Mad Hatter

[Joyleaf_]

A gentlemen's lavender-citron cologne unhinged by the feral pungence of black musk and a paroxysm of pennyroyal.

 

i have been going through and testing out frimps I got ages ago and today its Mad Hatters turn. in the imp and wet its this shock of bright green mint, almost a single note. As it dries down theres a weird sticky sweetness to it, like mint candy. The cloying over sweetness is too much for me. Not a favorite, and I probably wont revist.

[Mokiefraggle]

Just got frimped this with my Luper order, and I'm very glad I did. This was one of those blends in Mad Tea Party I've glanced at and considered several times, being that I love musk, and I love-to-death the Lab's lavender note in things like Dorian, but the citron and pennyroyal gave me pause simply because I had no idea what the latter smelled like, and most citrus is hit-or-miss on me. It appears that it's a hit here, and I think I may have to try it on Darling as well. It feels like something he'd wear about as nicely.

 

Wet, Mad Hatter gives me a very clean vibe. The pennyroyal is a bit on the minty end, but it's also fresh without being too green; a good thing, seeing as very green scents often go awry on me. The lavender is soft and a bit smoky-seeming, with very little of the citron coming through. I get very little if any citrus out of this blend, but that doesn't really bother me.

 

Dry, it gets a little of the powdery/creamy edge that musks can sometimes have, but not in a "scented baby-powder" fashion. Just a little dusty over that crisp, fresh green, and the smoky lavender. I rather like it, since it's soft and unassuming, but with just a little something strange around the edges. It's not too masculine, nor is it really anything I'd call feminine, but rather a nice gender-neutral sort of scent, not too dissimilar from something like Dorian or Whitechapel. I like.

[Cali]

A soft musky vanilla with a whiff of real cripsy mint leaves. In the imp it's a little more wet but on my skin it goes sugary, almost foodie.
Later, the lavender comes out and it's a bit more calm instead of screaming MINT. Lovely and smooth!

[Casablanca]

Aromatic citrus -- this opens as very fresh, dewy, pale yellow tones with hints of light purple lavender and something darker in the distance. As the initial citrus burst just starts to ebb, I get a strong mint, like it just jumped out from something in front of me when I turned my head for a second, and I'm left wondering where it came from. So, ah, I guess that's pennyroyal.

There's a sweet, slightly powdery note to this that reminds me of clean laundry softened with dryer sheets. Behind that, I get a little shadowy vetiver. But for a while, mostly it's mint.

Later the Hatter settles into a dark musk with a backgrounded but high-pitched citrus-mint. I don't like the shrieky tone the citrus-mint takes on from this point. The whole scent fades after a few hours.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Mint! Love this mint, actually. It's more of a sweet, herbal mint than a cold sharp mint. It mixes with the musk to make something I really like, and immediately think how relaxing and soothing this would be to wear to bed on hot summer nights. The mint gradually gets colder, but not sharp and it maintains its sweetness. I am enjoying this way more than I expected to!

 

 

Dry: Mint and sweet musk with a soft sweet fougere are what I get from this, and I love the combo. I expected it to be really masculine, but instead it is 100% unisex and I am enjoying wearing it a lot. Not sure I would wear it out or to work, but I feel like it's a wonderful relaxing scent that I would love to wear to bed or lounging around at home. There is something so utterly comforting about it. I likely need a bottle.

[Nikki Scarlet]

This was frimped to me in my most recent order.

In the imp:
Kinda smells like a musky lemonade.

On me, wet:
I think some of the florals are popping into the mix now, but still kinda smells like an artisanal lemonade: something you might order at a hipstery juice bar. I get kinda thirsty when I sniff this. So far I want to drink it, but I'm not sure I want to wear it.

On me, dry:
The scent gets sweeter and thickens as it dries. Now instead of artisanal lemonade, it's the artisanal hard candies they sell with the artisanal lemonade.

Verdict:
I don't dislike this, but I don't think it's for me. It's a fairly fresh, unisex scent and I think it would really suit some people, but I don't think I'm one of them. This is another scent I'm dithering between swapping or keeping just for occasional sniffs.

[roseus]

Mmm starts off as a lemony lavender men's cologne. Gets sweeter and a little powdery and smells a little like candy by the end.It's still very pleasant. The mint gives it a nice edge as it dries (I think), but my guy says it smelled medicinal.

[Bones613]

This scent is less mint and more soft on me than some other reviewers describe. The scent is entirely a citrus at first, but it dries down to a sweet citrus floral after a bit. I can't smell a strong musk note, but there is a depth to the citrus scent that I assume is from the musk. A solid scent, but too sweet on me for regular use. I'll probably use the imp, though.

