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The Torture Queen

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White amber, vanilla musk, white tea, ambergris, gardenia, and chrome.

 

In the bottle this smells like an astringent, clean scent of tea and soft gardenia. When I first apply there is a beautiful metallic floral scent with lot of throw. Unfortunately, this almost immediately goes old lady rose perfume. I would assume the vanilla musk and gardenia are reacting with my skin to create this "rose" note. My skin amps florals, rose in particular, so I'm not surprised this didn't work out for me.
I tried this also on my husband and it was a very metallic and soft scent which lasted for about 4 hours. The "chrome" smell is really beautiful and quite different on him.

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The Torture Queen lives up to her name. I had an allergic reaction to this. I had to wash it off immediately. I still smell like gardenias.....even though I have Hope and Fear Set Free and Sudden Invitation on. Not for me.

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Love all these notes, except for the metal - and of course, that's what I get most of, sniffing it from the bottle.

 

 

Wet: Yep, all metal. Which has a cold, cologney vibe which I don't enjoy at all. Where's the vanilla, white musk, gardenia, ambergris, ANYTHING?? Lol. That's my luck.

 

 

Dry: Still all metal. *sigh*. I think I have to accept that I amp the crap out of that note. However, if this gets remade with the new acts of the Carnaval, I will likely try it again, so if the other notes can shine when fresh.

 

2017 version (I don't know why I keep doing this to myself, I need to give up on anything with metal in it ever working on me)

 

Wet: Metal. Though unlike the older version, I can at least also smell the gardenia and tea in this, which makes sense, as they are both notes that I amp as well. It's still mostly metal though, which I really don't are for.

 

Dry: The metal gets a lot softer, but it's still prominent, and it still smells like generic cologne to me, and I still don't like it. I need to accept that, lol.

Edited by LizziesLuck

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♔ The Torture Queen

In the Bottle: Sweet, sugared citrusy commercial perfume.

Wet: This smells almost identical to a perfume I had when I was teen, and reminds me a little of Nina Ricci Les Belles de Ricci Liberty from my childhood. It has an astringent, yet sweet, green-citrussy fresh commercial-friendly fragrance, with a background of soft white florals. I don’t really think I can identify a specific ‘metallic’ note to represent the chrome, but I do get a gleaming kind of sheen from the green-citrus…which is probably the chrome now that I think about it, hahaha. The vanilla musk in this is really subtle and doesn’t really emphasise any creaminess or muskiness that is usually afforded with this note. Instead, it feels more so that the white tea and ambergris is what gives this scent its slightly crystalline and salty-sweet light musk character. The amber is soft and powdery, almost illustrious and sparkly.

Drydown: The white tea itself is quite faint and appears mores in the drydown, the same white tea I get from Fee. It’s really very pretty and light, almost airy and …fae. I definitely not would have picked that this was called Torture Queen, it kind of smells more like how I’d imagine a forest sunlight faerie to smell like. There is more of a creamy floral note present here in this phase than during the wet stage. It’s slightly powdery now, but in a very beautifully bright, fresh, and clean manner. This phase of the scent is almost transcendent…and if the citrus wasn’t so dominant in the wet stage, I would consider seeking out a bottle.

TL;DR: Sweet, crystalline, citrus-green tea, sparkly light amber and soft white florals.

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Wet/in the imp – clean and perfume-y (I forgot until I came here to post that it had white tea in it, which is probably the source of the "clean" aspect)


Freshly applied – GARDENIA


Five/ten minutes in – The gardenia morphed very quickly into soapy ambergris with a hint of vanilla musk and something sharp/clean that might be the metal notes (eta: and the white tea). A couple inches out from my arm the throw is mostly a soft/light vanilla-floral, but up close/nose-to-wrist all I get is ambergris.


Thirty minutes in – primarily soapy ambergris with just a hint of the amber/vanilla/gardenia backing it up. Feminine aquatic.


