Haunted Housewife

[zankoku_zen]

A thin, sorrowful, lonely scent: white musk and dust, elemi and white amber, carrot seed and opium tar accord.

[crimescenecleanup]

This starts off as a strong white amber musk - airy, soft, clean, and with a vanilla-like quality. It is very simple and straightforward. So well blended you can't tell where the musk ends and the amber begins. 

 

Then, lurking behind it, is this small spike of sharp opium. It is definitely smoky, tarry opium accord, but something about it smells, er, pokey. It smells the way thorns feel. Perhaps it is the combination of the other notes, or the dust accord that gives it that prickly quality. 

 

White musk still dominates the scent, but there is always that hint of other notes that tells you something is not quite right. It evokes a sense of unease. This is a malevolent haunting. 

 

The white musk and the darker opium/herbal notes feel disconnected. It wouldn't say that it is a thin scent, as the description calls it, because the amber musk definitely packs an oomph and the opium note is consistently noticeable. But it does feel hollow...like there is this vast empty space where I would expect other notes to be,. That absence really creates the experience. This is not a simple or boring scent by any means, but it does feel stark and spare. Like you are being forced to look at really notice just a couple of the elements under bright lights on an empty stage, and all surrounding them is darkness and the unknown. 

 

This is more of a spooky scent experience than something I would wear around town, but it is an experience I am happy to revisit and continue to puzzle out. I am very glad I tried it and glad to have a bottle. 

 

Edited January 9, 2021 by crimescenecleanup

[fairybites]

 

This just smells like soap on me! Like a fancy smelling one that has been left abandoned in a haunted house covered with dust and cobwebs, but soap nonetheless. I'm guessing that's either the white musk/amber or the carrot seed that's making it smell that way on me. I'm getting a touch of the opium tar but it's very faint and the other notes overpower it almost entirely.

 

If you really dig your dusty notes or soap, you should try this. It almost reminds me of Possessed Teen without the smokiness.