On the Death of His Mistress

[strahlend]

Dost thou wonder that I flew
Charm’d to meet my Leila’s view?
Dost thou wonder that I hung
Raptur’d on my Leila’s tongue?—
If her ghost’s funereal screech
Thro’ the earth my grave should reach,
On that voice I lov’d so well
My transported ghost would dwell:
If in death I can descry
Where my Leila’s relics lie,
Saher’s dust will flit away,
There to join his Leila’s clay.

- Abu Sahet Alhedhily

Plum musk, ambergris accord, matcha tea, oakmoss, patchouli, violet leaf, and cypress.

This scent went from dark, bitter wood to bright lemons in less than five minutes on my skin.
My chemistry does seem to amplify anything remotely related to the lemon family, in this case I'm guessing it must be the matcha tea.
In the end it smells like a mix of very gentle musk and lemon/verbena. Not at all what I expected from sniffing the decant!

[Gwydion]

In bottle: The plum musk and matcha team up to rule the blend. I really like the way the oakmoss, violet, and cypress work together with the patchouli to give an outdoor feel. The ambergris brings the sexy and does lovely things with the matcha. Wet: matcha and ambergris to the front with the plum hanging back. Everything else as in the bottle, but the plum being softer really changes the affect. I really like this, but green tea goes lemony on me and I can smell it ramping up by the minute, which is a shame and a heartbreaking skin chemistry, not in anyway a fault of the scent. I can still almost wear this. Dry: Flattens out to mostly green tea.

[Andalei]

In the imp: Very woody/green smelling with almost a medicinal scent lingering in the background.

 

Wet: Very herbal and spicy with a hint of musk.

 

Dry: Lemongrass! After this dried down, I swear it almost smelled like a LUSH store with a fresh batch of Avobath bombs that had just been set out. Very strongly lemongrass with a bit of floral in the background. Smells lovely, but not for me to wear.

[surlygurl]

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then Beth & Co. have made me crazy.

 

When I read the scent description, I should've known what to expect. Plum (or any fruit)+ patchouli= sour funk on my skin. I guess I though Plum Musk would be different. And it was.... for the first 10 minutes. *Sigh* Oh well, it was fun while *that* lasted.

[Incendiare]

The first sniff of this is quite multi-layered. First, I am greeted by the patchouli, then the oakmoss, then the plum musk which adds a sweetness to this at the very end. Wet, it's actually more herbal and fresher on me, like a lemon green tea. It's a pleasant surprise. I don't smell the plum anymore, and I'm starting to smell the ambergris mixing in with the lemon green tea. It's pleasant but I can't see myself ever wearing this.

[Larinessa]

In the imp this smelled interesting and complex with the plum musk and tea note making it somewhat sweet and rich.

 

On me it turned into something that smelled like an ashtray.

 

Epic fail.

Edited March 1, 2012 by Larinessa

[stellamaris]

Oh my this is so heavenly. It's salty and lush, very elegant and perfumey, in the best way. It has a lot of depth, and the scent is really clear.

This reminds me a bit of Dragon's Reverie.

Back ups will be required.

 

Actually I just put my finger (or nose) on what this reminds me of really, it's Stormclouds Over the Midway. The only similarity I can find between the two is that this has Plum musk and Stormclouds has "plum colored inscence smoke".

Edited March 10, 2012 by stellamaris

[milo]

Kind of medicinal at first. It then changes to a musky gender neutral fruit. Not very sweet at all, and there is a touch of freshness which I'm assuming is the tea. This is nice, but not really 'me'.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: Something green and sharp, probably the tea, leaf, and wood.

 

Wet: All those green notes, but the other notes are trying to break through.

 

The dry-down: No luck with the other notes. I was so hoping for a good plum musk/patch/ambergris scent, and didn't get any of those notes. Just a lot of green notes that are sharp and yet dank at the same time. The matcha tea note has ruined other scents for me, but I suspect it had lots of help from the violet leaf. Disappointing. The scent may reflect the greenness of the cemetery where his mistress is buried.

 

ETA: for grammar and spelling only. The dry-down never changes.

Edited March 12, 2012 by thekittenkat

[zankoku_zen]

Green tea (oh matcha!) with plum, patchouli, and ambergris. It's a very green tea/patchouli scent.

 

Interesting, but not for me.

[Little Bird]

I keep trying blends with ambergris, because it's a note that I usually like, but I often can't actually pick out the ambergris in these blends. On me, Death of His Mistress is all about the matcha tea, patchouli and oakmoss. I get a gritty, dry, dirty smelling patchouli & oakmoss mix at first, and then it's more about the herbal, lemony, green tea as it dries down. I don't like the sharp lemon aspects, and I like it even less mixed with the gritty, dirtier notes. This just winds up smelling oddly sour, green and dirty on my skin. I only wore it for about an hour before I washed it off, and it was still going pretty strong.

