R'lyeh

[Beckiemort]

The sunken city of the Great God Cthulhu. A hellishly dark aquatic scent, evocative of fathomless oceanic deeps, the mysteries of madness buried under crushing black waters, and the brooding eternal evil that lies beneath the waves.

 

I got this as a frimp. It's very interesting because it is aquatic or ozonic, but also rich and spicy. Those two styles are usually not found together. The oil itself is dark brown in color; it is the darkest of the oils I have.

In the imp I just smell the watery scent, but when it's on my skin, the rich herbal/spicy scent comes out. I do not get grapefruit at all. After a few minutes the two are blended together.

I think this scent would work better for a man than for a woman.

 

I agree with everything above (except that it would work better for a man...but maybe I'm biased because this becomes a very sweet,spice with hints of salty aquatic on my skin). It doesn't feel evil, but rather soft and comforting like a giant duvet on a cold winter's day. I'm so surprised that I like this scent so much - it came in my last order as a frimp and it was the one that caught my nose at first and I finally gave it a full wear today and have just fallen for it.

[kythe]

A lab freebie! Smells like honeydew bitten down to the rind over something musky. It's spicy, dark, salty, and fruity without being sweet (again, the rind, but not the fruit). Evocative of swimming several feet underwater and looking up at the surface.

 

Another wonderful scent adventure that I wouldn't wear as a perfume.

[LateOne]

Tried this from a friend of mine and fellow Lovecraft fan. She told me it would work well on a guy.

 

In the bottle: Citrusy. Grapefruit. A little dark.

Wet: More grapefruit, but with darker aquatic scents kicking in.

Drydown: Shifting to flowers and pine for whatever reason. Still a bit dark.

Dry: More dark pine and citrus, almost flowery - any aquatic once there is gone after about an hour.

 

My friend liked it on me, though I was told by other women that it was something that they would wear - "not very masculine" on my skin. I'm a bit torn, as it does smell nice, but The Sunken City is not for me personally.

[Xue_Bai]

I have no idea what to expect out of this one. It was a Trading Post freebie. I've never really tried anything described as aquatic before, so....let's get on with it.

 

Imp: It does remind me of a larger body of water, but the salt is missing, as is the heaviness of fresh water. Weird. It's dark, but not heavy.

 

Wet: Same as the imp.

 

Drydown: Now it's getting some salt to it. Not quite ocean or sea, but more brackish from a estuary.

 

Dry: There's a slight fruit/floral in there now, which isn't quite grapefruit to me, but does have a citrus element. Still very similar to the imp. It's got a nice wet green thing going on, very fresh with a dark, cold undertow. The throw is HUGE on it, however, at a distance it comes across as a bit too masculine to me (weirdly like men's body wash).

 

Annnnd 30 minutes in, I get itchy like I do when I'm around dogs. No rash, just itchy all over. Guess it's a good thing it's a touch to masculine for me, otherwise I would have fallen in love and been disappointed.

[lucycat]

This was a frimp from the Lab.

 

Unfortunately, it's Eau de Hallmark Store on me. It's definitely fruity and spicy, but it's the fruit and spice of dozens of scented candles and potpourri in a card and gift shop mingled together. A bit overwhelming for my nose.

[JuliskaMarie]

In the imp: Dark, cold, wet, creepy &... grapefruit. What? This is almost exactly how the lab describes it... & then there's the grapefruit. Previous reviewers were not kidding about that!

Wet on skin: The grapefruit is much milder so far - it's just hovering around the edge of the scent. There's seaweed & darkness & all manner of spooky underwater things here! Something almost floral too.

Dry on skin: A dark, wet, evil, grapefruity musk. This is bizarre & I don't yet know how I feel about this.

After a few hours: Evil grapefruit musk.

Verdict: I... have no idea! It's not a bad smell, it's just... really weird! I don't yet know whether I'll wear it or not! Maybe if I get a scent locket?

Edited September 18, 2014 by JuliskaMarie

[doomsday_disco]

In the imp: A dark aquatic, indeed.

Wet: I can't pick out the notes, but this smells like an incense-y aquatic to my nose. The incense becomes somewhat sweeter, and there is a strong aquatic note that I think may be seaweed. Aquatics tend to have a somewhat soapy quality on me, and this one does have a bit of one, but not as much as the other aquatic scents that I've tried.

Dry: A dark aquatic (with a distinct watery feel) with a sweet incense.

Verdict: This isn't my thing, but I enjoyed this more than the other aquatics I have tried thus far.

[DoktorDandy]

In the imp: Wow that's a dark-colored oil! A little intimidating! The smell is dark too, rich and fruity. Impression of black cherry?

 

Wet: Pretty straightforward- dark incense with something fruity. Then, in quick succession R'lyeh changes. Goes sweet, almost vanilla, falls to distant molasses, climbs back up to grapefruit rind and brown sugar. After only about five minutes the fruity chorus packs up and leaves.

