Kabuki

[dart]

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

This went on very nicely; a strong, spicy scent but mixed with other things. Then after a little while, the other things sort of went away and it was pretty obvious that star anise was starring. Not bad at all but anise isn't a real strong preference of mine.

I think it's a bit better than standard licorice scents. I'm just not a person into foody scents. But while it's not my favorite, it is very interesting in this blend.

I'll keep my imp and use it up but I doubt I'll get more.

[Lala]

Kabuki has two notes that I love, musk and anise. I usually don't do cherry in fragrances. I like the smell, but I don't want to smell like it, if you know what I mean.

 

Having said that, I find the cherry in this blend to be really warm and not particularly candy-like.

 

This lasted all day on me, with the musk being most prominent, and the cherry and anise playing in the background. I really like this, nice for those days when I want to smell sweet, but not vanilla-ey (I'm a vanilla fiend).

[moon_lemming]

On first sniff, Kabuki is black licorice. Lovely. Seriously, I love that smell. It's why I love Absinthe (the oil). I could smell a bit of something fruity, like watermelon, that was most likely the cherry mentioned in the notes.

 

Thankfully the musk doesn't turn the whole thing to powder once it's on me (its usual MO). The cherry all but disappears, though, leaving the delicious star anise behind. I do wish the cherry would stick around a bit more; I think I might try to duplicate this scent with Absinthe and a cherry blend that doesn't fade so quickly on me.

[modernsaints]

In the bottle - BRIGHT CHERRY. But in the best, liquored-up, fun way. Very round & sweet.

 

Wet - The cherry pops for about five minutes, and then the anise comes in and tones it down. Still fun - but now a lot more sophisticated, more "manicures with the ladies" than "getting your nails done with the girls".

 

Drydown - For about an hour, it's pure licorice-y cherry bliss.

 

And then it's red musk LIKE HELL. And it's a powdery musk too. Wah! Hopefully it'll age well?

[oddtraveler]

My first review - I just got my first order about 20 imps today! Bear with me, I'm new to this...

 

On Paper: immediately almost overwhelmed by a super sweet, rich black cherry smell - like, black cherries in syrup smell. But that faded almost completely after about a minute or so. Dried down to a sweet and mellow but spicy kind of note - reminded me of chai, or maybe chinese 5 spices mix? The name definitely fit the smell, I could just smell the atmosphere of some place where lots of people are drinking teas and eating fragrant foods, with nag champa burning in the background... (okay reminded me a little more of Chinese fragrances than Japanese ones) Reminds me of Opium, sort of.

 

On Me: the rich black cherry smell overpowers and then fades away down to the same sweet and mellow, musky kind of scent, which I was sort of enjoying until my husband came home and said I smelled like patchouli, which he really doesn't like on me. After that, I was kind of eager to take it off, and I'll give this scent one thing: if you like how it dries down, it definitely has staying power. A few scrubs and 5 hours later and this stuff is still clinging to my wrists, I'd say at least half as strong as the original application.

 

Shame really, I want to try some of my other imps! That and it's sort of giving me a headache...

[mspixieears]

Definite black cherry, perhaps even a hint of musk. Possibly a hint of the antiseptic lemon verbena. A faint bit of chocolate, not sure? Not really feeling the love for this one. Ah. I detect something like liquorice! I let it sit a while but I didn’t really like it at all. A masculine scent eventually came up, making it even less attractive for me. Sadly, not for me.

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: cherry and spicyness!

 

On Skin: I smell the red musk, because it smells very similar to Mania, Hollywood Babylon and Spellbound. I love red musk, so that's good. I smell a tinge of cherry.

 

On Drydown: Pretty much just 'red musk', but sweeter. That's probably the cherry there.

 

Verdict: I was hoping that the star anise would make this spicier. I would recommend this blend to people who are just starting out on BPAL to figure out if red musk works on them, if they like cherry, and if they might like spicy scents (although I didn't get spicy out of it). It loses however to some of the more complex red musk scents in my book, mainly because it's pretty much just a sweet red musk on my skin.

[Em-]

This is very very sweet on me - an almost bubblegum cherry sort of sweet that made me wonder if there was lotus in this until I saw the notes. The red musk comes out after a few minutes and the star anise gives some spice, but neither get enough play on my skin to make this a favorite, alas.

[Elemcee]

Kabuki is sweet, dark cherries. Not marashino cherries, but real cherries. Despite this sweetness, it's a very womanly scent.

 

It also makes me think of red velvet, thick, plush red velvet, like curtains. A dark room with red velvet curtains.

[phedre]

In vial: Cherries! Pure, sweet summer cherries.

 

Wet: Maraschino cherries, sweet and sticky.

 

Drydown: Holy morph, batman. Licorice has come out in spades! This is nicely balanced between cherry and licorice, with a touch of musk. I like it!

