Sweet Potato Musk

[Ina Garten Davita]

Weirdly wearable! Brown sugar-glazed sweet potato musk with honeyed ambrette, pulverized pumpkin seed, white oats, toasted cardamom, and sugared clove.

From the bottle and wet on the skin it smells like sweet potato mash with a spiced oat and crushed pumpkin seed topping. There is a whisper of brown sugar but it's not caramelized or burnt, more like fresh brown sugar when you open a fresh bag for holiday baking.

It's not buttery, there is no crust note here!! It starts off foody but as the notes open up, it starts to lean more towards an elegant gourmand perfume (as opposed to a buttery baked good type of scent, which is such wonderful news to my nose.) I love that the spices are not reading as cinnamon and how the soft musk of the ambrette is holding all together.

It's the perfect accessory for getting dressed up for a fancy Thanksgiving dinner. It's a shame it was so limited, it's a lovely scent just perfect for the season. Really well done, just beautiful.

[VioletChaos]

The scent was strangely subtle in the bottle. I say "strangely" because, based on the mild scent there, I slathered a bit on application and was greeted with "HEY THERE! I'M GONNA MAKE YOU SMELL LIKE A THING!" as the scent took over my arms and neck

 

I've no remorse, though. What I got immediately was a strong combination of the sugar and the clove. I knew I amped sugar, but perhaps I amp clove as well, because there must've been a solid 20 minutes of nothing but those two notes, no matter how hard I huffed my arm. After that, those BFFs finally started to settle down and THEN the oats started to come around. This is the same oat note from Gunpowder, so if you liked the cuddly warmth of that, then SPM just might be for you.

 

Largely absent on me? The sweet potato! I don't know what's happened to it! I wonder if it's my nose, or perhaps it needs to settle after shipping...but it's nothing I can easily detect, not at THIS time (if it shows up later, I'll edit my review!)

 

Even with the slather and initial loudness, this scent has a low throw and sticks pretty close to the skin. A warm, close, comfy scent, Sweet Potato Musk, in all, comes off lovely, friendly and unassuming. I'd put this scent into a similar category as Hod, Halfling and Gunpowder for warmth, wearability and general coziness.

 

Perfect scent for putting on your softest sweater and drinking hot cocoa while reading a favorite book or cuddling with furbabies.

[sammy]

I'm going to preface this review by saying I'm not a big foody scent gal.

Sweet Potato Musk, on the other hand is a whole 'nother kind of foody! It's not butter-y, which I personally like. Buttery notes tend to turn cloying and get to be too much for me. Not this. The initial sweet potato pie/casserole scent dries down to a slightly sweet,spicy, warm scent that's TOTALLY wearable. Noone would smell it and think "where's that sweet potato casserole cooking?" Lol! This is your holiday-in-a-bottle, cozy, warm sweater type scent. So good and I'm thrilled I have a bottle! (Much love to my faery for picking this up for me! I'm so glad I was able to donate to such a good cause. Beth, Ted, Brian and the rest of the Lab...you rock for being so generous!)

P.S. I keep thinking this is also slightly reminiscent of Peanut Musk which I have a tester of and need to test against each other. I'll edit once I do that.

Edited November 17, 2014 by Sammylynn929

[brilliantcat]

Thank you dear fairy!

 

I was utterly intrigued based on the notes, and being the unrepentant foodie I am, I cannot deny that my heart greatly desired this. In the bottle, it's a melange of sweet, buttery, pastry-like YUM. On, it's less pastry and I get more of the sweet potato flesh. The cardamom pops up to say hi and lends a very slightly citrusy note. This is the most lovely spice blend with nary a craft store vibe in sight as a lot of the pumpkin blends turn to on me. I agree that is more gourmand than foodie, as it's not immediately obvious that it's supposed to smell like, well, food. It has this lovely comforting feel about it and as it warms, the pumpkin seeds lend a delightful nuttiness. This really is a perfect fall blend, I can't stop sniffing myself!

Edited November 20, 2014 by brilliantcat

[Alaeidrel]

This is pretty great. It's less 'sweet potato' than I expected, but it's a pleasant non-foodie foodie blend.

 

When first in the bottle or on it's all fake butter extract and incredibly strong. It mellows to a soft spiced ambrette musk - I think I get the oats, too. Stays close to the skin and soft, pleasantly so. I'd be estatic if it smelled more like it's muse but I'm happy to keep this iteration.

[MuskWitch]

I'm not sure where I've written about this before, but I know I have expressed that red musk is just-not-good for me. I know it doesn't smell bad, but it has a bad effect on my sensibilities. It nauseates me, like the smell of roofing. It smells nothing like roofing tar, it just has that effect.

