Fake News

[Teaotter]

A scent of misdirection, of 140 frantic characters typed out in spite at 3am, and paranoia-clouded churlish accusations hurled at perceived enemies: crushed pink pepper pod, bitter white tobacco, gnarled patchouli, all covered in glinting, garish slashes of gold.

In the bottle, this reminds me of #occupywallstreet. I'd swear there was cocoa in there with the gnarly patchouli.

Wet: Whoa, that's some rooty patchouli! The strength of it knocks me over for a minute.

Dry: This settles into something much smoother and utterly gorgeous. It sweetens within a couple of minutes of hitting my skin -- when I put my nose right up to it, I smell something creamy like melted vanilla ice cream, but I don't get it in the throw. Just smooth, sweet patchouli with some warmth from the tobacco and a hint of something more traditionally perfume-y.

This is amazingly wearable and very pretty.

[Aveya]

This is a weird feeling. The reviews so far for this scent is GLOWING. So I figured it'd be a smash hit for me. I love patchouli like a fiend, the more gnarly the better, I tend to pull off masculine scents well, etc etc. But this scent? I hate this scent. And not exactly how it smells. But it's so PRETENTIOUS. It's absurdly rich when it has no right to be. SIR, YOU HAVE PATCHOULI IN YOU! WTF are you doing being so flippin' fancy?

 

It's powdery/airy/musky. That has no right being in a gnarly patchouli blend (lol opinion time). It FEELS, to borrow from the description, paranoid and garish. It's a bit overwhelming for me and clouded.

 

It smells like a salesman. A cold-calling salesmen that snuck his way past reception and is now wandering around acting like he belongs and talking up everyone. GTFO WE DON'T WANT ANY. There are a lot of comparisons to #occupywallstreet with this one. I'll stick to the dirty patchouli mob, thank you.

 

Verdict; This feels like a commercial scent to me. Rich, overwhelming, pretentious. It is, to me, EXACTLY like the description intended. I... imagine this is what Trump smells like and I start to feel nauseous. So - Swapper for this one. But I will say I haven't ran across a scent like this in BPAL before.

 

Golf-clap for the accuracy.

 

 

Edit: Correction, Trump's Caddie wears this scent.

Edited April 21, 2018 by Aveya

[monocainsheresy]

In the decant this smelled like stereotypical, department store, richy rich perfume. A little worrying.

On the skin, this is an ever-so-slightly-darker Aelopile - the same glowy amber.

And then it morphed. Patchouli! Tobacco!! Maple syrup?? It smells delicious now, a bit like carnival food, but woody and ambery It's still got a bit of department store superficiality, but I'm not mad at it.

Mmmm, I'm going to have to get a bottle.

Edited September 19, 2018 by monocainesheresy

[Lucchesa]

Someone told me a while ago that I would love Fake News.  They were right.  It starts off with that expensive vibe everyone else has mentioned.  I think there must be amber, maybe as the gold element, because it smells a bit like Jacob's Ladder to me, and I always associate amber with an old-fashioned, perfumey feel.  The patchouli is the next thing that jumps out at me.  It's not a gnarly patch, despite the description; I don't get the comparisons to #occupy at all.  It's a beautiful patch, and it's definitely patchouli, but there's nothing headshop about it; it's little-black-dress-but-haven't-sold-my-soul patchouli.  The tobacco is very faint on me, and I have to admit that I have never been able to make out the lab's pink pepper note.  I'm not sure what it's contributing here.  There is definitely something Gilded Age about this scent, and I would agree that the patchouli is more sneaky than gnarly, but I'm happy to sneak in patchouli whenever possible.  It's a gorgeous scent for a very, very ugly phenomenon.

[Mister Azure]

Deceptive and with misdirection. 

 

Upon first putting this scent on, I smelled patchouli and something like pvc plastic or a  new pool toy. Not the best opener to give me confidence. 

 

After it dries more the tobacco comes out and warms up nicely. The pepper is in there as well but only as a hint of added spice. That plastic pvc aspect fades and I am left with soft patchouli layered with pepper spiced tobacco. A scent I did not know would be as enriching as it is. 

 

I find myself liking this much more than expected. The tobacco is what lures me the most to this scent. I like it so much. Has an older and oddly refined aspect. Tempted to get a full bottle of this but I think a few more wears of the decant will be required first. I will agree that this scent makes no sense. 

[Teamama]

I bought my bottle of Fake News when it first came out in 2017.  I like it a lot, but hardly ever wear it.  I have to wait for weekends to wear it, because it's a strong statement. 

The bitterness while wet is not my jam, but once it's dry...magic. It's got an upmarket patchouli note, not the hippie kind.  The tobacco & pink pepper end up blending together into an oudh-like note.  It's like patchouli & oudh, that makes me feel underdressed. Seriously, this is some haughty stuff.

[Zorra]

It started out wearable, but after a couple of hours I  had to wash it off because I could not stand any more tobacco. I am learning to wear scents with tobacco, but we're still not friends.

[torischroeder9]

In the decant: Brightness and sparkles over patchouli. Without looking at the notes, I was originally going to guess the brightness came from some kind of citrus, but it seems to be the pink pepper pod and tobacco. 

 

On my skin:

 

Wet, I instantly recognize the tobacco as it roars over the patch and utterly crushes the pink pepper. As it dries, all that disappears, and it's just... patchouli. 

 

I'm not sure if it hasn't aged well, or what, but this is just patch on me. I like patch, but I'm not really getting other notes.