Chiroptophobia

[myth]

Fear of Bats


A flutter of leather becomes a swarm of buffeting musks, tangled with a white flash of sandalwood and near-inaudible shrieks of eucalyptus and elemi.

This was one of my favorite Weenies that I tested at the Dirty South Lunacy last weekend. At first it is mostly a woody incense. The sandalwood in this is the kind that smells like smooth incense, not the scratchy powdery kind. I wasn't sure what elemi was supposed to smell like, so I looked it up, and it is in the frankincense family. So elemi + sandalwood = velvety wood incense.

 

Are bats velvety? Because this smells like velvet feels, smooth and fuzzy and soft on the senses. The leather is in the background at first. As it dried the leather shifted forward and the other notes faded, but even the leather here is kind of fuzzy and soft, more of a suede than a polished leather.

 

I can catch a whiff of eucalyptus when I sniff from the bottle, but I smell nothing of it on my skin, and I never smelled anything that struck me as a musk (merged with the leather?). The final incarnation was lots of leather backed by that woody incense.

 

The YMMV caveat here is that I was testing this alongside other stuff, while in a room full of perfume stink (lol you can smell us coming down the hallway of the hotel our event is held in), and the testing location was on the back of my hand, which is not always the most accurate location and which tends to disappear before a scent gets to the absolute last dry-down stage. I think I might need a bottle of this, but I want to try it again in more isolated circumstances before deciding. It was one of only two Weenies that made me contemplate a bottle though.

 

So, if you skipped this one because you were afraid of the eucalyptus, you might want to rethink it. I stuck my hand under the nose of another attendee, and her response was "oooooh" and when I told her what it was she said "oh I passed over that one because I thought it would smell like Vick's" and immediately went to try it on herself. In eucalyptus' case I think "near-inaudible" is accurate.

[annemathematics]

something about the personality of this scent reminds me of coyote. not that they are dupes, but that they would hang out together and be good friends.

 

the musks overlap a bit between the two scents, but while coyote is warm fur navigating sun-dappled grasses, chiroptophobia has those musks swirling about in cool night air (eucalyptus) wrapped up in a cloak of leathery wings. chiropto is verrrry snuggly, cuddly, adorable. the leather note is strong at application, but at dry down I've got mostly a nice soft mix of musks and light sandalwood, brightened with the hint of euc. beautiful and brilliant, I'm of course quite batty for it.

[LizziesLuck]

This could go all kinds of wrong on me, but also has potential to be great (hello, musk!)

 

Wet: Oooh!! That's gooood! It's reminding me of something...maybe like Unicorn and Ram without the cardamom - it's a very soft, suede-like leather, and a really snuggly sort of musk. Those are the dominant notes on me. It's REALLY good so far. A light skin scent. Leaning masculine. Subtly sexy, but somehow snuggly at the same time. This is nose-stuffed-into-the-crook-of-my-elbow-like-a-dork good.

 

 

Dry: Oh yes yes. This is indeed my favourite type of leather note, and I do love this musk. Very glad I tried it! I keep catching whiffs and just loving it. I'll have to evaluate whether I have enough scents similar to this already (it does remind me of both Unicorn and Ram, and Hochelaga to some extent) but it is for sure bottle-worthy. And would it ever smell amazing on a man, too!

[zankoku_zen]

Minty leather and musk. If you love the DeSade black leather note, this one is very similar but softened up by the elemi and musks. Good throw and wear length.

[doomsday_disco]

This does remind me of the smooth, musky black leather of De Sade Resurrected, and I think that the musk from Snake Oil is one of the musks at play here. The eucalyptus and elemi are indeed very light, I wouldn't be worried about the eucalyptus in this one. I only get the dry, white sandalwood after several hours of wear, but it is in the background and not nearly as strong as the leather and the musk.

 

I'll have to deathmatch this with De Sade Res. as I don't think I need both, but I do think this one is nice. Someone looking for something similar to De Sade that enjoys Snake Oil's musk should enjoy this scent.