[Akurarei]

KABUKI

 

In the Bottle:

Sweet, juicy cherries!

There's also a hint of something spicy or musky, but it's very, very subtle.

 

On my skin, Wet:

Cherries!!

beautiful, ripe, juicy, sugared cherries!!

oh, yeah, there's the anise too

 

On my skin, Dry:

Still Cherry-licious!!

very subtle musk & anise too

 

Verdict:

If you love cherries, try this one!

I tried Vice thinking that the cherries would stand out well on that one, but I got melted plastic from it - which makes me think that the Lab's orange blossom and I don't get along - I had the same issue with an imp of Catherine.

sooooo - if you tried Vice for the cherries but got plastic instead, try Kabuki; you may find Cherry Love here!

Edited April 13, 2007 by Shollin

[porcelina]

in bottle: cherry cough syrup.

wet: ludens wild cherry cough drops and incense.

dry: cough drops and licorice.

dry, way later: licorice and a tinytiny bit of musk.

 

eep. this is not for me.

Edited April 23, 2007 by porcelina

[captainoats]

In the imp: Cherry cough syrup and star anise.

On, wet: Cherry, less like cough syrup, and very strong star anise - like black licorice.

Drying: Fainter and a little bit less icky, but still like licorice, now with the barest hint of powder of some kind

Dry: Mostly star anise, a tiny bit of mint or something similar - those hard, black licorice candies. Definitely no cherry that I can smell.

Verdict: I know that I hate star anise, but I wanted it to be more cherry. Definitely not what I was looking for at all. Oh well. Off to the swaps.

[eatingthesea]

i generally do not like using the whoopie!yayyy!luvvvv!wooooowie! icons here but this blend is worth it. oooohhhh yes. what really got me about kabuki is its simplicity (only three ingredients) and the unlikelihood of those ingredients being in the same place at the same time. but it works so well. in fact, i wish more bpal oils had star anise. anyway, the cherry is not too sweet, tempered by the anise. the red musk lends this cherry-based scent a more "grown-up" attitude so it doesn't go the way of jailbait (i.e., being underage, hehe). i feel it's even a bit too heady and sensual to wear to the office, for example, so i would reserve this one for evening, er...affairs. there is something very dramatic about kabuki that, well, makes this yet another bpal oil whose definition and intent is spot-on. i would eat myself while wearing kabuki! 5 ml, please.

[ralenth]

Bottle: Smells very strongly of maraschino cherries.

 

Wet: Mmm, cherrylicious. Now I want a sundae.

 

Drydown: A waft of what seems like vanilla but becomes something pungent I can't quite identify as the scent deepens, licorice, almost. No, anise. A tad bit powdery. Where'd that cherry go?

 

Dry: A softened creamy blend of the anise with musky notes, with occasional soft peeps of cherry.

 

Overall: Soft and intriguing, it clings very close to the skin. I really like this quite a bit. Not quite certain if I'd get a whole bottle just yet.

[filigree_shadow]

I like red musk and cherry, but not usually anise. In Kabuki, the star anise is very bold at first, but it calms down when the scent is dry. It seems like it's mostly cherry and red musk, with a little bit of anise making it interesting. On me, the combination smells almost reminiscent of sleek black leather when it's dry, which is not a bad thing, in my opinion.

 

I should mention that this is one of the strong BPAL oils. A little goes a long way.

[LadyCrow]

Almost immediately, with very little morphing, Kabuki becomes its best self: deep, rich, red. It never gets overly sweet on me (I feel awful for the responders for whom this turns into Robitussin!), and the licorice-candy tone to the anise quickly burns off, leaving the musk sweetened to a point where it's almost woody. Although few notes are listed, the ones here interplay in a way I wouldn't have thought of in a million years, but which rivals some of the Salons. I might need a 5ml.

[arcticwolf]

This was a freebie from the lab. It isn't something that I would have ever picked out for myself, just from the description. While I adore Anise in my food, in my tea, and as a scent, I don't actually think I'd like wearing it. I'm also not the world's biggest cherry-lover.

 

Imp: This is such an intriguing dark colour in the imp. And I'm decidedly in a dark-colour mood (not a black mood...just feeling dramatic). Opening the imp, I was a little surprised to smell really bright, sweet cherries. Like a cherry lollipop...right after a sip of cherry-cola.

 

Wet: The instant this touches my skin, I smell anise (licorice-smelling, if anyone is wondering) and cherries. The faintest undertone of musk. Interesting, for sure.

 

Dry: Musky. Cherries and anise. This is pretty faint. Definitely intriguing, although I wouldn't say its a favorite.

[n3m3sis42]

I received this as a freebie from the Lab on my first order (which I just got last week, and I've now tried almost all of it, weeeeee).