 

That being said, when I got my bottle of Sweet Potato Musk and smelled it, I was in LOVE! Sweet, spicy, buttery, yummy goodness all the way around. I applied it to my skin and it still smelled lovely. For a while. Then my sensibilities tried to tell me "uhm, this has red musk in it". And I DENIED the whole thing! I SO wanted it to smell on my as lovely as it smells in the bottle. Until I tested it again today. Yep, red musk. Oh how I wish Beth would let us know when something has red musk in it. I know she can't give away all her secrets, but red musk is just my death note. I just have to learn that many sweet foodie scents contain red musk.

 

My skin sucks in every sweet lovely spicy buttery yummy goodness that is in SP Musk and vomits forth great masses of RED MUSK.

 

DANG IT!

[Teaotter]

Wet, this is the most gloriously foody maple syrup and buttery pumpkin and nuttiness.

 

Once it dries, the musk skews sideways and there's a sour note on top of everything, then just the sour note. Clearly not for me.

[Jangzonrice]

in imp: brown sugar and buttery sweet potatoes...super foody!

 

will update when I get to try it on!

[zankoku_zen]

Sweet potatoes, brown sugar and a hint of cinnamon. Decadent. Decent strong and medium wear length.

 

This is a very foodie, very comforting scent. Not my type of blend but if you're looking for a comforting blend without lavender, give this a whirl.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Musk dominant with ambrette support. Very sexy. The brown sugar, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin seed form a strong second faction together. I often have trouble with lab pumpkin, but it’s soft and well blended here with the much stronger sugar and gentle sweet potato notes. The cardamom and clove are sharply drawn accents. The oats are gentle and tie it all together. This is beautifully designed. Wet: Everything gets more distinct as it warms. The cardamom really pops. Something in the sweet potato accord really brings it out. I often have trouble with strong musks, but the sweet potato musk goes well with my skin chemistry without being overwhelming. The clove and oats stand out more clearly. The effect is both sharper and shallower than in the bottle. I still like this, but I’m not the ideal skin chemistry for this. It is so unusual and compelling in the bottle, but I flatten it. Dry: Mostly musk and some amberette.

[porcelina]

i am so happy i finally nabbed a bottle of sweet potato musk. i was searching for it for ages. it is in fact weirdly wearable, and it smells fabulous. it's foody but in a way that i can wear as a personal scent- the musk component elevates it to a perfume, kind of like how the elephantine colossus (my all-time favorite) is very foody but has beautiful red musk to balance it out. it's sweet, gooey, a little spicy and positively decadent, and now i finally have a thanksgiving scent!

[vanilla323]

Got a decant from a lovely forumite.

 

This was over all just a light single note sweet potato scent. Now don't get me wrong it was delicious and smelled like the real thing but it was light on my skin and had light throw. I didn't get any pumpkin seeds or any of the other notes. Just a warm light sweet potato mash scent. So glad I got to try it though. What fun.

[milo]

At first, this smells lime another pumpkin spice blend. Pleasant, but generic. After a bit, I'm getting musk along with the fall spices. This is now a lovely musk spice blend. It reminds me of blends like Storyville and Underpants, though this one has more spice. A pleasant winning surprise!

[doomsday_disco]

In the decant: Musky, brown sugar-y, mashed sweet potato, oats, and spices.

 

Wet: The scent smells more butter-y on me than it did in the decant. I'm thinking it must be the sweet potato note. The brown sugar is still present, as well as the spices, which are stronger on my skin than they were in the decant. (Sometimes spices will take over a blend on my skin.) I can also smell the seed and oat notes.

 

Dry: The blend is staying rather close to my skin now. Its obvious that it is a musk infused with sweet potato (as opposed to mashed sweet potatoes) now. I'm getting more of the oats and ambrette seed in this phase. The spices are still present, but they have calmed down significantly. I can pick out the cardamom and sugared clove, and the latter note smells especially lovely.

 

Verdict: I don't feel the need to hunt down a bottle of this, but I plan on keeping my decant to wear during the autumn months. This will be nice when I don't want to wear a pumpkin or apple scent.

[Klepz]

Based on the notes, Sweet Potato Musk should have been a HG scent for me. Or at least a serious win.

 

There are richly spiced oats in this, but the musk amps like crazy and, for some reason, smells exactly like something my dad wore when I was little. While that's a sweet and comforting memory, I was hoping for a fall perfume and am not sure I can walk around smelling like my dad

[JTobias]

This smells like Grannys sweet potato pie: warm, golden orange, buttery, cinnamony mapley glazey sweet. gahhhh and it sticks to me so well!

