Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

[zankoku_zen]

Once the site of a guillotine that rolled the heads of thirty-five people during the Terror, now the site of a triumphal arch dedicated to Napoleon’s military victories of 1805.

 

Also: my family is ridiculous.

 

A sharpened blade, a pinch of snuff, a blast of gunpowder, and a pop of strawberry bubblegum.



Metal, cologne, and a whiff of bubblegum. This is like a much more sophisticated Blockhead. Mainly metal, mainly cologne, and mainly manly, with that irreverent touch of sweetness there as a little pop to keep things interesting. Medium throw and wear length.

[PurringPulsar]

In the decant: bubblegum and smoke/metal.

On the skin: at first, the bubblegum pops (pun intended) out immediately. It’s the same ‘urban bubblegum’ scent from Pop! in that it smells like strawberry bubblegum but with a scent underneath that evokes the city, a kind of metallic ozoney scent. but then it changes. Soon, the smoke from the gunpowder comes out and I swear I smell the sharp blades of swords clashing, and then some notes of cologne come out, like the perfumes of the past. Lilith the Explorer? More like Lilith the Time Lord!

The perfumey backdrop gets stronger, I don’t smell powder as such but it does smell like a masculine cologne, with a gritty undertone. Not as much bubblegum now. The drydown is cologne. (I don’t really get the snuff, unless the cologne smell has a tobacco note of sorts?)

Verdict: imagine if Doctor Who had smell-o-vision. This is would be an episode set in revolutionary France, in scent form. There are the smells of history exploding to life. Muskets and cannons fill the air of Paris with thick smoke, blades clash, sparks fly and the perfumes of soldiers and aristocrats collide. And over it all, the playful note of bubblegum, almost like the scent of the Doctor, whimsically anachronistic. This really is time travel in scent.

Bottle? I think so, because it’s such a unique and unusual scent, the kind of evocative ‘story in perfume’ that Beth excels at.