Zombie Flash

[doomsday_disco]

Just imagine all the tattoos hidden below as you walk through the cemetery... maybe you’ll get to see some of them in person one day! Grave loam, mushrooms, Spanish moss, a smear of ink, and a blob of braaaains.

[VioletChaos]

I am unsurprised in some ways that I'm the first to review- mushrooms and brains are not everyone's cup of tea for a perfume!- but what about the ink and the grave loam??? 

Welp, let's just see what happens.

In the bottle, I'm getting that gorgeous turned-earth, loamy-loam that some of us adore from Penny Dreadful and Graveyard Dirt. There's also a sweet plant-y smell in the mix that isn't quite floral, and I'm betting it's the Spanish Moss. We are off to a great start!

Wet on skin, the sharp, slightly chemical scent of the ink starts to come through. This is my first encounter with the tattoo ink note from the Lab, but I am one of the fans of the original Indian Ink single note they released many years ago, and I'd say at least at this stage, this ink is a close cousin of that old one, and I'm delighted. I think I'm also getting little hints of the mushrooms, which are adding a nice extra layer to all the earthy bits here.

Upon dry down, the moss and ink are melding into a rather cologne-y combo. Normally, I can find that to be off-putting, but the loam and mushrooms are holding everything in balance and it's turned into what I can only describe as a great counterpart to Penny Dreadful. When I first tried out Miss Dreadful 18 years (!!!!) ago, I thought she had a chocolate note in her. I no longer think that- I think there was something rich and sultry lurking in the noir perfume of the scent that read that way to be for a time. I mention this because I think that Penny wound up being a bit more on the femme-side of the scent spectrum, though not by much, and that rich, almost-choco-aspect held the balance. Here, I think that moss-ink combination are doing the same, right across the line, making this scent a slightly masculine-leaning version of a scent with similar bones. If you *really* wanna gender it up, you might conclude these to be brother-sister counterparts.

Of course, there's DNA in both scents that can *also* be found in the American Gods scent, Laura, and it's NOT the loam that joins the three but Laura's formaldehyde-glycerine-lanolin combo (sweet-but-chemical) that I think is actually the element that creates the kinship amongst the three.

For me, this makes Zombie Flash a welcome addition to a verrrry specific part of the Lab's perfumed family tree, and I am super delighted to welcome it aboard ❤️ 

[gentle-twig]

I previously received a mislabeled decant that was supposed to be zombie flash but was (probably) pumpkin trash bags. The decanter kindly replaced that decant but I find Zombie Flash puzzling even now. This is definitely the right scent now, the mushrooms and ink are clearly present. But otherwise Zombie Flash is quite surprising! 

 

In the opening I get something quite sharp that I struggle to identify, possibly a “shampoo” style musk wedded to a subtle floral? The ink is there as well, and clashes discordantly with whatever that sharp note is. There is also a deep sweetness present that recalls decomposition and just a hint of moss, giving an impression of mildew. I find this jumble quite unsettling, and it could almost belong to this year’s Yellow Wallpaper collection but for that dark ink note.  

 

Soon I get something almost indolic before the ink and mushroom really start to come into their own. This was the point at which I thought “yep, this is definitely the right one this time.” The sweetness starts to come to the fore while also smelling less off-putting. Now there is a distinct tart fruity quality. I had wondered whether brains might be a gummy candy accord before I tried Zombie flash, and this is the closest ZF comes to that preconception.  

 

The scent begins to get mossier around the edges but never really loses that fruity quality. It kinda just gets softer until it fades away.

 

Overall, well, I don’t like ZF that much. Its clean facets and decomposing facets come together in a way that is just too uncanny together. I was hoping for graveyard dirt and ink, but this all about the mushrooms and brains. I hope that more people try it and review it because I have a hard time making sense of this one and I hope it is a more coherent and beautiful experience for others ! 

Edited 21 hours ago by gentle-twig

[gentle-twig]

I previously received a mislabeled decant that was supposed to be zombie flash but was (probably) pumpkin trash bags. The decanter kindly replaced that decant but I find Zombie Flash puzzling even now. This is definitely the right scent now, the mushrooms and ink are clearly present. But otherwise Zombie Flash is quite surprising! 

 

In the opening I get something quite sharp that I struggle to identify, possibly a “shampoo” style musk wedded to a subtle floral? The ink is there as well, and clashes discordantly with whatever that sharp note is. There is also a deep sweetness present that recalls decomposition and just a hint of moss, giving an impression of mildew. I find this jumble quite unsettling, and it could almost belong to this year’s Yellow Wallpaper collection but for that dark ink note.  

 

Soon I get something almost indolic before the ink and mushroom really start to come into their own. This was the point at which I thought “yep, this is definitely the right one this time.” The sweetness starts to come to the fore while also smelling less off-putting. Now there is a distinct tart fruity quality. I had wondered whether brains might be a gummy candy accord before I tried Zombie flash, and this is the closest ZF comes to that preconception.  

 

The scent begins to get mossier around the edges but never really loses that fruity quality. It kinda just gets softer until it fades away.

 

Overall, well, I don’t like ZF that much. Its clean facets and decomposing facets come together in a way that is just too uncanny together. I was hoping for graveyard dirt and ink, but this all about the mushrooms and brains. I hope that more people try it and review it because I have a hard time making sense of this one and I hope it is a more coherent and beautiful experience for others !