The Malignant Dreams of Cthulhu in Love

[StickWitch]

An amorphous mix of oppressive, piceous ritual incense, macerated kelp, sea salt, sticky dark ocean plants, and… mixed chocolates.

I'm not sure if I got a terrible bottle, or if my ability to smell has mutated... but this smelled like a nursing home infested with sentient tootsie rolls.
It was like death and rotten chocolate. I gagged when I smelled it, and then had to air out the room to get rid of the smell. I tried wearing it in the hopes that the scent might change. It did get slightly less awful, but I ended up just giving it away.

[Incendiare]

To me, this smells strongly earthly with a dash of salt in the vial. It's like there is patchouli in here or something. As soon as I apply this, I catch a waft of chocolate but then it runs away on me. Five minutes in, this has softened quite a bit, however, it's still a hybrid of earth and ocean. The chocolate comes and goes, but overall, it's extremely faint and offers a touch of sweetness to this.

 

It's been over ten minutes now and it's actually developed into something quite likeable on me. The chocolate has come out more, the dirty notes took a major chill pill (which is a plus for me), and the oceanic notes are gentle enough to give this a bit of a salty vibe. It's kind of intimidating in the vial, but the end result is far more pleasing than I had imagined.

[karykeion]

I just know this is going to break my heart, since I've been lusting after it for ages. Thanks to Little Bird for the decant!

 

In the decant: Chocolate and sea salt. Me gusta.

 

On me, wet: ...Yep, chocolate and salt water. I'm actually daring to get my hopes up and love this. The sea smells like sea and not soap or dryer sheets, and my skin does great with chocolate, and they're coming together to form my favorite smells and tastes (i have a HUGE salt tooth in addition to my sweet one) dong a happy little dance together. ...Oh wait, I lied, there's some soap. And it was going so well! The chocolate is still nice, though. Something in here reminds me of the note from Body, Remember that made me think of nail polish, which is not so great, but it's backing off a little and the blend is now mostly just chocolates and salt.

 

On me, dry: Dries back into chocolate and seawater, what do you know! The weird nail polish note is gone, leaving me with sweet, dark chocolate and salty, briny, dark water. Cthulhu in love indeed. I was really concerned that this wouldn't work, but it came around in the end!

[miss_rynn]

On my skin this is not at all what I expected from the description and the other reviews, but I love it all the same. It's a fresh, spiced masculine scent that borders on unisex. It doesn't have the soapy scent a lot of aquatics can have, but it certainly has a cool, damp smell to it. The spice is incensey, put not POW in your nose incense - it's more like unburned incense resin. Dry, exotic, and sophisticated rather than hippy-ish. The chocolate aspect comes through as a rich, deep cocoa scent - kind of like an unsweetened version of the cocoa in Boomslang. It's unusual, but at the same time comes across as vaguely familiar... it's a mystical deja vu scent. It's not aftershavey or soapy (as I said before), but it does have that certain unsweetened, clean, spice scent that comes across as masculine to me.

 

I think this is the perfect scent for days I want to wear something more unisex.

[Monster]

At first, this is sharp, stinky chocolate (I'm not a fan of chocolate scents). I was afraid to put this on my skin at first, but I'm really glad I did! After the initial blast from Willy Wonkas Factory this settles into a nice, slightly salty resin scent. The chocolate hasn't completely faded, it's just the gentlest dusting a cocoa powder...which I can tolerate. This reminds me a lot of a fun, foody version of The Phoenix.

[BuxomM]

Its smells like salty wet green Kelp with an unsweet cocoa hint. It's pretty much aquatic. I was hoping for more chocolate, but I don't get anything but the occasional whiff.

[fufu_berry]

Good timing for a review of this, I suppose!

 

In the decant: CHOCOLATE (in all caps).

 

On wet: Smells exactly like these salted dark chocolates that always manage to find their way into my cart at Costco. I love to eat them, but it's a little too sweet and foody for my taste.

 

Drydown: Chocolate gets a little less sweet, and the saltiness remains. Unfortunately, there's a weird kind of plastic-y sweet smell creeping up, much like what I got out of Light of Mens' Lives (which was not good on me).

 

20 min plus: More of the plastic-y sweet smell and a little soapiness creeping in. I might try this again a time or two just to make sure (I didn't dislike it as much as the review might make it seem), but definitely won't need a bottle.

