and drier. Still yummy, but toned down. Very lovely. Matches its description perfectly.

 

Definitely a keeper imp, and hopefully I can get a backup imp or two as well.

[LadyLuckDoubt]

In the Bottle

Strong, sweet maple-syruppy Irish coffee. Smells a bit fake, but let's see what happens...

 

On Me

Okay, firstly, this has marvellous throw. Initially it's like the imp smell, then it dries down to a pretty, more subtle and very real-smelling Irish coffee. A few hours later, the woody note creeps in, and it's just gorgeous. I want to lick my arms and go make out with someone, wearing this.

 

I've ordered a 5mler, and did so prior to trying the imp, and... YAY! I had high hopes for MiskU and am glad I wasn't heartbroken.

[jwhxtna]

IN THE IMP: Oh, wow, SUPER sweet coffee. Less like a shot of Bailey's in coffee and more like a cup of Bailey's with some coffee added in for flavor.

 

WET: It becomes much a more subtle caramel coffee, and a hint of wood. And, uh-oh, some plastic?

 

DRY: Mmm, sweet caramel coffee, with just a hint of wood. I suddenly have a craving for Starbucks. I love it! Yet another foody for my collection.