One hour in – all soapy aquatic ambergris now. I had high hopes for the vanilla/gardenia/chrome combo in this, but the ambergris combined with my skin’s hatred for aquatics means the Torture Queen is sadly not for me.


At around the two hour mark the amber and vanilla tried to make a comeback, only to then go back to soap by hour four. The traces of skin scent that are all that's left over at the end of the workday are amber/vanilla again. I bet this is lovely on people who can wear ambergris.

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I put this on and immediately loved it. The only notes I could remember were gardenia and chrome. This smelled light and glittering, vaguely floral but skin warm and musky as well. Looking at the notes now it all makes sense, ambergris is a beloved note and my skin loves it as well! For me this a heart of ambergris and white amber. The white tea and chrome gives a crisp, clean, glittering edge. The gardenia isn't very assertive but I think that the light headiness that wafts in and out is beautiful. I need a bottle but it could probably wait until spring rolls around again.

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(2017)

Expectation: Sexy Metallic Gardenia


First Sniff: It smells fancy. Clean, but sophisticated. Bright, but not sharp. I'm intrigued…


Wet: Sweet, warm, and clean. The ambergris mixes with the vanilla musk, creating a shimmering impression, like white flecked with gold and even brighter white.


Drydown: Beachy, sultry, fancy, and bright. I’m getting everything but the chrome, and the mix is glorious. It smells very expensive – wearing it makes me imagine that I’m some beautiful executive lounging near the ocean while sporting expensive sunglasses and a perfect manicure. The white tea and gardenia are partnered up, bringing the clean, almost lemony vibe, the amber is tucked in beneath that to provide an undeniable sexiness, while the ambergris and vanilla musk continue to work together to add a shimmery, sweet slightly-beachy quality.

Dry: More of the same, but stronger! Which is great, because my skin eats, or at least holds very close, most BPALs, so sometimes I want something that actually gets noticed. And this is a wonderful scent for getting noticed! It’s clean and inoffensive, yet alluring, delicious, and smart. A perfect first impression scent for damn-near any occasion.

9 out of 10 bones

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Others have said it better than I can, but this scent is amazing. Clean, fresh, sophisticated, high-end.

 

Gardenia, vanilla musk and metallic, with just a hint of bracing tea. Like an tony beach club in a 1980s movie - ladies with big white hats and artfully draped white sarongs and lots of eyeliner and saxophones playing on the soundtrack - and I mean that as a compliment.

 

Def getting a bottle or two of this one.

Edited by joopjoop

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Astringent and high pitched metallic notes intertwining with a soft, lush gardenia. This is a very appealing white floral and very classic smelling. Torture Queen smells like it could be from a designer perfume house. After an hour, the gardenia settles down, and it becomes more vanilla and white musk prominent for another 4 hours or so. I still like it, but not as much as I do with the gardenia floating over the top. I'm still considering a bottle though. One thing I've noticed about this one, the silage is more prominent to me than the scent is when I smell my skin. This one is definitely a wafter.

 

Bright, high pitched but nice, classic white floral with a twist. If you like gardenia, I'd definitely check this one out.

Edited by VetchVesper

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I think I've found a new favorite scent!

 

Starts off with a fresh, bright gardenia, with a bit of white tea underneath. Just a hint of salty ambergris. After a while the vanilla musk becomes more prominent as the gardenia fades, though it never fades completely on me.

 

I can be a little iffy on florals, but this is just gorgeous.

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2016 version

 

Yup, smells like CKOne to me. It's all white tea, gleaming metal and a whiff of gardenia. It's white, cool, florals with a flash of metal. I remember enjoying the 2008 version, having a partial, and never wearing it. Very gender neutral. Great throw and wear length.

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The Torture Queen goes on all chrome on me. It's a chilly scent, a little higher pitched than I usually wear. Gradually it settles down into a cool, sophisticated floral, surprisingly unisex. Gardenia is a good note on me, white tea always disappears rapidly, and vanilla musk has been wonderful in the past, but here there seems to be some crystalline or white musk in the mix that doesn't mesh with my skin as well. The late drydown is all ambergris, as is usually the case on me, which I love. Very little throw and only average wear length on my middle-aged skin.

