Miskatonic University

[Thorne]

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

In the bottle this is yummy caramel coffee, so much so that I actually held it up for a moment and thought about tasting it (I didn't!). On the skin, it doesn't change much - it's rich sweet coffee, with a tiny hint of dust in the drydown. Sadly, it made my wrist ITCH something fierce, so I probably won't be able to keep it, but I'm glad I got to try it out.

[quinnbee]

I hesitated over this one, because it smelled like the inside of a coffee shop when I first opened the bottle, and my husband and I were fighting over Azathoth. But I figured what the hell this morning and chose it for my oil of the day.

 

WOW!

 

Sweet caramel coffee, yes, then fading a little so the dust really came out. And it lasted all day! I can still smell it, and it is... Just. So. Good. Mmmmm.

 

I will definitely be wanting more of this one. It isn't something I would normally go for, and --- if I'm completely honest --- I'd have to say I probably wouldn't have purchased it if I could have smelled it first, because it needs time to calm down and fully develop on my skin. But I'm so glad I gave it a try!

[paperdoll]

Initial Sniff: Utterly drinkable Irish coffee. Lovely creamy coffee whiskey goodness!

 

Wearing: The Irish coffee scent lasts a long time before fading into an interesting combination of leather, dust, and hazelnut coffee. This has staying power like you wouldn't believe.

 

Final Impressions:Another triumph for Beth!

 

Notes from the Boy:

Him: It smells like butterscotch.

Me: You think everything sweet smells like butterscotch.

Him: Butterscotch smells good.

 

later...

 

Him: Now it smells like a nut.

Me: Yes?

Him: I'm helping with your review! Make sure you put in there that it smells like butterscotch and then it smells like a nut!

Me: ok.

Him: *goes off singing "Sometimes I smell like a nut, sometimes I don't..."*

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Creamy, frothy coffee with tons of rich cream and sticky sweet syrup dripped in, all lovingly layered with rich whiskey. It's Irish Cream to the extreme!

On me: I smell old paper; it is that half-dusty, half-moldy fragrance when you open a book that's been in storage for decades. It gives the coffee a musty flavor, and then the oakwood shoots up, giving the scent an almost nutty flavor as the woody note blends with the delicious food. All in all, a keeper - Irish Cream is a stock favorite scent of mine.

[Andromedii]

Application: Just straightforward, delectable Irish Cream coffee! OMG!!! This is Irish Cream coffee with a buttery, slightly more spicy note!!

 

Drydown: The spicy butteryness melds gorgeously with the fresh Irish Cream coffee. I want to lick my wrist and drink the bottle!!

 

Dry: The Irish Cream's creamyness is mellowing down and I can smell the coffee now with the spicy butteriness in the background. Brilliant!

 

Verdict: I have no idea why I'm getting a spicy butter-cookie note, but I'm going to be hoarding my 2 Miskatonic University bottles! I can't WAIT to get my 4 Midway bottles as well because they're BOTH delicious, delightful foody scents!

 

(Miskatonic is also extremely similar to my beloved spicy-butter-cookie original Chaos Theory 74!)

[MaryMoon]

Two words: absolutely amazing.

 

The first image in my mind when opening this was: Coffee Shop. On application, all I get are these mouthwatering buttery notes - the coffee-ness just slips into the background as a gentle reminder of what was in the bottle.

 

A few hours later and there's still a very strong sweetness, but mellowed out enough that it's hard to make out the distinct notes (my husband thought the kids got maple syrup in my hair). I love this, and will be hoarding both bottles!

[Jessica]

Like many others, I smell the coffee right off the bat. First sniff, it's unmistakable. After the dry down, I can smell what must be the "dust." This is gorgeous.

 

It reminds me of Barnes and Noble, right when I push open those heavy oak doors and the Starbucks is to my right. Yum, books and coffee. I couldn't ask for anything better. ^^

[slugbait]

From the lovely lysithea Thank you so much!

 

This is one of the SiA scents I wanted to get but my fiancé said, "Ew, I hate the smell of coffee!" and ordered Shub-Niggurath instead. I should have went with my gut and got this one, too.

 

In the imp this smells just like Almond Rocca coffee syrup. Yum! Totally amazing. On my skin it gets nuttier, and reminds me of hazelnut coffee. I want to lick this. After a few minutes, the dusty book smell emerges and mingles with the sweet coffee scent. The scent fades only a little on me, and it smells delicious! I would love to wear this on outings to Borders and Barnes & Noble, or curling up with a good book at home. Miskatonic U. lasted until I washed it off. It has great staying power. It also smells great with Villainess’ Mudslide soap. Coffee-nutty goodness. Mmm.

 

I really wish I would have bought a bottle. I will be hording every last drop of my imp.

