The Great Sword of War

[septima_pica]

Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict.

Wow, citrussy! But not sweet. More like lemongrass than mandarin really. Let's hope that cocoa and red musk don't make this one superfunky.

This is pretty crazy because the high citrus/herbal notes and low tonka and tobacco notes seem to be fighting for dominance, and the red musk is just kinda crazy redness in between. I don't smell any cocoa at all, which I suppose is probably good, considering that it spoiled several other scents for me. Maybe the tonka just beat it up and shoved it in a locker or something; thanks, I appreciate that. Unfortunately the tea isn't showing itself at all either -- or maybe that's my coffee breath talking. LOL.

This is some crazy shit. I like it a lot. Thank goodness the musk isn't such a big player as I was afraid it would be. Definitely going to get its own full-test day.

[deweydecimal]

I just got this yesterday as a frimp from a forum order, and I was a little hesitant to try it at first, because all the notes just seem kind of crazy. Plus it's like, brown.

 

Out of the imp I got one whiff of chocolate, but that's the last I heard of that note. On it's mostly citrus for the first ten or fifteen minutes, which is fine with me because I love anything citrus. Then, when I wasn't paying attention, it changed and the tea really came out. Luckily for me, I am smelling no musk at all--red musk and I don't get along at all. I may be picking up some of the herbs in the background but for me it's this delicious citrusy tea. Awesome scent, it may be a bottle purchase for me!

[vulturekisses]

In the vial: When I first opened this a few weeks ago, it could only be described as an artillery shell of scent - very pungent, vaguely citrusy, and smelling a bit like a souped-up lemon Pine-Sol with tea beneath. And boy, it was STRONG. I got kinda put off and put the lid back on (and got scared by some of the reviews comparing it to furniture polish), and waited a few weeks to see if I'd get the chutzpah to try it on later and brave putting it on my skin to see how it worked there. Second time around I open the imp, it's not as strong-smelling, and thankfully not very Pine Sol like anymore.

 

Wet on skin: Huh, this is... interesting. My nose isn't trained enough to identify the notes clearly, but it does remind me of lemon and some other stuff. It's warm and spicy and citrus-y. Nowhere near as terrifying as I remembered it when I opened that imp for the very first time.

 

Over time: After a while the musk starts to come out, it's so nice! I can smell those traces of tobacco smoke curling out from under it, genly wisping around the fading citrus notes. I really, really like this. I didn't get any of the chocolate at all, but I'm not complaining. I'm kinda glad I didn't, because I dig how bold this scent is. It makes me think of incense, but not so smoky as to make my nose sniffly.

 

Conclusion: I'm so glad I wasn't entirely turned off by my first impression of this scent and gave it a second chance. It's really not as bad as I thought it would be, and somehow works on my skin! It's a powerful, masculine scent, unlike anything I have ever worn or smelled before. Rowr! I'm not sure how often I'll wear it, but I think I'll hang onto it for a while now that I know it's actually pretty good!

[carbide]

In the imp, I'm getting strong cocoa, and I think I can pick out herbs and tonka, but not much else.

 

Within minutes of hitting my skin, it's all cocoa, with some underlying note of rancid butter. I'm hit-or-miss with cocoa (I love it in Boomslang and the Tell-Tale Heart, can't bear it in Tezcatlipoca) but I was looking forward to trying this blend. The mysterious rancid butter smell overwhelms everything else, and reached a slight powderiness before I cracked about an hour into drydown and washed it off.

[oldgentleman]

In the imp: BAM! Fresh, pungent, grated orange peel and cocoa with slight woodiness in the aftertaste. Try to whiff this while standing up!

 

Fresh on my skin: Bitter orange so sharp that it makes my head swim.

 

Drydown: Baking chocolate.

 

10 mins later: Hints of mandarin and chocolate, delicious herb and incense scent with wafts of musk.

 

3 hours later: It's gone unless I huff my wrist.

