Velvet Cthulhu

[filigree_shadow]

Wasabi, pu-erh and Touareg teas, green cedar, myrrh, white sage, khus, frankincense, and coriander.

Green and weird. I don't know how else to describe this scent. Something in it smells vaguely aquatic to my nose, but it also smells like a super-sweet powder, with a bizarre spicy kick from the wasabi and coriander.

Green, peppery, powdery water. See? I told you. Weird. Edited December 23, 2009 by filigree_shadow

[Geminirubyshoes]

I swapped for this and I love it! this is very different from stuff that I normally wear but I am trying to branch onto other areas of smellies.

 

In the bottle its spicy and herbaly. Kind of medicinal herbal without that ACK! factor. Smells a little minty too.

 

On I get mint, some greenery and a hint of sweetness. Where GC Cthulu is like cool clean Irish Spring soap on me, this is soft and fresh. Velvety indeed!

I never get the wasabi. I was kinda of hoping I would just to see what it would smell like on my skin.

Velvet Cthulu and I are friends.

[loubric]

Sweet and spicy green tea!! How is it possible that a scent can be warm and cold at the same time??

I love this!!! Has an icy herb edge to it.

 

Miny freah and clean!!

Edited January 22, 2010 by Lilly

[SueTigger]

For some reason, I didn't expect this scent to be as green as it actually is. My first impression upon initial application was very mossy. Now as it dries, the cedar, sage, coriander and khus seem to be blending to create a fresh grassy fragrance. I'm not really getting any of the frankincense, myrrh or Wasabi. I'm not quite sure what "pu-erh" or "Touareg teas" should smell like, so not sure.

 

It's a pleasant scent for the office. Which amuses me to no end.

 

Sue

[impolight]

:::VELVET CTHULHU:::

 

When this showed up as a Frimp, it was scarcely believed...

Firstly, an Imp like it has had yet to cross the threshhold...

Artwork?

Notes listed right on the Label?

Fortuitous!

Lovecraft is well loved and mooned over in this household, but seeing His brainchild rendered in Velvet, no less, made for an especially grand intrigue!

First sniff:

 

Huh?

 

Oh, yes!

The Review!

Silly, Old Impolight!

Wow! The scent that is Velvet Cthulhu was almost ENTIRELY different than what was expected from reading the notes.

While all of the Lab's blends are unique unto themselves, Velvet Cthulhu stands entirely alone... Freakin' genius!

When Wasabi was listed as the First note, the expectation was, generically, watery-eyed sneeziness... So far, none!

Cedar and Sage together seemed as though they would bring something assertive if not astringent to the foray... Not yet!

Velvet Cthulhu seems to be mostly about the Pu-erh and Touareg Teas at this stage... Translucent and metaphysical ... Impossibly clean!

Velvet Cthulhu smells like a place you would very much like to be; steeping away your cares and triviums in a heavenly, bronze washtub wityh a ridiculously large glass of the most enchantingly refreshing iced tea that has ever had the audacity of pleasing your palate to this extent.

The Corriander acts as the cool light streaming through a stained glass window the colour of iridescent teal...

Goodness, gracious, are those... Harps in the background?

On the Skin: My, the sinuses, how they crackle! Here is the Wasabi, yet this is the CLEANEST Wasabi known to hominids.

There is a violently green thingy (ia! ia! ?) in Velvet Cthulhu that brings Rappaccini's Hemlock to mind... Fuzzy, fluorescent, Phosphorous green!

By the time that Khus and Frankincense come out to play, traipse, and frolic, Velvet Cthulhu might also bear a passing, familial resemblance to Phoenix Steamworks... Nice.

Velvet Cthulhu could also be called Robotic Cthulhu... Nice, brassy edge to this!

Cthulhu donning battle-armor forged from meteoric alloy...

Velvet Cthulhu is a magnificent fragrance.

Devastating on Him or Her.

Simply 5 out of 5!

[mymymai]

ITB: Lovely pu-erh + wasabi at the same time. It is followed by white sage with frankincense to warm it up. I must admit, initially I was skeptical, but the scent has grown on me and is now what I wear to work 3 days out of 5.

 

Wet: Minty sage with a dollop of wasabi underneath, but in just a few seconds, the cedar comes in, but the tea has slunk into the very background. It's a lovely green scent and reminds me a little bit of Lush's Jungle conditioner.

