Black Butterfly Moon: Vanilla-Infused Frankincense and Raspberry

[doomsday_disco]

Vanilla-Infused Frankincense and Raspberry.

[quantquill]

I dabbed a little on using the lid's phenolic insert.

 

Wet: Antiseptic + the powderyness of huffing a SweetTart.

 

After 5 minutes: antiseptic has headed toward Band-Aid + powdery SweetTart 

 

I decided to stop being a wuss and really give this a slather on my wrist and see if I pick up something more. The good news is, yes!  I can finally pick up the frankincense which was quite subtle in my teensy little droplet test. I'm also getting a lactonic note that offsets the powdery sweet scent. Normally, lactonic = bad for me, but this is a brief phase on the way to something better.

 

After 10 minutes: NOOOOW the magic begins. Band-Aid has been ripped off revealing unblemished skin. Frankincense and raspberry beckon toward vanilla, "Come over and hang out!"  Vanilla is somewhat shy, only allowing a tendril of attention, but I can tell that eventually, it will gather its courage and pull the whole group together. 

 

I think Vanilla-Infused Frankincense and Raspberry will grow into something beautiful and I'm looking forward to the journey. If you love these notes, give this one a try. It could be a skin chemistry thing (I'm on a new med and it could be affecting how it smells, ymmv and there may be no antiseptic band-aids for you). I hope there are more reviews in short order to give folks different perspectives!  

[VioletChaos]

In the bottle, the raspberry jumps directly in front of anything else. I think it's the same Raspberry that once was squirted into Sufigyot, and that's what I'd been hoping for, so we're off to a great start.

Wet on skin, the frankincense starts to assert itself. Frank and I don't always get along, but the other notes in this blend gave me the courage to give it a try. So far, it's behaving itself admirably, acting more like an oudh than the normally astringent frankincense I'm accustomed to. 

As it goes to complete drydown, vanilla finally joins the party, but this isn't an overt, assertive vanilla. The fact that it's specifically listed as a frankincense that's been *infused* with vanilla is apt- the van here acts to soften and sweeten the frank, and the frank definitely keeps the vanilla from being foodie or even gourmand at all. 

with a low-medium throw, this scent is warm and stays close to the skin. I've not layered this yet, but I can see how this would be compelling when paired with some of its Butterfly playmates, but I also like the low-key oudh-y vibes it's giving all on its own.

[doomsday_disco]

Ohohoho! /Ojou-sama laugh

 

I was here for the raspberry, and fortunately, the raspberry is the star of this duet on me. It starts off as a tart, bright raspberry, but it ends up developing a bit of creaminess to it after a few hours of wear, which could be due to the vanilla, but I'm not 100% on that since that has happened with other raspberry scents on me, even the ones from Astrid (it's not a bad thing, though -- it's more like realistic tart raspberry morphs into a raspberry Mamba, which is a hard, taffy-like fruity candy). There's only the barest hint of frankincense in the background if I go sniffing for it, but I probably wouldn't have guessed this contained any if I didn't know it were there.

 

I layered a drop of this with Black Butterfly Moon, and I enjoyed the combination of the two scents more than the moon on its own. I'm not sure if the lunacy scent brought out more of the vanilla-infused frankincense from this, or if this brought out more of the vanilla resin in the lunacy, or what, but I definitely get some vanilla and resin with the tart raspberry that floats over the blackberry and purple flowers from the lunacy scent, and the vanilla and resin note make me think of the Bourbon Vanilla bath oil from several years ago (deceptively sweet: bourbon vanilla oleoresin and benzoin resinoid).

 

I am after more raspberry scents to pair with Framboise Hair Gloss, so I'll be needing a bottle of this before it goes away.

Edited Wednesday at 11:12 PM by doomsday_disco