Santa Muerte

[Celogrl]

... A deep, resonant scent, both comforting and soft: lovers’ roses, solemn chrysanthemum, dark vetiver and dazzling cactus flowers.

This is a beautiful and interesting scent. At first when I applied it, I wasn't sure what to think. It had an almost dissonant mix of herbs and flowers I couldn't quite make out. After a little drydown, the vetiver came out and I too, can swear there is a chocolate-y kind of scent there. There's also a light, sparkly floral (maybe the cactus flowers?) that's very pretty. All in all, I like this a lot more than my initial sniff!

[edenssixthday]

Santa Muerte - This one is fabulous! Wow, I just can’t get enough of it. I positively adore the scent of cactus flowers and am thrilled to find a BPAL scent that is predominantly cactus flower on me. This means I can start wearing my favorite cactus flower body lotion again without the fear of clashing scents! I always said I hate vetiver, but the vetiver in this blend is proving me wrong. There is just the tiniest drop of vetiver, but enough to make this blend slightly dark without overpowering its prettiness. The scent is boldly floral, but not heady. The florals are soft, but they’re not shy in the least, if that makes any sense. It’s a scent that carries a lot of power with it. This particular blend has a lot of throw on my skin, which is something I love in an oil. The lasting power is phenomenal, as well. This may be bottle-worthy. In fact, I’m pretty sure it is. On my personal BPAL scale of 1-10 (10 being the best, of course), this rates a 9.5.

[filigree_shadow]

Disclaimer: I love vetiver.

 

Santa Muerte is lovely. Gentle and cozy. Like cuddling up with a good book under your favorite blanket on your favorite comfy chair. It does kinda smell a little bit like cocoa at first, and then it smells a bit like cleaning products, but that's just the wet phase. It's pretty without being aggressively floral, soft and lilting.

 

Santa Muerte was one of the first 5mL bottles I bought from the Lab. It was great to wear in the springtime.

[steffanina]

Santa Muerte-

 

In Bottle: An earthiness here--no, maybe more like wood-- and a chocolaty note.

 

Wet: A very fresh, resinous burst on my skin. As it sinks in I continue to smell that woody resin.

 

Dry: A subtle touch is left. Fresh and a little soapy. Overall nice; I liked it a lot in the bottle and wet, but it seems to fade quickly.

 

Overall: I like.

 

(Afterthought: Vetiver is used so much in these scents and people here speak of it as though it's a scent one ought to know. One day someone will have to hand me something and say, "Smell that? That's vetiver. Now you know." Because I have no idea what vetiver smells like.)

[lookingglass]

Heady roses and chocolate? Spicy green chrysanthemums and darkness looming. The drydown is a heavy floral incense, like a Catholic church full of flowers after a funeral.

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is a gorgeous cocoa butter....with something tangy...gourmandy....enticing and wonderful

 

once applied this has a fruity edge to me which turns immediately into the soft,

delicate rose petals...oh golly...this is love to me .... again, vetiver is the factor

that makes this an absolute divine perfume for me....

 

gots to order me up a big ol' bottle of santa muerte...no doubt

[yeahbutnobut]

Santa Muerte

 

In the imp: roses and sharp 'mums, with an oddly fruity scent underneath.

Wet on skin: this is really odd, because I get a fruity scent, like blackberry/currant when I first smell this, but with roses.

Dry on skin: roses, chrysanthemums, and blackberries. I have no idea where the blackberry note is coming from but I like it. Maybe it's the cactus flower, the only note here I'm unfamiliar with, that's turned berry like on my skin? I can't smell the vetiver yet. This isn't too bad, it's like crushed flowers with an earthy base.

After a while: eventually this becomes a very pleasant fruity-rose scent, like raspberries or blackberries all mixed up with rose petals, with the barest hint of vetiver adding an earthy base to it.

Then it becomes a mix of rose and mums, still with berries but much more red-pink and floral, like crushed petals and squashed berries.

The final scent that remains is of dried red rose petals. Just the barest scraping of vetiver-this isn't a 'scary vetiver of doom', this is subtle but grounding.

Verdict: this was a surprisingly pleasant scent on me-predominantly rose, but with an odd (but very nice) berry note-where this came from I don’t know, but I really like it. The chrysanthemum adds a sharp greenish touch and the vetiver is barely there-a rare feat for this notorious note. this is a very pretty berry-rose scent on me, fruity and juicy and floral, crushed berries and petals. It's nice, but it didn't blow me away like some other scents can do. Nice but not enough to keep. So it's off to swaps.

