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angelicruin

The Marquis de Carabas

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THE MARQUIS de CARABAS
He wore a huge dandyish black coat that was not quite a frock coat nor exactly a trench coat, and high black boots, and, beneath his coat, raggedy clothes. His eyes burned white in an extremely dark face. And he grinned white teeth, momentarily, as if at a private joke of his own, and bowed to Richard, and said, “De Carabas, at your service, and you are…?"

A splash of bay rum, leather, dusty black wool, massoia bark, and opium residue.


I've got spicy rum and dry leather written down as the main components on my skin.

I wish I had better notes from C2, but I had planned to get a bottle of this because I liked the skin test, but when I placed my order at C2, I ended up getting a different scent than what I had ordered. A revised review will be forthcoming once I can order a bottle from the lab.

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Oh, Marquis! You can come visit me anytime! ;)

 

This blend is amazing!! In feel/mood, this reminds me of Osiris v4, but when sniffing them together, they don't smell too alike. The Marquis is an amazingly sweet/deep blend. It is so heavenly! This doesn't smell like a boozy scent to me, and all the notes blend together so well that I am not sure if I can actually pick any one out.

 

I think of the Neverwhere scents, the Marquis is definitely one of my favorites. :wub2:

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I can honestly say this is the first blend inspired by a male character which actually doesn't go to straight man on me. In fact, it's sweet, resinous, dark and downright sexy. It's boozier wet, but the booze calms down pretty quickly; this is sweet booze, not dry or overly alcoholic booze. The lovely opium really amps on me as well and just gives it this air of decadence and debauchery, making me think of 19th-Century New Orleans in Anne Rice's novels. The leather is soft and behaves in the background, the bark miraculously doesn't amp into Bark of Dry Death like in Tiki King, and I don't get anything dusty from the wool note. This is everything I wanted De Sade to be and more. I forced myself to hold back on a lot of the Neverwhere, Ireedeemable and Witchblade scents at C2 for the sake of my bank account, but I absolutely could not resist snapping up a bottle of this one.

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Aha! The Marquis himself! He may not be my favourite character but I think it's impossible to read / watch Neverwhere and not like him ;) I think that's how everyone, even the characters in the story feel - you like him in spite of yourself.

 

In the imp - very intriguing and dashing! Opium (which I love), leather and wool.

 

On wet - My my, very nice :D Wool and bay rum!

 

Drydown - Mmmh, mysterious and attractive! Rum, wool, leather, with just a whiff of opium. Might have to get more of this.

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I predict that the Marquis de Carabas will be very popular. This is drop dead gorgeous.

 

Enticing, warm, and sexy this is great for putting on yourself or someone you would like to be close to.

This is a perfect blend of light rum, it really is just a splash, spice and leather. This is a soft supple leather, not the sharp new kind. Sometimes in other spice blends spice ends translating as clove which easily overpowers me, but this isn't like that at all. Sometimes also opium ends up being kind of cloyingly sweet, which is also not the case here. I just realized this is a blend made of things that are normally too strong, but in this blend they are so perfectly balanced that it ends up being a whole new thing that's even better than any of the parts.

It dries down into a softer, closer to the skin version of when it was wet. I wish that my skin could smell like this naturally!

 

*edit to add*

I find myself reaching for this more than any of the other Neverwhere blends I ordered and even more than some other long time favorites. It's never gone bad for me, it's great for morning as well as evening, I can comfortably where it anywhere I go and it works in warm or cool weather. This scent is really, honestly, amazingly, FANTASTIC. I think I'm in love with the Marquis!

Edited by strahlend

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The Marquis de Carabas - Oh God. I am speechless. Read the other reviews, and they'll tell you how spectacularly awesome this is. Spicy rum and sweet, hazy opium, the perfectly-balanced amount of leather, and something kind of sweet that almost reminds me of root beer, but in a really good way. This is delicious. Okay, so I lied, I'm not completely "speechless," but what I don't have are the right words to describe how awesome this scent is. I highly recommend it. To everyone.

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This one is a total surprise hit. I took a risk on this one because of the opium, wool, and leather notes, all of which I love. What I got was one sexy scent!