 

ETA: All of a sudden after an hour the incense comes out and tames the plastic/wax note. Still not sure how I feel about it, but that's definitely better.

Edited January 24, 2013 by fufu_berry

[neveragain]

This...is amazing. My baby got it for me for Valentines Day (it came in today from Thinkgeek) and I LOVE IT!!! Its like...salty chocolate and the throw s crazy lol. I didn't like it straight out of the bottle, but wearing it is like chocolaty aquatic headshoppe goodness.

[EmDPhoenix]

Got this from Thinkgeek a week or so ago and it's AWESOME!!!

In the bottle and wet it's strong salty chocolate...like crazy strong. But after it dries the incense starts coming out. It's beautiful, great throw and the boy loves it so much I found him wearing it the other day.

[killerklown]

The only incense blend to actually work on me. It starts out a deep, rich chocolate and dries to a salty, earthy, patchouli like blend with a hint of rich chocolate. I'm so glad my friend gifted me a bottle.

[Allumina]

I wanted so badly for this to work on me, but alas, it was not to be. I don't like sweet, foody scents, but aquatics, incense, and a touch of non-foody chocolate sounded awesome to me. Unfortunately, to me this is all pretty much one note sweet chocolate, that lasts and lasts. At one point I got a hint of incense, but it was quickly drowned out by CHOCOLATE. And not Wulric chocolate, which is dark and sharp and just a hint of sweet- this is just straight up sugared chocolate bar to me, and gives me a headache.

 

Also, it LINGERS. I am still finding the smell on my keyboard, near the shelf my scent locket was placed, etc. 2 days later. Which, if you like the scent, would be a good thing, but for me was annoying. But, if you like foody chocolate, sweet and strong scents you'll probably love this.

 

Off to the swaps for me...

[mymymai]

ITB: I would have expected the aquatic notes to dominant, but it's the chocolate - warm, milk chocolate. There is a little sea salt underneath, but it isn't a bad combination.

 

Wet: Warm chocolate, sea salt, and perfume-y sea plants (really more of a floral on my skin) underneath. Usually, aquatics turn wretched on even the faintest application, but this is really nice so far.

 

Dry: Fresh sea water spray, chocolate, wafting incense - oh Cthulhu, you dashing knave!

[Circaea]

uhhh... This is pure sex. Chocolate and seawater. It's a kind of dark chocolate blow job oral orgy. I wish I had more of this stuff. Don't think I could wear it to work, though, or anywhere that eating and f*cking are not on the agenda.

[brilliantcat]

In the bottle, it's an amazing blend of chocolate and aquatic, which sounds awful quite frankly, but it smells divine! Praise the Old Gods! On me, it smells like dark chocolate, not sweet, with salt and resins. Deep, dark, unmoving ocean water with a hint of chocolate. I love when C'thulu is feeling snuggly!

[bellumed]

A little plant-y when wet, but otherwise my overall impression of this is just salty chocolate. This is a "like" rather than a "love" for me, but yeah, not bad!

[welcometothefamily]

Got this as a sniffie from the lovely Alainn!

 

Note: Take my review with a grain of salt (see what I did there?) I'm not a fan of aquatics.

 

In the Imp: Chocolate with stinky, salty, rotting ocean plants. No jokes, it actually does smell like thick salt. I actually don't even want this on my skin haha.

 

Wet: I was able to test the tiniest little drop . Nope. Me no like. It's salty as all HELL. On the plus side, I suppose it's very true to the description. Unfortunately, I dun like aquatics. The chocolate is now drowning in stinky seaweed and salt. I'm washing this off right now.

 

Verdict: No. Just no.

 

I'm not gonna give this a rating as I don't feel it would be true to the perfume. I knew I wouldn't like this, just figured I'd try it for fun. On the plus side, I find it amazing that a perfume can smell like actual, no jokes salt water. I am very glad I got to try this though, it's certainly interesting! =D

Edited November 2, 2013 by welcometothefamily

[Bonehill]

This is the first one I've 'reviewed' so bear with me. I'm using a decant in an imp bottle and applied it by wiping the stick onto my right wrist and rubbing them together.

 

ItB - spicy and dark and red and ooh yes

 

Straight onto skin - less dark on my skin, lighter (may be due to higher concentration in the imp).

