Antonino, The Carny Talker

[maijasu]

White musk, wild plum, vetiver, black coconut, verbena, fig, and lavender.

I get mostly plum and musk from this, and it smells really great. The verbena isn't overpowering, and neither is the vetiver. Unfortunately, this didn't last really well for me, but it's still a really nice blend, and I could see it working as a unisex scent. It's very cheerful, too!

[Dinerdulcinea]

imp: pine, fruit

 

wet: lovely spicy wooded fruit.

 

dry: This is nice, but there are other things I like more (like Ssssssssnake Charmerrrrrr). I tried it on the hubby and it turned too floral on him...but it was a little too masculine on me.

[themerrybaker]

Tony and I have spent the day together. He's now sticking pretty close to my skin, but he's still there. This evening I would guess he was made of vanilla and vetiver.

 

When Tony is wet, however, he smelled like verbena with a cedar base.

 

People say Tony is fruity, but around me he mostly throws verbena leaves and is mysteriously tantalizing about whether or not he has wood. On second thought, maybe that is a little fruity.

 

Not what I expected, not bad, but a bottle is not a foregone conclusion.

[SultryWolf]

I'm not a big verbena fan. I don't despise it, but I don't get any pleasure from it, either. When I saw so many reviews touting the verbenicity of this scent, I despaired of liking it.

So, let's see how it went!

 

In the decant: Musky verbena.

On: Verbena + lavender is almost piney (perhaps the vetiver contributes a bit here, too); as it dries, the fruits assert themselves, while the coconut and fig sidle up to darken it - "swarthy sweet", as I've been calling it. This is complex, unique, and not at all too strongly verbena.

[juniperus]

Bottle: hello lavender, hello verbena, hello sinuses

Wet: same, no hint of the other notes, yet.

Dry: aaand hellooo vetiver. no fig or coconut or plum (darn, I like plum), just a sharpness and darkness with no center.

Later: hints of coconut, with bitter, dirty, morphing, unhappy vetiver. this hates my skin, it's indescribably bad.

[Emma2403]

In the bottle: lavender and coconut. Not two notes I'd have mixed but it's quite pretty.

 

On my skin: the coconut amps up, there's verbena too. All in all, it's very complex and I'm curious to see how it morphs.

 

After a couple of hours: lemony… I guess it's the verbena. A little sweet because of the coconut… light yellow morphing to green.

 

Verdict: I like it a lot and it is unexpected… I might even consider getting a bottle.

[forspecial_plate]

Initially, Antonino wows me with a burst of citrus/verbena....so wonderful! But as with many bpal scents, the citrus doesn't hang around for very long...less than 30 minutes later, it's mostly gone. What's left is sweet, and I can make out the plum for sure, dancing around in there. I'm not sure I can tell the difference between the coconut and fig, or the lavender and musk. It's all swirled together to make something that stops just short of too sweet....very nice. Funny how much it changes from that first flash of verbena (I personally wish that stayed around longer). As time goes by the musk becomes more firm and grounding, I think. All around a really nice scent although almost too sweet for me to get much wear out of it. Plus I worry that the citrus/verbena note will degrade in the bottle before anything else, leaving me with just the sweetness. Oh and I would never have even guessed that there's vetiver in this. *shrugs* It just hides on me.

[silver_dollar]

This does a pretty neat trick on me - at first blast it's nothing but astringent lemon, and it stays that way for all of a minute. Then fig peeks through and gradually gets stronger, mixing with the lemon. Then black coconut. Then lavender, vetiver, plum, and finally the musk. I was thinking about the description and it really is like a skeleton gaining gaining muscles and skin. Good job, Lab! It settles down and stops being so strong after about an hour, like the carny talker has kicked off his shoes and sat down with some tea and a newspaper somewhere. The longer it stays on, the more it smells like grape bubblegum. Pretty cool.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Lovely deep plum, fig and lavender, and verbena.

 

Wet: Lavender comes up first, with citrusy verbena. The fig tries to peek out.

 

Drydown: It dries down to verbena with hints of sweet plum peeking through, and coconut coming out. Verbena really dominates the blend powerfully, not letting anything else out. There's very vague fig in the background, and it's a bit musky generally. Then the plum reveals itself more to my nose, light and sweet, and very clean-smelling.

