Destroying Angel

[indybear]

One of the deadliest mushrooms to ever pop through Gaia’s soil. Papery white notes evoke the grace of this fungi, grounded by thin, crisp soil.

A Lab order frimp:

In the imp: Dirt, more dirt and paperwhites - a very sweet note

Wet: The dirt is still there, but the paperwhite have come to the front.

Dry: At first the paperwhite was pretty strong,with dirt in the background and just a hint of mushroom. As time went by, the sweet faded a fair amount and the mushroom also got stronger; I don't smell much dirt anymore.

It faded fairly fast and had very little throw - I'm holding my wrist up to my nose to smell it.

I like this, and I didn't expect to.

[zankoku_zen]

I get *NO* dirt from this one. At the beginning, it made me think of lilies (not as sharp) but definitely a paper white floral. As it has dried down, it has gotten a sort of lemony alcohol sheen on it.

 

I think this mushroom and I have not worked out.

[dluszcz]

I was hoping to love this mushroom, and saved it for a grey spring day. In the imp it was sweet and green like cut stems of roses. On my skin, this quickly became extremely sweetly "Old Spice" and really, really, sharp, wet mud. I hold my wrist to my nose, sniff, the brain first said "ok", them pulls back and "Ewwwww". I hope this fades very quickly. I think I smell like a dry, musty old man!

[Suu4LC]

This smells like soil. Like plucking a mushroom straight from the ground.

 

I don't like dirt smells, but if I did, I think this would be high on my list. It doesn't have that sour smell that many other dirt-based blends have. It's rich and fresh and moist and a bit spicy.

 

On full drydown though it kind of smells like...pot. And not the kind you plant flowers in...

 

Not for me.

[cassandrakfreaq]

at the start this is strong soil with a hint of mildew so I can't sniff it. the scent lasts maybe an hour and it practically disappears on me.

[savvymercury]

destroying angel

i got this as a frimp from the lab. yay frimps : )

 

in the bottle: very wet mushrooms. the way that mushrooms smell after it rains, when they're swollen with water.

 

on the skin: my first thought was, "hmm, this is nice". a very dry mushroom-y smell, with some dry dirt creeping in underneath. there's a faint sweet white smell reminds me of the smell of dried paperwhite narcissus.

 

drydown: the sweet white smell becomes stronger, overtaking the mushroom scent. the dry dirt remains strong.

 

final thoughts: although i've described scents as being "strong" i mean that in relation to the scent itself. overall, this is a very gentle scent. i had to slather on quite a bit of it to smell anything. throw is pretty weak.

 

rating: 4 out of 10 (ten being highest). this is a pretty scent, but it's just not my thing.

[LadyLuckDoubt]

In the Bottle

Sounds exactly like the description, only with a sharp, green bitter note which seems out of character for a fungi scent. The earth and the papery-rubbery mushroominess is there, though, though it's a lot richer, and a lot greener than I expected.

 

On Me

Thankfully, the green pisses off pretty quickly, and I'm left with a dirty mushroom smell, with a bitter hint of something utterly lethal. It reminds me of the deadly nightshade plants in my garden when I was a kid, and is reminiscent of something in Beatrice and in the Rappaccini's Garden range... I don't know the specific note, but I think it has to be combined VERY carefull or else it could make things smell horrible.

 

This doesn't, though. After a few hours, I get a morphing of some description and something woody-- cedar, I'm guessing makes a little appearance, and then, eight hours or so after I applied it (I wore it to work!-- and I wash my hands a lot at work, so this DOES have staying power), I sniffed my wrist to get a faint hint of grey papery fungal notes, and little else except a smudge of dirt. Which was how I imagined it.

 

 

It's a gorgeous scent, and I'm so glad I have the imp. It's not an immediate I NEED THIS fragrance, and I may only be content with the imp (though I'd be sad if this was discontinued) but all in all-- LOVED.

[Electric Maenad]

(more lab frimpage - glee!)

 

Wow - I have to say that while this scent is not at all the sort of thing I typically go for, the representational quality of it is staggering. It smells like compost - not the rotting crap on top of the pile, but the end product - rich, slightly sweet, pure dirt. I'm not super interested in smelling like dirt, but the fact that it smells *exactly* like that is pretty damned impressive.

