Utter Sophistication

[zankoku_zen]

Dorian and lavender with beeswax rosin, polished oak, vanilla husk, a couple of stray popcorn kernels, and a dollop of Snake Oil.

[doomsday_disco]

When this first arrived, the Dorian was the strongest element in the bottle, followed by the beeswax, lavender, a bit of saltiness from the popcorn, and the oak. After a day of rest, I get the Snake Oil with the Dorian, much more oak, and I can still smell the salty popcorn and lavender. The beeswax rosin isn't as prominent as it was when it first arrived.

On my skin: Dorian and lavender mingle with some oak and salty popcorn. The Dorian and lavender are by far the strongest components, but the salty popcorn seems to be gaining strength as it sits on my skin, because less than 30 minutes in, it's already stronger than the oak. It's not super buttery popcorn, but the popcorn is noticeable in this scent, so that is something to be wary of if you were hoping it wouldn't play a role here. Once dry, the Snake Oil emerges, so that it is a Dorian + Snake Oil blend (more Dorian than Snake Oil, though) accompanied by the salty popcorn and some lavender. The vanilla becomes more prominent over time, and after a few hours, it's this amazing vanilla-lavender Dorian variant, since the vanilla husk and beeswax rosin joined the party.   The oak adds some warmth in the background, while the popcorn just adds a bit of salt by this point.

 

I wasn't sure about the oak and popcorn notes in this one, but I am happy to report that the oak isn't sharp, and the popcorn isn't too buttery.

I'm a big fan of Dorian and its variants, and I am really glad to add this one to my collection.

 

ETA: During a full day of wear: I got a lot more oak from this, but then I also got more butter from the popcorn in the crooks of my elbows. That's not the case on my wrists, though (where I did my original test). This one is a morpher!

Edited October 14, 2019 by doomsday_disco

[highgarden]

Wet: Dorian! Lavender! A hint of Snake Oil! This is absolutely lovely.

Two hours after application: Definitely getting Dorian, though it's made sweeter by the addition of the beeswax and the vanilla husk. I think the oak and popcorn are starting to peek through, but they're not very strong on me as I tend to amp vanilla and beeswax. It's definitely got that hint of theatre-goer and I love it.

 

The throw isn't very strong, though that might be because I didn't put too much on. I'll update this with wear length at the end of the day!

 

EDIT: 12 hours after application, I could still catch a bit of beeswax-y Dorian on my wrist. This is absolutely lovely.

Edited October 11, 2019 by highgarden

[zankoku_zen]

Honestly, this straight up smells like caramel popcorn. Vanilla, popcorn, more vanilla from Dorian, and yeah, its just caramel popcorn with a bit of woodiness underneath. Medium throw and wear length.

[Follow My Nose]

My skin reacted differently to this scent than other folks & went through a few interesting stages. On first application, it was buttery popcorn with smooth, warm oak and an undefined sweetness underneath.

 

As it dried, the Dorian, lavender, and vanilla came out right away, reminding me of The Serpentine. Beeswax and Snake Oil immediately followed but remained in the background.

 

It quickly all blended together into a lovely sweet blend of all the notes with Dorian most prominent.

Sadly, after it dried completely, the lavender and popcorn faded away on my skin. It's still gorgeous, but I did love the popcorn! Apparently, so did my skin, since it ate it all up. Although I'm still smelling a faint buttery note which compliments the rest of the scent. Leftover popcorn, maybe?

[sarahmarie]

This one was a surprise to me. I went to the Vermont Lunacy yesterday with a functional but definitely still existent migraine, and I wasn't sure how smelling things was going to go. Lots of things, I couldn't really deal with, but this one smelled comforting and good even when most smells were overwhelming. So that alone is a surprise, but also, I would not have guessed this would work on me based on the fact that I can't really wear straight Dorian (it gets very sharp on my skin), snake oil has only worked for me with additions, lavender is very blend dependent for me, and while I love the popcorn smells they haven't generally worked on my skin either. But together! Somehow it works! It's a comforting scent, warm and soft, and it lingers close to the skin for me (with some light throw early in the wear). I wore a little on my wrist to bed last night, even, which is not often something I can do with perfume. Heart eyes for real.