 

Overall: Once the lemon verbena shifts, it's quite a pleasant smell, with a plum deepened by hints of vetiver. The wet stage is the most interesting and complex, and I really dislike the verbena stage, so I don't think I'd wear this again, but it's an interesting upbeat fruity blend, slightly garish, a little bit foody with coconut and fig. It would work well on a man, too.

[nightbird]

at first this is all bright lemon. after it dries a little, I can smell the lavendar and something else that I can't put my finger on. I was shocked to find that vetiver is in this blend; vetiver and I don't get along well at all.

 

very nice - one of my favorite blends from CD so far!

[luxuria]

I had a hard time placing this. I think I predominantly smell the fruity notes--the plum and the fig--but that doesn't actually make this fruity, just...something. I can smell just a touch of the musk and vetiver with the lavender pulling this over to the side of 'unisex'. It's not exactly sweet, but it still has some sweetness to it due to the coconut, etc. I think this is really the most unisex scent I've tried--really, I couldn't choose between calling it a masculine or feminine perfume if my life depended on it. Even though it doesn't have any notes most people typically associate with 'sexy' scents, I'd find this deeply, deeply seductive on either gender.

 

Overall? Very nice. The notes I bought it for stay nice and strong, and the ones I was afraid of (mostly the vetiver) kept their beastly little heads down.

Edited October 14, 2006 by luxuria

[slave1]

In Bottle: Earthy and lemony

 

On Skin: The verbena jumps out right away followed by the deep meaty sweetenss of the coconut. I also for some reason get a slightly piney note. This is very exotic, not a typical scent at all. I also think it is quite unisex. The fig and plum are gorgeous deep dark fruits that sweeten the scent with their juices. The coconut is my favorite note, it is sweet as well but it has such fullness that it completely encompasses the scent… damn that is delicious! The vetiver is actually quite mellow, a little earthy, just enough to balance the sweet notes. The lavender is also held in check and gives a nice calming effect. And the white musk is the base, velvety and sexy. While I love this scent, I think my husband thinks there’s too much going on and he doesn’t like the sharpness of the verbena. But I think I’ll keep my imp just because it is so fun to smell. Strong throw at first but short to average wearlength.

[supremegoddessofall]

This is a really weird combination. I'm getting a very musky fruit scent that smells sort of like floor wax. The vetiver is really strong. I'm not getting the coconut or verbena at all.

[tempestteapot]

I'm still not able to tell which scent is which.

 

But in the bottle this was a nice fresh scent. I liked it immediatly. It almost has a hint of lemon with something steadier.

 

On the skin the lemon gets stronger but now I can smell the lavender. It's a nice middle weight scent not to overpowering and doesn't fade in 20 minutes.

[PilotKitten]

Mmmm... deliciously yummy. I wasn't expecting to like either this or Theodosius, but now they're definite favorites!! I can catch the lemony goodness that I associate with verbena.. along with a lovely white musk and a deliciously fruity plum. Perhaps another bottle of this before the Carnavale goes out of town. < nods >

[theseagrows]

hm, in the imp this smells crisp and a little masculine, lemony with a herbal sharpness in the background. on my skin however, it doesn't smell masculine at all, and actually a bit perfumy. in the beginning i strongly smell the white musk, verbena, plum and fig. as it fades the lavender and coconut comes out more with the white musk, and the fruity notes settle down a bit (which i like.) as for the vetiver, i'm not sure. i tend to avoid it, and in other scents it's been kind of overpowering, but i don't think i smell it at all in this.

 

i don't think i'd buy a bottle of this but it is a nice, sweet, crisp scent and i will keep my decant.

[moon_lemming]

Before I ran to BPAL.org to check out the description for Antonino, I thought it must have oranges or something in it. I have a very strong scent memory associated with this smell, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I think that the fig/lemon combo is probably the culprit as far as the "orange" scent goes.

 

As it dries, the plum comes out to play and it becomes more obvious that the citrusy scent is verbena. It does have a little bit of a cedar edge to it, although I don't see that mentioned in the notes.

 

It's not really something I'd wear, but I'll admit that it smells good, even with the cedar, which I normally associate with hamsters.

