Mme. Moriarty, Misfortune Teller (2006)

[herbhealer]

Red musk, vanilla bean, pomegranate, patchouli leaf and wild plum.

On me, this darkly beautiful scent is deep and resinous, with occasional wafts of plum. Sexy, seductive, and full-bottle worthy! Loved every sniff!

[luxuria]

Fruity, but it's earthy, sensual fruit grounded by warm sweetness. I figured "patchouli leaf" was just a new way of saying "patchouli," but no, to my nose, it's really a distinctly different note. Mme. Moriarty smacks the Snake Charmer upside the head and sends her running. I love SC, but this is much better, in my opinion. The musks are more under control and the pomegranate adds a much more refined touch to the plum. Every note is just perfect, all stages of morphing are gorgeous, and wow, is it just me, or is it hot in here?

 

I admit I initally bought this just because it seemed blasphemy to pass up on the scent named after Beth herself, but it's become the clear winner of my CD collection. If you're unenthusiastic about red musk and patchouli (which I am), trust me, it's worth a try regardless.

[hangingfire]

In the bottle: Sweet and musky. And it reminds me of something else.

 

On, wet: Aha, I know -- it reminds me of Haunted Palace. Only instead of HP's orange, Mme Moriarty has pomegranate. Still, the sweet/musky notes are very similar to my nose. Not that I mind -- Haunted Palace was my favorite DiMV blend.

 

Drydown: The vanilla/fruit sweetness fades after a while, leaving earthy red musk.

 

Very nice!

[forspecial_plate]

Mme Moriarty starts out sweet and spicy vanilla, very similar to Snake Oil. Within minutes, I start getting a very distinct incense vibe...like little wisps of incense smoke...it could be the patchouli combined with the fruits. Am I the only one that smells nag champa in this? It builds stronger and stronger until after an hour or so, I'm getting mostly sweet incense smoke, backed by the vanilla and spices, and it's just amazing.

 

This was really love at first sniff for me. It was kind of like Meg Ryan in the restaurant faking an orgasm, in that movie with Billy Crystal....except I wasn't faking it. At around the 1.5 to 2 hour mark, it does veer a little towards too-sweet, almost cloying, but thankfully it's now back to the sexy incense smell that I absolutely fell in love with, and the sweetness has backed off a little, letting the earthiness of the patchouli come out more. The vanilla remains throughout, supporting the other notes. It has been 3 hours since I first put it on, so I think it's safe to say that Mme Moriarty has taken a place in my top 5 favorites! : D Thanks, Beth, for making my day!

 

Edit: I just want to add that Mme. Moriarty is incredibley potent on my skin. I really only wear teeny little swipes of it, and my decant is still mostly full (over eight months later!). I still want to get a bottle but I have been putting it off, because I use so little of it! I know that one bottle is going to last me for a loooong time....but I also know it's going to age really well so I'm not worried about trying to use it up fast or anything.

Edited July 2, 2007 by Forspecial Plate

[Scylla]

Snake Oil didn't work on me. Snake Charmer didn't work on me. Smut was HORRENDOUS on me! With that kind of track record, I was more than a little afraid of Mme. Moriarty...

 

But Mme. Moriarty works on me!

 

At first, it was all red musk. Which hates me, so I was a bit worried.

 

On drydown, however, the red musk faded back and it became a lovely spicy, resinous blend of musk, patchouli, vanilla and plum.

[Medici]

Mme. Moriarty leaps into the resin category for me. It's a deep, rich, smoked-out, cream-filled bottle of wonder... so much so that I had to have a second bottle on backup.

 

It is the Queen of the blends I've tried from Carnaval Diabolique thusfar. It is regal and mysterious and dark, yet feminine. It strikes me as being predominantly resinous, backed by a warm musk and slightly fruity waft. The throw is incredible. I wash my sweaters after wearing Mme. Moriarty, and even a week later it clings to my collar. I love it.

 

The epitome of a nocturnal haunt on a summer evening.

 

Again, another 5/5 on Medici's Scale o' Lurrrve

[kaiyou]

My nose isn't very sophisticated, so I can't really pick out notes or anything.

 

Mme. Moriarty is everything I wanted Snake Oil to be (and wasn't). It's earthy and sweet without being TOO sweet. It wears well with great throw - I've gotten several compliments on it.

 

It is, hands down, my favorite LE. I'll be stocking up on this for sure - I'll definitely be ordering a couple of extra bottles.

[blackfelicula]

In the bottle: Mme. Moriarty is complex and earthy. I smell sweetness and fruits, along with a scent that resembles tobacco. That is likely the patchouli leaf.

 

Wet: For all its rich headiness, Mme. Moriarty stays surprisingly close to my skin when wet. It is luxuriously well-blended, welling up gently but insistently.