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Hello chrome! You are one persistent little fella! This turns into a clean sweetened metallic musk. 

Edited by theredkilt

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This reminds me of a Hoya plant that I took care of in the college greenhouse when I was in school.  It had great umbels of perfect star-shaped flowers that dripped copious amounts of nectar all over the floor at all times.  This is to say that the gardenia and something green and succulent are strongly at the forefront on me for the first several minutes.  It's humid and tropical-feeling.

 

The vanilla is smooth, lightly sweet, and subtle, and I'm guessing is being enhanced by the amber and/or ambergris.  Vanilla frequently turns into a strange, gritty, plastic-like scent on me, but this remains very smooth.  I mostly "feel" it in the back of my nose as a calmer gardenia and something cool and ozone-like (probably the chrome) hangs in the foreground.

 

I'm not super familiar with commercial perfumes but I can see how someone might get that impression, especially when comparing this to BPAL's heavier scents with incense and dark fruits and things.  This is a light, white scent.

 

Torture Queen was a blind bottle that I picked up because she suits my aesthetic - I have more piercings than brain cells.  This is my first blind bottle purchase that has actually worked for me.  It also came with a beautiful card that I want to display in some way or another.

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In the Bottle (aged since 2007): Citrusy tea. Mostly citrus though.

 

Wet: Chrome- tipped gardenias.

 

Drydown: The chrome fades rather quickly, and a lush gardenia drenched in green tea blossoms out from my wrist.

 

Dry: Unfortunately, this doesn't last more than an hour on my skin. I loved it while it lasted.

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This is a creamy white musk scent.

It is super strong on the gardenia and the chrome note - actually a bit of a violet vibe going on here that borders on making me nauseous, but it's still behaved enough so I can wear it. There's also something cool like cucumber in there maybe? Definitely make for a clean, cold, metallic blend that's also very sophisticated and a bit fancy actually.

I can see it being in the broader scent family with Giant Vulva or any of the Vulva scents that are featuring a gardenia note.

 

The more it dries down, the more the gardenia and tea become prominent. It's fresh, lush, and floral.

It's definitely musky (not sure how that white amber is different than a white musk), features a non-gourmand vanilla and is focused on the gardenia and chrome being the prominent players.

I really love gardenia, tea and vanilla flower. The chrome note makes this a bit funky on me though. (To my nose, on my skin it's actually quite beautiful.)

I want to love it, and I sometimes wear it, but the violet makes it a bit hard to stomach sometimes.

It's funny how this blend tortures me like that and I willingly agree to it - a nice imagery for the blend for sure.

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This queen has one hell of a poker face. I think the tea and chrome make what would usually be a moodier scent come off as much more controlled, but it lurks, just beneath the surface. What is she thinking? What is she feeling? There's certainly a lot of feeling there, but she keeps it tight.

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I expected this to be really sharp with notes like white tea and chrome and with gardenia being a heady floral note. But there is a glassy smoothness to it that makes me think of some of the Lab's mirror-inspired scents. It's a sophisticated scent that would appeal to those that enjoy the more mainstream-leaning scents from the Lab. The musk and gardenia are probably contributing to that glassy vibe (I'm not getting vanilla from the musk, but maybe it's helping to smooth things over). The chrome and white amber are main players as well, taking this even more into perfume-y territory. The white tea adds some astringency, but it isn't the powerhouse it normally is on me in this scent. And the ambergris is more noticeable by the end of the day, making this smoother and potentially contributing to the glassy feel of the scent as well. The only thing I'm not sure of is what was making me think of violet during one phase of the scent? But fortunately, it didn't take over.

 

This isn't something I'd choose to wear, but it's something I bet my mom and brother would enjoy, so I'll have them try it.

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