wilhelmscream
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In the bottle... Oof! Thank goodness I was sitting down when I smelled this, or I think it would've knocked me flat! It is an incredibly strong, sticky, thick sweetness shellacked over that tobacco note. On the skin... I have to agree with some of the other reviews here; something very maple/molasses/woody about it. Like sap. Sticky sap on a pile of loose tobacco. This one really takes it's time to get to a place where I can get into it. I think after about 20 minutes on the skin, it gets to a place where it settles down and the tobacco peeks through that sweet, sticky coating. Interesting, but overall, I don't think this is my jam.
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In the bottle, I get an unmistakable boom of leather, paper and dust. On the skin, it all mellows down beautifully. The leather smells crackly and ancient. The paper has that sweet parchment quality. And the dust, oh the dust! Considering we all know what this was a prototype for (don't we?), the dustiness of it all really fits in with the two lead character perfumes from that collection. Very cozy, beautiful and timeless. To use another example of vampire-specific media: remember in the pilot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when she goes into the library for the first time, meets Giles, and he's like "I think I know what you're looking for" and plops down that gigantic VAMPYR tome on the counter? It's that smell.
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From bottle to skin, there isn't much of a change, except for that the longer it sits on the skin, the more the scent mellows out. Chilled? Yes! Sticky? Very! Blue? Absolutely! I get a sugar high and brain freeze just from smelling it! I'm guessing some kind of juniper or spruce or fir note to get that "chill" component. It's hard to tell what the "blue" is, but it does absolutely smell...blue? Sweet and fruity, but I can't figure out what kind of fruit it is. For comparison, I did smell it side-by-side with Aces Wild from the Lupercalia Candy Hearts collection and I can say it's definitely not a blue raspberry situation here.
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In the bottle, I get super fizzy citrus and that dense pumpkin note. On the skin, the pumpkin does its thing and steps into the spotlight, while the sparkly champagne, blood orange and ginger illuminate it from all angles. The gunpowder gives it a bit of singe and grit, but it's not overpowering and it doesn't sour the experience at all. This is very fun and playful! Airy and bright!
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In the bottle... I won't lie, this smells very strange! Very papery and salty with that pumpkin note lurking in the background. Once it's on the skin, it's a different story. The pumpkin immediately steps forward and shapes the fragrance. The pumpkin and salt blending together make for a much more savory alternative to the other Summerween fragrances. The paper is still very present, but not as overpowering as it was in the bottle. It reminds me of my much-beloved mass market paperback of Stephen King's Graveyard Shift, which I brought with me on every trip for several years, and which is bent time and time again, it's spine broken, it's pages water damaged, soaked in the different airs of excursions to New Orleans, Atlanta and the Pacific Northwest.
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In the bottle, I get pumpkin and that sticky sweet cinnamon sugar. On the skin... oh my god, this is so intoxicating! So delicious! This reminds me of all the pier scenes in The Lost Boys. A full-on Halloween carnival fever dream. I just know I'm gonna get lost in that corn maze tonight and the only thing that will guide me out unscathed is the power of the pumpkin funnel cake booth!
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In the bottle, pretty much all I can smell is pumpkin, with a slight hint of something in the background. But once it hits the skin, that all changes! The pumpkin takes a huge step back and the tanning lotion scent comes beaming through. It's so smooth. The rich cocoa butter and that subtle sweetness of the coconut and tiare. It's impossible not to get visions of long days at the beach as a child, or experimenting with tanning beds as a teenager (Regrets! I have a few!) My hometown used to have a small video store that had a back room behind the counter with tanning beds. The whole place smelled like tanning lotion and popcorn, which is forever etched into my brain, and this is the closest scent equivalent to that I've ever come across. Not that it's salty or smells like popcorn, but the pumpkin component adds that earthy, semi-savory quality. The longer it sits on the skin, the pumpkin that retreated into the background steps back out into the sunlight and mixes so beautiful with the other notes. I'm honestly not much for pumpkin fragrances; I always appreciate what the lab conjures up, but they're usually not my personal preference. This has changed me. I cannot stress how much I LOVE THIS. I will reaching for this one again soon!
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Hungry Ghost Moon: Hazelnut Spread and Mini Marshmallows
wilhelmscream replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
Well, who wouldn't want to smell like this? An instant crowd pleaser. And when paired with the Charred Cedarwood and Black Pepper, you can create that fresh out of the campfire s'mores fantasy perfume. It's not too bombastic or rich, just delightfully sweet and airy and dreamy. -
Hungry Ghost Moon: Charred Cedarwood and Smoked Black Pepper
wilhelmscream replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This smells surprisingly cleaner than you'd expect just going off the description! I expected it to be like a full-on crackling bonfire. A fabulously crispy cedar mixed beautifully with the fresh zing of black pepper. Simple, subtle and sexy. -
Hungry Ghost Moon: Tomato Leaf and Red Pepper
wilhelmscream replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This isn't the kind of fragrance that wouldn't normally call out to me, but after trying it on I might be a little obsessed. Subtle, but rich. Earthy and fresh. A hot summer night in a vegetable garden kind of vibe. -
Hungry Ghost Moon: Pineapple and Red Hot Honey
wilhelmscream replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This is a really great summer scent. It's pretty straight-forward. A heady, spicy honey with that sparkly, fibrous grit of pineapple. Very enjoyable! Not a huge throw, more of a get-in-close fragrance. -
Hungry Ghost Moon: Oven-Warm Pizza Crust and Oregano
wilhelmscream replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
Picture it: Late May 1995. I'm six years old. Me, my friend Alex and his mother go to see Casper in theatres and afterwards, we go to Pizza Hut. It is my first time in a Pizza Hut, or at least my first actual memory inside a Pizza Hut. In conjunction with the film, Pizza Hut has all these tie-in goodies with the film, like collectible plastic cups and glow-in-the-dark hand puppets of Casper and his uncles (of course I wanted the worlds friendliest ghost and ended up with Uncle Fatso). For years and years, even looking at that giant plastic cup or my ghostly hand puppet would conjure up that incredible smell in my mind. This duet... smells like those first steps inside that restaurant. It is such a completely uncanny and transportive scent. In contrast with the Hungry Ghost Moon perfume, this smells more directly like pizza than some spooky pizza party seance. This is the real deal. It's warm and savory and chewy. It is completely intoxicating. As a perfume, it's certainly a choice, and not really open to a lot of interpretation. Undeniably herbs and bread! But damn, is it yummy! -
I must second frizzlechicken's review in saying that right out of the bottle, this perfume is very strong and yes, a little off-putting! It's an incredibly thick air of pizza dough, cardboard and that sweet hint of beeswax. Given the mixture of savory components mixed with a few more "perfume-y" elements, it's the kind of perfume that can only be properly picked apart on the skin. After about two minutes on the skin, everything starts to settle and that thick air starts to break apart. The earthy tomato and peppercorn begin to pop out against that undeniably chewy pizza dough note. A savory gourmand with a hint of spice and sparkle. The cardboard that was so dominant in the bottle immediately moves into the background of it all, providing a bit of a frame to this crazy picture. The beeswax and the white musk are what take this this pizza out of the restaurant and into perfume territory. I can't stress this enough, it is a wildly bizarre combination of notes all swirled together! And yet, the longer I sit with it, the more enjoyable it becomes and the more I want to keep bringing my hand up to my nose for a deep inhale. I feel like I'm at a dinner party with friends; homemade pizza right out of the oven and served at a candle-lit patio table on a quiet summer evening. Initially shocking but actually gorgeous!