Grand Guignol: Thanatos

[Mellifluous]

GRAND GUIGNOL: THANATOS
All stage blood and pantomimed gore: black myrrh and murky opoponax with beeswax, Oman frankincense, rosewood, black tea leaf, bourbon vanilla, sugar cane, vetiver, and Daemonorops.

This is so interesting.

The vetiver is not present at ALL to my nose. Its a very dark herbal resin scent. Actually rather sweet too initially. But not rooty, nor funky in the least.
The black tea adds the slightest astringent quality.

I think I primarily get the Black Myrrh from this. Followed by a very beautifully softened frankincense. The beeswax and rosewood are also gorgeous, and while not super prominent on my skin, they do add dimension to the blend.

As it dries, the sweetness fades a bit, and the daemonorops unfolds. It adds a slightly camphorous herbal quality, that along with the frank/myrrh create a very blackened incense vibe.

This is a really evocative perfume.

[Xue_Bai]

I am utterly in love. I mean, I knew I'd like it, but it's more amazing than I imagined!

 

Initial impression as drying without searching for notes, it's all smooth sweet resins over incense with a slight astringent note. It's dark, but not heavy or intimidating, instead coming across as playful.

 

Pulling the scent apart, I can find the beeswax and tea most easily behind the resins and frankincense (the astringent quality). Playing within is the bourbon vanilla and the sugar cane.

 

Dry, the daemonorops and hints of the vetiver appear, adding a slightly green floral to the mix, which shouldn't work but balances perfectly with everything else. The rosewood must just tie things together, as it doesn't come through enough to pick out by itself.

 

Dark, slightly murky, without being heavy, while also managing to be sweet and exciting. It really is a good staged horror show scent.

[kashmira]

I *love* this scent, LOVE it. On me, it turns into this deep "black/red" incense with tons of throw and lasting power. Myrrh+beeswax+frankincense = total win on my skin.

 

Like Mellifluous said, I can't detect the vetiver at all. Normally vetiver does terrible things on me, but it is non-existent in this blend on me.

 

Somehow I have a feeling I'm going to need at least 3 more bottles of this one.

[zankoku_zen]

Stage blood and pantomine gore indeed! This is a dark, ominous and bloody blend in vibe to me.

 

I get the beeswax, rosewood, and vetiver and frankincense. It's dark, creepy, and very much like an abandoned gothic stage. In which you think that's stage blood, but you're not entirely sure.

 

Oddly enough, that demonic possession looked very real indeed.

[MCS4096]

Oh this is amazing! I'd overlooked it really, but Mellifluous was kind enough to include a tester in his decant circle, so I tried it and

 

Mostly myrrh, frankincense, and beeswax to start, then the rosewood really comes out, along with the sweeter notes, and a bit of the dragon's blood and this is a gorgeous rosey incense.

 

Has a nice level of throw and medium lasting power. I'm really surprised and am hoping to get a bottle! (PS I love the label!)

[Monday]

Many thanks to the awesome Mellifluous for the tester!

 

On my skin wet: This is a strange mix of notes when wet. I get the sugar cane some myrrh and beeswax. There is sweetness, tartness and some smoke. Something scorched is coming through when it's drying down I fear it might be the sugar cane.

On my skin dry: Burnt sugar, bitter and sweet with churchy frankincense.

Not a blend for me but I'm glad I got to try it!

[OctoberGwen]

I am very pleasantly surprised by this blend. I passed it over because bourbon vanilla and sugarcane are heinous death notes on me, but somehow with everything else in this mix - they work.

 

It's a beautiful, smoky-sweet incense scent that is neither too smoky nor too sweet. Definitely a "greater than the sum of its parts" sort of blend, as I can't really pick out any individual notes at all (and each of them is pretty distinctive in its own right.)

 

Quite fascinating. Not sure if I need to hunt down a bottle with all the other BPAL commitments my wallet has right now, but I feel like I will regret it if I don't. Grand Guignol: Thanatos is unique and very memorable.

 

Thanks so much to Mellifluous for the surprise sniffie tester!

[milo]

Resiny and rich at first. It dries down to a metallic tinged musky drugstore perfume vibe. This was promising in the wet stage but it just went to gore on me. I don't think blood or blood musk blends work on me. They always smell too metallic.