 

In the imp, this totally smelled like cherry cough syrup to me. I am pretty sensitive to the smell of anise, and I was pretty sure I could smell that. This made me a bit worried, because the time I tried Queen, it had an anise-y smell that made me feel a little sick (although it's possible that was due to circumstances that day and not an inherent aversion to anise). So when I put this on, I only used about half the amount I would normally put on.

 

On me, it retained the cough syrup smell for all of 2 seconds before going almost totally anise. In spite of my fears, this wasn't horribly unpleasant, although I'm not sure I would like to smell like nothing but anize for 6-8 hours. Fortunately, after a few minutes I realized that I didn't *really* smell just of anise, because I began to recognize what must be the red musk peeking through. I think red musk works really well for me, as it was very subtle and not overpowering at all. After the first hour or so, this became subtle but still smellable, mostly red musk but with a good bit of anise and a tiny hint of cherry.

 

I was really surprised that I liked this as much as I did, and it got the husband seal of approval as well (though I'm not sure as yet how developed his sense of smell is, or if he just says I smell good whenever I wear perfume). I will try this again today, in a more normal amount, but I think this may even be a big-bottle purchase just because it's so different from what I would have expected to like. And I think red musk may be a winner on me--it just seems to blend with my skin in a way that most things don't.

 

ETA: If you have seen my other reviews, you might remember that I have mentioned that just about *everything* goes a bit musky or powdery on me by the end. All of the foody scents I've tried so far do it, although not necessarily in a bad way. Well, one reason that I think red musk might be a really good note for me is that this fragrance did not go powdery at all, and did not become intensely musky. The musk was there, but in a much more subtle and blended way than the musky fragrance that my own skin apparently likes to produce when it reacts with perfumes for several hours.

Edited July 11, 2007 by n3m3sis42

[sedona]

In the imp - Sweet cherry, almost like cough syrup.

 

Wet - As soon as it warms to my skin this is juicy cherry with almost an incensy edge. This quickly morphs into liquorice but its soft and melds well with the fruit.

 

Drydown - The liquorice takes over as it wears and I can only just detect the musk hiding in the background. This didn't seem to last long on my skin (wrists) at all but was more prominent when applied to my elbow crooks where the liquorice was much more intense.

 

I think this would be lovely layered so I'll search for some ideas and definitely keep my frimp, thank you, labbies!

[CrazyPretzel]

Purchased from the forum's Wren08.

 

In the imp: Sticky sweet cherry lollipops. Not sure I like it.

Wet on me: Cherry settles down a little; now it smells more like licorice. Sort of cough-drop-like, but the musk is starting to come into play and save it from being just that.

Dry on me: cherry way in the background now; predominantly musk with a touch of licorice.

 

I'm not really sure I like this one, but the boy's a bigger licorice fan than I am. I'll try it on him when he gets home and if he doesn't like it I'll probably frimp it away.

 

ETA: You know what? The anise has settled down a little (after about 30-45 minutes) and this has become a really nice, sexy, slightly fruity musk. This reminds me of all the sexy blends I've tried like Hunger, Ravenous, Lust, etc. that were nice while wet but went totally apeshit horrible on me in the drydown -- except this one's actually working! I think I need to hang onto this after all.

Edited August 6, 2007 by Baitu

[Iceblink]

I've had some odd licorice cravings lately so this oil sounded like a good bet. And oooh yum...it's beautiful musky licorice indeed with a hint of cherry (almost more like cherry blossom) drifting in and out. I didn't like Absinthe but I do like anise, so this is a nice find!

And the color is gorgeous!

[aquazoo]

CHERRIES!!!! Something else is coming up, which is good otherwise I would be licking my arm. Ooh, I do like this! I got it as a rather over-fondled imp from the "bag of joy," but I think it's found a home now.

[Eemia]

I used to have a terrible aversion to cherry anything. That horrible children's cough syrup I took a lot when I was little gave me a complex about it. But I like this. And my boyfriend goes insane over it and asks me to wear it all the time.

 

It starts out as impossibly thick, deep cherry without even a hint of that dreaded cough syrup. Sweet, but so dark that I can ignore the sweetness. It edges into a musky licorice scent right away and just stays dark and beautiful. Despite the cherry and licorice scent, it never smells foody to me. It is too musky for that, especially in the drydown. And this is one of my longest lasting fragrances.

 

I never thought I could wear this since I don't particularly like licorice either. But it is so seductive. And I would have never picked it for myself, but I received a frimp of it and it just worked out so well.

[Nia]

Wet, it smells like cherry lollipops, sweetened and deepened by the musk. It's the first time that cherry doesn't smell like bitter almonds or something like that, on me. But then the musk and the anise take over and the result is bitter and wrong