wilhelmscream

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.

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!