[SophieCedar]

This is gonna be a little analytical but I'm sure you can deal with it...

 

I preface this with the solid fact that I'm a former theater tech nerd. (set building and stage management as well as everything behind-the-scenes in between..)

 

Grand Guignol Thanatos is from the patron's perspective. In the bottle and wet, I got all excited because it smelled like musty costumes, dank corners, cake makeup, and drafty dressingrooms. I absolutely swooned!

 

Dry, its the faint wafting scent of the formerly mentioned notes perceived from audience seats, mixed with patrons' mindfully and dramatically chosen colognes and perfumes. As well as the *never warm* but atmospherically seductive intermission lobby.

 

I do see a YSL Opium similarity with addition of the scent of soft velvet or velveteen seats (that stuff that holds a lot of dust and smells lovely)

 

I love this in a completely different way than I had anticipated.

 

Oh and ps/eta: The bottle art is AWESOME. Favorite bottle art ever. One huge reason I wouldn't consider swapping/selling this lovely scent.

 

ETA March 2014: This smells much sweeter now that the seasons have changed a bit. Syrupy sweet Schwarzer Mond is what I've dubbed it, in my memory bank. Frikkin awesome. Hoard worthy.

Edited March 18, 2014 by SophieCedar

[mymymai]

ITB: Smooth bourbon vanilla with sweet beeswax, sugar cane, myrrh, and a touch of tea. It's more foody than I had anticipated, but not enough to dissuade me from testing it.

 

Wet: I wasn't expecting the black tea leaf and rosewood to come out so strongly, but the are the top notes I smell as soon as it hits my skin. Close behind is the beeswax, sugar, and bourbon vanilla, giving the scent a creamy and sweet tone. I can pick up a touch of opoponax and a camphor quality of the daemonoropos resin. It's not a heavy scent or one that has a significant throw, but it is much more pleasant on the skin than in the bottle.

 

Dry: It's sweet and creamy with a hint of powder (most likely from the frankincense) now that it has dried. The bourbon vanilla, sugar, beeswax, black tea, and myrrh combine into a rather pretty scent.

[Atrous]

A melange of sweet resins, beeswax, and dark incense.

For me, this is so well blended I don't detect any individual notes except for beeswax.

I don't have a resin/incense blend quite like this. It's sweet without being foody.

Incense often has a 'hollow' feel to its scent. But this one smells 'full-bodied'. Not sure that makes much sense but its the closest description I can come up with.

Oh, and like some other reviewers I don't get any Vetiver.

[nolifeking]

Ouch that one is aggressive! Sickly sweet yet soapy.. I know the culprit : dragonblood! I smell like expensive soap :X and I'm getting a headache Such a shame..the myrrh( waaay underneat the Dragonblood of DOOOM) in this blend is particulary gorgeous, so is the art label! Sadly not for me...:/

[LizziesLuck]

I don't know why, but I have been compelled to get this, and finally did. If it smells like beeswax on me, I'm golden, otherwise this could turn out quite badly...

 

Wet: Mmm! Much sweeter than I expected. More like honey than beeswax. Mmm. That's so different. What is that? It's almost citrusy...but not? Tea! I'm smelling tea and honey/beeswax mixed together. with the sugarcane and opoponax. That's what this is on me so far. But it's blended so interestingly that I really struggled to name what I was smelling, despite my familiarity with all these notes. Mmm. This is Evil Tea (like, in a good way) and I like it.

 

 

Dry: Hmm, the sweetness has really amped, and I am just not sure how I feel about it. I love interesting tea scents, but the tea has now gotten kind of lost, and this is a syrupy honey (I swear it smells like honey and not beeswax!) and opoponax scent. I may need to test again.

[Rane.]

I obtained this in 2018. It has become so deep & delicious smelling. Mouth watering, herbal Frankincense going hand in hand with beeswax, while opoponax & bourbon vanilla dance around in the background, but lend more depth to the beeswax. Very slowly the black tea leaf, & rosewood come forward to waltz while the rest dances circles in my head... In a good way! My overall impression is a sweet, herbal bubble gum, can't stress that enough. I wonder if this is what ancient Egyptian breath mints smelled a hint like as they had frankincense in it. It's playful, herbal, grounded, slight wax that makes it chewy. As it dries it just gets more intense to me. A nice rarity to come across!