doomsday_disco Report post Posted August 11 Smoked tonka bean, vetiver root, white patchouli, oolong tea, hazy, muted brown amber, and vanilla husk. Odilon Redon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gentle-twig Report post Posted September 13 Just a short review for this one — it’s not really for me but I can see it being for many other people. This is a skin scent that gives a matte, slightly sweet and buttery, taupe impression. In turns it is spicy, smoky, powdery. I was hoping for a distinctive oolong tea note, and while I can hunt for a kind of milk oolong nuance, it’s really a small part of a very unified blend. If you are looking for a subtle, versatile “signature scent” type fragrance and have tastes that veer toward sweet, powdery, creamy, ambers with subtle smoke and spice you will enjoy this. Even I enjoy it but I don’t find it inspiring. I will say I hate tonka typically and am totally fine with this blend. Huh! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doomsday_disco Report post Posted September 24 (edited) The smoked tonka bean is one of the main players on me, along with the patchouli and tea notes, and they each get their moments in the spotlight as the star of the show. This tea note is not a typical tea note from the Lab -- it actually strongly reminds me of the black tea note that Nocturne Alchemy uses, which has some spice to it in addition to a tannic quality. The tonka just has a touch of smoke to it and isn't overly smoky. Sometimes it reminds me of the Lab's bourbon vanilla note, which reads as a sheer, non-gourmand vanilla to me, but maybe that's the vanilla husk at play along with it. The vetiver in this emerges after the scent has been dry for a few hours, but it's a pretty tame variety -- no BBQ-esque vetiver here! I mainly feel like it is grassy with just a touch of smoke. It lurks behind the patchouli, content with its background role. The demon in the painting must be somewhat cuddly, as this is a pretty cozy, brown scent with no rough edges (since the patchouli and vetiver in this are not abrasive varieties of those notes). If I had to compare this to previous creations from the Lab, I would say it has some similarities to A Breton Sorceress (with the tonka, patchouli, spice, and vanilla), and Impressions of the Floating World (which features vanilla, patchouli, and a bit of smoke from its honey note). This is a little too dry for me, without the sweetness I was hoping for from the vanilla husk, but if you're looking for a scent that's strong on the tonka, patchouli, and tea, give this one a whirl. Edited September 24 by doomsday_disco Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
puellacaerulea Report post Posted September 28 This is one of those blends that goes through significant morphing. In the decant and first applied, I almost wondered if I got a mislabeled decant because I couldn't pick up any amber, tonka, or vanilla -- just sharp, rooty, murky patchouli and vetiver. As it dries down, the patch and vetiver settle down and the warmer notes start to come out. My overall impression is a warm brown scent, but with a faint background sharpness from the vetiver and tea that keeps it from being as cozy as other Lab amber/tonka/vanilla blends. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LavenderCoffee Report post Posted October 5 when I saw the name of this one I immediately thought of my cat, and honestly I think this would fit right in with the Felis Silvestris Catus collection if it had an image of my big old long-haired mackerel tabby on it. anyway I love ALLL of these notes and they come together beautifully EXCEPT tonka always smells slightly weird on my skin. I thought if it was smoked I could get away with it, but there's just something about tonka I can't do. it's really a lovely composition tho, warm and brown like puellacaerulea said above. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VioletChaos Report post Posted 12 hours ago Definitely a morpher, but well worth the wait. In the bottle I guess I was mostly getting tea and maybe a hair of the white patchouli, because the scent seemed so clean, as to be almost acrid. It was startling because of all those deep notes. It needed a solid 15 minutes to settle into itself, but oh my, this scent is dead sexy in the final analysis. It's extremely well-blended, so that I can't really pick out individual notes, though the vibes of the amber, tonka and vetiver are definitely all playing their parts. The patch, tea and vanilla husk are adding an ever-so-slight perfume quality to the scent, but not so much that they're undoing the undernotes. Instead it's creating a very compelling high-low scent, where I'm able to perceive the tippy-top and the lowest bottom simultaneously when I'm directly sniffing it, but the two layers form a soft cloud of scent when I pull my arm further away. Because of that dichotomy, this is both a low AND medium throw scent. I would dab gently, at least to start, because I think that multi-layer aspect is quite unusual and I'd want to keep it, if possible. In any case, this is SO gorgeous and I'm really glad I snagged a bottle Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