 

Drying down: This is a nice variation on the earthy scents I prize. My husband smells the fruits more, but I smell the patchouli leaf, musk, and vanilla.

 

Dry: More of the fruits are coming out for my nose. It is a dreamlike combination, unexpected but melding as if it had occurred naturally.

 

Later: Sweet and heady, complex and earthy, this blend gets quieter over time, yet retains the ability to captivate: quite enjoyable.

[finecurvedhips]

in the bottle: i can totally understand the snake oil/snake charmer/smut correlation that other bpal-lers have mentioned. the sweet/spicy meld is amazing...but then, right when i quit inhaling, i get a super sharp note that makes the back of my tongue and throat feel twitchy.

 

wet: same as in the bottle, but the sweet notes disappear entirely.

 

dry down: that sharp note just dominates and makes this scent completely unappealing on me. i had such high expectations for this one after reading all the reviews.

 

this ended up not being for me. i halfway wonder if those that got this scent before the component issue have a different scent altogether...? i don't know which of the notes listed could have gone so, so bad on me. *sighs*

 

ten minutes after drydown: i smell like sweaty unwashed armpit. *gags* and what's worse? i can't get it off!!!

[klavierbarrette]

bottle: OHHH, SEXY.

wrist: sexy. VANILLA YAY. i was dreading not getting any cause of my snake oil experience.

 

lil bit later. deff some patchouli in there but it doesn't make me puke!!!! i dunno wtf i'm smelling but it is SEXY and i really like it. i'm glad i didn't get a decant and went ahead w/ a full bottle.

 

this proves it. beth is sexy.

 

and i loove the tarot card she gave me- the five of swords. it has a guy smoking a bong on it i think? LOL

[locuraelegantia]

in the bottle the first thing I thought was "this smells like Samhain!"

 

which on one hand is good, because I love that scent, but bad too because no one likes it on me

 

as it dries down it starts to smell like a cross between Snake Charmer and Samhain. The dusty parts of SC with the lushness of Samhain, if that makes sense....

 

love it.

[sophia_helix]

First it's Snake Charmer with some serious patchouli, and then the vanilla-musk of Snake Oil, and finally something a little like Smut, but with a sort of body-musk that's all its own. I don't get the fruit other people do, but I do get the lovely red musk like crazy. It's not my favorite in this family of scents, but I like it better than Snake Oil or Smut, so I will definitely snag a bottle eventually.

[Carolyn]

It's taken me all day to figure out which scent this reminds me of. At first I thought I was smelling a Dragon's Blood note, but that wasn't it. What I've been smelling all day is my old friend, Blood Kiss. On me this is almost identical to Blood Kiss, my very first BPAL favorite. I swapped Snake Charmer away--didn't like it at all--so I worried about alll the comparisons. I'm thinking I should try Snake Charmer again. I don't get a strong Smut feeling from this at all. I love Smut, but this seems different to me.

 

Nope, on me this is Blood Kiss. Not sure if I need another bottle of it, but I like it just the same.

[PilotKitten]

Yup... patchouli alright. After the initial drydown I get a musky overtone added that smells

 

delicious. But I'm just not crazy about the patchouli. It's such a dry/dusty note on me that it doesn't smell good unless heaped with

 

massive amounts of sugar or vanilla or something else. I'm also catching a very faint whiff of the wild plum and it smells delicious

 

too.... < sigh > Just wish the patchouli would back off just a smidge and let the rest of this wonderful blend come out.

[Caltha]

Mme Moriarty

Mme Moriarty is sweet and strong, but it's a somehow fresh sweetness and for a while I'm amazed to smell real, wild strawberries. In the drydown the berry scent turns more plasticky though, like plasticky pomegranate. It's not just berry sweetness though, it's a pretty fullbodied and bozy and somehow "dark" scent, perhaps a bit like Red Phoenix? In the end, to sweet and plasticky for a berry-hater like me.

[sofiaviolet]

Oh, yay! Red musk is love. The patchouli isn't too heavy, although I'll probably want to layer this with lighter things. The vanilla is present though not overwhelming. I don't smell any pomegranate or plum.

[moon_lemming]

I expected this to smell like a variation of Snake Oil, maybe darker. (Not necessarily a good thing as far as my chemistry is concerned.) But on me, it smells like . . . Blood Kiss! I read Carolyn's review, and I think we must have similar chemistry, because I have to agree with it.

 

There's also an undertone of something that smells a little like black tea that gets a stronger as time goes on. That might be the patchouli leaf? I'm not sure.

 

I do like it a lot. It's very sexy. I knew there was a reason I'd put off ordering a big bottle of Blood Kiss.

[Tess]

Everything about this one screams that it's a scent for me. It sounds dark and yet creamy, which is something I dream about. Oh, yes, I have high hopes for this one.

