Carnaval Rat

[monocainsheresy]

Derived from the same pseudo-scientific process as last year’s LAB RAT blend, but constrained to the Lab’s Carnaval Diabolique collection. Each bottle contains a slosh of every Carnaval scent currently in stock. The result? An inhalation of the miasma hovering over the midway after a busy, near-endless night of debauchery.

 

In the interest of peer review, here are our intern's notes from the blending process, tracking how the scent evolved as through the collection alphabetically.

 

A-C: “Chocolate truffles filled with blood-creme, rolled in sawdust.”

 

D-G. “Two… no, THREE corsaged puppeteers screwing in a hay bale.”

 

H-L. “Rusty barber’s shears sterilizing overnight in a jar full of rum and rosewater.”

 

M-P “This is eerily reminiscent of lightning striking a gondola full of off-duty showgirls.”

 

O-Z “Luminous, opalescent bat wings serving as the bellows for a lunatic calliope, whooshing gusts of wind through blossoms on dying trees, the bark sticky with blood that is, for some mysterious reason, flowing upward. The music! can you hear the music?”

 

[Sadly, we have been unable to elaborate on these findings as the intern in question abruptly left their post shortly thereafter.]

 

Eau de Carnaval Diabolique. The cumulative weight of dozens of scents — a cacophony of carnies, haunts, snakes, grindhouse dancers, and other attractions, all simultaneously clamoring for your attention.

 

Disclaimer: I have never in my life smelled any CD scents by themselves

 

In the bottle: A muddled mix of vaguely musky herbs, dry flowers, vanilla, and resiny fruits, and a stable base of chocolate probably from The Candy Butcher.

 

Wet: Starts with a strong blast of what I assume is Theodosius, because it reminds me strongly of Dorian, and Snake Oil. Calms down to herbs and flowers, with maybe 20 minutes of plum, then it turns to pure frankincense for another 20 minutes. Still chocolate in the background.

 

Dry: Half faint, powdery chocolate and half herbs, vanilla, and musk.

 

Conclusion: Definitely a morpher as it dries, but disappointingly flat when completely dry. Frustrated with the prominence of chocolate because I'm allergic and thus it is NOT a smell I enjoy. However, I loved the morphing phases, and I feel like this is a scent that will do wildly different things on different people.

 

 

[doomsday_disco]

In the vial, I smell fruity woods and some Snake Oil.

On me, I get Phantom Calliope's cherry and cinnamon, Snake Oil's woods, Xanthe's guava, and some of Mme. Moriarty's plum. It's primarily fruity on me during the wet stage, and remains that way for a while, but I get more Snake Oil with wear, and after a few hours, I mostly get Snake Oil's spices and vanilla mixed with fruit. After several hours, it's Snake Oil spices and what might be moss and herbs? It's hard to pick things out by this point.

This ended up being more pleasant and wearable than I expected it to be (moreso than Lab Rat, actually)! I'm going to hang on to my decant.

[zankoku_zen]

 

A-C: “Chocolate truffles filled with blood-creme, rolled in sawdust.”

 

I get chocolate, cherry, whiff of fruit and yes, sawdust in there.  It's chocolate, sawdust, and bloody cherry. Good throw and wear length.

[daddy420]

 

The Carnival scents I have. Pickled Imp, The Illustrated woman, Priala The Human Phoenix, Behind the Veils, Isaac the living skellington, Knuckle Bones, StormClouds Over The Midway, Red Incense Hair Gloss

 

 

Wet: Fruity multiple musks; Red, Blue, White, Light chocoa

 

Dry: White Chocolate, light White Sandalwood, Hay, Ghostly Pine, Bay Rum., Dry very old polished Oak

 

Sweet, Bold, interesting.

 

Honestly love this scent. Very wearable and really fun to find out what your skin chemistry will do with it. 6.5/10 I Recommend.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2019 by daddy420

[fairybites]

So prior to testing this, I have only tried two Carnaval Diabolique scents (Boomslang and Zarita, the Doll Girl 2008).

 

This is really a morpher! It started off super bready with cinnamon, and then changed to a creamy chocolate, and then a blend of florals with rose being the dominant flower. It's really cool and I enjoyed all the different stages this went through. Highly recommend trying this just to see what it ends up being on your skin.