Emoticon rating:

If you like this, try: Zombi, Thanatos, Netzach, Lucy's Kiss

Edited September 28, 2006 by yeahbutnobut

[Dinerdulcinea]

imp: STINKY and repellant

wet:very stinky!

dry: interesting!!! It is very light and I can smell cactus flowers. I don't know where the really NASTY stinky part went (or what it was) but it is mostly gone now!

Verdict: Still a little bit of stinkyness lingers. naaahhhh...just not me.

[supremegoddessofall]

Pretty much all chrysanthemum. The rose is surprisingly quiet.

[maijasu]

My skin still hates roses. Sigh. This was all soapy floral on me. I didn't smell much vetiver. Off to swaps!

[sofiaviolet]

I smell a pungent bug spray/cleaning fluid sort of thing. On my skin, it mellows but is still intensely chemical. Ick ick ick. I had such high hopes, too.

[jasmine]

I killed this imp cap while opening it to sniff. On the up side, I think I’ve figured out how I’m killing them. On the down side (sort of), this turned out to be a scent that I really enjoyed. I fell asleep while drowsily sniffing Santa Muerte on my fingertips and woke up knowing that I’d better review it before I lost the imp to evaporation.

 

Initially applied, this is a smooth, peppery scent that doesn’t shout about its florals. The peppery aspect is probably chrysanthemum, and the smooth undertone might be the vetiver; I can pick up the roses, but they’re very low and subtle. I can’t figure out for certain what part of this scent is the cactus flowers, but there’s a very faint hint of something that strikes me as greenish-citrusy (very faint: closed-eye concentration to find it) and I suspect it’s related to the cactus flowers.

 

This scent has smooth, elegant confidence without bothering to drape and drown it in either sexuality or femininity. It doesn’t strike me as an androgynous scent; it just takes gender for granted instead of shouting about it. The roses are present, but the spiciness of the carnation prevents them from being dewy or loud -- the impression is one of roses with a practical bent, if that makes any sense.

 

This is exactly the sort of thing that I want in an evening scent when I’m not planning to be flirtatious -- something dusky, calm, and reserved. It doesn’t strike me as particularly pretty, and it doesn’t demand my attention (or, probably, the attention of those around me), but I don’t feel the need for it to be pretty or to demand my attention. In its own way, Santa Muerte is exactly what I want it to be.

[cranberry]

In the imp: like cocoa but not quite. OK, at second sniff I see that it’s rose, with darker smells. It’s strange how that first impression was so different from the second.

 

On the skin: this is a soft scent, gentle. Smells like honeyed roses tempered by something I can’t describe. Maybe it’s the cactus, it’s just so soft smelling. This is a quiet scent on me and it stays close. I may be getting a hint of the chrysanthemums but I’m surprised that vetivert hasn’t shown up.

 

Overall impression: I like this a lot but doubt that I’d ever reach for it. The cactus added such an interesting scent to this blend and I feel like I had a completely new olfactory experience because of it.

[femmefatale]

In the imp and wet it's super strong and rather icky, like a really bad drugstore perfume.

 

As it dries though it loses the harshness and begins to soften quite a bit. Starts to smell very powdery on me. Almost like Baby Love that someone tried to "grow up" a little.

 

I wouldn't buy a bottle, but I will probably try this again just to see.

 

ETA: No I won't. I smell like old lady mixed w/baby powder. ewww. Not quite what I was going for.

Edited January 17, 2007 by Femme_Fatale

[theseagrows]

in the imp i get a chocolatey-rose-floral. on my skin it starts as a pungent floral and now that it's dry it smells like a rosey white floral with a slight earthiness. i dont get any chrysanthemum, and i wish i did! this one's ok but i think i'll swap it, as there are many more rose scents i like better. i iwsh the other notes came out more on my skin!

[evilbee]

When I put this on my eyes went wide and I thought "Summer camp!". Yes, I smell like bug repellant. I'm trying to pick out notes to determine why, but I can't because all I smell is me repelling the bugs.

[waternight]

In the imp: Dark, sweaty, musty vetiver.

Wet/Drydown: First on, sweaty and musty, but one of the florals is starting to sweeten it up, I don’t know which one. Alright, now there’s a strong, heady, spicy floral fighting tooth and nail with the vetiver – could be the roses. I gotta say, this smells quite strange. Alright, now the roses are very dominant, and these roses are taking no prisoners. They’re strong and heady, made earthy by the vetiver. This is predominantly rose, but it’s an angry, dangerous rose that kind of makes me want to hide.