 

It's disappointing to find that my skin eats it. This oil is very evocative; and each time I wear it, I feel like I'm on top of the world. It's an invigorating, strenthening scent - a little ferocious - and it's aptly named.

 

Scent - 5/5

Staying power 2/5

[Ishtar]

For some reason, the notes in the Great Sword of War keep eluding me. I know that I love this blend, but don't ask me why because I can never remember what is in it!

 

In the vial, it smells remarkably similar to orange-filled chocolate. Potent, terribly seductive. A very interesting combination of dark cocoa and airy citrusy notes.

 

On my skin, the chocolate disappears instantly (drat!), as does the mandarin. This is good news, for as much as I love their smell, both mandarin and tangerine can do obnoxious things with my chemistry. Instead, I am left with... a very hard scent to describe. I am rarely at a loss for words, yet the Great Sword of War leaves me speechless. Yes, it is that good, and that mysterious. The red musk is prominent but not aggressively so.

Would it help any if I compared it to a darker Friday the Thirteenth (1st edition with the tangerine, mandarine and tea)?

 

A definite keeper!

 

.

[donnatron]

Imp: Soft, velvety chocolate-citrus. Soft smoked vanilla. This imp is of indeterminate age (I'd pin it at over 6 months, under a year) but it smells like the more gloriously aged scent I've ever had the fortune to stumble across.

 

Wet: Sweetens immediately into a sweet chocolately tobacco with a faint hint of orange peel. Still GLORIOUS.

 

Dry: I have no idea why I never bothered to try this before. It's a sweet, almost gooey, but still perfumy and adult scent. Sweet and smokey and so absolutely wonderful.

 

Throw: Very good.

 

Overall: An instant classic favourite. And kind of fun to freak others out with when they ask what you're wearing.

[fairnymph]

Dark amber coloured oil. Bright, fresh, sweet and almost foody, musky, herbal and just really complex and compelling. I get the mandarin, tonka, black tea, cocoa, tobacco and red musk most with a little bit of saffron, though it's smoother here than it often is.

 

Fruitier - the mandarin really explodes on my skin, and I'm positive one of the herbs is verbena, adding a bright lemony boost. I get more verbena than mandarin, in fact. The tonka is a less heavy and rich and cloying; it seems to blend with the cocoa here to make a sweetened chocolate note that's distinctly foody. The black tea is amped too, strongly brewed but very clean and fresh, with the typical pine and citrus overtones. Tobacco too is stronger, but it's such a smooth, sweet note - almost foody - that it too sort of blends with the tonka/cocoa rather than standing out much. Saffron and red musk hold.

 

Verbena still has a virtual death grip on this blend - yes, I can smell all that I described underneath it, but it requires effort and proximity - from half a foot away it's 90% Lemon Pledge of Doom. The tonka now seems to blend with it more, making for a lemon hard candy effect. I also get more of the slightly mentholic saffron, though it's still very smooth. The tonka is surprisingly nice, really much more like vanilla, sweet and quite creamy and not too cloying or buttery as I feared form sniffing it in the imp.

 

That verbena just amps and amps. I'm left with slightly tonka-sweetened LEMON PLEDGE VERBENA with some mentholic-medicinal red musk over a smooth, well-blended and balanced - but woefully overwhelmed and thus extremely faint - base of tea, saffron, cocoa and tobacco. This could be SO GOOD if verbena didn't ruin it, and the mandarin weren't totally absorbed by said villain. Very strong throw and good longevity.

 

 

I hate you, bully verbena!

Edited February 27, 2010 by fairnymph

[iiinterstate]

Definitely one of the weirder (but not necessarily in a bad way) blends I've ever tried.

 

Initially: Bitter orange, a scent I really like.

Followed by: The same orange, sweetened by cocoa.

Then a woody smell comes in and sort of smooths everything over. Its very nice. Foody without being too foody, and combinations I wouldn't have put together in my mind. I think I'll hang on to this imp and see how it ages.