[steffanina]

Antonino, The Carny Talker-

 

In Bottle: Ooh, the lemon is strong in this.

 

Wet: Lemon like lemon furniture polish.

 

Dry: The lemon faded but there's muskiness, a general masculine scent that's not unpleasant. But I don't think it's holding my interest.

 

Overall: Not interesting for me.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: gorgeous! fresh verbena and lavender.

on: very, very bright. tons of verbena and herbal lavender, with a hint of white musk and something a bit sweet and fruity.

1.5 hours later: very powdery and sweet. i love white musk. there's an odd, almost sour, fruity note to this, which i think is the fig. hopefully, that will fade away.

3.5 hours later: soapy and powdery.

4.5 hours later: still powdery and a bit soapy.

5.5 hours later: sweet and powdery.

overall: i liked this at first, but it developed oddly on me.

[sophia_helix]

This was very fruity and brash on me at first, which fit perfectly for a carny talker. Eventually it dried into something that reminded me a little of Frumious Bandersnatch, spicy plum, but the fig made it kinda musty. I imagined Antonino, after the show, kind of slumped-down and sweaty in his tent, smoking a cigar. Good visual fit, but the scent just wasn't for me.

[Toby]

Very brash and loud -- all I'm getting from it is something that smells like lemon (which I'm guessing is the verbena). It's very bright, but unfortunately, not me.

[mountainwitch]

A bright scent, fruitier than I expected. I ordered a decant of this before I learned my lesson: leave all things that smell like lemon citrus alone. Lemon, verbena, etc., all those wonderful things turn into Lemon with a capital "L." Antonino, regretfully, turned into something that was just too sweet; after about half an hour, it was a dead ringer for orange Pez.

 

I wish I had kept my decant a bit longer; maybe the Carny Talker would have settled down, given a little time, and let some of those other interesting notes come out to play.

[Koumori]

The citrus hits me first; when I was first applying, I thought maybe orange or even bergamot until I checked the list of notes. This is a really nice scent, very soft and powdery on me, lemon and lavender predominating. It doesn't have much throw, and was almost undetectable on me within an hour or two of application; I wish it were a bit stronger.

Edited November 7, 2006 by Koumori

[Naamah_Darling]

Foremost in the bottle are the verbena, lavender, and musk. Lemony, zesty, very clean-smelling. Verbena is lemony and herbal at the same time, lavender is a sharp zesty floral with a hint of crumbly herbs. They go well together, I think. There's a whiff of sweetness, too, but ever so faint . . . the coconut. The other notes are too cold in the bottle and I can't smell them. On it goes.

 

Augh! This blasts with a rank combination of verbena lemon drop candy and savage lavender cleaner, a sinus-raping cacaphony of conflicting smells. The vetiver, which I normally love for its masculine authority, combines with the lemon and the lavender to make a smell that's sharper than pine and more pungent than cat pee. The musk, which amplifies anything you put it with, propels this concoction like a nailgun right up my nose. The throw is nothing special, but up close it's so unique my eyes are watering.

 

Underneath lurk the fig and plum, but it's hard to get close enough to smell them.

 

Once it settles a little – and that takes a while – it becomes much more pleasant. It still smells like floor cleaner or hand sanitizer, but at least I can detect the mellow ripeness of fig and the dull, sticky sweetness of the plum underneath the screeching of the vetiver, verbena, and lavender as they have a catfight all over my skin. The coconut unfortunately never comes out.

 

This does dry down to a lovely scent – musk and fig and vetiver, with a faint herbal tinge. But the opening phase is so vile on me I can't conscience wearing it. I hate my chemistry sometimes.

 

I think out of all the concept scents this one is, ironically, the best. Like a barker, it hollers for attention, is generally off-putting, and it clashes horribly. Yet you're drawn in anyway.

 

I hate to end my review cycle on a low note, but this one really didn't work for me, despite the fact that I can wear everything in it but one ingredient. I have to assume that it's the balance of components and not the components themselves that spoil this for me.

[Ahania]

I can't really smell anything but lemon, but it's definitely heavier than plain lemon - maybe the vetiver coming out?

In any case, if I'm going to smell like I've been doing housework all day, I want a clean house out of it. Or cash.