Disembodied Malevolent Laughter

[zankoku_zen]

A distorted, cacophonous, and mirthless chortle: a hollow rumble of dark resins that rises into a shrieking crescendo of icy wine grape, white musk, and white lemon.

[torischroeder9]

In the bottle: I said in my initial impressions elsewhere on the site that this reminds me of some really high-end hotel soap, and that is still true after a couple of days of settling. That's definitely the white lemon in part, but I'm not sure what other notes are contributing to it. 

 

On my skin:

 

Wet, the resins do start to come out, and I can pick out the white lemon more distinctly. As it dries, I start to be able to pick up the grape and the white musk as well. It's not soapy anymore. 

 

And then I had a meeting and couldn't check regularly, and then somewhere this turned into a delightful scent somewhat reminiscent of Katharina. I mean, the grape and lemon give a different -- and less sweet -- fruit impression, and the resins ground it more, but it still captures the feeling of willfulness plus utterly lovely soul. 

 

I won't say this blend captures its namesake for me, but it is an exquisite scent, and I'm glad I have a bottle (especially in a desert state where white musk blends are seasonally appropriate about 99.99% of the year). 

 

Edit Nov 16 -- This goes past the soap stage very quickly now. It's a lot of white musk, a little chilly grape, just a touch of lemon, and just a dash of grounding resin. I put some on after showering today, and my partner said I smell nice. 

Edited November 17, 2020 by torischroeder9

[Essay]

I didn't expect this to work on me because I was worried about the grape turning to wine - which inevitably is oversweet and sour on me - but a friend didn't like it and passed it to me to try and/or get rid of.

 

My instinct were right. Malevolent Laughter starts like a heady cologne, and then as it dries the grapes come more and more to the forefront until they're threatening to be wine. About 30-40 minutes in, once fully dry, it sours from wine into a musty/moldy/rotting smell - something like a brie rind that's started to grow pink mold. If I had to guess, I'd say the icy wine grape collided with the musk and decided to have a rumble where no one came out unscathed, including me.

[Casablanca]

Icy, lemony, powdery white musk.

 

The ice grape comes out early in drydown, but the individual notes are soon mostly buried in fluffy heaps of perfumey white musk powder.

 

This is my friend's decant, which I'm grateful to try. But this blend is a cautionary tale in how some white musk perfumes don't work on me. 🙂

[Laughing Seagull]

I expected this to be a hearty, screaming laugh with bright and chilly notes, but what I got was more like coughing up dust.  The wine grape is freeze dried.  The lemon is white because it has dried up and bleached in the sun.

 

It is so dry.  Someone pls leave a glass of water out for this malevolent spirit.

[SophieCedar]

All notes present, exactly what's on the tin.

I'm surprised the resins against the light high notes aren't more manic and mismatched? This blends together quite well actually! An icy lemony white musk perfume, reminiscent of white tea but more complex.

[Rayleigh]

This reminds me of the GC blend Lurid, but without the ozone and with the currant/lavender replaced with cool lemon/grape. My skin eats the citrus right away, of course. A little soapy at first, then drying into a classic resin blend with some brightness for contrast. Not too fruity, and far less clashing than the description might lead one to believe. It actually smells quite refined.

[zankoku_zen]

Cool lemon/grape that warms up to a resinous blend. Medium throw and wear length.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: The scent of fancy soap that's in an abandoned hotel bathroom. Dusty fancy soap, basically.

 

Dry: Hm.. this just isn't working on me. Still fancy dusty hotel soap.  

[fairybites]

This was pretty disappointing. I got the wine and lemon notes when I first applied it, and within a couple of hours it's almost completely gone and has gone powdery on me. It was really nice while it lasted, but I wish it stayed around longer! Going to hold onto the decant for now to see if aging will improve things, but I'm not so sure.

[Snuffleupagus]

I went into this with a specific result in mind. I was hoping it’d smell at least somewhat similar to icewine tea.
 

My wish has been granted! The dark resins, white lemon, and icy wine grape read like icewine-laced Ceylon tea with some rounding of the tannic edges. The white musk gives it a dry, loose leaf feel. 
 

Mfw wearing this:  

 

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Snuffleupagus

[DiZZysTARdust]

this is amazeballs but very hard to pin down. not sure what i was expecting but i tend to fear the worst when it comes to citrus and usually get furniture cleaner, sweet tarts, or both, from most citrus/fruity blends. however, thanks to bpal i can’t refuse dark resins.

 

as others have said this is definitely a very cologne like blend. the white musk/lemon seem to combine into a soapy fragrance in the bottle but they are almost completely overtaken as this dries into a sweet clean unisex cologne scent with good throw and good lasting power. the lighter notes blend seamlessly to give a fresh brightness without going soapy or candy like, and if you’re nervous about citrus like me there’s no distinct trace of it. my guess as to the resins would be possibly some nag champa. i’m reminded of something but can’t place what

[marared]

Well, after 3.5 years this has aged into ... resin with funk. Only the icy bit is left of the grape, the lemon smells very slightly candied, and the white musk makes the whole thing smell like an aldehyde. It's a little off-putting at first, but given a few minutes to merge with my skin chemistry, it gets better - there's still that slightly funky note, though, that gives the "disembodied" part of the description, and it is not particularly working for me.