[Lamia]

Interestingly, it reminds me a bit of Anne Bonny (patchouli, sandalwood, frankincense) (explain THAT one!), with the mandarin orange as a powerful ingredient.

 

I adore Anne Bonny, and love this one as well.

[hepkitten]

Wow...this is a cocoa scent that isn't horrible on me. The mandarin lends a really nice citrus kick to a deep, rich fragrance. I'm not sure that I'll get this, because it's somewhat close to a few favorites (particularly Freak Show), but it's an attractive and intriguing fragrance that I may return to again later.

[greenranger]

In the imp and wet on me, I could smell the cocoa, but, as it dried the cocoa vanished. Mostly I can smell the mandarin and the herbs.

 

For a little while it was sharp...as I imagine a sword of war would be. It has settled down and smoothed out, but, in settling down it lost almost everything except the mandarin. If I sniff closely, I can smell that there is musk there.

 

Now the mandarin is also vanishing, leaving...an interesting musky fragrance that is very close to the skin. Maaybe I can smell the tobacco, and maybe just a tiny bit of the vanished cocoa? The remaining notes are closely blended and all I can really say is that it is a spicy musk. It isn't very strong at the moment, but, that may change. It's been changing a great deal since I put it on already.

 

It is still a spicy musk. The mandarin is only really noticable inside my elbow. I think the cocoa is maybe more noticable on my hand than it was...but I'm not certain. Nothing is very strong at the moment.

 

It's an interesting scent, but, I'll need to give it some time, I think.

Edited May 26, 2008 by Aerinha

[axzens]

Tried: 2008.05.28

 

In the bottle: Tobacco leaf, saffron, sour mandarin and a tiny bit of cacao hiding behind.

Makes me think of: Very sour, and tobacco makes me sneeze, as usual... but putting it away here would have been too easy.

 

Just applied: Sweet mandarin perfectly blended with cocoa.

Makes me think of: Yummy. And I'm not sneezing anymore.

 

Drying: Mandarin fades but cocoa is still there. Black tea, musk and tonka show up, tobacco tries to come out but is kept behind (which is good for me).

Makes me think of: Spicy, but fresh at the same time...

 

Dried and fading: Soft, sweet musk, and what's left of tonka and cocoa.

Makes me think of: Musky spices... can't say no to that.

 

Final impressions: Seemed horrible in the bottle, but it turned out to be very pleasing... Definitely manly, but not overly so.

A possible 5ml.

[kelpsoda]

Wet : orange, orange, and herbs/spices. reminds me faintly of vixen (which I didn't like so well)

 

Dry: all orange. huh. where'd the spices go? Not a keeper for me.

[tindome]

hmm. I could have sworn I reviewed this already. Oh well

 

This is a review of the aged bottle. Probably at least two years old? It's in a blue bottle and I bought it from someone else when I first joined the forum. I don't even remember what it smelled like originally, I only remember it didn't quite work for me so I thought I see how it aged.

-The result: It aged really well. Most blends I try with red musk seem to. Really, looking at other reviews it doesn't seem to have changed much from the original.

 

In the bottle: light Cocoa and maybe a bit of tobacco leaf. No citrus at all.

 

On Wet: Immediately I get some mandarin which considering the age I thought would have faded but nope still there. It's sweet and slightly spicy, grounded by the tobacco. The cocoa has disappeared for the moment but I think it will make an appearance in a bit.

 

Dry down: Still no cocoa or at least none that stands out. I think I'm getting the musk and tea in the backround now, it's hard to pick out an individual note for me because this has become much smoother and everything is blending together. The mandarin spice is still there.

 

Dry: A spicy musk with a hint of mandarin

 

I still don't know what to think of this. It smells good, certainly interesting and is not unpleasant in any way. Maybe a tad masculine although I don''t have a problem with it. Even though it's not something I've ever picked to wear I haven't been able to part with it. There is this feeling that the moment I let it go I'll want to wear it. Maybe I'll just hold onto it another two years.

