Kabuki

[jewelbug]

Compelling, complex, and utterly enigmatic: a luxuriant, exotic blend of cherry, red musk, and star anise.

Wet: Cherry cough syrup, and something that smells of polished woods. Bit of medicinal licorice.

Dry: The polished wood scent sticks around, accompanied by cherry, though its less cough syrup scented now. The anise comes to the forefront for about 20 minutes during the drydown phase (my fave part!), but then goes back to the shadows. So...I'm getting cherry polished woods.

Overall: I LOVED the anise phase, but the cherry wood...not so much. Passing it along! Edited September 21, 2007 by jewelbug

[Gwydion]

They are not kidding about the cherry. Think black cherry soda with a musky undercurrent. It makes me crave the ice cream sodas of my childhood, but I'm not really sure this is a good thing. It does improve with wear and an hour and a half in the licorice scent is dominant. I'm still not sure licorice cookie is the right scent for me, but there are worse things.

[Ningal61]

In the bottle, Kabuki reminded me of very juicy cherries. A bright, happy scent.

 

Wet, it reminded me of cough syrup. Not the kind you dread to take, but this was like the very best cough syrup I could imagine. In my heart I just knew that if I were to drink it, the cough syrup would taste great. Yeah, I know, very strange.

 

Kabuki started to dry almost immediately on my skin, and the licorice scent just popped. It didn't take long for the licorice to mellow into something a bit sweeter. Not sure which I'm noticing more: the red musk or the star anise (not good at identifying scents yet), but whatever it is is wonderful! This is now one of my favorites.

[Limelight]

Blaarghh. Kabuki's very warm, somewhat syrupy, and I wanted to like it for the warmth, but I choked on the overwhelming cherry. That stuff can kill. And it kept hanging on me and hanging on me, thanks to the musk. I don't seem to have much luck with the red musk fragrances anyway, but it was the cherry that did me in.

[mhickle]

In the bottle, this has a THICK cherry scent. Maybe the color of the oil pushes that as well, as it is quite dark, blood red. I don't get any anise or musk on first sniff, but whoa! does the anise come out on my skin. It's very heavily licorice on me at first, like way too much, but it becomes more subtle and the musk starts to come out as the oil dries down. Now it has become very subtle. It's a complex scent, and curiously enough I don't get much cherry at all once it's on! This was a frimp in my very first order, and I'm digging it!

[spiralmissy]

Tested and reviewed 11/13/07

In bottle

Cherries and licorice. But NOT cherry licorice (like Twizzlers)

 

Wet on skin

Sweet and spicy plum - wierd since that is not a note in the blend.

 

Dry on skin

Sweet fruit smell settles down and softer musk tones come out. The more I smell this the more intoxicating it becomes.

 

Conclusion

The word that comes to my mind is sumptuous. This is a lovely smell, but it is not one that I see myself wearing often. My scents have moods, and mostly I wear them to cheer me up, sex me up, clean me up, or calm me down. But the smell is beautiful - the scent remains a dark red/plum color for me. I may not buy a bottle, but I think I will use the entire imp.

(8/10)

[hkhm]

this smells like rich dark cherries with a nice hit of anise in the backgound. no musk at all to my nose.

 

wet: now i know i amp musk and it was faint when i straight sniffed the imp but once applied: cherry musk doom. the anise is still in the background while the cherry and musk have a deathmatch to see who comes out on top. i barely applied any and i can smell this all over the place!

 

dry: of all unaccountable things: the anise comes out the strongest once dry, while the cherry and musk are in the background. this is a gloriously beautiful blend, sweet, spicy and sexy all in one.

[Apple]

Cherry cough drops, then black licorice, then black gum drops, eventually grape-y. Yuck. It finally softens into something less offensive to my nose, but it's definitely not for me. Of course, I loathe anise/black licorice; if you like anise, you will love this.

[Rouge]

I'm searching for a scent to wear to my work Christmas do - something mysterious and elegant with dark red fruits. I'm hoping this could be it!

 

In the vial - There's a sweet but sharp note that somehow reminds me of almonds... like cyanide but in a good way. The red musk is very sensual and grounding.

 

Wet on the skin - Again, quite a sharp scent. The cherry is rich and dark but for me it's not as noticeable as the other notes; on first application the anise takes centre stage.

 

Next stages - Musk and anise continue to dominate, with a luscious, deep fruit tone providing a background.

 

Dry down - When the anise finally softens, Kabuki dries to very sensual and elegant scent. Another winner for the Asian-themed blends!

 

Similar scents - The red musk note is very similar to that in Scherezade, while the anise note reminds me very much of Kyoto.

[Pendragon]

In the imp: ick, sickly cherry and aniseed.

 

Verdict: Do I dare try it? Me thinks not. Be gone with you evil imp!

[Emerrific]

Wet in the imp it was a full delicious cherry scent, not an artificial cherry-flavored chapstick sort of cherry, or a processed maraschino cherry, but a real-life juicy dark cherry you get at the farmers market. Yum! The anise added a nice spicy feeling and it was absolutely lovely and I thought I'd found a new favorite.

 

On my skin though the cherry went all wierd and artificial, the red musk did the wonky-red musk thing it always does on my skin (so sad! so far there is no red musk for me!) and only the anise stayed true. I really really love anise, but with the other notes going funny on me the anise spiciness just made me feel like a cleaning product or cough syrup. My boyfriend said I smelled like berry flavored dental flouride (bah!).

