Kunstkammer

[zenvodunista]

A sensory jumble, a true cacophony of odors: black pepper, benzoin, blood orange and olibanum.

ah, a little too sweet and candy like for me. i was hoping for almost a blood orange SN, and got Kool Aid SN instead. and strangely enough, this is the FIRST BPAL that has ever stayed true on my skin.

ah well.

ETA: it's been several hours since i applied this to my skin. the kool aid is mostly gone, and the frankinsence is coming through. i wonder if, because citrus *tends* to age less well, if this would become more complex with time. i may run a short forced aging experiment on an imp. i'll let you know what happens if i do!

{ETA}

it's been 9 days since i recieved this, and needing a lift this morning i put on Kunstkammer. the throw on this was just beautiful! bright blood orange, supported by the mystery of frankincense and other resins. funky and elegant at the same time, this one is a definite keeper. naturally, closer to my skin we move into Tang Territory, but i don't care. the throw is simply fab! perfect for New York Subway COmbat Stench Mode, and i'm looking forward to this one in the deep dark of winter as a pick me up.

i'm VERY glad i got a bottle! Edited October 18, 2005 by zenvodunista

[ashtonrose]

On first sniff I thought of clemintines. I just bought a bunch and this smells just like them with a touch of spice. I'm making out clove, but not sure if that's it.

 

Very fruity, but not sticky sweet fruit. More like fresh off the tree fruit. Yummy

[leftofcenter]

When I first tried this, I thought 'Wow, exactly sugary fun orange Kool-Aid--not much to add in reviews since that's been said'... However, I think a week or so of aging has brought out some yummy slightly dark spiciness that deepens this and gives it a nice, subtle nose-twitching kick. I'm very happy with this one!

[sarahmarie]

This is very sweet orange on me, as it is for lots of people it seems! It doesn't really morph at all - it just goes on sweet orange and stays that way. As someone who doesn't like orange-flavored things (thought I do like fresh oranges, I just like 'em tart!), this has negative associations for me and thus will not work out. Even if I did like sweet orange, I don't think it's very me, somehow. Hopefully someone who enjoys orange more than I do will appreciate it, though!

[AlaskaSnows]

In the Bottle: fruity medicine, cough syrup, vitamins.

 

Dry: Like a freshly cut but somewhat overripe orange. Definitely smell the pepper in the background, making it spicy. This is clever and fruity and fun, but not truly my style.

[rainbow]

This oil is sticky- it is literally sticky, as it remains tacky on my wrists for quite some time, and it is sticky-scented, as in the scent of sweet, sticky oranges and cherries. I like this alot. It's thick, it's orangey, it's very sweet, and it's definitely a happy fragrance.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle: Sweet yumminess.

 

Just On: Fruity sweet yumminess.

 

An hour or two later: I am so adoring the sweetness in this one.

 

Around 6 hours: Hmmm, maybe there's something besides fruit here, but that's most of what I get, and what I LURVE.

 

12 hours: The barest hints of sweetness are left.

 

Overall: True love. Thank the gods I have a bottle.

 

After reading other reviews: I guess I'm not the only one who lurves on the sweetness.

[Aharona]

Warm orange candy liquor. It smells a lot like a brandy with spice. If I could drink it I would.

[LushNatty]

In the bottle: Cherry NyQuil. Which, ironically, is kind of appealing to me right now as I am at the one-week mark of a really bad chest cold.

Once applied, it turns into cherry Toostie pop, and then to cherry/strawberry Jell-O. As it develops on my skin, I can kind of get the pepper coming out a bit, and some other spicy smell, but it is overwhelmingly cherry and strawberry Jell-O. Not that this is a bad thing-- those are two flavors of Jell-O that I really like-- but not really what I want to wear as a scent.

After some time elapses, however, I can see what people have said about the throw being not as "tangy" as the close-to-the-skin smell, and that makes it much better. In fact, the throw almost smells like a totally different scent. I had to think hard to remember if I had applied something similar earlier. I might imp some out of this, but I'll be keeping some too.