[Juliamon]

In the imp: SWEET POTATO, so much so that I was reluctant to try it as I'm not generally a fan of sweet potatoes aside from the occasional fries. But I've tried enough BPAL now that I know what I smell in the imp isn't always what I smell on my skin, plus it WAS a gift (and a full-to-the-brim gift at that).

 

Wet: The most decadent bowl of oatmeal. It's all oats and sugar and spice, warm and fresh and waiting to be devoured. In the background I can detect just a trace of that sweet potato, not enough to put me off. Perhaps aging has tamed it? The throw is intense, but dies down after a minute.

 

Dry: The musk has kicked in, pulling it away from the foodie spectrum so that I feel less like I'd spilled my breakfast on myself. Delicately-spiced musk. It's mostly a skin scent, but I still catch occasional whiffs 6 hours later when my skin normally has obliterated a scent.

 

Ridiculously cozy and comforting, perfect for wearing while curled up under a blanket. This is the last scent I would have expected to help me sleep, but it relaxes me like nothing I've tried before. I will treasure this decant and cross my fingers I can track down a full bottle!

 

2019 release edit: This one seems a bit more spice-heavy than my decant, but I'm not sure yet whether that's due to the decant having 4-5 years to mellow out. It's still delicious though, and I'm just glad to know it'll be easier to come by now!

Edited December 30, 2019 by Juliamon

[Threemoons]

Tardy to the party but finally got my hands on this.  Loving the maple syrup note; finding it oddly comforting in my scent locket today even though it's as hot as hell in NYC and this is such a fall/winter scent!  

[torikitty]

Trying out the 2019 version. In the bottle, it smells like the yumminess from Sweet Potato Souffle that one might encounter over the holidays. Not quite pumpkin, but the same buttery, spicy, food thing.

 

♨️ And my skin is warming up slightly from the cinnamon, so people with sensitivities do need to be careful.

 

The red musk becomes more apparent as it dries down. I can pick out the oat thing that people mentioned previously. It's a really pretty blend that I think most foodies will adore.

[Katillac]

2019 review- 
Love this. The oat note makes it a super comforting blend (like one of those smells you have that is a hug to your nose). 
Also not overly sweet (love foodie notes, but hate when they come with extra sugar as the sugar notes smell plastic on me. No plastic here).
Lots of spice, but I haven't experienced any reactions/warmness at all (YMMV).
I love that there is something that is heavy cardamom/clove instead of just CINNAMON (I don't have anything against cinnamon, I just amp it to where I smell like a Yankee Candle). 
Lovely throw. 

I thought it smelled sexy, and my husband said "I mean, you smell good...really good, but stop making me smell it so I don't go eat the rest of the pumpkin pie you made!".

 

[biggnerd]

2019 - When I sniff this I see the crumble strudel topping from an apple crisp.  It is sweets oats and warm spices.  It is a foodie scent on me.  I don't get any sweet potato. 

 

Great.  Now I want to make an apple crisp.  

 

It is making my wrist where it is applied itchy.   

[Little Bird]

Purchased a bottle of this with the 2019 Yules and I actually do think that it smells like sweet potato pie.  It's mashed sweet potatoes (slightly earthy-vegetal), whipped and soft, filled through with cinnamon sugar, and topped off with fluffy marshmallow cream and maybe walnuts?  The cinnamon burns my skin where applied, so it'll be a scent for the ends of my hair or smudged on to the sleeves of jackets, but I love how soft and sweet the cinnamon in this is.  It smells very cuddly, even while being skin burny, lol.

[Snuffleupagus]

I get red musk smashed into gooey caramelized sweet potatoes, cardamom, cinnamon(?), a bit of toasty grains, a drizzle of something syrupy, and a whole lot of hnnnng. It's like a sweet potato treat you want to snuggle, but...that would be messy.

 

Bonus: It doesn't irritate my skin, and I'm moderately sensitive to spicy blends.

 

One of my favorites! Need a backup of this one!

[puellacaerulea]

This one started out all caramelized sweet potatoes and spice on me. As it wears, the musk and ambrette come out more, taming the foodiness of the scent a bit. Overall, sweet and gourmand but not cloyingly so. That said, it's not the kind of thing I reach for often enough to justify a full bottle (and my imp of Pumpkin Pie Musk is just similar enough to scratch the autumnal gourmand itch when it arises), so I'm passing it on to someone who's more into gourmands than me.

Edited December 15, 2021 by puellacaerulea

[vanilla323]

I finally got a bottle of the 2019 release. This is not what the 2014 smelled like. That one was sweeter. This one was more musky. Now i must say it’s lovely but leaned more musk than sweet potato. I wanted more foodie sweet potato. But if you like musky light spiced scents this is lovely. Definitely worth a try by all. 🍠