Criminal Glamour

[LizziesLuck]

Criminals shall not be presented so as to be rendered glamorous or to occupy a position which creates a desire for emulation.

Gleaming black patchouli and leather, wet with styrax and black amber, and smoothed by velvet oudh and blackcurrant.

I cannot resist the combo of patchouli and blackcurrant. And truly, that's what this blend primarily is on me. Gorgeous. The patchouli is earthy, not dry, but not gnarly at all either. It's perfect, and will age like a dream. The currant is beautiful and dark, with a hint of tartness that's countered by the sweet amber. I don't get any of the leather, which is fine with me, it's iffy on me anyway. This is beautifully blended. My favourite of the two my fairy kindly picked me up (thank you!!!!). I got two of the wrong bottle, darn! I should have asked for two of this one. Stunning.

 

 

[Aviatrix]

I am getting mainly PATCHOULI in his, sadly. I was wary of it because patch can really amp on me, and it would appear that's what's happening here. I will let it settle for a few weeks and see if the other notes come out more.

[zankoku_zen]

Smooth gleaming amber and leather, with a hint of oudh. Sadly, no blackcurrants which is what I was hoping for. But this is definitely a feminine black leather. I think the amber smooths the leather out and makes it much more wearable. Medium throw, great wear length.

 

Sadly, not my cup of tea.

[AirimirOfGondor]

I like this very much!

 

In the bottle, it is at first a nondescript, sharp, astringent scent, with a hint of something sour. There is a very light hint of something tobacco-y-leathery-vanilla-y, but it is very faint. Also maybe something is chocolatey?

 

Immediately on skin, it is still a little astringent, but a little sweeter, and lightly powdery, but it's a strange, fresh kind of powdery.

 

As it dries, it seems to develop a hay-like scent, something reminiscent of clean, dried grasses.

 

When fully dry, it actually develops a slightly brighter, kind of greenish quality, and I think leather is suddenly noticeable, while it retains the hay and astringent qualities.

 

After about 3 or 4 hours or so, it's mostly faded away, except for the spots where I applied a little more. What's left is smooth, yet slightly spicy, and something kind of wood-like. I get a vision of something warm, and deep-brown-red as this point.

 

My immediate thought for this was "Oh, god, does this smell like pot??" (being that I've never smoked anything in my life, I had literally no idea, and was terrified) but, my father-in-law confirmed, it doesn't actually smell like pot.

 

The specific notes are a little hard for me to pick out; for some reason I don't specifically get the patchouli, amber, or blackcurrant, but it all blends together in an amazing way.

I expect this will age nicely!

[doomsday_disco]

Original impression from the SDCC Welcome Party: Criminal Glamour -- Leather, blackcurrant, and resins. This was more pleasant than I thought it would be. If you were hoping the blackcurrant would be a main player, you're in luck! At least, it was a dominant note on me.

 

Officially reviewing the scent on its own a year later:

 

In the bottle: Black patchouli is the most prominent note, followed by the black amber, leather, and blackcurrant.

 

Wet: Black patchouli and resins, followed by leather. The leather note seems to be growing stronger, but it hasn't overtaken the patchouli yet. I can smell the blackcurrant note, but it's light. I hope it comes out more, because I think that really led to me grabbing a bottle in the first place.

 

Dry: The patchouli and black amber are the main players, but the patchouli has calmed down significantly. After a while, the black amber ends up overtaking the patchouli, and the leather cozies up to them in the background. Sadly, I'm not getting much blackcurrant from this like I originally did when I tried it at SDCC. It's just adding a light sweetness to the scent.

 

Verdict: I prefer the dry phase. The wet stage of the scent was a little too strong on the patchouli for me. Although I enjoy the dry phase, I'm not sure if it's worth enduring the wet phase to get there, and there are other scents with black amber that I like a lot more (looking at you, Thomas Sharpe and Mars Ultor).

[Little Bird]

I got a bottle of this beauty on the Lab's etsy page, randomly decided to slather it on today, and immediately went and bought another bottle.  Criminal Glamour is gorgeous, well aged and well blended, and it is one of those scents that immediately went on my signature scent list.  It's like magic when you put on a fragrance and it just smells so "you."  I can smell all of the listed notes and they are perfection.  The leather is the dark, black-yet-snuggly, sexy variety, like slipping into a boyfriend's soft, well worn leather jacket.  The patchouli is dreamy - earthy, slightly spicy (like how Mugler's Angel patchouli is spicy and complex), slightly chocolate-y.  The oudh reads more like the scent of an antique cedar chest.  There's a hint of thick, jammy, sweet, black currant and the drydown is like all of those notes over a chunk of melting, warm amber resin and a hint of smoky styrax incense.  It's a leathery, patchouli-d, resinous dream with the rich, dark sweetness of currant and amber paste. 

Criminal Glamour has qualities that remind me very much of Banshee Beat, if Banshee Beat were wearing a leather jacket and had sexy, sweet resins, exotic woods, and darker, more mysterious tones instead of the sweet vanilla.  It also brings Angel Les Parfums de Cuir to my mind.  Back when Mugler was Thierry Mugler and they were releasing exciting flankers and high quality fragrances and gems that hadn't yet been reformulated, they created a leather flanker edition of Angel.  Criminal Glamour is like that spicy patchouli and dark leather and sweet magic, but I feel like this is smoother, slinkier, and easy to wear.  The leather is more snuggly.

My only issue is that this sticks close on my skin and my hair and it fades pretty significantly around the 3 hour mark, so I have to reapply.  I'm going to try putting it into a spray mister as that often helps with throw and longevity for me, and I'm pretty obsessed with smelling like this now.