Lupercalia Single Note: Latex

[vikingpixie]

With a hint of French chalk to ensure your catsuit goes on without a hitch.

Woooo this single note is INTERESTING. I put it in my cart immediately, hoping that it would be the warm, yet harsh, chemically, rubbery, almost spicy smell one would encounter in a high-end fetish boutique.

In the bottle, Latex is kind of like getting stabbed in the nose with eucalyptus rubber. It's *very* strong, and kind of reminded me of the initial "demonic Windex" of To Kindle A Flame in Our Frozen Veins. On the skin it calmed down juuuust a little, but spent around a half an hour continuing to stab me in the nose. Then I started to get more of the rubber, less of the eucalyptus, and the scent of inexpensive disposable latex gloves dominated.

This wasn't quite what I was expecting, and not really what I wanted, so I rubbed my wrists together in the hope that it would chill the heck out. And, success!, the scent changed again into a latex-y, almost musty, "I just pulled off my catsuit" kind of smell. The smell of latex on skin, as it were, not latex alone.

I had my partner sniff it wet, and they said that it smells like latex polish. (Which would explain the sharp, almost industrial chemically scent that I wasn't expecting.) With patience, and rubbing, I'd call this a smashing success at capturing latex. I'm definitely going to hang onto it and see how it ages! Edited February 27, 2017 by vikingpixie

[degaussingcrown]

Initially when I got my decant, it was a harsh chemical smell. Not the somewhat processed smell of latex itself, but... chemicals. Now that it's sat for a bit it has calmed down from the initial chemical blast. I get more of the "french chalk" than the latex smell. As the wear time goes on, the chalk does fade a bit, but it does stay (at least for me) the entire wear. I genuinely love the smell of latex so of course I jumped on this, but am a bit disappointed. Hopefully with aging the chalk will fade a bit more into the background *fingers crossed*

[Casablanca]

On the wand, this starts as an ethereal, slightly powdery perfumey note (the chalk?), and then twang, snap. Rubbery latex. The latex snaps you in the nose when it emerges, like a rubber band from across the room.

 

On my skin — ho boy! Nasty chemical rubber that manages to smell “thin” like latex. I can’t get too close to this. When the rubber starts to calm, I get a little of the powdery chalk back. Not an attractive note, but better than rubber hell.

 

Impressively bad (for one or two meanings of bad).

[Little Bird]

Latex SN is strange. It doesn't smell like latex or rubber or leather or anything like that to me. It smells like baby powder and a sickly-sweet, fizzy lime sort of thing. Reminds me of scented carpet powder. It's pretty gross.

[zankoku_zen]

Fizzy lime powder and a touch of plastic. How odd. Medium throw and wear length.

[Roogna]

Biting and acrid. Very "yellow" and almost medicine-y. The chalk, however, is spot-on. Soft, powdery, and just a hint of something floral or "perfume-y" (but not "baby powder").

[fairybites]

Chalky powdery leather and kinda greasy. The leather is strong and dark, but I'm getting more chalk. Great for leather lovers I'm sure, however I am not a fan. Weirdly, the chalk is almost sweet like candy or sugar. 

[doomsday_disco]

This is unexpectedly fizzy. There's also a slightly smoky rubberiness behind the fizz and some powdery chalk that is more like Fun Dip powder. While I think there are blends the Lab has put out that feature better representations of latex, this is more in the vein of the Periodic Table prototypes with its fizz.

 

I don't think this is bad (I mean, compared to trying The Burying Ground the other day, this is pretty tame in comparison  ), but it also doesn't really smell like latex, and there are fizzy scents I enjoy more than this.