 

In the bottle - I'm getting quite a bit of patchouli, only it's not as dry as normal patchouli. The red musk is also at the front, with just a touch of the plum and vanilla sweetening it up.

 

Wet - The plum almost smells like pomegranate on me... The vanilla backs up as per usual, so it's not quite as sweet anymore.

 

Drying - The musk is getting a twinge of that cola scent that I get in mass quantities with civet. But it's just the barest twinge, so I'm dealing. The sweetness is really gone, with the patchouli being the main note mixing with the musk.

 

Dry (1 hour) - So, I'm a big dork. It seems from rereading the notes that the pomegranate I was smelling WAS pomegranate. Oye. This has really lightened on me, as well as sweetened and become powdery. The patchouli is faint and crumbled, with mostly a sweet, powdery musk with just the barest hint of plum.

 

Overall - The dry phase rather killed this for me. In fact, I would say my skin in general killed this for me. I really liked it in the vial, but that's about it. Ah, well, it's still nice.

[LadyKitsu]

There's also an undertone of something that smells a little like black tea that gets a stronger as time goes on. That might be the patchouli leaf? I'm not sure.

 

 

That's it!

 

I am just trying this today as it just got to me in the mail yesterday. I keep smelling a fruity/musky/something smell.

 

The "black tea" smell is a perfect way to describe it! To me it smells like black tea with a touch of fruit and musk.

 

I'm going to use up my imp to see how I like it long term, but I'm leaning towards liking it

[angharad]

GORGEOUS! This is dark, creamy, earthy, with the perfect amount of sweetness to keep me happy. The earthy patchouli isn't sugared like in Snake Oil, but the vanilla, plum, and pomegranate all blend together beautifully to sweeten it up just the same. The red musk gives it a smooth, dry finish. My only problem is deciding how many more bottles of it I need.

 

ETA: As this ages, it smells more and more like tobacco to my untrained nose. It's still an absolute winner in my book and definitely one of my all-time favorites.

Edited February 21, 2008 by angharad

[Gale]

This is incredibly beautiful!

 

In the bottle and on wet: Dark, sweet, and incensey. In this phase I can smell a slight similarity to Snake Oil, which scared me, because my skin does terrible things to Snake Oil.

 

Dry: Man, this is so gorgeous! It's incense and vanilla, and I swear I smell some cocoa. But best of all it smells wonderful on me!

 

Final verdict: This is warm, sweet, and sexy--I am SO happy I have a bottle!!

[sofaking6]

Deelicious.

 

At first, it smells a lot like Snake Oil, the vanilla is very strong and sweet. But very quickly that fades and the patchouli leaf, which to me smells a little bit tobacco-y and a little bit resin-y, stands out clearly.

 

It fades to a gorgeous, perfect balance of musk, patchouli leaf and pomegranate. I don't get much berry but that's fine, the way it is is so restrained that I have no complaints.

 

Much love to my enabler for this one

 

[ViolentKitten]

Mme. Moriarty is Snake Charmer, Snake Oil and Perversion having a threesome. There’s a few notes added and missing from there, but that’s mostly the feel I get: incensey, vanilla-ish, a little fruit… except there’s a note that makes it cool and almost fizzy (fizzy for a brief moment) on my skin. It’s something almost minty. It must be the patchouli leaf. It’s starting to add a herbal dryness. The vanilla, red musk and fruits meld into the leaf, it pokes out the most to my nose initially.

 

After a while, the vanilla and red musk come out a little more, but it’s not how I expected, they’re lovely, but missing something that makes me swoon. The final drydown has an odd feel: waxy, almost plasticky, it’s not horrible though and it’s right at the end.

 

Mme. Moriarty is gorgeous, but overall, it’s not one for regular wear as I wished for it to be. I’ll try it again in a few months and see though.

[Natch]

in the bottle: deep, rich, sweet incense and red musk. This really smells like the color it is in the vial- a rich red/amber brown

 

wet: sweeter, a little less rich- in a good way. The musk is lighter now and I detect the patchouli now.

 

dry: very strong and good throw. A bit too heady for me perhaps. Mostly musk and patchouli, it's somehow sweet and bitter at the same time.

 

overall impression: This one just isn't for me. It's mostly bitter patchouli, with some musk, and I'm a much sweeter, often foody or fruity, sort of girl. I was hoping the vanilla and plum would come out more on me, but it seems like my skin primarily amps the patchoulli, giving a bitter, herbal, musky scent that I am not too fond of. I'm sure this would be beautiful on the right person, but it's just not for me. Off to the swaps.

[supremegoddessofall]

This reminds me of a darker version of Hellion. It's definitely fruity, but the patchouli is pulling it somewhere seedier. Touch of musk, touch of vanilla, and none of the pomegranate.