On a scale of 1 to 5: 3.5 (not quite a 4, but not a 3 either.)

[Phaedra]

Wet this is very sweet orange, bubblegum and cotton candy. When first on it smells like sweet orange baby aspirin. After about five minutes a bitter note develops balancing the sweetness- a juicy blood red orange. This develops into a lovely floral! On the drydown it smells like orange creamsicles! This is a very happy, uplifting blend and one of my favorites of the series.

[Fefferbella]

Oranges!

 

Fresh, juicy big ripe oranges! Normally citrus doesn't agree with my skin chemistry, but this is really delightful!

[Miss Lynx]

Got to try this at the Meet'n'Sniff today. It was strongly reminiscent of Akuma -- very fruity, with not at lot else going in there that wasn't fruit.

 

I like fruity scents fine, as long as they're good ones, which most BPAL fruit scents I've tried are. My skin seems to handle them quite well, unlike, say, florals. But I tend to prefer the ones that have a bit more of a mixture of non-fruit elements in there as well.

 

This one didn't seem to have much else. I know it does have other notes, and it was a little more complex than Akuma, but overall the orange seemed to overshadow all the rest. I did like it, but not enough to want to buy the 5 mL that was being offered. I might have taken an imp, though. All in all, I think if I want to smell like oranges there are other scents I already have that will do that for me.

 

Grade: B-

Edited December 11, 2005 by Miss Lynx

[ChupaChup]

Kunstkammer has a very sticky, sweet orange hard candy smell at first. It then develops a strange undernote that is very much like what the lunar oils do on me. The waft is nice but when I sniff my wrist it is unpleasant.

[ismene]

As soon as I sniff this, I think of bright pink bubble gum. It's very, very sweet. It's a bit fruity, but I'm not really picking up on the oranges. As it fades away, I get hints of incense now and then, but it's still fairly sweet.

 

Hmm. I've tried this one a few times now and can't really make up my mind about it. It's very pretty, but I'm not sure if it really suits me.

[merebrillante]

In the vial: Sweet, fruity and floral.

 

Wet: Oh, nice. Fruity, but not syrupy. I can't pick out any individual notes, except perhaps some vanilla or cocoa?

 

Drydown: Oh, man. This warms up and spreads out very nicely. Warm spices rising up through the -- apples, is it? Yes, I think there's definitely vanilla in there. Let's hope it doesn't turn on my skin. Gosh, this is nice.

 

Dry: Now that I look at the description, I can see I was way off. I did catch the fruit of the orange, and it must be the benzoin that brings what I thought was the vanilla scent. I don't get black pepper at all, except maybe in the heat under the orange. This is very pretty. An hour later, though, and it's faded way down, to the point I have to put my wrist right up to my nose and inhale deeply to find it.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Er. Bubblegum sprinkled with black pepper?!

 

Wearing: A two-word review a la Laurel: Fruity Weirdness. It’s very orange, it’s a little bit soapy, and there’s the pepper on top. Orange is usually pretty good on me, but this is just a little too strange.

[maewitch]

Gah, I can't believe I didn't review this one yet.

 

The opening notes are all fruity citrus deliciousness mixing with the sweetness of the benzoin. It smells like a particularly lush and sophisticated take on the generic dreamsicle fragrance. But it soon picks up this resinous depth, as the olibanum (which smells like frankincense to me - is it the same thing?) pokes through.

 

As much as I enjoy the cheeriness of the wet stage, the drydown is pure magic incense.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: sweet and ice cream-like, with some orange to it. like a dreamcicle!

on: oh no. this smells like liquid dayquil on me; cough syrup trying to have an orange scent / taste.

1 hour later: there's a perfumey sort of vanilla-orange scent. very pretty. however, i still get a hint of dayquil. hopefully, it will disappear altogether.

1.5 hours later: there's some sharpness to this now. it's overpowering the creaminess.

2.5 hours later: more generally orangey and sweet. very nice.

3.5 hours later: there's a vegetable-like note to this now.

overall: this just didn't work on me.