 

Dry: Sage+ frankincense, wasabi spicing it up, ceder tempered by myrrh and a faint tea as secondary. Yum!

Edited June 15, 2011 by Shollin
Removed Lab description

[Penance]

Origin:

 

Near-empty tester bottle from Absinthetics.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

The notes in Velvet Cthulhu sound fascinating, but I'm having a really hard time imagining what it's going to actually smell like. I've smelled all of these notes either individually or in other things, it's just the whole putting them together thing that has me scratching my head. I love trying scents with weird note combinations, though, so I'm excited to give this one a try.

 

First sniff:

 

It's hard to pick out individual notes here. It's very much a green scent. The main thing I'm smelling here is the Touareg tea (which is a kind of mint tea served in parts of Africa; I had it when I was in Morocco and it's delicious and smells wonderful), but there's also a sort of bright citrus thing going on. It makes me think of the Lab's green tea note, which isn't listed here, but would fit in with the other notes.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Mint tea mixed with wasabi. That sounds disgusting when I look at it in writing, but it doesn't smell bad at all. It's a strange combination of minty sweetness and slightly spicy greenness. I think I'm starting to get the khus and coriander now, too. There's an almost herbal thing going on in the background.

 

Dry down:

 

In the end, Velvet Cthulhu dries down into a nice woody tea scent (I'm still getting mainly Touareg tea, but also a bit of the pu-erh) with faint hints of herbs and resins. It's still a green scent, but a muted green mixed with shades of brown.

 

The bottom line:

 

This is unique, but not as weird as I was expecting it to be. It actually smells pretty awesome in the end, although it's not necessarily the sort of scent that would appeal to everyone. I may end up getting a bottle of this one.

 

Edit: Spelling. I can't seem so spell Cthulhu right to save myself.

Edited July 14, 2011 by Penance

[fufu_berry]

This one didn't morph too much on my skin - it's clean and just slightly herbally-sweet. I love that it's clean and fresh smelling without being soapy at all. I didn't get too much wasabi in the scent, but I did get a bit of the sinus-clearing effect, which was lovely. After a few hours it's just barely hanging on, with a little bit of tea and white sage. Overall, a really unique and subtle fragrance - not necessarily what I would have imagined a tentacle-faced monstrosity to smell like, but I guess this is the fuzzy velvet version! I will likely be looking for more of this.

[torikitty]

Wow, this is super interesting! Fresh, green, clean, slightly minty at first. On drydown, you can smell a bit of the wasabi coming out. Like it actually has the effect when you smell a fresh jalapeño up close, like inhaling the capsaicin. I like that the cedar isn't overpowering. And the tea gives it a comforting quality. I really just wanted to try something with sage, which other reviewers noted. This doesn't disappoint. I thought it would end up coming off more aquatic, but it's mostly clean and green. I think I'm mostly getting tea, sage, and vetiver. However, this version of vetiver isn't overpowering.

[Casablanca]

In the bottle, Velvet Cthulhu just smells green and strange. But it's been one of those blends that changes a lot in the open air.

 

Freshly applied, this Cthulhu is still green, but more pleasant and nuanced. Green tea, grainy-green with wasabi and slightly spicy-sweet, comes out first. Along with a coriander hint, I get a gingery impression. A few minutes in, I catch a little sugary spearmint tea, a Moroccan mint: the Tuareg tea. This seems now to have been the source of the early sweetness.

 

The spearmint grows for a bit, becoming the strongest note. It's soft and fresh, with the green tea and a little sage, and a faint base of frankincense when I look for it. I don't catch any myrrh or vetiver.

 

Eventually, the mint subsides and this becomes a soft and complex green tea until it fades.

 

On my friend, this blend was far less layered -- mainly spearmint, with a little green tea, throughout its life.

[Cali]

Super fresh, soft green, spicy on my skin. 

There's a squelchy-foresty goodness in this that unfortunately gets eaten on my skin, in the bottle I love this, on my skin it's still beautiful, but i don't know if i find a need to smell like this, as nice as it is. It's soft, velvety indeed, that makes some of these harsh sounding notes seem like a mossy bed to lay in. Gorgeous.