 

The oil is lovely, it just did not work on me. I passed it to a friend who does better with red musk and on her it stays juicy-sexy-cherry wonderful the entire time.

[Skirt]

In the vial, it's veryveryvery cherry. Not overwhelmingly so, but that's probably because I like cherry. However, on me, it blends into smelling like.. cherry root beer. I don't know what it is, but that's what it smells like. I thought it was just me being crazy and then I asked both my boyfriend and my mother what they thought it smelled like and both agreed with me. I like smelling like cherry root beer, but I doubt that's what Beth was going for.

[Northernskygal]

The licorice smell is simply too strong for me in this blend. The cherry is there.. and it sweetens this blend up.. a lot.. but it is just.. too much..

[Luxari]

Smells like Blood with a strange spicy and exotic twist- not as good as blood, but pleasant ^^

[djsiberia]

i thought i would really love this scent. unfortunately i smell like licorice scented cherries. it's not a bad combination, but apparently my chemistry wants to amp up the anise and then with slight movement/walking i can smell more cherry then in comes the anise and then its just anise. there is hardly any musk scent at all. *sigh*

 

once mid-day hits and all i'm smelling is cherries. there is now just a dash of anise and where is the musk???

 

not sure about a bottle, i'm going to let this one sit a couple more months and then test it again.

[Nightroad103]

In the imp, it smelled very strongly of cherry, and I could pick up a little on the musk -- the anise, not so much.

 

On me... anise for the win -- or, not. It doesn't wear well on me. My problem with anise/licorice is the smell, so this is definitely not the oil for me.

 

This one has to go in the swaps pile.

[inurbanus]

I tried this before, set it aside, and randomly decided to try it out again. I'm so glad I did! On me, Kabuki keeps changing. First I get the cherries and anise, then the red musk. It's a very sultry blend, but the cherries add a little playfulness. The musk in this one is nice and non-threatening. I wish Kabuki had more throw, but I can do things to amplify it. I think this one is worth the extra work.

 

4/5

[seamor]

Wet: Cherry Coke, heavy on the cherry.

 

Dry down: Cherry floral spicy, but a more floral cherry. A bit like cherry blossoms now, with some gentle incense and a little something musky underneath. No separate anise smell that I can discern. Not bad. Not bad at all ...

 

I would never have chosen this from the description (partly because I have an intense hatred of anise after the Nanshe debacle - in fact, if I had read the ingredients first, I would probably never have tried this on), but it's really nice. Nice little throw. I like it.

 

On further dry down I'm smelling something reminiscent of the latter stages of Chrysanthemum Moon, but I think with Chrysanthemum Moon I like the initial stages a bit better.

 

This is quite yummy good, though.

Edited February 29, 2008 by celtimor

[Suu4LC]

Mmmmm! I love the smell of this in the imp! Sweet 'n sour cherry, rich and delicious and musky.

 

Yes, this is beautiful on my skin, a mix of cherry and black licorice. Even though the cherry gets a little more eaten up on my skin than i'd like, luckily I love the smell of anise.

 

Yep, I love this. Will be a full bottle purchase one day.

[sadtomato]

Bubblegum and cherry cola syrup in the bottle.

Pure annise on my skin.

Way too sweet for me.

[donnatron]

Imp: Hardcore Kyoto. Succulent black cherries, a touch of anise, and what I guess is red musk (previously I have referred to this scent as "BPAL smell").

 

Wet: True to the imp. It sweetens and warms a touch on my skin.

 

Dry: Brilliant. I have an evening class on Wednesdays and slapped this on my throat before class. I could smell it the entire time and it was just soft and sweet and completely cherry. It smelled absolutely divine and perked me up the entire class.

 

Throw: Good.

 

Overall: I jumped the gun on my Kyoto purchase. This is what I was anticipating Kyoto would smell like, and while I love Kyoto, this is just a bit more commanding. Gorgeous scent.

[alianthe]

In the imp: deep, dark, boozy berries. Warm and intoxicating, heady and thick, but not as sweet as you'd expect:

 

On my skin, wet: The notes reverse themselves. Instead of thick oozing berry liquor sashaying across the stage, star anise comes to the fore and shines, backed by the musk. Spicy, anisey, warm, and seductive.

 

On my skin, dry: Subtly warm and complex. Quite reminds me of dragon's blood resin. Stays close to the skin; about 1/2 hr after putting it on, I'm hardly able to smell it with my nose to my wrist, but it's still clearly there.

 

Conclusion: Delicious! A keeper!

[cranberry]

Cherries, juicy cherries.

 

As it dries, the anise comes out and goes surprisingly well with the cherries. The longer it wears, the more it reminds me of licorice candy. Now the cherry is pretty much gone and this smells like black licorice. I’m not getting any red musk at all.

 

I like the cherry phase of the scent, but once the anise took over that pretty much killed it more me.

[akiko]

This is a phased one for me.

 

Imp: Hello, cherries

 

Phase 1: Sweet, juicy cherries

 

Phase 2: black licorice (which I enjoy, really, though I'm not sure I want to smell like it...)

 

Phase 3: Balanced cherries and licorice

 

Phase 4: very light red musk.

[voodoocatwoman]

Another winner in my book- lovely wonderful cherries!!! A hint of anise. Dries down to a lovely cherry musk. I think this is phenomenal and I will be adding Kabuki to my next order...