[Lucchesa]

I wear a lot of scents I consider unisex, but my initial reaction to Mad Hatter wet was that it was too cologney. And then the pennyroyal came out, and I hadn't realized that pennyroyal was going to be mint, which is a doom note for me. The black musk of the drydown is very nice, but overall this is just not me.

[clockworkcrypt]

The lavender comes out strongly on me, and meshes well with the citrus and something that I cannot quite identify, so probably the pennyroyal when I first put it on. It is lovely and bright and quite gender-neutral if you care about that sort of thing. It dries down into what I can only describe as a faintly herbal sugary scent, with light notes of musk occasionally coming through. This is by far my most casual everyday scent, and I love it to bits! If you prefer something sweet and herbal than you'll love this!

[queenshaboo]

Put it on my inner wrists, elbows and underarms after a shower and the pennyroyal mint is only detectable from my pits (in which I had previously applied a magnesium, charcoal and probiotic unscented natural deo). Weird. On my arms all I can detect is lemon, a a tiny bit of lavender and the same musk base as in the reformulated Dorian. This is v much like Dorian having a 4 o'clock cup of lemon tea in the garden. Nice but not amazing then again I'm an inveterate resin and wood girl who's not a particular fan of synthetic musk (to give Elizabeth credit this dark musk accord at least breaks through my musk anosmia)! If you like Dorian, musk or Elizabeth's lavender cologne accord you'll definitely enjoy this one a lot. Low to medium throw but more long lasting than I expected. 

[Laughing Seagull]

This is definitely a cousin of Cheshire Cat, sharing a couple of notes (lavender, black musk) and the two are borderline indistinguishable from each other after several hours.

 

The opener makes all the difference though.  Cheshire Cat opens with juicy grapefruit while Mad Hatter is like cracking open a jar of those tiny pillow-shaped butter mints that I go nuts over.  The waft is nice butter mint-y goodness, but if I sniff it up close I get a very "drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth" kind of vibe with a hint of "my high school gym bag."

 

To be fair, the Mad Hatter probably would be into drinking orange juice after brushing his teeth.

 

The overlap with Cheshire Cat and the toothpaste-orange-gymbag bit makes me reluctant to want to spring for a full bottle of this, but I'll be keeping an eye out for more pennyroyal scents.

[bkwy.aesthetics]

A very fittingly bipolar scent! This is completely different in the bottle vs.in the dry down. But I enjoyed the metamorphosis! 

 

In Bottle: Very heady and minty! I was very confused at first and had to research what Pennyroyal smells like, and apparently that's where the mintiness is coming from. There's the slightest hint of musk in the background, but overall very fresh.

 

On Skin: The mint : musk ratio becomes more balanced, but not too many major changes from in the bottle. A nice, clean masculine-leaning cologne.

 

Dry Down: The mint completely leaves the party and what I'm left with is the black musk. Very masculine, but not dirty or animalic. I won't be buying a bottle, but I'm happy I got to experience Mad hatter!

[ComicCreep]

Here goes my first review- I got this as a frimp and let it sit around a while before actually trying it. And I absolutely love it. 
 

it smells like a warm peppermint tea. I love mint and hate lavender but the pennyroyal definitely is the stand out note.

 

unfortunately on dry down it does fade quite a bit. I’ll get a ghost whiff throughout the day at work that perks me back up, it’s like the ghost of green tree viper to me. 

since it isn’t super heavy I think it’s lovely as a daily light spring or summer scent. 

[PumpkinGuts]

Yup, minty pennyroyal, which is more of a green mint than a blue one, if that makes sense. That blends with an old-fashioned lavender cologne and black musk, with the end result being rather grandfatherly. I get a bit of a papery note in there, too, which aged citrus sometimes does on my skin -- this particular imp is at least 10 years old.

[Jarek]

In the imp and wet, the minty smell of the pennyroyal is quite strong. I normally like things labelled "gentleman's cologne" but this one starts out too minty for me. I'm not thr biggest fan of mint, both thr taste and the smell can be pretty overwhelming for me.

 

As it dries however, the minty pennyroyal fades more and balances out with the rest, the lavender-citron and the black musk make more of an appearance, and it becomes something I enjoy a lot more.

 

I'm wearing out the imp, gradually (I got it as a frimp in 2020), but I'm not getting a bottle. I have encountered other BPAL with mint notes and enjoyed those, so it's definitely a proportional thing. And it's entirely personal, like, I find it hard to get past the mint to smell anything else, and others might experience more of the blend right away.