Reviews: The Morbid the Merrier
May. 8th, 2010 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
telesilla posting in ![[community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scent_junkiesOkay, how could I not order from a seller called The Morbid the Merrier?
Her samples are fairly inexpensive, as are her perfumes themselves, so I grabbed a handful and she even tossed in a freebie. That's actually fairly common, even if you're just buying samples; I got two free sample vials with my NA order too. Her packaging is very pretty--my samples were wrapped in gold tissue tied off with purple ribbons--and her turnaround is excellent.
Sadly, I'm not liking much of the product.
Maximo is a masculine scent. Having said that, it could easily be worn by a woman, especially one such as myself, who has never gone for florals. A complex and beautiful blend of sweet cocoa, spicy black pepper, earthy patchouli with a heart of vanilla and wood.
Right off the bat, the cocoa/vanilla combo is a little too sweet for me. I don't mind cocoa as a note, but I usually don't want to smell like actual chocolate. The pepper is a nice sharp counterpart and the patchouli grounds it a bit (and it's a very nice, almost light, patchouli), but even after a little time, it's still a tad too chocolatey.
Natali is a brooding yet comforting blend of sweet, spicy orange and dark, fragrant chocolate with a heart of vanilla and wood.
I figured since I'd ordered Maximo, I'd get this as well, just for comparison's sake. There isn't any pepper in it and at first sniff, it's orangey all right, but sadly, orange is a top note that fades pretty quickly. What's left smells a fair amount like Maximo only lighter and less sharp and woody. Also, with it not buried under the pepper and patchouli, I can smell the vanilla a little more and that's problematical. There's more than one vanilla note out there and sadly, the one she uses is one I've run into before and it goes a little plasticy on me.
Ursa -- Black carnations, musk, creeping ivy, and a tiny whisper of orange marmalade.
I get a weird hit of almond in the vial but it vanishes the moment the perfume hits my skin. "Black carnations", wtf? Except there is a sort of dark green spicy scent that does, in fact, smell like carnation. It's nicely balanced by the musk (clearly it's a nice light musk note). Maybe the ivy is part of the green scent? I wouldn't know an ivy scent right off the bat. There is no orange marmalade unless it's the slightly sweet undernote. I actually kind of liked this for a little while and then it went kind of chemically on me.
Aurora -- (freebie) The first notes out of the bottle are definitely chocolate and coconut, but soon the sweet, smoky woods and amber emerge, balancing with a delicate sugar. Lovely!
Er no, it's not. Just a sniff of the vial tells me that this is not for me. While I love me some Mounds Bars, I don't want to smell like one. In fact, I avoid blends with coconut like the plague; I just don't like the way it smells on me and never have. This was a problem when I was 13 in SoCal in the 70s and tanning oil was
Delina is a scent for a woman with a dark side. It's black garters and blood red lips, sweet and sinister simultaneously. Lotus gives it innocence, amber grounds, and red wine gives it just enough naughty! I think it's something Miss Delina herself would have liked.
*blinks* This doesn't say "woman with a dark side" to me. It's really sweet right out of the vial and it stays sweet. This isn't a dry red wine at all, it's more like port or something desserty. In fact, this is thick, almost syrupy scent, very much like dessert wine. I don't know if that's the wine scent or the lotus flower or both. I'm getting a little hint of amber, but over all this is too sickly sweet for me. About a half hour later, it calms down and is actually kind of pretty and not so sticky. It smells like the melange of smells at my favorite New Age shop--a tiny hole in the wall with enough stock for a shop five times its size. I just don't know if it's worth the half hour progress from something pretty awful.
Athelia -- It's the blackest fig, accompanied by spice, wood smoke, earth and moss... softened and sweetened with lotus flower.
I love fig scents, but this is weirdly sour from the get go and then it goes soapy and weird on me. Ick!
Kirkos - Honeyed sweet fruit, layered over amber and wood, topped off with a seductive kiss of mint.
Okay this is actually not bad at first. It's mostly honey and mint, which is actually a lovely combination. Then it morphs a little and I can smell the amber and what might be a touch of sandalwood. And then, sadly, it also gets weird and a little plasticy on me.
All in all, a serious disappointment. I suspect a couple of things:
1. Her perfumes are inexpensive. Remember my rant about natural vs synthetic? There are levels and grades of synthetic and it's pretty clear that she's using inexpensive synthetics. This actually leads to....
2. She's also a soap maker and I wonder if she started with soap and then decided to add her soap scents to some oil (or beeswax, because she also sells solid perfume). Soap is a lot more forgiving when it comes to scent, because, of course, you're not getting such a concentrated scent when you lather up. Also, there isn't time for the scent to morph much. You scrub it on and rinse it off and sometimes a little hint of the scent remains, but that's about it, so there's no time for the plasticy/chemical notes to show up. Kirkos, for example, is probably an awesome soap scent with that initial burst of honey and mint. And while Delina is kind of overpowering for about a half hour as a perfume, it's probably not nearly as intense as a soap.
