Ice Age Baton

[Seajewel]

A petrified relic of pleasures past: ivory-hued vanilla bean, cacao, white amber, and marbled tobacco unearthed from a chalky rubble. 

[frizzlechicken]

This is lovely. I am mainly getting cacao with a slight bit of amber and an undertone of dirt and chalk dust which is keeping it from being too sweet. It’s reminding me of the same family as scents like Muddy Armadillo and Psalm 146:9, so if you like those you’ll love this. I blind bottled it and am glad I did. 

[RoseThornAndOak]

Oo this is nice! Still suffering from parosmia but from what I can make out, there's a good amount of marble and chalky bits that remind me of Klosterruine somewhat. Sadly Kloster smells all kinds of messed up to my nose right now, so I'm just gonna wait on it. This reminds me of the sweet bits of Kloster that I remember, kinda like a cross between Kloster and Grey Columns, minus the frankincense, incense, and snow, and adding vanilla, dry cacao and white amber. This is much more off white, definitely ivory hued. There's a Limestone Amber vibe to it, if you catch my drift, but without the fruity amber vibe, more white, chalky vanilla amber with dry cacao supporting.

 

The tobacco briefly lends a slight, dry, vegetal note in the beginning, like those dry mosses that grow on rubble, but don't be misled, this is mostly about the sweet, vanilla cacao chalk.  The tobacco quickly loses the vegetal vibe and grows more pale, smooth, and dessicated as it wears, which I'm happy with because it's downright sexy and reminds me of the tobacco in Lycan Lace a bit. Yes!! It makes me think of the marble statues in Queen of The Damned.

 

This is reminiscent of Muddy Armadillo, but plays much better on my skin personally, so if you liked that one or wanted something a little different from it, I recommend this! 

 

Very nice blend. I think this will age beautifully. Very happy to have blind bought this!

Edited March 26, 2022 by RoseThornAndOak

[roseus]

In the bottle I get a delicious vanilla and cocoa combo with a bit of sweet tobacco underneath. On my skin the chalky notes come in and take it out of sweet gourmand territory. It's sort of dusty and has a mineral quality, and brings some cooler facets to the blend. The tobacco really blooms as it dries. It's dark and murky and makes me think of a cold cave but with the warmth and comfort of fire inside. 

[HerbGirl]

Chalky white amber and sweet vanilla with just a dusting of a light tobacco. I bet the cacao will be more present in a week or two. Light, ephemeral decadence. In the same vein as Zorya P., and Grey Columns but stands on its own. Absolutely beautiful.

 

Eta: The cacao is much more present when I dabbed a bit more on just now. Yeah, this is stunning.

 

Eta 2 When I wore this yesterday (April 9th) it had a horrible metallic overtone that was not there the last time...it took about 30 minutes to settle down. 

Edited April 10, 2022 by HerbGirl

[zipegs]

Just pulled this one out of the mail—so this is probably a premature review—but after sniffing briefly, I couldn't resist trying it on! 😂 In the bottle it's a gorgeous chalky white chocolate. Smooth and silky and rich without being overly saccharine. On skin, it mellows out a bit and the vanilla and cacao recede a little to let the amber and tobacco lighten and dry it up a little bit. I agree with HerbGirl that it's in the same vein as Grey Columns (can't speak to Zorya P.) but definitely distinct! A little less heavy and rich—definitely feeling a warm, earthy, chalky vibe. I'm already prepared to jump the gun and order backups!

[feyofthefellwood]

Another gorgeous vanilla scent; the Lab has been on a roll lately with them! (Not that they haven't been before, it just seems like I've been falling in love with an inordinate amount lately). This one is kind of like the beautiful medium between Zorya P and Muddy Armadillo, both of which I love. Like Zorya P, this has an ethereal vanilla quality, though in a more powdery (chalky) way, with a sweet tobacco dancing underneath. The cacao is soft, deep, and earthy, and makes me think of something delicious baking in the distance without skewing the scent gourmand. The cacao isn't as thick or sludgey as in Muddy Armadillo, and the tobacco plays a lighter hand as well here. Ice Age Baton settles into a pretty, powdery, aura like skin scent after an hour or so, which makes it one I'll probably be able to wear to the office without fear of it being overpowering or overly identifiable as perfume.

 

Edit: I haven't had this change much with rest so far; just wanted to note that I'm not getting the harsh metallic qualities others are . . . I find this soft vanilla with powdery chocolate. I'm not sure if this means there was a batch variation or if my sniffer just enjoys whichever thing isn't working for some. 🤔

Edited May 16, 2022 by feyofthefellwood

[doomsday_disco]

This one was quite the scent experience.