 

Dry: After it settled a while, I kept sniffing my wrist, trying to catch the memory this was triggering. Then I remembered- bare with me- this is a dead ringer for blueberry incense my family would buy in Acadia national park/ Bar Harbor, Maine. It's not a blueberry cobbler, fake blueberry or real blueberry. It smells like it's own thing. Just very weird to find it here, of all places. As a reader of Lovecraft, and possibly a distant relative, I find all these cheerful, fruity Lovecraft scents to be pretty funny.

 

TL;DR- this is a dark, sweet incense that might have a distance acquaintance with spruce or pine.

 

Not bad, not my favorite, but could get better. We'll see how I use my imp.

Edited June 2, 2015 by DoktorDandy

[DiesMali]

Note: I expected this to smell awful on me and was not disappointed.

 

In the imp: Sour and sweet at the same time.

 

Wet on my skin: Oh gods is that grapefruit?

 

Dry: Ffffffffffffff- yes, it's grapefruit. So far, all of the Arkham aquatics have either made me smell like a muddy hole or cleaning solution, and this one makes me smell like dirty mop water. I'll just...go mop the floor with my face now, or something. Maybe it'll scrape this off my skin.

[roseus]

Well, it has been said before but this is evil grapefruit. Dark, deep, salty, ozone-y, grapefruit. Don't think I'll ever really reach for it, but a very interesting scent indeed.

[Casablanca]

Usually when a lot of reviews list a note, I get it too, but not in this case. No grapefruit here.

 

Bottle: Dark, metallic and salty ocean. A deep gray, darkly green-tinged scent. Does this have vetiver?

Wet: Goes extremely salty on my skin. Then I get something like metallic rotting kelp.

Dry: This reminds me of the zucchini in Orc, but metallic and super-salty. I found Orc nauseating and have about the same reaction here.

I'll try to avoid putting this on for date nights.

[rachelos]

The bitter phase of this is great, but it quickly morphs into something too sweet for me, similar smelling to Tweedledee.

Edited July 3, 2017 by rachelos

[BuxomM]

Prominent aquatic note. I get something green bitter with a hint of citrus, but it doesn't smell like grapefruit/lemon/lime/or verbena to me. The scent smells like green water. I don't get a dark note. It settles into something aquatic & dryer sheet scented. I prefer the foodie stuff, so not for me

[achildoftime]

For me, this is pretty much what it says on the tin. It's a deep body of water. I don't think it's as salty as the ocean is, but more like a large lake. It's still deep and dark, but it doesn't smell like brine. It reminds me more of algae and moss than seaweed. I like it a whole lot. I wish this is the scent that I actually ended up smelling like after a day in the aquarium.

[lady_pandora]

Not dark at all on me--it's melon shading into more of a mixed fruit scent with light ozone. It's a fresh summer scent, but not quite my thing.

[monocainsheresy]

Another viscous aquatic rears its ugly head

This was a frimp. I've been very cautious around any and all aquatics since the Deep Ones incident of 2016. Unfortunately, as soon as I opened this the old, familiar smell of my enemy hit me: fresh, sickly, where-is-the-rotting-octopus BRINE.

.

.

.

This will never touch my skin.

[torischroeder9]

In the imp: Thick musk, salt, something vaguely sweet and possibly floral. 

 

On my skin:

 

Wet, the sweet scent shows up first. I can't place it, but it reminds me of melon and melon flower. As it dries, I notice something like musk thickening the scent. Given a little bit of time to warm and develop on my skin, I also get something like lily in the scent's throw, though I can't detect it when I sniff close to my skin. As time goes on, however, the lily-like note also becomes part of the skin scent.

 

Approximately thirty minutes after application, a briny, salty note emerges, cutting some of the sweetness from the melon and lily. 

 

The overall scent is one that conjures, by turns, the salt of the open ocean and plant life in still water. It definitely has a thick, weighty feel on me, though it's lacking any notes I'd normally describe as dark or heavy. 

 

Aquatics are not my thing in general, and this isn't enough to change that, but it's a very interesting scent. 

 

Medium throw. Something -- the grounding, musky note, probably -- is keeping it from disappearing too fast, though I can't promise I'll keep it on for its entire wear length on me. 

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Not what I expected; a rich, deep, slightly floral aquatic. Musky, a bit salty, and a little bit sweet.

 

Dry: Oh no! Where did the sweet floral note go? I'm left with a dark, musky aquatic scent. The best part; nothing smells soapy! I dig it.

 

If you're looking for a dark, musky, murky aquatic scent, try this out! I'll be hanging on to my decant.

[Niniel0205]

Imp: Dark blue deep ocean waters with a glint of the sun reflecting.