 

ETA: My younger brother was going through my oil box and came across this imp. He liked it so much he asked me if he could have it. He had me turn it into a spray so he could wear it.

 

My fiance, the coffee hater, even likes it! Go figure...

Edited July 25, 2005 by slugbait

[laochodia]

In the bottle- Strong, sweet coffee.

Wet- Carmel coffee and light cream with a hint of ink and bookbindings.

Dry- Still strong, sweet coffee with a hint of freshly-printed books (am I the only one who loves the smell of a new book?) and a subtle suggestoin of strong whiskey. I am in heaven. If Irish coffee tastes like this, I'm going to have to badger my parents into making me one. or two. or 5. This is absolutely wonderous.

[feline.by.design]

I've hesitated to try this one. Although I was really looking forward to trying it, the smell in the bottle made me go "Eeeeeh??" and it's been sitting in my cabinet for the longest now.

 

Finally time to bite the bullet.

 

In the bottle, Miskatonic University smells nothing like a university. It smells like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory to me. When putting it on my skin, I don't get coffee nor the smell of old books, but rather toffee. Thick, buttery, rich toffee. I'm not much of a fan for gourmand scents, so this was a bit of a disappointment for me. I feel like I'm wearing Eau de Cracker Jack.

 

As the scent plays with my skin chemistry, the strength of the coffee, buttery coffee, is sucked out into some unknown vortex. About three minutes into Misk U, I'm getting the smell of wood polish. It's a scent reminding me of earthen or wood notes coated with an odd smell of some form of artificial shellac. Perhaps that's the whisky smell, although I'm not sure. My wrists smell like tables. Like buttery toffee tables.

 

There is the smell of Irish creme, so sweet and rich, but it seems like it's coming from another table in this weird scent-world, so the first thing that hits my nose is "wooden table, with a side of toffee."

 

If you're looking for a 'fume with good throw, Miskatonic University probably has that on lock. The buttery toffee smell is hanging in the air even with my hands away from my face. It's like being in a candy store. A candy store with a creepy proprieter. Or not... sorry, my imagination is injecting things.

 

Thirty minutes later: still buttery toffee tables with a splash of whisky. It's making me salivate, but I don't think this is really speaking to me scent-wise. I'm just not a foody sort of girl. I supposed I could always go to Severin for my "library atmosphere" needs.

 

-doreen

Edited July 14, 2005 by feline.by.design

[shriekingviolet]

Initial Impression:

A strong coffee note with a hint of hazelnut and whiskey.

 

After Wearing It:

Wet this smells like hazelnut coffee. Strong, black and freshly brewed. Pleasant, but not especially so as I don't like coffee much. Don't drink it, don't really like the smell of it in the air unless it's flavored/scented sufficiently so it's not so rough. The hazelnut note keeps this from being a little too much though so it's wearable.

 

As it dries I can smell the dusty notes come in and it makes it smell better somehow. I wouldn't say Barnes and Noble as that evokes too clean and polished an image for me. This is a funky but slightly dirty coffee shop somewhere. The kind where the staff is questionable and you'd be afraid to see the report a health inspector would write up if he ever made a visit, but there's something about the place whether it's the ambience or its great pastries that makes it a popular spot for people to begin their day. This is the perfect scent of a crowded neighborhood coffee shop at 8 am, the scent of brewing coffee thick in the air, the smell of damp and musty newspaper, of well worn paperback books.

 

After about an hour or so, Miskatonic University loses its coffee shop feel and it sweetens immensely. The coffee backs off quite a bit and the dust note all but disappears. The new scent? BAILEYS!! It's very creamy, with a slight coffee/chocolate/mint tang, very boozy but with little to no burn. Very smooth and lovely. The boozy note doesn't smell much like whiskey. It smells more like the rum note in Egg Nog, which works very well. I keep wanting to eat my arm!

 

Final Thoughts:

I was kind of iffy about ordering this one as I'm not wild about coffee scent, but I'm utterly enamored with M.U. The last few hours of the scent were completely perfect and I wish I had ordered more of it. It'd make a fab room scent!

[luxuria]

Oh, this is absolutely FABULOUS! *moan of pleasure*

 

In the bottle...yep, that's coffee. But it's very rich, flavorful, and deep coffee. I smell a little booze but it's not a boozey scent, if that makes sense.

 

On my skin...oh, glorious Miskatonic U, you smell gorgeous but very familiar. Where have I smelled something similar? Gingerbread Poppet! This is like GP but better! As it dries, it gets creamier and sweeter and doesn't smell much like actual coffee. Some dusted wood notes are in the background, and they're very very VERY subtle, just grounding this scent a little and not making it 100% foody.

 

I knew I'd like this, but I didn't know I'd be so totally enamored with it.

