Circus Bear

[whitewhale]

Damn everything but the circus! A scent for Tom and for Lilith, the Empress and the Hierophant at the carnival: rose, gardenia, styrax, and frankincense splattered with cotton candy and the white glop in the middle of Oreos.

In the bottle: Roses and cocoa and Oreo creme. Seriously.

On the skin: This shouldn't work, but it really, really does. For ease, I should say that the Oreo creme here really serves to give a vanilla creaminess to the florals. The cotton candy never really comes out to play. The rose takes the lead with the gardenia coming out to play in the drydown. The frankincense gives a very very vaguely incense-y blur (almost not enough to make it worth mentioning) and the Oreo creme sugars out the flowers perfectly. The chocolate is there, but not like Oreo cookie chocolate, more like cocoa powder chocolate. Again, usually not my thing, but this is so interesting and unique that I can't help but like it.

 

[Convallaria]

Love it, it's all I imagined it would be. Not a fan of really edible gourmands, but I hoped resins would balance them out well, and I love styrax, so I took a risk and it paid off. The opening, after first few seconds of soft Oreo, is just the blend of sugary treats and styrax with a dash of (unburnt) frankincense. After a while, flowers come out, gardenia stronger than rose. Styrax still very noticeable and balancing the floral sweetness as well.

 

Sadly, just like a circus, it goes away all too soon.

[cherrycherry]

This is a complex one. The cocoa hits me first; rich and deep, and then the roses come out to sing. It's not overly floral, which is a relief. I get a little bit of cotton candy sweetness and also that creamy Oreo cookie filling. Oddly, I don't get any styrax or frankincense. On me, especially when dry, it's all rose petals with Oreos and clouds of candyfloss. Beautiful.

[gallifreyan_orphan]

In the bottle, this smells primarily like cocoa for me with a bit of that cream.

 

On the skin, the flowers start to come out. I can smell the gardenias and roses, and I can see how this would work for some people, but I'm more of a foodie girl so i just don't think this one is for me.

[Little Bird]

This is awful on my skin. Reminds me of the rose and pastry in Knave of Hearts, but there's something chemical and off about the whole thing. I think the gardenia might be going very musky/perfumey and has a burnt rubber edge to it, which I sometimes get from white florals like gardenia and tuberose. The floral smells soured. The drydown is cringe-worthy on me.
Sour, sharp white florals, burnt rubber, burnt coffee, a hint of horse manure, sour rose, and buttery croissants...
This was a scrubber for me. Overwhelmingly strong and just smells all wrong on my skin.

[Haltija]

Sadly, on me this is all gardenia all the time with a tiny tiny hint of a sweetness. I have changed my relationship with gardenia from complete hatred to tolerable. But even in this I can't handle it.

[patina]

I get cocoa. Like very dry chocolate cookies. There's a strong floral perfume component that clashes, but the scent settles down pretty quickly.

 

It's odd. The over the top old fashioned floral should scream old lady, but instead it seems kind of young, not subtle, like a child dressed up in her grandmother's clothes. Or a little girl's bonnibel cosmetics mixed with old fashioned perfume. It morphs between cocoa and straight up florals. Also I get the sense of orange somewhere. Like those orange circus peanut candies.

 

I imagine this as pink, white, and brown. It's safe to say I've never smelled anything quite like this.

[zankoku_zen]

This one I liked more than I expected. I get a touch of roses, but more than anything I get sprinkles of cocoa, frankincense and a touch of cotton candy. It's sweet, and cuddly, and oddly floral but it somehow works. Low throw, and good wear length. This one was definitely a skin scent on me.

 

Again, surprise hit for me. This is not the type of scent I usually go for but so far it's one of my favorite Liliths.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Initially this is all chocolate cookie (not so much the inside of the Oreo, I get more of the outside) and then I get a blast of....pickle? No, not sour like a pickle, more like straight-up dill. Then the rose starts to amp up.

 

 

Dry: This is actually really beautiful on me. Rose, hints of cotton candy (but not overpoweringly sweet) and hints of Frankincense. One of the most beautiful rose blends I have tried recently. I think those who love the sugar and rose combo of Hope would enjoy this as well.

[Bassmastadroog]

In bottle: Oreos and a whiff of rose!

 

On skin: Extreme Oreos!!! Haha I love this. And rose! Rose Oreos. How perfect. I love smelling like red rose and chocolate cookie with creme.

 

I don't smell much of any other note, but I think they are blended behind it all well. While I say it's a rose Oreo, it also smells a little more sophisticated than just that. It's just that nothing else is as notable, they're just playing the support team.

 

Dries down to straight up cookie rose. I LOVE THIS. It's that black hard cookie scent and adult rose. Man, what a cool idea. I will use this a lot. I don't know if I need another bottle, but I'm not going to rule it out.

 

I LOVE CIRCUS BEAR! This is my first year trying the Liliths and I am just floored by how cute and cool these scents are.

 

Man I frickin love Oreos.

[milo]

I lovely tester in a forum purchase, so nice! This definitely smells like a circus. Nuts, caramel corn and cookies. There's something odd and perfumy in the background that doesn't really belong. This isn't my type of scent, but it's nice to try.

[fairybites]

Tons of Oreos, mostly the dark chocolate wafer cookie part. This morphed a lot on me: started Oreos, then I got the roses, and now it's a pretty even blend of the two with frankincense. No cotton candy at all, kinda sad cause that's one of my favorite notes. This is more floral than foodie for sure, and I'll be honest I wasn't sure if I would like the Oreos mixed with the florals. It's still a little unusual, not bad but takes some getting used to. 

 

A keeper, mostly because of the Oreos .

[doomsday_disco]

I got the Oreos (also more the chocolate wafer part than the filling), rose, and resins at first, but then the rose amped up really strongly on me and was the type that hasn't been playing well on my skin as of late (it smelled like tomato soup, alas). It remained that way for a few hours, but by the end of the day, it morphed into a resinous rose and gardenia scent with a bit of sweetness.

 

I was digging the Oreos, but the rose in this just wasn't kind to me.|

ETA: I death matched this to The Hierophant and the Empress, and I was surprised by how different they were despite sharing some notes in common. The Hierophant and the Empress is actually sweeter with its violet leaf and mallow flower (I really expected Circus Bear to be sweeter with its Oreo and cotton candy), and the rose in that one didn't go funky on me.

Edited January 15, 2022 by doomsday_disco