[supreme_c0rt]

Whew that's a lot of popcorn. The sweet butter smell reminds me a lot of the buttered popcorn jellybeans that I ate too much of as a kid and it almost turned my tummy. After a few minutes, the rest of the notes, almost as if on cue, show up one by one to pull the butter note back into something manageable. It doesn't seem like these smells would work together, but they really do. The popcorn/butter note keeps pushing and receding, which is meh (since I'm not a big fan of foody notes) but that vanilla/oak is drooly-gorgeous and is working some magic here on the foody note. And the delicate wisps of Dorian and lavender are lovely. 

 

This is kind of like a foody, buttery/salty Ancient Junk! It's gorgeous and I can see this being a huge hit. 

Edited October 30, 2019 by supreme_c0rt

[Lady_Fire]

I'm getting saltiness from the popcorn, something woody, vanilla sweetness (but I cant identify it as snake oil). I could smell Dorian in the beginning but that seems to have burned off now. No lavender for me. It's a pleasant scent but it's pretty fresh from the mail so we'll see how it ages. I usually love Dorian/Snake Oil blends. 

[Missanneshirleyofgg]

Sniffed this at Lunacy not for myself, but for a friend. Said “Eh, herbal. Lavender. Butter. Utterly Weird”. And walked away. 
 

Returned twenty minutes later and skin tested it. Went around asking people what they smelled on my arm because What I was smelling was caramelized lavender. Such an odd combination and wanted to know what others perceived. On my skin, everyone decided it was oddly gourmand. Utterly perplexing. I usually amp lavender. I usually amp buttery popcorn scents. Both were behaving. Utterly singular. 
 

Left lunacy. 
 

Sat in my car on the phone for five minutes and told my friend I was going to go back inside and buy a FS of Utter Sophistication.

 

Utterly interesting, Utterly unusual, Utterly wearable. Utterly delightful. 
 

I still mainly get caramelized lavender and I find it comforting. 

[VioletChaos]

In the Bottle: Mostly Dorian with a bit of a dapper lavender bringing up the rear.

 

Wet On Skin: The beeswax and oak suddenly become the strongest notes as the oil starts to warm up on my skin.

 

Dry Down: Wow. This IS a serious morpher. The Dorian has all but left the building. In its place is a spicy, sexy concoction of vanilla husk, a dusting of honeyed rosin and oak rounding it out. It's surprisingly light with very low throw considering the decadence of the scent notes. It's a good "skin scent" in that it stays so close to the skin- therefore good for daytime use but also good for sexy time use.

I'd for sure wear this on a date.  

[Little Bird]

The Dorian and Snake Oil are hard for me to pick out in this one.  The lavender is a little on the herbal side, but still creamy and pleasantly cool smelling, and I love how the other notes sweeten it up and make it into an unusual gourmand-ish blend.  The beeswax is sweet and golden and the vanilla and popcorn meld together into a milky caramel type of scent on my skin.  The buttery quality smells more like a fancy dessert on my skin than movie theater popcorn.  I'm always interested in recipes that work flowers into desserts and this is like a fancy lavender dessert with vanilla-caramel custard and a dusting of honey powder.  Then there's a sort of dark, spicy muskiness from the Snake Oil and a dry, dark woodiness from the oak that keep it from being fullout gourmand on my skin.  Very complex and unusual, in a good way.

[Minh Scent]

I have tested this four days running, including two full days at work. It is a heavy morpher and judging from the comments above, very fickle to skin chemistry. Testing advised before commitment!

 

For me Utter Sophistication starts out with unexpected popcorn and butter notes (giving me the same smile as the surprise nut note in Spider Witch), chased with light lavender and sexy Snake Oil. Dorian then appears and I am enjoying that, with a slightly salty, lavender twinge. So pretty! I think we are done...but to my surprise way late in the dry down, I get woody vanilla doused beeswax! Usually BPAL's waxes enter early and don't stay around as long as I would like. This is the opposite. I haven't been so head over heels about a Lilith since (Not) So Pentitent (Mini) Mag (still #1 in my books).

 

Utter Sophistication gets the Minh Scent 2019 favorite perfume of the year (across companies) award!

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Whoa, there's a lot going on here! It took me a while to actually pick out individual notes, but here's what I'm getting from strongest to least - beeswax, Dorian, lavender, popcorn, and oak. Really gorgeous.