[LiberAmoris]

Miskatonic University is my first taste of the Arkhams and boy, what a way to begin. Coffee, buttery toffee, and the smell of book spine glue, ink, and a little bit of water damage...it's heavenly.

 

Libraries are my favorite places in the world, and as an undergraduate, I spent hours milling around in the stacks, sometimes looking for something in particular, other times just wandering, pulling things with interesting titles and reading several pages before moving on. I love the smell of books and sunlight on long wooden tables...and the flickering shapes of people on the other side of library shelving that has always seemed like such a great metaphor for the way in which we can only see partly, only see parts of people through the knowledge that we have...

 

Miskatonic U captures that magic perfectly. I even get a hint of candle wax on the drydown that adds an element of reading by candlelight. Love it.

[voodoobaby]

In the bottle: Mmmmmm. This is the smell of a coffee shop! Miskatonic, where have you been all my life? Initially, it smells like a good latte with the Irish cream, but the deeper I sniff the more the booziness comes out. Again, mmm.

 

Wearing: Still coffee, but it's gone a little waxy. I can smell the oak now, and...gee, what's that smell? It smells almost...burnt...GAH! Vanilla! It does this every time. Right now it's bearable, just a little scorched.

 

Later: This is no longer the scent of a candlelit coffee shop. This is the smell of the candle--nay, this is the smell of the WICK in a cheap coffee scented candle. The burning wick, to be more specific. Argh. I had my hopes so high for this one, and the stupid vanilla had to ruin it for me.

 

Overall: I LOVE the scent in the bottle. If, on my skin, it stayed like that, I could fill up a swimming pool with it and almost drown in it before pleasurably drinking it all, were it drinkable. However, it did not stay like that. I am so upset. I hate to give it up, but I think I'll have to.

Edited July 17, 2005 by voodoobaby

[ephemera]

Miskatonic University

 

When I first opened up the imp I was sent by a lovely forumite, I was disappointed. It smelled too sweet, and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it. But I've long since learned to never judge Beth's oils by how they smell in the bottle, so I gamely applied it to my wrists and rushed off to work.

 

About an hour later I'm sitting at my desk and I pause to think, "What is that lovely scent?" and it dawns on me - it's me! Well, more accurately, it's MisU on me. It's faded from being almost too sweet - reminding me of honey & chocolate, don't ask me why - to being just sweet enough to catch the nose and make you sniff after it. I'm lousy at picking out notes, which makes me something of a poor reviewer, but I really like this one. I'm glad now that I followed my gut and ordered a 5mL of it just before SiA ended!!

 

 

LATER:

My processor just walked in and asked me why did she smell pancakes with maple syrup? *lol*

[Medici]

I came very close to not ordering Miskatonic U - so close, in fact, that the bottle I now posess was a last minute order right before the SiA's were taken off the market.

 

I was unsure about the whole coffee thing - really because when I think of the scent I'm reminded of stale brew. (Stupid me.)

 

Miskatonic U is the smell of freshly brewed coffee witha heavy drop of cream, and sweetened - then at the very tail end there's a heady spike of whiskey that gives it a real flavour.

 

Sadly, I don't catch any of the dust or old tomes - it won't disuade me from wearing the scent however, because even without the smell of the library, this really is a fantastic scent - especially if you're a reluctant foody-lover.

[Little Bird]

I wasn't going to order Miskatonic University at all. I'm not really fond of the scent of coffee, and figured that this would make my stomach turn. Still, I ended up buying the entire Springtime in Arkham series in a moment of obsession.

 

This might be my favorite out of the series so far. It doesn't smell like the bitter cheap coffee that I remember my mother and father drinking from my childhood. Not at all. It smells like those yummy coffee shops that I sometimes drop into to pick up a cappuccino. Creamy coffee shot with caramel and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

 

This never smells boozy on me (thankfully) but I do get a definite sort of library smell out of this after about a half hour. Like sipping a wonderful coffee in the middle of a fancy and elegant library. I can practically envision the books and polished oak.

 

It's truly an amazing fragrance. I'm glad to have a bottle.

[DameBecca]

WWWWOOOOWWWWW........can I DRINK this, please???? I swear, I want to roll in this scent. It is incredible!!!!!

 

In the bottle it smells like flavored coffee. It is deep and dark and creamy and warm. It makes me feel very warm. There isn't a strong coffee note to it, but you can tell it's in the background.

 

Wet on the skin, it smells just like my favorite drink, Oatmeal Cookie, minus the booze edge to it. So sweet and creamy and rich. The coffee dissapears but it's still got a very warm feel to it.

 

As it starts to dry, it smells just like a scented candle I make called Vanilla Coffee (imagine that!). The coffee comes back, just a little and some of the sweetnes starts to become more complex and even creamier.

