Illimitable Dominion Over All

[torikitty]

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

Darkness, Decay, and the Red Death: blood musk and black tobacco, birch tar and bleeding cypress sap.

I'm such a sucker for tobacco. Even when all the other notes don't particularly call me, I'm still willing to try it for the tobacco.

Wet: musk, perhaps of the red or blood variety. I don't really know the difference. I can smell the cypress in the background.

Drydown: Oh, hello, tar. Why are you here to ruin this party? Darkness and Decay, indeed. Cypress is still hanging out, just kinda waving from the back of the room.

Dry: The birch tar and cypress have combined to create this interesting platform where they work together to hold up the musk and hint of tobacco. In an oddly bright red, but in a dangerous way. I feel like this leans masculine on me, with the tobacco, tar, and cypress holding back any sweetness. The musk is slowly trying to round out these scoundrels, bringing a bit of sweetness. I didn't expect this sort of change. It's still too much tar and cypress for me to enjoy, though.

 

Much later: It's sweetened up significantly. It ends up smelling like an slightly evil version of Smut on me. So, I guess there's blood musk in Smut, and I'm amping the musk here.

Edited October 15, 2018 by Carrie

[zankoku_zen]

Blood musk, tobacco, and cypress. But really, this is mainly blood musk with hints of tobacco and cypress. Bloody, musky, red. Good throw and wear length.

[SophieCedar]

Darkness and Decay can smell sexy and warm?  Huh. 

There's a smoky element, for sure, but mainly this is sweet, warm, earthy blood musk.  Suspecting this is majorly due to the tobacco addition. Its not metallic, just a deep red glow.  Dark red musk lovers- rejoice!

[Mad Maudlin]

In the Bottle: Sharp, strong, and cold. I'm getting mostly cypress and birch tar.

 

Wet: This honest to god smells like rootbeer, if rootbeer could stab you in the face! Birch beer would probably be more accurate, but I've never had it so it's hard to say. The birch and cypress are pretty overwhelming, but the tobacco gives an underlying sickly sweetness. This honestly disturbes me.

 

Dry: at first it stayed pretty much the same, but this bottle has been mellowing for almost two months now and It's become much more balanced. After a few minutes the sharpness dies back and the musk and tobacco come out to make a really lovely well-rounded scent. It's dark and warm, but still with a hint of sharp cold from the birch/cypress. The top notes wear off after a couple hours and leave just dark sweet tobacco. yum

 

I'm starting to really like this one. Not as spooky as I had hoped, but a great wintery perfume. I look forward to seeing how it ages.

[Sitra Achra]

Both in the bottle and on, it reminds me powerfully of one of those ethnic stores, like incense, carved wood, djembe drums, hippy clothing, beaded jewellery etc. On the skin it's very warm and pleasant, I like it and will certainly wear it, suppose it's just not quite what I expected. 

[Rane.]

Another lovely I forgot to review! Had since 2018. It has a gritty texture to the oil when I put it on. One hit & POW! Cypress & birch, engulfed in musk & a hint of black tobacco to hold it all together. The tobacco is faint, but a nice note to get at the end of every sniff. Overall, it is a tree smell. Like way up high in the fragrant trees with branches brushing against my skin. The picture is fitting too for this scent.