[ami226]

Definitely getting the cypress wood note. Also a bit of the violet. Not for me though. It's too... Green?

[whitsunweddings]

In the imp: Patchouli and cypress.

Wet: Cypress dominant, with the plum coming out a bit.

Dry: My arch-nemesis ambergris has appeared. DUN DUN DUN. It's not too bad though - mostly plum and matcha.

[catalyst]

I'm just getting a citrus or lemon verbena from this. It was more complex wet, but now after about five minutes, it's a quickly fading lemon verbena with maybe a little tea and something else, like maybe the oakmoss?

 

This is why it's always good to try imps twice if you can before deciding, because I remembered this very differently when I tried it a month ago. To the swaps.

[tinyvulture]

Sweet/sour plums and warm musk at first. Then the lemon comes forth and it’s so strong. The matcha tea note is noticeable after a couple of minutes. But it’s mainly lemon and plums. I love some lemony blends, but this one is too sour and it’s reminding me of Mr. Clean.

[filigree_shadow]

I will automatically try anything that has plum musk in it, and actually that note line-up reads like it should be a sure-fire win for me. For some reason, though, it's not. It doesn't really smell much like plum musk or patchouli (my favorite notes in the list)... it smells more like violet leaf and cypress. It's a dry, rather woody, sort of planty scent. I guess I can smell a little bit of plum, because I smell something that smells like a bright fruit and doesn't smell like violet. But it's not strong enough to save the blend for me.

[OctoberGwen]

As stellamaris said above, this is "salty, lush, elegant, and perfumey." It's quite nice, actually, but it's got just a bit too much of a classic perfume feel to it for my particular tastes. I'm not a plummy fan, but the plum musk blended with the oakmoss and patch is very lovely. I love anything with tea, and the matcha gives this a depth that I like. I only have a tiny tester here so I will probably keep it and use it when I'm in the mood for something that's completely different (for me.)

 

Who knows, it may continue to grow on me. I can see myself wearing this when I wish to feel classy and grown up.

[Magycmyste]

In the imp, this smells a bit sweet and medicinal, almost licorice-y

 

Wet on the skin, it's still about the same. I'm not really sure I like this scent.

 

Dried down, I'm getting the lemony scent others have talked about - this is definitely more pleasant than what I smelled before, but I don't know if it's enough.

 

Throw: er, this is actually a bit heavy for me. I get a distinct whiff of the lemon without having my wrists anywhere near my face. It's not bad, but it is a little strong for me, and reminds me of when my mom put on perfume just before a long car ride in the sun. I'm not feel the need to puke, but I have a hint of a headache (it is possible something other than the perfume is causing this, but I don't think it's helping). I hope it fades quickly.

 

I may try this again some other day to see if I still have the same reaction, but I don't think I'll be wearing this very often. Even though I kind of like the lemony smell, there are other scents with that note I like better.

 

Verdict: ***

 

Edited to add: Ok, I forgot I had asked my SO to turn up the heat this morning, and we never remembered to turn it back down. So that probably didn't help. This still smells a little too much like traditional perfume for my tastes, but the heat probably contributed more to my headache. I still think that when I get my first pile of swaps together, this will be on there.

Edited May 11, 2013 by Magycmyste

[Velvet Lilly]

Plum musk, ambergris accord, matcha tea, oakmoss, patchouli, violet leaf, and cypress.[/bpal]

 

I LOVE this scent for many reasons. Not only that it smells enigmatic, and feminine and evocative, but I also really love that I can't detect any specific notes in it to name.

 

It's partly my lack of note knowledge, I'm sure but also, it's such an interesting combination and does such interesting things.

 

It smells comforting for some reason, resin or incense-ish…..but also the plum and violet leaf makes it juicy and lush……there's even an animalistic warm furry feeling to it that I adore.

 

I love that this smells so unique and lures me back to sniff again and again as it morphs just a wee bit on my skin.

 

This is an Intelligent woman of a Victorian or Edwardian era……beautiful and driven to learn as well as be social.

 

Blissful.

 

 

[Aveya]

Initial on skin this hit me with a wave of vegetal herbal dusky earthy. Really beautiful though, not dry but super wet and lush loam. QUICKLY takes a lemon-turn. There's this small period where it smells legit salty. If you've ever had genuine japanese candies, they like to have these salted plum candies that are too bitter for me. But it smelled exactly like that for a brief flicker and I about fell in love. Then it went all dirty desk on me. Which, I've learned, is frankincense.

 

After that it kind of wafts around between those few phases, and it ends up being a really really funky smelling thing. Salty, lemony, desky, earthy, and this odd tickle of something sweet. Totally bizarre.

 

Think age did some weirdo things.

Edited July 10, 2018 by Aveya