[biggnerd]

When I first put this on I get a very strong dirt smell, then it begins to dry down and smell like a dirty mushroom that has just been ripped open in a room where there are white flowers. On dry down and until the throw fades its now a mushroom that has been ripped open sitting on a table underneath a vase full of paperwhites.

 

This is a strangely pretty scent, dirty, white flowers.

Edited May 10, 2008 by biggnerd

[homunculus]

This one I find very hard to describe. At first a smoky tanginess that catches the back of your throat (maybe this is what people are referring to as the 'dirt' in it?) and an overlying floral note. There's an almost male muskiness to it and I can smell mushrooms in there but I'm not getting 'earth' as I'd hoped. It's very unusual but on my skin it becomes more of a 'normal' clean floral smell with time.

[kelpsoda]

at first this smells like a mushroom, and some dirt! weird. After it dries, I smell grass, and dirt, with maybe something floral hanging out in the background. Clean and fresh, but not for me.

[iiinterstate]

Wow, I was expecting something a little closer to Death Cap, smoother and more earthy smelling.

 

Destroying Angel is sharp and bitter, and almost green smelling. I definitely don't get any dirt from this. Eesh, not for me at all.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Dry soil with something very acidic in the background

 

On Application

Very dry, powdery soil. Thin

 

Dry Down

Dry and thin, but with a sweetness and perfumey quality. Strange. Methylated spirits/weird acetone, kind of. And most strange of all, I actually like it.

 

Rating (0-5)

3. 5 for the artfulness!

[jehrichardson]

In the Bottle:

 

Freshly turned soil, fresh and clean and nutritious. The good black stuff, where you feel that you could sit directly down with a spoon and take sustenance directly from the earth.

 

On the Skin:

 

Delicate. This is not dirt, this is soil. This is earth. Healthy and nutritious (how I get that from a scent, I've no idea). This is sweet and thin. It lies close to the skin. There are woods in this soil. How unusual! Like the garden, I can smell clean laundry nearby, flapping in the sun and wind.

 

After a While: I feel like I forgot to wash after gardening and I'm still dusted with sun-clean soil. Soil fades to linen.

 

Verdict: Despite myself, I love it.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Ozone and dirt.

 

Immediately on skin: This is very clean and green smelling on me, with an undertone of light dirt. There’s a sharpness to this that I don’t like, plus a very biting white floral note.

 

After a little while: This is an odd scent. It’s like light dirt mixed with lemony white flower petals. It’s strangely dry but biting and almost clean smelling. This smells earthy, but not gritty.

 

Overall Impressions: This blend is unusual… it’s dry, dirt-like, and very clean at the same time. The soil note is very smooth and blends oddly well with the “papery white note” that smells a bit ozone-y or citrusy to me. It’s almost like dryer sheets buried in the dirt or something. I think the dirt note is like the one in Nosferatu, but they’re not similar in any other way.

[modillian]

In the bottle: Dirty dirty dirt and green sap. I've definitely smelled this green sap stuff elsewhere. Not like cutting grass, more like cutting up wet juicy vegetables roots or weeding my garden. ETA: duh, it says fungi notes, and yeah, it smells like tearing up the gills of mushroom that's only very slightly bitter.

 

Wet on skin: Very nice. Dirt, the green sap is the strongest. Gathering a faint spicy green smell now -very much unlike weeding a garden and most distinctly a perfume waft. Mmm, getting much headier as it dries, but not as strong as Death Cap. I've got Death Cap on my other hand for comparison, and it's much more heady spice (almost foody?) with a hint of green and dirt, while DA is earthy sap with a bit of spice and waft. They're both very good.

 

Dry on skin: Oh my god. OH MY GOD. I love Death Cap's wafty hypnotism, but it may be trumped by Destroying Angel. It's morphed into this incredible greenspice perfume, not at all like the initial I've-just-run-through-the-muddy-garden scent. DA is softer than DC, but utterly delicious and, dare I say, softly sophisticated while keeping a fresh edge. It appears to fade from my skin in a couple hours, but spank me with a monkey if it wasn't worth every moment beforehand. I'll age it to see if the lasting power increases.

 

I like my poisonous perfumes, mwahahahahaaa!

[Juushika]

After falling in love with Death Cap, I went on the hunt for another mushroom and dirt scent.

 

In vial: Sharp and bitter. A pale dusty soil.