Wet: Spicy sweet opium and wool with some leather. The bay rum is barely there, for the moment, and just serves as a nice extra masculine backdrop.

Dry: The leather comes out more and mingles with the opium for one hella sexy combination. Add to that the wool note from Ichabod Crane and we so have a winner.

Edited by Whisperstilled

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Testing while decanting. In the bottle, I think I'm getting the leather-opium-rum, a really interesting scent. On my skin, it's the same, not really sure if it's working or not, will get back to you on that. I really want it to work, though, cause de Carabas is one of my favorite characters from Neverwhere. I think I'm getting the wool and opium and rum, and it's just not panning out for me. Good, because I won't have any leftovers from this. But, still, WHY.

Edited by Venneh

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The Marquis is a lovely blend of spicy, smokey, just slightly sweet leather. Wet on my skin, it was a bit more masculine than what I generally wear, but still quite lovely. As it dried, the bay rum took over, and it ended up too masculine for me. Alas, it is not for me. I definitely want to slather it all over any man I might cuddle up with, though!

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yep, a lovely warm men's cologne... worn leather, bay rum, and smoky-sweet opium. In full drydown it's sort of root beer-ish with leather and a trace of opium smoke. Nice, but it'll have to go to the DH's pile.

Edited by gypsyjolie

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I got an imp of this in a decant circle, and oh, do I ever love it!

 

Wet, it throws opium and leather everywhere. Dry, the dusty wool and massoia bark come out to play. It's a very masculine scent, but I love the smell of it on my skin. If I had a guy, I'd slather him in this and jump his bones. Alas!

 

The throw is fantastic! Must get a bottle.

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Well, this definitely smells like dude.

 

In a good way, definitely. At the beginning, the bay rum is spicy. I'm used to bay rum smelling sort of thin on me-- crispy. I don't know how it works to describe a scent as crispy, but it feels weird and artificial to my nose. This one, however, seems more creamy. I can smell the leather under it, but mostly it's spicy bay rum.

 

Gradually the leather gets stronger and the rum gets quieter but never disappears entirely. Spicy leather-- not really my thing, but not bad. I'd like to smell it on a guy I like.

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My favorite. Hands down. My favorite Neverwhere character and probably one of my favorite "manly" bpals too :lol: Spicy leather and opium with something tickling around in the background that was almost like coconut husk..the massoia maybe? Fantastic!

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It's really sexy. It makes me wanna snuggle up and purr with a special someone. Wet, it starts out all LEATHER, all the time but quickly settles down. The leather is still there but now there is this sweet, spicy element that comes into play. I can't place it, so I won't tell you I can. It's just yum. It smells warm and safe and cuddley and sexy and yet a bit hard to place.

 

I need a bottle.

 

 

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This is freaking delicious. In the decant and wet on my skin, it smells like those pomander ball things you have at christmas. As it dries, it starts smelling like spicy bark and dry leather. There is definitely a sweet, root-beerish component if you sniff really hard. The throw is pretty good. This doesn't smell particularly masculine to me, more like unisex.

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Something in this is very syrupy-sweet on me, like a sweet, resinous-woods. Maybe the massoia bark? I get that strong sweetness with a hint of sharp, smoky opium. It's pleasant enough, but the drydown (after about 45 minutes) is when it gets really gorgeous. It still has that heavy sweetness, but a warm, dry, soft spiciness (yay bay rum <3) also creeps in and I can smell the dark leather note as well.

 

My husband said this is too sweet for him to wear, but this is something that I can see myself wearing quite a bit. It's a rich, dark, heavy scent on me, very sweet and not overly spicy, with just enough opium and leather to keep it interesting.

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WOW. This should have been total fail on me as I don't wear masculine scents well and leather and bay rum both tend to be terrible on me--but this! This is fantastic. It smells like the best-smelling guy ever. The leather is well-behaved, the rum is sweet and spicy, and the opium isn't amping to eleven like it tends to. YUM.

I've had a bookcrush on the Marquis forever so how nice that he smells good too. Hee!

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Bottle: RUM! And something that resembles clove a lot. I don't know which of the notes it is, as I am unfamilar with massoia bark or wool notes.