Dry: Deep, dark, heady rose. I like it, but there are other rose blends I like more. I think this will go to swaps.

[roenim]

Another vetiver review! I'm slowly coming to realize that I kinda love vetiver.

 

Wet on skin: A jumble of notes. I can't really describe anymore than that. A bit medicinal perhaps.

 

Dry: I smell the vetiver! But it's not as overpowering as it was on Saturnalia. Still green and mossy and earthy, but less wild. There's something spicy in there. Chrysanthemum, maybe? I don't really smell the rose. It's mostly vetiver and chrysanthemum. The herby medicinal smell is still there. Sort of like a poultice you'd put somewhere. I kinda like it! Maybe that's the insect repellant a lot of people have been smelling, but it doesn't smell like it to me. It feels like I've smelled this somewhere before. From my grandma perhaps? That's not a bad thing, mind you. After a couple of hours, I smell something watery. Not in the way I usually think of watery scents, more like if water had a scent this would be it. Wet and a little bit sweet. It's probably the cactus flowers.

 

Verdict: I might get a bottle of this, but it's not urgent. I love the green herbal-ness of this especially when the cactus flowers came out in the end.

[Peaches 2]

I'm experimenting with a lot of vetiver blends, and this one was a generous gift from the Lab in my last order. In the vial and wet, it smells herbal to me, sort of like old fashioned horehound candy. On my skin, it's screaming Ivory soap, so it's not going to work for me. Too bad.

[batsy]

In the vial: Vetiver and cactus.

 

On the skin: The 'mum really pops, but I have to shove my hand into my nose before I can get anything from it. There's no throw. The vetiver chokes everything else to death. It's also kinda sour. I was hoping it was similar to DDLM, but it really isn't. Oh well.

Edited April 22, 2007 by bat

[alliekat13]

In the imp: strong, heady floral. Very sweet. This reminds me of Dia de los Muertos a lot. I like this, I don't really get a rosey vibe at all, mostly the cactus flowers and chrysanthemums. Very strong throw, lasts a long time. Very good, this is basically dia de los muertos without the foodiness. I like it.

Edited April 28, 2007 by alliekat13

[CiCi]

Santa Muerte is very floral but not rosy on me. After dry down, it is quite nice and still floral but there is a wildness like dandelions or wildflower stems. I guess I am trying to say-greeness or newness to it. I see the color yellow surrounding this-yellow flowers, yellow cactus. It is a scent that makes you want to run through a meadow of flowers and butterflies without a care in the world-a happy scent.

[sparkybish]

I received this as a frimp and initially it just smelled like green swampy decay int he bottle.

But now i smell so much more.

 

Imp: i do smell decay over something green and juicy

Wet: It immediately blooms into this lovely, heady, juicy, green, yet rosy scent.

Dry: I get a bit of the dustiness, but in a really nice way that mellows the strength of the rose and the juiciness of the cactus flower. When I wear it I feel glamorous, and earth mothery.

Edited August 5, 2008 by sparkybish

[Victory]

Santa Muerte is another oil I was afraid to wear because of the dreaded vetiver and, like with Saturnalia, the vetiver doesn't show up. Hurray! I now know what people mean when they say something smells like soap, though. Santa Muerte is a really fresh scent but somehow the freshness makes me think of expensive soap. It's not an offensive smell, but I don't know that I would wear it much when I have so many other favorites and when I think of soap when I smell it.

[Styx]

Santa Muerte

yellow oil

 

Imp: Bleaaaaargh!! OLD SOCKS! Nutty old socks. Actually no, even my old socks smell better.

 

Skin: Oh wow, this is a morpher. The old sock scent's there for the first two minutes, being nutty and choking, but after waiting a while, it goes clear.

It becomes a watery, sweet scent. Like having a glass of water in a garden. There is almost an astringent feel to this. Its cooling in that way, but its also warm.

It gets a bit sharp and gains a bitterness after a while, then later dries down to an airy, sweet wet floral.

I don't know enough of cactus flower to say what I'm actually smelling, but I can't pick out the rose or the chrysanthemum, which is usually pretty obvious on me.

Its such a puzzling scent.

 

This was really different. I won't get a 5ml, but it was definitely worth sniffing.

 

*edited to add* now my imp has aged a bit, I definitely get the mums now. yum. still such a unique smelly. Initial nuttiness has also diminished.

Edited November 1, 2007 by Styx