 

On me: The scent loses some of its sharpness, but it retains a bitter edge. The dust dies down, but the soil remains dry and thin. After the drydown, it develops something more organic, rounding it out—the fungus growing from the soil. It's a pale scent, white in color.

 

Verdict: Destroying Angel is pale and dry, a bit bitter, rounded out by an organic note at the center. The Lab's description fits it perfectly. Unfortunately, the scent doesn't have much of a personality—soil and fungus, definitely, but nothing more than that. It's not bad or unpleasant by any means (though I'm not fond of the bitterness), it just simply doesn't stand out or appeal to me. I'll probably pass this one along.

[ReikoSazanami]

In imp: Mildew and rocks, and something very dry and stale.

 

Wet on skin: It almost smells metallic, which is rather bizarre. I’m not getting fungus or dirt at all, but more of the tang of ozone. Very strange.

 

Drydown: There it is! There’s this faded whiteness that I can’t quite place. Metallic soil and rocks, mildew and mushrooms. The ozone is still there. It’s still strange, but likeable.

 

Overall: It’s a keeper. I’m not sure what it is, but there’s some subtlety of this blend that I really like. I could stand for more soil, but this is nice as it is.

[Iceblink]

OMG dirt! Musty dirt! But as it dries it becomes fresher and a hint of white flowers peeks out from underneath the soil. The end result is clean soil. Fabulous if smelling like soil is your thing, and really interesting.

[undream]

wet from the imp; ohhh myyy heaven. this smells exactly like the soap grundy from villainess. (i did not much care for grundy when i first tried it, but i have since fallen madly madly in love with it, and so this oil? is promising! seriously, you can't get any more spot on than this.) it is just a very loamy, earthy/mossy scent, bringing to mind - just as grundy does! - wandering around in the middle of a crisp, rain-darkened forest and burrowing deep down into the moist, cool, almost black soil there. ungh, i love it.

 

wet on application; stays pretty true so far, but something is . . . slightly sweetening? a peekaboo floral or citrus note . . . ? whatever it is, it doesn't hurt!

 

drydown; definitely picking up something citrusy now. the moist earth smell hasn't changed (yay & yum!), but now it is as though i am catching whiffs of a citrus fruit tree nearby as well, or as though someone has dropped their half-eaten fruit into the soil nearby to where i have burrowed myself. it is very subtle but definitely there, not changing the oil at all really but somehow adding a lovely, separate aspect to it, if that makes sense. at times the citrus thing disappears altogether, but either way, it is simply beautiful.

 

given a bit more time, the mysterious citrus note wanders off completely and this scent returns to it's initial earthy goodness, both up close and in the medium throw. grundy in perfume form, and once again i am madly madly in love.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Fascinating. Papery mushroom over something wet and pale green. It’s a tiny bit like Enbalming fluid. Wet: Rich wet and green with that lovely paper note over it. Oddly light and alluring. Dry: A more Earthy version of drier lint, with a perfumey edge.

[GhillieDhu]

Frimped with my latest order. Thanks, Lab! In the bottle and wet, this is ozone-y, rainy dirt with something slightly green/floral underneath. It reminds me of walking through the woods behind my parents' house at night, with cold rainwater dripping down my neck through the branches, and wet underbrush catching at my legs in the darkness. As it dries, the dirt dies back and the ozone comes to the fore - laundry hung out dry on a grey, chilly early spring day. I really like this, and I hadn't expected to. It's very evocative, but more than that, it really smells good on me. Psychic labbies strike again!

[rayvn1]

I was really hoping for some dirt, but I only smell green, bitter plant juice in the imp. THat's all I get on dry down as well. Too bad I much preferred Death Cap for a dirt scent out of Rappaccini's Garden.

[Ravenclaw79]

In the imp: Nasty, dank, mucky dirt, the kind that you dig up and it's got bits of roots and fungus in it.

 

Wet: Potting soil? Still very much like dirt. Those lovers of Graveyard Dirt, etc., should like this one.

 

Drying: It's amazing, really, how much this smells like rich, loamy dirt. I don't know if I really want to go around smelling muddy all day, but it amazes me sometimes how well Beth can capture a scent in a bottle, 'cause if I went out in the backyard and dug up a clump of dirt (out from under the snow), this would be how it smells.

[Veronica]

On me, it's sharp and green and a little ozone-y (I guess this must be the papery whites), with barely a hint of dirt underneath. It smells very much like a biting green floral, and clean like someone mentioned earlier.