 

This goes on super harsh and industrial on me. It has tones of paint, latex, and petroleum, bringing to mind some of the atmospheric American Gods scents. And it stays that way for a few hours! But then! BUT THEN! It morphs into the most amazing vanilla touched with white tobacco, white amber, a very gentle cacao, and a much more subdued mineralic chalky rubble. By this point, it is stunning and a relative to scents like Pediophobia (especially with its porcelain) and Zorya P. 

 

I adore the end result of this, but the opening is so harsh that I'm not sure if it's worth it to brave through it for the final morph. I'm going to set my decant aside and try it again in a month or two after it has had some time to age and see if I have the same experience. I'm hoping the opening will be much smoother by then, because the final morph is so lovely!

[Beary Strange]

When first applied, I get this big *wooof* of cacao, which doesn't last long and disappears until fully dry. Dirt enters the picture next and it's a clean, fresh, dry now but was recently mud kind of dirt smell. It's followed by lovely earthy tobacco that almost but not quite smells like moss. That's where it stays until it's dry, and then the white amber starts peeking out. The dirt note starts to lean stone-like, and the cacao comes back, and it brought the vanilla with it, giving it a super dry white chocolate vibe, but also not remotely as sweet. There's a chalky smell present (I presume the white amber), which seems to be really tempering the cacao + vanilla scent. 

 

The end result is a lovely chalky white amber, dirt/stone, and tobacco, touched by vanilla and cacao. This is a very stony, earthy scent, but the white chocolate smell is adding this light sweetness in wafts that keeps it from going so far in that direction that it no longer smells like perfume. This has turned out to be my favorite of all the Lupers I've smelled up to this point, and I'm currently debating a back-up bottle and I think I need to see what Muddy Armadillo is all about. 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Beary Strange

[dancingchair]

Wet, it does have an industrial vibe for me, but this stage doesn't last too long. Dry, it is a bitter cacao powder mixed with dry tobacco. The vanilla fills out the baton and makes it less powdery, but it's not as prominent as the tobacco and cacao. It does smell chalky, like it's been unearthed in an archaeological dig site.

 

This is a bit too similar to Muddy Armadillo to justify a bottle for me, but it is a well-done chocolate blend that isn't too sweet or foodie.

[LavenderCoffee]

Tested from a decant rested for a week.

 

I can understand the comparison between Ice Age Baton and Muddy Armadillo, but this is an entirely different scent experience, even though the notes are similar - I find it soft and cool and brittle where MA is booming and warm and rich.

 

I don't get mud or dirt from either blend, but I do get something sharp and unpleasant like gasoline when I first apply this one. That goes away fairly quickly and I get the cool, chalky vanilla cacao, threaded through with tobacco. It stays close to the skin for me and fades within a few hours.

[wolf_truffles]

Really very chalky! All notes are present but I really feel like I'm smelling white chalky dust. Tobacco might be the strongest note but even that is covered in white rubble. I think this is a lot of fun- however, I can't think of anywhere to wear this! 

[Laughing Seagull]

Based on the glowing reviews I really thought I was going to love this because mineralic scents tend to do it for me and I was jonesing for something chalky and interesting, but it to me this smells like a bake sale being held in a chain smoker's garage. You can vaguely smell a cookie or cake through the plastic cling wrap but overall it's mostly tobacco and old cans of paint.

 

It improves slightly over time but it's still mostly tobacco.

[londonfrog]

IN THE BOTTLE: Oh…this smells just like a permanent marker. I’m having a visceral reaction to this part, which has been excellently described by others as industrial.  I gave it a few weeks to age while I built up the nerve to try it on. To be fair to this scent, some of my favorite BPALs have started out this way - I hated it in the bottle, but ended up loving where it went on my skin (looking at you, Sherlock & Muddy Armadillo).

WET: Yep, that’s a Sharpie. Where was this scent when I was in middle school and actually wanted to sniff those? Could it be the tobacco that is so aggressive?  I thought I liked tobacco notes, but now the results are inconclusive.  I wanted warm and chewy tobacco, and this is more like an airplane in the 1970's. 

DRY DOWN: It is indeed ivory-hued as the vanilla & amber begin to peek out from behind the archeological effluvium.  It’s amusing how comforting the aftercare of the warm, sweet stuff is feeling after braving the BDSM that is the chalky rubble. It really is quite lovely once you get past that part. 