 

Dry - The spiceness has increased. It is darker on my left wrist compared to my right. I'm not sure about the chocolate people mention. Patchouli, I recognise that. Now mostly spicy and patchouli. I can apply the concept of chocolate to this smell, but it wouldn't be one I'd think of myself. Someone above commented "unburnt incense" and that I strongly agree with.

[Velvet Lilly]

An amorphous mix of Delicious! I loved this scent and I remember how much everyone loved smelling it for the first time, eyes would light up and smiles would gleam with surprise and delight.

To read these notes, it sounds improbable....impossible to smell lovely.....but IT IS. It's perfectly aquatic chocolates!

It's so delectable and unique and chocolate and deep ocean water! Perhaps the first real ..... gourmand with Umami scent I ever encountered and I love it.

[everanything]

The aquatic and green notes seemed scary, but I had to try this...because Cthulhu.

 

Decant: Chocolate with a dark base. Not dark chocolate, but something inky anchoring the chocolate from seeming overly sweet or dry.

Wet: Chocolate with maybe a bit of salt, and the inky scent seems to deepen.

Dry: It's got a kick of the salt now, like I rubbed my wrist onto the rim of a salt mill. No kelp, thankfully, most green smells do not agree with me.

10 mins: No more salt. This is a chocolate incense, wafting through a room. It's a bit inky and sticky, which might be the plants, but it's not plant-like.

 

I have to douse this liberally and repeatedly. My skin eats up all the chocolate within an hour. That said, it's an enjoyable, simple scent on me.

[porcelina]

weirdly salty sugary chocolate incense. the chocolate is not the crazy dark, rich cocoa of boomslang or others like it but a sweeter, more edible chocolate. the more i sniff it, the more i like it? i remember having a viscerally negative reaction to this when i first sniffed it but it has mellowed with age and the longer i wear it, the nice it seems to get. i'm not into foodie OR aquatic perfumes but somehow, combined, they work?! i think the delicious ritual incense notes keep it wearable for me... the world of bpal is strange and mysterious. i thought i would test this and then immediately throw it back on the swap/sale pile but i think i'll keep it around.

[vanilla323]

This is an awesome scent!

 

In the bottle it smells like salty chocolate

 

On the skin and as it dries down it opens up a little and the seaweed and kelp comes out. It's so realistic and awesome. This only works for me because of the heavy chocolate making it still quite foodie. It definitely makes me think of sitting near the ocean and eating a box of chocolates. It works.

 

It has decent throw but the staying pwer was about 2 hours, damn chocolate why must you run away from skin? Adorable label too.

[Pixie-elf]

My fiance bought us both a bottle of this when it came out. It smells so damned good.

 

In the bottle: Chocolate and sea salt

Wet, on my skin: Mmmm Chocolate and sea salt with a tiny bit off incense. Something in this makes my nose itch a little almost. Not in a bad way. I'm not sure how to explain it. It kind of crawls up there!

Dry, after about 5 minutes: Chocolate Incense. Yum!

After about 30 minutes: Mostly incense and sea smells. Wee bit of chocolate left.

After 45 minutes: Incense and aquatics. Chocolate is gone. It's a gorgeous scent though.

Vedict: I would burn this incense. I would try this chocolate. Why the fuck not? It might be strange and interesting.

[starbrow]

Chocolate, but touched by a thousand chthonic tentacles before being dragged down to the bottom of the ocean to become incense to a Lovecraftian god. This one starts out really straightforward chocolate incense with a hint of foreboding, then goes full-on doom with aquatics, dirt, strangeness, and frankly terror. It is an amazing experience, and absolutely not something I would wear for funsies. Art of the first kind. If you enjoy chocolate + dirt scents, this one might work for you too. The aquatics are mostly salty, not of the cologne variety. A wild watery ride.

[Cali]

I was SO curious about this one when i learned it excisted, and went for it, and it's surprisingly lovely. In the bottle it's quite unpleasant, a strong chocolate and seaweed and something dusty. On the skin, it's a soft aquatic, i swear i'm getting a lush rose, and a creamy chocolate. It's almost edible-ish (I mean, besides there being a chocolate note) and i see incense being mentioned above.. I think i'm getting that too, kinda of nag champa-y. It definately doesn't sound romantic but boy is this lovely. 

I JUST got this in though, so i'm testing knowing this'll need a few days to settle, I think this along with the other bottles i got in need some time, but i was just so curious. Will come back to this if anything changes, but so far, so good!

Edited November 12, 2022 by Cali