Her samples are fairly inexpensive, as are her perfumes themselves, so I grabbed a handful and she even tossed in a freebie. That's actually fairly common, even if you're just buying samples; I got two free sample vials with my NA order too. Her packaging is very pretty--my samples were wrapped in gold tissue tied off with purple ribbons--and her turnaround is excellent.
Sadly, I'm not liking much of the product.
Maximo is a masculine scent. Having said that, it could easily be worn by a woman, especially one such as myself, who has never gone for florals. A complex and beautiful blend of sweet cocoa, spicy black pepper, earthy patchouli with a heart of vanilla and wood.
Right off the bat, the cocoa/vanilla combo is a little too sweet for me. I don't mind cocoa as a note, but I usually don't want to smell like actual chocolate. The pepper is a nice sharp counterpart and the patchouli grounds it a bit (and it's a very nice, almost light, patchouli), but even after a little time, it's still a tad too chocolatey.
Natali is a brooding yet comforting blend of sweet, spicy orange and dark, fragrant chocolate with a heart of vanilla and wood.
I figured since I'd ordered Maximo, I'd get this as well, just for comparison's sake. There isn't any pepper in it and at first sniff, it's orangey all right, but sadly, orange is a top note that fades pretty quickly. What's left smells a fair amount like Maximo only lighter and less sharp and woody. Also, with it not buried under the pepper and patchouli, I can smell the vanilla a little more and that's problematical. There's more than one vanilla note out there and sadly, the one she uses is one I've run into before and it goes a little plasticy on me.
Ursa -- Black carnations, musk, creeping ivy, and a tiny whisper of orange marmalade.
I get a weird hit of almond in the vial but it vanishes the moment the perfume hits my skin. "Black carnations", wtf? Except there is a sort of dark green spicy scent that does, in fact, smell like carnation. It's nicely balanced by the musk (clearly it's a nice light musk note). Maybe the ivy is part of the green scent? I wouldn't know an ivy scent right off the bat. There is no orange marmalade unless it's the slightly sweet undernote. I actually kind of liked this for a little while and then it went kind of chemically on me.
Aurora -- (freebie) The first notes out of the bottle are definitely chocolate and coconut, but soon the sweet, smoky woods and amber emerge, balancing with a delicate sugar. Lovely!
Er no, it's not. Just a sniff of the vial tells me that this is not for me. While I love me some Mounds Bars, I don't want to smell like one. In fact, I avoid blends with coconut like the plague; I just don't like the way it smells on me and never have. This was a problem when I was 13 in SoCal in the 70s and tanning oil was
Delina is a scent for a woman with a dark side. It's black garters and blood red lips, sweet and sinister simultaneously. Lotus gives it innocence, amber grounds, and red wine gives it just enough naughty! I think it's something Miss Delina herself would have liked.
*blinks* This doesn't say "woman with a dark side" to me. It's really sweet right out of the vial and it stays sweet. This isn't a dry red wine at all, it's more like port or something desserty. In fact, this is thick, almost syrupy scent, very much like dessert wine. I don't know if that's the wine scent or the lotus flower or both. I'm getting a little hint of amber, but over all this is too sickly sweet for me. About a half hour later, it calms down and is actually kind of pretty and not so sticky. It smells like the melange of smells at my favorite New Age shop--a tiny hole in the wall with enough stock for a shop five times its size. I just don't know if it's worth the half hour progress from something pretty awful.
Athelia -- It's the blackest fig, accompanied by spice, wood smoke, earth and moss... softened and sweetened with lotus flower.
I love fig scents, but this is weirdly sour from the get go and then it goes soapy and weird on me. Ick!
Kirkos - Honeyed sweet fruit, layered over amber and wood, topped off with a seductive kiss of mint.
Okay this is actually not bad at first. It's mostly honey and mint, which is actually a lovely combination. Then it morphs a little and I can smell the amber and what might be a touch of sandalwood. And then, sadly, it also gets weird and a little plasticy on me.
All in all, a serious disappointment. I suspect a couple of things:
1. Her perfumes are inexpensive. Remember my rant about natural vs synthetic? There are levels and grades of synthetic and it's pretty clear that she's using inexpensive synthetics. This actually leads to....
2. She's also a soap maker and I wonder if she started with soap and then decided to add her soap scents to some oil (or beeswax, because she also sells solid perfume). Soap is a lot more forgiving when it comes to scent, because, of course, you're not getting such a concentrated scent when you lather up. Also, there isn't time for the scent to morph much. You scrub it on and rinse it off and sometimes a little hint of the scent remains, but that's about it, so there's no time for the plasticy/chemical notes to show up. Kirkos, for example, is probably an awesome soap scent with that initial burst of honey and mint. And while Delina is kind of overpowering for about a half hour as a perfume, it's probably not nearly as intense as a soap.
