This More Than Bloody Deed

[Seajewel]

Lilith’s final year in their Shakespeare troupe before moving East. A triumphant but somber scent commemorating Lilith’s ten years with the theater: wildflower honey, bourbon vanilla, and lush red labdanum.

 

 

 

[marared]

This is a nice, uncomplicated scent. Very definitely wildflower honey - it's got that rich tang to it that isn't in clover, orange blossom, etc. The labdanum does its usual fizzy soda thing, and the vanilla is not particularly noticeable. It's thick and sweet, but not overpoweringly so.

[elissamay]

This More Than Bloody Deed is really an interesting one, and way more complex (and challenging) than I ever would have thought based on the notes. The "wildflower" honey is very realistic to a squeeze of wildflower honey from a bear-shaped bottle, with a sharpness and a floral kind of effervescence, almost. On the skin it starts to mellow down to a more warm (and less floral) honey, but if you want red labdanum to come out and play it definitely takes a while to go there, and I don't really get vanilla at all, crazily enough! I think my nose is reading the red labdanum as medicinal, kind of numbing to the back of my throat.

 

Day 2 test: The medicinal quality of the red labdanum already seems to be mellowing out, but the vanilla is still taking its sweet time to show itself. I'm looking forward to how this one will change with some time!

[Casablanca]

Floral honey predominates this Deed, as others have noted. For a while, this is Wildflower Honey SN on me... which kind of tempts me to bottle!

 

The redness from the labdanum does creep through, however. In drydown, the weighty sweetness of this honey starts to settle, and a more ponderous redness starts to glow through its veil, like red lighting behind a stage-set scrim.

 

A bit later, I also notice the bourbon vanilla, blended and almost completely merged with the honey. Honey has to recede on this stage before vanilla has a chance at the spotlight. I can imagine this balance will change with some age.

[Poenari]

Lovely wildflower honey and vanilla, with the red labdanum adding a sweet musky note to this. It's not complicated, it's very pretty and brighter than I expected. Decent throw and wear length. 

[dancingchair]

Wet, the labdanum makes this a little bit sour and dusty. It's a resinous sour and oozing honey at this stage. As it dries, the labdanum warms up into a deep red wood, almost like rooibos. It's strong, spicy, and musky. The honey fades into the background and becomes a supporting player, adding more funk to the labdanum. The vanilla doesn't really make an appearance. Maybe it will show up after some aging?

[Little Bird]

The honey in this is so strong and sweet.  To me, it's like a mix of creamy, mellow, more refreshing wildflower honey and that super-sweet honey that you get out of those bear shaped squeeze bottles.  The vanilla takes the sweetness way over the top, but the woody amber/labdanum tries to cut through the sweetness a bit.  As soon as I smelled this, I had an image of walking into a little country craft store and seeing tons of bottles and jars of honey products, honey scented soaps and lotions and all the things, and vanilla scented candles all perched on wooden shelves.   So much honey.  Glistening gold.

[Incognito]

This is such an interesting scent - having ordered it long ago and forgotten the notes, I thought I was getting Dragon's Blood as I opened it - it someone reminds me of Dragon's Milk (this is not a bad thing). The honey is incredibly sweet in this, and I guess it's the resinous red labdanum that's giving me Dragon's Blood vibes. I don't really get the vanilla. This is almost syrupy sweet, rich and resinous. I haven't worn Dragon's Milk in a couple of months, but it really does remind me of my memory of that scent. It does smell very "red". It's a comfortable scent. Nothing super stunning, but very nice and somehow comforting. 

[Thuy]

HONEY. MUCH HONEY. Which I love, so that's great. A rich honey at that, which...I'm guessing is the labdanum. I'm not super familiar with that note, and scents with it have been a hit or miss on me...but This more than Bloody Deed is so good. Maybe it's what helps the honey hold its ground on my skin. No idea where the vanilla🤷‍♀️

[zankoku_zen]

Cola musk. This labdanum smells like cola, and ends up musky. Medium throw and wear length. 

[Lucchesa]

This More than Bloody Deed reminded me at first of Against Idleness and Mischief, which I haven't worn for a minute.  Both feature a strong wildflower honey note.  Eventually the red labdanum comes through, warm and tending toward cola, but always in the background compared to the honey.  I never get the vanilla at all; I think the honey just kind of subsumes it.  But this is a lovely honey blend and I will keep my decant, a gift from fabulous @Teamama!