 

Wet on skin: aquatic note is strong, something citrus makes it kind of a breezy scent. Did not sniff this from the imp. Liked the imp version better.

 

After a couple of minutes: citrus has faded. Now it's just deep dark blue ocean waters without the glint of sunshine. Almost a bit scary, like in a scary movie where you know the intro has come to an end and bad stuff is going to happen. The sun has faded, and all of a sudden everyone starts to slowly realize something is actually quite wrong. Treacherous. We have been lured into a trap, how could we have let this happen. 

 

Gives me shivers and awe at the same time. Not a scent for every day because of the feelings it evokes.

[Lucchesa]

R'Lyeh came to me as a lab frimp and is one of the few available GCs I have not already tried because aquatics never work on me.  I have to say it was surprising.  It's much sweeter than your run of the mill aquatic and does not go into dryer sheet territory.  If I hadn't read the notes (or what there are of them) before testing, I would have described this as more of a fruity-floral incense than a dark aquatic.  Is there opium in this?  It feels more like it belongs in the same category as Darkness or Event Horizon than Sea Foams Blood or Kumari Kundam.  I rather like it, but given how many BPALs I love, I'm unlikely to reach for it often. 

[doomsday_disco]

On 1/19/2015 at 9:41 PM, doomsday_disco said:

In the imp: A dark aquatic, indeed.

 

Wet: I can't pick out the notes, but this smells like an incense-y aquatic to my nose. The incense becomes somewhat sweeter, and there is a strong aquatic note that I think may be seaweed. Aquatics tend to have a somewhat soapy quality on me, and this one does have a bit of one, but not as much as the other aquatic scents that I've tried.

 

Dry: A dark aquatic (with a distinct watery feel) with a sweet incense.

Verdict: This isn't my thing, but I enjoyed this more than the other aquatics I have tried thus far.

Retested this one for the #TournamentOfUnderdogs. Aquatics don't really work on me, but this isn't your average aquatic -- it's an aquatic infused with a sweet incense, and the incense keeps it from veering into soap/dryer sheet territory. I think Lucchesa may be right about this possibly containing opium. 

 

My boyfriend joked that this smelled "non-Euclidean" before saying he believes the scent matches its description, describing it as "dark" and commenting that the incense "isn't usually what you think of when you think of incense." 

 

We tested this against Schrödingers Cat and discovered that we're both #TeamR'lyeh for this round. Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!

[wordortwo]

I wore this yesterday and keep thinking about it, so I thought I would leave a review. I received it as a frimp a few months ago and was a bit sad when it was eliminated in the #TournamentofUnderdogs!

 

I am not drawn to aquatics. However, I enjoy this beautiful and creepy blend. In the imp, the oil is molasses-dark. When I first apply it, it smells oceanic and salty, dark and brooding. There's maybe a little bitterness. As it dries, I smell something more mineralic, which brings to mind seaweed; this association is probably based on reading the scent description. Over the next hour, floral notes rise up and eventually take over, though the salty edge remains. By hour 8 of wearing it yesterday, it was a sophisticated, slightly sweet floral with a complex bitter edge. It lasts all day and has a medium projection.

 

I'm intrigued that many people smell incense, spice, herbs -- my nose isn't interpreting it that way, for whatever reason! Though my first thought when sniffing it is not "melon," after reading reviews that mention melon, I can definitely understand how there may be a melon rind in here.

 

ETA: Musky! Especially when wet. Also, this is the perfume Ursula from The Little Mermaid would wear.

Edited November 23, 2021 by wordortwo
Additional impressions

[Kebab Fiend]

this is very odd! To start with it's almost metallic on my skin. There's some bitterness which I think is what others are interpreting as grapefruit, and there's some dark incensy sweetness, but unlike most aquatic scents it doesn't make me think of shampoo or soap.

 

It's certainly very evil but not unpleasant.

I don't know if I like it. I think I'll have to try it a few more times.

Edited March 26, 2021 by Kebab Fiend
updated review

[Fefi]

Got this as a frimp with one of my purchases. The oil is very dark its spooky cool, appropriate I feel for both its name and theme.  As for the scent itself its an aquatic incense type scent. At first I was very confused because I had read the reviews where many folks said they got grapefruit from it and I personally get none from it. As I said its more of an aquatic incense scent for me. I'd definitely say it has Opium in it. I have an imp of Event Horizon and they both not only look equally dark (the oils appearance) but have the same sweet/bubblegummy type incense note in them that I feel is Opium.  Apart from this I get a bit of salt and seaweed and maybe ozone or some sort of citrus but I am unsure of which so I can't say Its grapefruit.  Out of the many aquatics I have tried its one of my favorites, and actually favor it over C'thulu. 

[Cali]

Dark and broody, also has something ... muddy in there. Though it's a bit random-lemon-axe deodorant spray on me so i need to go wash this off.