AFTER AN HOUR: I can still smell the Sharpie, but I can also smell all of the yummy amber, vanilla, as well as some tobacco & cacao.  I only applied a small amount because I was so apprehensive about the initial “gasoline dreams” top note, but this test has at the very least inspired me to move it out of my destash pile and curious to try a more hefty dose.  I can smell the comparisons with my beloved Muddy Armadillo, but I’m not sure this will ever enter into my top 10 like MA has.  I would be interested to try it on someone else. 

WHERE I WOULD WEAR THIS: When I want to feel like a Titan of Industry, strike fear into the hearts of my enemies, but also have a snuggle afterwards. I own 51% of this Permanent Marker company. Now, come to Mama.

[theseagrows]

i get a lot of chocolate, and something that smells like burning rubber...i think it's chalk and tobacco. primarily chocolate and tire rubber. i am trying to reconcile this with the description and i am sort of getting it. wafting from afar it's somewhat reminiscent of pediophobia. that rubber quality calms down after awhile and i get a lot of white chocolate and tobacco in the drydown. this one is interesting but not something i think i'd want to wear that often.

 

[Casablanca]

Initially, Ice Age Baton gives me some of the garage-chemical smells that others have also found. Behind the industrial fumes, there floats a dreamy, chalky vanilla and cocoa. So I wait...

 

...and the ick does settle and fade.

 

I thought the chalky rubble of the blend would remind me of Klosterruine but, actually, to me it smells closer to the porcelain of Pediophobia. This could be an influence of this lovely vanilla! 

 

Smooth blend, once you get past the rough.

[Little Bird]

I'm confused by all of the comparisons to Muddy Armadillo because I don't think that this smells like Muddy Armadillo at all.  There's a whiff of chocolate and bone dry, powdery sweetness at first, but the chocolate fades entirely within a couple minutes and I'm left with powder that reminds me of really dry wood, baby powder, and a violet-y scented cosmetics powder.  As it dries down, I also get a weird spiciness that reminds me of curry and an off tone that reminds me of hard boiled eggs and plastic burning on hot metal.  The drydown is almost unbearable on me.

This had certain qualities that reminded me of Pediophobia, but Pediophobia is one of my all time favorite bpal scents and this doesn't have the fleshed out sweetness that Pediophobia has, instead having sour, savory qualities and industrial qualities to it.

I'm glad that I only went with a decant of this.

[MamaMoth]

starts off as a dry mineraly vanilla with some bitter cacao hanging out.  nice so far!  i amp tobacco, and here it comes now.  leathery and sweet, mixing nicely with that chalky vanilla and cacao. 

but here's where it goes wonky. 

that mineral twang overtakes the vanilla.  it overtakes the cacao.  definitely getting the permanent marker comparisons. marker and tobacco. it's not wholly unpleasant, kinda oddly compelling actually, but not what i'd call perfume.  

 

eventually it goes back to being a dry vanilla/cacao/tobacco.  it's actually pretty nice.  but a smelled sharpie can't be unsmelled, and i can sense it still lurking in the background. 

[deepquietvoice]

Not the phallus for me.

Unfortunately, I seem to be one of the folks this goes plasticy on. I gave it a few weeks' more rest but same deal. The chalky vanilla bean-cacao is nice, but the tobacco (which I've enjoyed in other blends) smells like an old smokestained hotel room here. I think what people have been describing alternatively as plastic, permanent marker, paint cans, or garage chemicals is mostly the same note or combination of notes, because it first struck me as plastic but I can see it as any of those other descriptions too. No idea what's doing it. The funky tobacco and chalk?

 

I loved the sound of the notes, but it's just not coming together for me.

[Lucchesa]

Ice Age Baton smells exactly like white chocolate on me.  Which is not like real chocolate at all.  More like a weird simulacrum of chocolate, wrapped in plastic.  The eventual drydown is quite pretty, vanilla and amber and pale tobacco, and it lasts a good long time. 

[zankoku_zen]

Icy minerally vanilla over some leather patchouli. Yep, that's what I got. Medium throw and wear length.

[PumpkinGuts]

I received a frimp of this from a generous forumite, thank you! 💜

 

I am clueless as to what notes are making the wet stage smell like a mechanic's garage, but I get that with chalky cacao. I enjoy chalk notes, but I'm really not digging the combination of chalky rubble and chocolate. After it dries and the cacao calms down, my beloved chalk note melds with the vanilla, amber, and tobacco in a most delicious way. We were off to a rocky (rubble-y?) start, but it seems patience has paid off. My decant should get some good use, but I'm undecided whether I'll need more.