Antonino, The Carny Talker

[Casablanca]

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

 

2015

In my mind, before smelling this, the horror of Antonino isn't his creepy mask or fiery pole, but the verbena lurking in his brew, just waiting to take over and maul the blend with its imposing lemony self. Over time, I think I put Antonino in my cart and removed it four times before finally pulling the trigger; eventually the other notes and the general Carnie lure won me over.

The liquid comes out on my arm lemony yellow. Is it a sign? I'm thinking this when the smell hits me.

Right up front, Antonino is a burst of lemon, like a heavy yellow curtain thrown down from the flyspace to hide all the cool stuff onstage. Despite the obfuscation, I get hints of the plum behind it, trying hard, and almost in vain, to make itself known. When I hunt for anything else, I find a little coconut. That's about it for the wet phase.

Dried, and after an hour at least, the verbena finally steps back but remains a presence. The coconut is gone, but I get a lovely blend of plum and fig with a hint of vetiver. The lavender still hasn't shown up.

 

At two hours, the verbena is gone. I just smell a little residual plum-fig, with a soft, well-mannered vetiver and an eensy weensy tint of lavender. The scent is nearly gone from my skin by now, though.

Edited July 12, 2016 by Casablanca

[torikitty]

Wet: I think the verbena, fig, and white musk work together to smell pretty lemony to me. Overall, it ends up reminding me of Pledge wood cleaner.

 

Drydown: The coconut comes out a bit more. The sharpness from the lemon verbena calms down. The plum rounds out the flavor. It takes on a darker tone.

 

Dry: The vetiver shows up to dry things out. The black coconut and lavender and playing in the background.

[Cali]

Delicious, but also slightly air-freshener-y citrus from the vile.

It's very sweet, and the citrus notes calm down a bit as it's drying; the notes, on me, are easy to pick apart. Glorious sweet fig and plum. Smooth musk, the other notes giving it an attention seeking thrill, but not to the point where it's annoying. Only the slightest touch of vetiver.

 

I like it, I think it reminds me of a LUSH bath bomb. Could it be intergalactic? The blue one with the vetiver in it.
I certainly like it, but unfortunately it's as smooth as a bath bomb in a bath would be, on me. I was hoping for something 'louder'.
Still great though!

Edited January 10, 2018 by Cali

[bambi]

This scent did not morph greatly on me. In the bottle, I got a giant whiff of the verbena mixing with the vetiver, which screamed of some sort of cleaner. However, being a lover of citrus scents, that did not deter me. On my skin, the cleaner scent died down a little, and the lavender came out to play. Sadly, I did not get any coconut or fig to soften the overall effect, but it was still quite pleasant. 

[joopjoop]

Hi there! I used to be somewhat active on the forums, but when a close family member passed away I just ... stopped posting - although I continued wearing (and loving) BPAL (although a bit more sporadically). There is no real direct connection between these things, just couldn't focus -  grief is funny that way sometimes.

In any case, I decided to make a BIG order in honor of Lupers and got a few other nice things as well in the same order. I've wanted to try/buy Antonio for a long time. Although both white musk and fig can be tricky on my skin, all the other notes are favorites of mine and I am a particular fan of vetiver and coconut pairings in scents. Added to that verbena and other lemony scents don't scare me, quite the opposite actually, and my main complaint is that they don't usually last very long on my skin. 

 

I probably should've let this rest longer, but Antonio smelled so good in the bottle - verbena, lavender, coconut - all there - that he was the first one I tested from my order! 

 

This is a very verbena-forward scent, but honestly, I'm not mad about it. Verbena and lovely fuzzy coconut are the strongest notes while wet, but on dry-down the verbena steps just a back a bit and the other notes emerge more. As I'd hoped, the coconut and vetiver are lovely together and the lavender provides a nice dimension as well. I think with some rest and aging this will develop more depth and complexity and may end up being something pretty special, but I'm enjoying it just fine fresh from the lab in the meantime!

[MolyH]

This is nothing but lemon with a tiny touch of lavender on me. I would've been happy with plum, or coconut, or fig, or anything, but no. I get the two least interesting notes in a very interesting-sounding blend. This smells incredibly generic to me--the sort of inoffensive background scent I might find my mom perfuming her house with. And I don't like my mom.