To A Dead Friend

[Seajewel]

A night-black cloak of wild plum and indigo musk twinkling with starry eucalyptus leaf and white amber. The petals of a faded rose, amber-touched. Wildflower honey drifting on butterfly wings.

[Kanra]

This is such a beautiful scent that evokes a certain sentimentality. Even without the name, it brings about a very elegant yet morose image. It is a very sheer scent, yet at the same time it is very inky. The delicacy of the musk contrasts beautifully with the sharpness of the eucalyptus. There is rose but it is a deep and dark rose rather than a romantic one. Butterfly wings is the perfect way I would describe the translucent feel of this fragrance, yet it definitely has a bite to it with the sharpness and depth. It is complex and not at all lacking in substance.

 

It's a very introspective scent overall. I would wear it on somber occasions, or when I want to take a quiet and contemplative walk at night. All in all, it is gorgeous. If you love the lab's indigo note, you can't miss this. It's incredibly moody, and it reminds me of a sheerer, sharper take on a fragrance like last year's A Moonlit Winter Landscape. It's less full bodied than the latter, and a lot sharper, but it evokes the same kind of feeling when you wear it. Beautiful.

[Casablanca]

Beautiful opening on this one.

 

Indigo plum musk, reddened with rose, freshened with a whiff of eucalyptus. Before long, I also get an amber incense impression behind these, though incense is not listed. It's a golden scent, like a golden frankincense or champaca incense. The honey doesn't stand out on its own for me, but there is a light sweetness helping to link other notes together. 

 

There's a lot woven through this. It's like a cool, translucent fabric of softly colored layers that partially show through the top. The eucalyptus seems to shimmer and throw a gossamer effect over the whole, like a top layer, under which move shadows of soft plum, indigo, rose, gold.

 

After drying, the musk amps on me overly, as often happens with Lab indigo musk, so I think this won't be a bottle. But it remains intriguing and complex, and the early phases were a journey. This was a delight to try.

[starbrow]

I recognize the indigo musk, an inky version of white musk, but here it goes very, very soapy. This leans towards a masculine soap kind of situation, not unpleasantly so, but it is a very rugged bar-soap kind of scent to me. I don't get black plum at all - not the sour 2021 unripened plum, nor the beautiful rich purply plum of yesteryear - it's neither one and so I don't love it or hate it, it's just this vaguely plum-scented soap to me. For reference, I have Crack of Thunder Hair Gloss, and that one is a delicious plum shampoo, very lovely and clean, good for work. To A Dead Friend is so covered up with suds, I can barely smell the plum.

 

Not too much rose, no mentholy eucalyptus here either, and honey doesn't intrude. I'm trying to pick up on amber and it's just...buried in soap.

 

As a plum lover, this one is a disappointment, but I know that I have pre-2021 plums to go back to and love, so it's fine!

[puellacaerulea]

This one starts off great -- deep plum and musk, with florals and hint of honey adding slight golden sweetness in the background. The effect is like florals and honey muted under a cover of deep, purple-tinged notes. Pretty, but in a dark, somber way. As it dries down, though, something is amping up in a way that turns it into a sort of generic incense on me. Going to chalk this one up to a skin chemistry fail.

[she's a carnival]

I too really liked the beginning wet phase with plum, rose and musk. It does seem to go through somewhat of a soapy phase but I do find the drydown of swirling florals to be quite intriging and I keep smelling my wrist.

[roseus]

In the imp I get a twinkling green floral with a breath of plum and perfumey amber. On my skin it gets less twinkly and green and I can pick out rose specifically. As it dries it gets more cool-toned again (I assume the indigo musk) even as the rose starts to really take center stage. The plum gets lost on my skin unfortunately. It's clean and cool and makes me think of crisp night air after a rain.

[groovyrooby]

I wish my experience had been as complex as others'. I primarily got a somber rose. It started as a bright lemony-rose smell, so much that I thought for sure this had citrus, maybe even grapefruit. Overall, it reminds me a bit of Night-Gaunt, really. Zesty to start and a faint, white floral to end. The citrus vibe lasts a bit longer for me here, but eventually dried rose overtakes it all. I think I missed the plum and eucalyptus entirely.

 

I enjoy a lot of roses, but I like them headier than this. For those who prefer their florals on the more sedate side, this will do nicely. I like mine screaming, so this was not for me.

[Rayleigh]

Wistful and clean. Light musky plum, soft florals, and sharp fresh eucalyptus. Not much presence from honey or amber yet. It smells pensive. Gauzy. It doesn't stand out for me, but it does capture a reflective mood.

[zankoku_zen]

Complex, oriental floral. It's musky, plum, and perfumey amber. Great throw on wet, and then it calms down, good wear length.

[starbrow]

Another Weenie I am glad I decanted and not blind-bottled. Fresh out of the gate, To a Dead Friend is Zest bar soap. It stays brightly, cheerfully detergenty for hours in varying degrees of strength. This is a very, very CLEAN scent in all the worst ways! The musk to me smells like the white musk that gives off big soap energy. It also reads very masculine to my nose.

 

I get pretty much none of the listed notes. Certainly zero plum, alas. Horror Citrouille was a good contrast to this one, since the plum in Horror was very outfront, whereas in To a Dead Friend it is MIA. Buried under all the soap, maybe?

 

I can't see this one aging into anything I'll ever like, so no bottle for me, definitely!