Spotted Cat

[zankoku_zen]

White ginger, green mandarin, ti leaf, cedarwood, chocolate mint, bergamot, and sweet vetiver.

[VetchVesper]

Hm...  Smells a little bit like How Doth the Little Crocodile in the bottle, but it's brighter and fresher.  The tangerine and bergamot become prominent on my skin and the chocolate goes away completely.  I'm getting a soft citrus over mint.  Bright and relaxing.  Not having any trouble from the cedar, which I often do.  Herbal and sort of fuzzy, like a kitty in the sunshine.  I'm curious as to what it will do in a few hours.  

 

Half an hour later - this smells nothing like How Doth now.  It's soft orange bergamot and gentle mint.  It makes me think less of a hot cup of tea and more of cuddling up under a blanket with that cup of tea.  It's in the same vein as Lighting the Lantern but not nearly as piquant. 

 

Calming, herbal, and quite appropriate for cuddling with my own spotted kitty.  

[zankoku_zen]

Cedarwood, chocolate mint, burst of citrus, and sweet vetiver. This one is intriguing, playful, and yes, reminds me to How Doth the Little Crocodile, but more of a cat version. Medium throw and wear length.

[doomsday_disco]

In the decant, I get the citrus notes and the white ginger the strongest, with touches of the cedar and chocolate mint.

 

On my skin, I get lots of the same ginger and tea notes from Baobhan Sith mingling with the green mandarin.It's very bright and citrusy, with just a hint of cedar in the background. Then, the bergamot joins in and makes the scent even more citrusy. The cedar ends up gaining strength, but then retreats to the background once more as the vetiver joins the scene and becomes one of the most prominent notes. It's a green vetiver, not a smoky variety -- the same kind in scents like The Earth Mother and Two Sheep and Two Ghosts Resting in a Field. In the end, it winds up being a citrusy vetiver scent. The white ginger and vetiver combo give it a bite, while the white tea adds some astrigency to the scent. There's still a bit of cedar in the background, but I am not getting any of the chocolate mint.

I was curious about this one mainly because it has a cat on the label, and because I wanted to compare it to How Doth the Little Crocodile. This didn't end up being like How Doth the Little Crocodile at all on me, because my skin did not bring out the chocolate mint in this one, and the cedar is far less prominent in this scent.

 

It's not bad, but it's sharper on me than I would like. I'd be curious to smell this on someone that doesn't amp the Lab's white tea note or vetiver.

Edited April 28, 2020 by doomsday_disco

[DizzyGinger]

In the bottle, I overwhelmingly smell the chocolate mint, with maybe some vetiver in the background. Applied, the cedar comes out, as do the citrus notes. The chocolate mint is still there, but it's more of a background note to the cedar and citrus, anchoring them in a base of sweetness and depth. It gets sweeter as it dries, to my nose anyway, but never becomes cloying or candy-like. It's just a beautifully balanced herby-woody-citrus. The wear is solid too; I applied at about 7 am, and was still noticeable long into the afternoon. This isn't like anything else in my collection and I think it will be a fall favorite! 

[starbrow]

This Spotted Cat is so slippery! On my skin, she resembles nothing from How Doth the Little Crocodile, despite sharing several notes, but is instead her own strange breed. Ginger tea and sparkly mandarin burble for most of its early life, with something zingy-fresh and green hovering at its edges (that tropical ti leaf and perhaps the mint), and a hint of woodiness from the cedar and vetiver. Once the top notes burn off, this is a mild herbal tea kind of scent to me. Nowhere to be found is that sensual chocolate mint that's like sex in a hotel room from How Doth.

 

I rather like this kitty but I'm not rushing to buy a bottle. It's cute though!

[Little Bird]

First on, Spotted Cat reminded me of the original Thirteen blend, but this is more bright, fresh, clean and citrusy.  The chocolate reads as creamy, mellow, not super sweet white chocolate on my skin, mixed with fresh white tea and lots of sharp bergamot and orange, with the mint adding a frosty chill.  I only get ginger for the first couple minutes and then it's mostly citrus, freshness, and an undertone of creamy chocolate.  It threatens to go soapy and the drydown reminds me of a citrus & mint scented bathroom cleaner that I once had, so it unfortunately starts to bother me and give me a headache after 15 minutes-ish.  I catch whiffs of a dry, grassy vetiver every once in a while, but mostly the cleaner scent.