Soothing System

[Ajila]

A lunatic’s vintage cabernet.

 

In the bottle - Definitely red wine, fruity, but with an underlying tannic note and a surprising amount of alcohol

Wet on me - A kind of green powdered note takes over. The underlying feel is still one of red wine, but there's something going on on top that I can't quite place

Dry on me - Soft, warm, slightly woodsy red wine with a sweetish musk overtone

Overall - Very scrummy indeed and very wearble

[hexnut]

SOOTHING SYSTEM

 

At the May 2013 Will Call I finally tried the three Gris Grimly scents, and last week I formally tested my bottle of System for this review.

 

 

In Vitro Wine! More grape than alcohol, but inarguably wine.

 

Wet Fresh on my wrist this was sweet and tangy grape with something underneath that wasn't alcohol but still suggested wine rather than plain juice. After ten minutes it was mainly pleasant dark fruitiness.

 

Drying Less juicy and dryer but still lively wine. It remained a pleasant wine scent as it faded within the first hour. In its very faint end stage I got phantom whiffs that could have been actual throw or an olfactory memory; strange, but nice.

 

Cloth As is my wont, I dribbled a bit of the oil on my shirtsleeves so I could sniff it during the day. It lasted over four hours in this form but remained a very grapey wine smell without the complexity of the skin scent. In a reverse of the usual BPAL experience, I like Soothing System better on me than on my clothing, and either way I shall quite enjoy this bottle.

 

 

103

[achildoftime]

Upon opening this bottle it smells like I may have just opened a bottle of red wine. It's very strong.

 

Wet on the skin it mostly just smells like I've spilled wine on me. I'm not a wine drinker so I can't tell if it has specific notes that wine commonly have except that smells very generously of purple/red fruits. As it dries, the alcohol tinge burns off and I'm left with what reminds me of Welch's sparking red grape juice. Don't get me wrong, it isn't particularly effervescent, but it doesn't smell like straight up fruit juice.

 

This does last for most of the and has moderate throw. It's not my thing in particular, but for someone looking for a nice red grape scent, this might be worth checking out.

[Laughing Seagull]

I nabbed a partial bottle of this from a friend.  I couldn't tell you how old it is, but the oil is somewhat syrupy so I assume that it is quite old.

 

Smell-wise, it's what you'd expect based on the description: rich, slightly bitter single-note wine, a touch boozy, and it never deviates from that.

 

I don't tend to wear it on its own.  As far as I'm concerned, Soothing System is the king of layering if you enjoy wine notes.  I like using it to tame scents that are a little too sweet or a little too floral, or if I just feel like something could use some wine.  It's absurdly decadent when combined with Eat Me.  I imagine it'd be good with Bliss, too.