[LittleGreyKitten]

Of the scents with a noticeable hit of orange, I like this one a bit less than Haunted Palace, which I absolutely looooove, but much, much more than 13, which was no good on me. I don't get any pepper in this at all, but mostly a sweet orange backed by some spiciness. Very nice. I still keep wondering what the heck a Kunstkammer is, yet clearly not enough to Google it

 

I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

[GemmaCat]

I bought this on ebay without reading the reviews here, and boy was I surprised! I expected something fiery, a little dark, with real bite from the pepper, and instead I get this gorgeous, fresh orange sweetness.

 

I suspect it's the benzoin which is making this so sweet, since orange on me tends to be more sharp and eye-opening.

 

As this dries down it gets softer and richer.

 

I'm a BIG fan of this one. And I'm glad I bought a bottle.

[this machine]

The orange is, as you would imagine, very prominent here. But it's not any orange, it's definitely a blood orange - not as tangy, more sweet and warm. The combination with the benzoin just makes it sweeter, and it leads to that possible kool-aidy smell people have mentioned. To me i associate it a little more with an orangey candle, perhaps due to the resin. The resin brings it down a little bit, which is nice, and on a nice long sniff i definitely get the tingle of pepper at the end. As others have said, it doesn't seem to morph very much on the skin. It's not an every day for me right now, but i think i enjoy it and will keep it around.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Having a sniff to see if I need to track down more (many thanks to my decanter!).

Short answer: No. That's one perky orange right there! Orange and...bubblegum. The orange itself smells fresh, but there's something oddly "fake" in there with it that's like the "artificial fruit flavors" of gum (or Kool-Aid, yes). The drydown is better, more peppery, but I still think a sniffie is enough of it for me.

[jewelbug]

Imp: Cough medicine? This smells more like cherry cough medicine than anything I was expecting. Maybe blood oranges are berryish?

 

Wet: Yes, absolutely cherry cough medicine. SUCRETS! Do you remember those? Little red cough drops in a little tin? This smells almost *exactly* like that to me.

 

Drying: The medicinal note calms down a bit, though it's still quite sucret-ful. Dry, its still mega cherry, but I can get the black pepper a bit more. It ends up as a syrupy cherry that is slightly numbing from the spice (like, if I could taste it, that's what it would be like….) . Peppered sucrets

 

Overall: No, peppered sucrets are not for me. In its defense, about 4 hours in (during the fade), it started to smell more like Montressor, which I love. But for the majority of the time, this was very cherrycherrycherry. Seeing as the smell of red lollipops and cough syrup make me feel a bit ill, this just isn't for me. This lasts about 5 hrs.

 

ETA: I dunno why i never got orange from this, only cherry.....

Edited April 9, 2006 by jewelbug

[violalee]

Good heavens, I love this.

 

Bottle: Fresh oranges. I'm reminded of an orage sitting in the fridge that's gone just a little bitter.

 

Wet: Like I've just peeled an orange. Smells like the peel, which is different from the meat.

 

Dry down: Within just a few minutes, this seems to go all candle-y on me, which is okay. Like, almost a fall/citrus candle. However, this fades fast and I get some floral notes coming up. (THe candle-y bit could be because I put it over unscented lotion, I don't know.)

 

Verdict: I love this. I wish it stayed orange longer, but I still love this. I don't get any pepper, which is strange, and somewhat disappointing.

[lunareclipse]

This smells very fruity on me, although the fruit is - oddly - plum, not blood orange. Very sweet as well, but it's not a sticky-sweet, just a ripe-sweet. My adjective of choice here is "lush."

 

The pepper only emerges after a few hours' wear, and as a very subtle undertone when it does. The resins don't show up as distinguishable notes at all.

 

Stays and stays. Put some on around 6.30 pm last night, still caught whiffs of it this morning!

 

I like. A lot. I think I need a bottle.

 

ETA: Put some on last night; Beloved informed me I smelled like raspberry fruit roll-ups, but that this wasn't, necessarily, a bad thing.

Edited August 17, 2006 by lunareclipse