 

On: Citrussy clove? What the...? Thankfully, the lemony bit dies down upon drying and the opium begins to creep out. The clovey scent still dominates. It's an interesting scent, although I am not sure whether I like it or not.

 

Later: Clove. I don't think this is working out for me. There'll be a test on the husband later, but I have a distinct feeling this one is bound for the swap pile.

 

Even later: Hm. The clove is finally stepping back a bit in favor of bay rum and opium. I might have to try around with this some more. Still not a favorite, but not "ick" anymore.

 

Much later: Now it's actually rather nice, but it took a while to get there... I probably won't need more.

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Mmm, this is a wonderful tobacco, rum, and wood blend. This is just so warm, spicy and masculine. It kind of reminds me a bit of Mr. Nancy, but it is more woody and masculine, while Mr. Nancy has the foodier lime and cookies and is more feminine to my nose. Even though I don't like to wear masculine blends, I am contemplating a bottle, as this is just so nice and rugged. I imagine it will age fantastically. :wub2:

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Ok. Um... Why am I smelling Zhena's Coconut Chai tea? It's my favorite tea, but I don't think the ingredients are quite the same :think: . *Googles massioa bark* AHHH! There it is! "Massoia bark has a sweet, coconut-like aroma and is steam distilled to yield massoia bark oil." Ok. For the first 20 minutes, it smell like a brewed a cup of this tea, complete with sugar & cream. I suppose the bay rum spices are similar to chai spices to my nose.....

 

As it dries, the bay rum comes out a bit more. If I stick my nose right up against it I can smell opium. No leather. No wool. Maybe upon aging (or changes in my chemistry) the leather/wool/opium will come out more and blend with the coconut chai tea scent, because this scent *sounds* fantastic. But, hey - at least it doesn't give me caffeine jitters! :lol:

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In The Bottle

Bay rum and OMG leather in the bottle

 

On Application

Quite cool and dank on the skin. Definitely leather and bay rum with a woody resin which i assume is the massoia bark.

 

Dry Down

This ranks up there with my favourite leather scents (Brom Bones, Western Diamondback, The Black Rider) yet is very different for any of those primarily due to the bay rum and opium residue. The wool note that I love from BPAL comes out quite quickly. This is the only scent from the Neverwhere range that I absolutely had to try and I am gald I did. I love it. The end result is kind of green herbal, leather and incense.

 

Rating (0-5)

4.5

 

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In the bottle: Rum, leather, and woods.

 

On the skin: Sweet bay rum and opium with some leather and massoia bark. A very masculine scent.

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Imp: Ooo. I don't think I've smelled anything like this before. It's intriguing and I want to keep sniffing it.

 

Skin. God, I love this. :wub2: It would smell awesome on my hubby. Dark and just the right amount of booze splashed onto some cozy wool. And there's leather, bit it's not in the forefront like in other blends, it's subtle. The bark and opium residue lend a hand at keeping it from turning musty. Mmmm. An hour and a half later, this turns into cafe latte on me with some gingerbread biscotti on the side. It smells delicious but I was kind of hoping it would keep it's awesomeness from before. Still would buy a bottle though. I have that much love for it. :yum:

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That is a nice leather, with the other elements adding some interest to it. Definitely a very refined masculine scent.

 

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In the decant: Oddly sweet and dark.

Fresh on the skin: Warm, sweet, spicy. Intriguing, kinda delicious!

5 minutes in: There's something almost creamy about this, anchoring the dark and sweet and spicy.

15 minutes in: Warm and delicious, but also a bit overwhelming. Tempted to try this one on my SO.

25 minutes in: Creamy and sinuous and dark, and just a tiny be cloying, perhaps. I almost love this, I think I like this, I'm not sure I can deal with continuing to hve it on my skin. Peculiar.

2.5 hours in: Faded down to something rather subtle, warm and dark and sweet.

3.5 hours in: Sweet, spicy cream... and laundry. Quite light and faded. Rather nice.

5.5 hours in: Buttery-sweet spicy cream... and laundry. Fading out.

 

Verdict: I just don't know.

 

One word: Warm.

 

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