 

Finally, it loses the coffee again and is all sweetness and creaminess. Very Bailey's minus the alcohol sharpness. There is a slight hint of pure, high quality vanilla as well.

 

Overall, this is amazing. It's an orgasm in my nose. I would pour this into coffee if someone told me that it tasted as good as it smells. INCREDIBLE!!!!

[UltraViolet]

In the bottle

OMG. I had no idea it was so...foody...and good.

 

On

Oh wow, it's like toffee and coffee and some butteriness, and dusty wood. Ooh something bitter underneath too but it's good.

Ooh it's giving me a warm tummy, I can feel it going through me so it must have some kind of spice. It's warming. Very nice.

 

30 minutes

It smells the same except the buttery goodness is gone. But the wood, albeit dusty, stays true and so does the dark coffee scent.

 

Throw:

a bit more than average

 

Scent category:

foody

 

Summary

It's just as you would think it would be.

 

Purchase again?

Yes. I would wear this during the winter at night when it was snowing to help feel warm.

 

1-5 rating (5 being best)

4 A great representation of M.U and it is also a comforting smell.

[inkstone]

In the imp: Wow, this is pure Irish coffee. How does Beth do that?

 

Wet: The Irish coffee smell stays true.

 

Drydown: The wood and dusty notes come out a bit more, but the Irish coffee stays very much to the forefront. It's very creamy and reminds me of praline. I love it!

 

Final thoughts: I didn't order a bottle of this, instead thinking I would be able to snag an imp when the orders starting to roll out. However, now I'm starting to think I made a mistake. I never expected to like a coffee-based blend since I tend not to like coffee in general, but I love the smell of this. It reminds me of huge libraries and makes me feel all cozy.

[Barb25]

I have really been looking for a good coffee scent for a while, and Beth has certainly fulfilled my wishes.

 

In the bottle - very strong Irish cream coffee

 

On me - At first, very strong Irish cream coffee. As it dries, the coffee dies down just a little, enough to smell a hint of woodsy notes. It still has a ton of throw, and it lasted about 12 hours without having to reapply.

 

I really should have gotten another bottle!

[madelf]

In the bottle and wet, this is irish cream and a bit of coffee. There's a little bit of a hazelnut note lingering in the background. Delicious, amazing and edible.

 

On dry down the coffee becomes much stronger - nice, expensive coffee beans and the creamy note disappears. The dusty book smell becomes really prominent on me, and mixed with the coffee is just strong and a bit pungent. It's really interesting, and while not something I would normally go for, it just works somehow.

 

This scent has been getting a lot of wear since I received it. It is an amazing coffee scent.

Edited July 24, 2005 by madelf

[arabella]

First Impression: Very rich, full-bodied hazelnut coffee.

 

Dries down to: Doesn't change much at all. This coffee definitely has cream, sugar and a touch of Irish Whiskey in it - the cream is Bailey's Irish Cream and the sugar is turbinado.

 

Additional comments: I don't get any wood or dust at all. I'm more of a tea granny at home and a coffee drinker when I go out but I love the smell of coffee - I can't get enough of it - so, I'm sure this will become a staple room fragrance for me, especially in the winter - it's wonderfully comforting.

 

Lasted: All day and night - this is the longest lasting BPAL blend I've tried, so far.

 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

[zankoku_zen]

In the Bottle: Coffee. Irish coffee. And something else.

 

On Skin: Coffee still. With a shot of whisky. I'm getting more of the dusty book smell at the end now.

 

On Drydown: There is something almost buttery warm underneath the coffee. My skin drinks this right up though. The dusty tomes whiff gets stronger after time. But ah... coffee...

 

After two hours, the dusty note is the first smell and then the underlying beautiful coffee...

 

Verdict: I have Jack on one arm and M.U. on the other... and I alternate between sniffing both. And somehow, I feel like I should be having dessert. It's so tasty. Coffee in one and pumpkin pie in the other. Lord, Beth is a genius.

[Sheila]

Miskatonic University--I don't usually like coffee scents (at least, not to wear as perfume) so I didn't get this. Then I sniffed this at the Seattle BPAL meet, and fell in love. Luckily I've managed to swap for some imps.

 

The first scent always makes my eyes roll back. I want to drink the vial. It smells like Irish cream liqueur (Bailey's, or something). So sweet and creamy! Applied, for the first 20 minutes or so it retains this scent. Then the sweetness fades and the dusty wood and books come out, layered with strong coffee. I have no idea how Beth managed to capture this scent, but she did! My cat's fur smells dusty, and this stage reminds me of how my cat smells. Ater several hours, a bit of the sweetness comes back, and it fades into a gently sweet, dusty coffee.

 

This is delicious throughout all its stages.