[Nia]

This was the blend that taught me, in a clear but painful way, that I amp up red musk in a way that kills any other element in a blend. It annoyed me, because the ingredient list sounds fantastic, but I get a little herby-chocolate flash and then it's red musk all the way. Sigh. At least I found out with a GC imp and not with a rare and much sought after LE.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Aromatic herbs - lemon verbena to the fore

 

On Application

Lemon verbena with something musky rounding it out.

 

Dry Down

Buttery, lemon at first. Actually the buttery note smells kind of rancid. Lemon scents don't do anything for me. This is a miss.

 

Rating (0-5)

0

[coldandsleepy]

In the imp: I have no idea what this smells like, other than Really Good. Citrus and cinnamon, maybe. It smells delicious.

 

On me, wet: This is really delicious. I get a lot of the mandarin and tonka, which meld together to form a really beautiful and almost foodie smell. The rest of the stuff lurks in the background. The mandarin is sweet yet musky. I can almost taste it. Very nice.

 

On me, dry: same as above. It only gets deeper and richer as time goes on. This is really lovely.

 

Throw and duration: good throw... my husband could smell it about a foot away, in a good way. Really excellent duration, too; I applied it at about 5 p.m. and could still smell it at 10 a.m. the next morning.

 

Overall: in case you couldn't tell... I love this. It's totally different from what I expected (I can't pick up on the cocoa at all, for instance) and doesn't evoke swords or war to me, but it is really absolutely delightful.

[grashopper8]

This smells like citrus and dirty red musk. I can't really pick up on much else.

 

It's actually pretty good, although I don't see myself reaching for it.

 

It's aight.

 

3 out of 5

[GhillieDhu]

Right out of the vial, the dark bitter chocolate and spices in this are saying "mole sauce!" It does mellow out on drydown, but I still get kind of a Mexican food vibe, with a side note of tonka. Never got any mandarin at all - boo. This is a very aggressive perfume. I could see it being worn by some hard-charging young executive - an entrepreneur or trial lawyer who doesn't care whether people like him. War, indeed. It's a very well-crafted scent, but I don't think I know anyone "Type A" enough to actually wear it.

 

(Edited to fix typos.)

Edited July 26, 2008 by GhillieDhu

[veronicafranco]

huh. i actually like reading the book of revelation, but i don't remember the guy wearing a light attractive men's cologne, walking around eating a lemon DumDum. will have to check my concordance.

 

(wish i got the other notes. i will be sneaking this lab frimp into my boy's box to see how it smells on him...)

[jizatt]

All I'm getting is very strong verbena or lemongrass, or something herbal citrus - Very sad, because I really wanted to smell the tonka, tea, cocoa, tobacco, and red musk. I have the habit of reading the description for the parts I like and overlooking the rest. =(

[Iceblink]

I rarely meet a red musk blend that I don't love...this is a good one! The cocoa and tonka are rich and sweet and the musk sexes things up fabulously. More sweetness from the tobacco and a citrusy kick from the mandarin. This actually smelled like some kind of soda on me wet; it's much, much better dried down. Foody and yummy.

[Allumina]

This is weird, dark and complex. Non-green herbals, a bit of orange, a bit of chocolate. It's warm and sticks close to the skin. Not quite a keeper for me.

[tartchef]

Mmm, rounder & sweeter than I was expecting... GSoW is a lovely deep mandarin orange & chocolate scent - a more masculine version of Xiuhtecuhtli, perhaps. The mandarin is a bit candied, almost chewy - the tonka, perhaps... The red musk/cocoa/tea/tobacco combination is really yummy, utterly edible without veering too much into the realm of foody.

 

The earlier reviews had me a bit wary, but the sword plays very nicely with my skin.