 

Dry: Sadly, this is not nearly as lovely when it dries on me. I'm still getting Dorian, and the faintest hint of lavender, but everything else has faded. Also.. where on earth is the Snake Oil?!  

 

I'll hold on to my decant and see how this ages.

[roseus]

Such a fun blend! I get a bunch of buttery popcorn at first sniff - such a fun note that I've never tried for some reason. Settled on the skin I get Dorian and beeswax first and foremost, that delicious vanilla black tea but with a honey sweet waxiness that I'm loving, with some lavender over the top. The SO could be adding to the richness of the vanilla-honey sweetness going on, but I can't pick it out specifically but I think it's lending some more body to the blend. The dry woodiness of the oak and the saltiness of the popcorn help keep the sweetness in check. 

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Dorian, Snake Oil and Popcorn! It's sweet, and rich. Hints of wood and salt. Interesting! I've had this since it came out in a box of perfumes I somehow never got around to testing. Might be a good thing, as I think this one probably needed some age. It reminds me of Snake Can (I think?) a bit, the one with Snake Oil and salted nuts. Also kind of feels like if Snake Oil and Midway had a baby, which I don't hate. The Dorian has faded away. It must be the beeswax rosin that's making this so much sweeter than regular snake oil? It doesn't smell like the Lab's usual beeswax note, nor does it smell like honey. The vanilla is understated and lovely. The oak keeps it from being too gourmand. I think I quite like this.

 

Dry: It does remind me a lot of Snake Can, maybe too much to need both? I may need to compare. Salty sweet Snake Oil with hints of wood. I like it, but not as much as when it was fresh.

[Permanent.Black.Ink.]

In the bottle and wet on skin the popcorn was really forward, I found that it dried off in about 10 minutes and the vanilla & beeswax stick around with *just a bit* of snake oil lurking.  If you have tried Snake's Kiss, I found this one to be quite similar but without the buttercream note.  I don't get any lavender or wood from this.

[Kanra]

Snake Oil and Dorian! I love Snake Oil and love Dorian so this was a no brainer.

 

Upon application, the Snake Oil was actually the strongest on my skin. It was very reminiscent of Snake Oil with popcorn and oak. After a while, the Dorian comes out in full force and overpowers the Snake Oil. The Snake Oil is definitely still there, but while it starts as a Snake Oil heavy blend for me at the very beginning, throughout the majority of its life it is a Dorian heavy blend. Popcorn and oak (a general sense of woodiness at least) remain throughout the blend. This is great! It's foody and woody at the same time.

 

I don't get much lavender personally. As for the beeswax, I don't particularly get a distinctive beeswax note, but it does have more sweetness to it than regular Snake Oil and Dorian which I suspect is from the beeswax. Overall, it's a very foody, woody, popcorned Dorian with just a little Snake Oil for good measure. There's definitely a lot going on but somehow this all really works together.

[fairybites]

I'll be honest, I'm not digging this as much as I expected. I was hoping for more popcorn! The most dominant note on me is beeswax and vanilla. And when it comes to Snake Oil and Dorian, on me the Snake Oil is much much stronger. If I didn't know Dorian was in here, I probably wouldn't have detected it. Beeswax and Snake Oil fans would dig this for sure! Would have liked for some lavender to appear, but it doesn't. I am also glad the polished oak doesn't make much of an appearance because I am picky with wood notes.

 

Overall, not what I was wanting but still a lovely beautiful blend. I think I am started to appreciate beeswax notes more now. 

[MamaMoth]

goes on in a confusing, happy jumble of dorian, snake oil, lavender, popcorn, oak wood, and beeswax rosin, the latter of which smells like honey-sweet balsam to me.   all the things!  

 

i'm very fond of most of these notes, and it is delightful if a bit discordant. the woods, balsamy beeswax, and salty popcorn are pulling against sweet vanillic snake oil and dorian to inhabit that foody/non-foody, sweet/savory borderland that i really love. it starts fading away pretty fast on me, though. for a brief time i enjoyed a sweetly balsamic, woodsy dorian (lovely! but faint.) then it was gone completely within a few hours.

 

i loved it while it lasted!