Theodosius, The Legerdemain

[zomathesadist]

Earl Grey tea leaves, a white fougere, jasmine leaf, pearlescent white musk, and vanilla bean.

This was one my most anticipated CDs, based on my Dorian love.

At first the tea note is quite strong and there is a huge similarity to Dorian. It's greener and softer, though.

Wet on skin: nose-wrinkle. rut roh!

for about 15-20 minutes there's something almost acrid. It's the same something that made me not like Depraved, which makes me wonder if there's patchouli in here, to ground the jasmine leaf. I love patchouli, but certain kinds of it are less friendly to me. It might actually be the jasmine leaf doing it; though it doesn't smell like jasmine, I do not like jasmine at ALL. hmm.

after 45: still the funny smokiness, not as strong, but I can still smell the vanilla and the tea. I can deal with this.

drydown: all vanilla musk. =) he was worth the wait!

don't know if it will supplant Dorian from my top ten, but it's nice to have around.

[Mimosatique]

Wet: Delicate tea, white musk, soft vanilla bean..

 

Dry: Ghostly pearly musk, soft vanilla bean turned medicinal.

 

Verdict: Soft, gentle, ghostly, delicate yet feels bit masculine/cologne-y..Qquiet the transformer..it lurks you in then it evaporates right before your eyes. Interesting!!

[GeorgeJr]

At first I get mostly the fougere , then a bit of the tea comes through . Now it's starting to settle down a bit into more of a steady tea scent . And i do love the labs tea notes . Especially the blends with a really strong tea note . I am getting a little of the musk as well , I believe white musk is one of the lighter musk descriptions , as far as getting noticed in a blend goes . But mainly this is Early Grey & that's not a bad thing at all in my book . I find this scent to be a bit of a turn on , but I tend to feel that way about the tea blends as well

[Ceri]

In the vial: Citrus musk

 

Wet: Stinky soap

 

Dry: Stinky soap.

 

Overall: Darn! This smells like soap-gone-wrong on me! Not for me.

[Andrea912]

I like Earl Grey tea leaves and vanilla bean but I hate jasmine leaf...pearlescent white musk I can deal with but what exactly is a white fougere?

 

Impession: not horrible, but something strange; juicy; sour?

 

[crebbsgirl]

As someone who has trouble with Dorian I must say this is positively scrumptious!! Dorian can go weird and musty on my skin occasionally, but this is like Dorian without the funk. The vanilla bean and tea are very much similar to Dorian. The white musk adds a nice depth, and the jasmine leaf is pretty faint. It's very comforting, along the same lines as Wulric.

[wintersmelody]

I was pretty excited to try this one considering my love for tea scents but this is TEA to the extreme! In the bottle and first on it's rather like the tea has karate chopped my sense of smell. To the point I smell as if I've bathed in a vat of Lipton iced tea! But then the longer it's on as it dries it tends to mellow out into something quite gorgeous! But I'm just not sure how I feel about that first half hour or so. I'll give it a go in the Clocket methinks.

[milo]

At first, this is all raid bug spray . Thankfully, it quickly disappears and a musky lemon comes out. This is quite the morpher, and the tea finally makes an appearance, the lemon disappears, but the musk stays. I don't get any Dorian similarities at all. I like this, but a vague "bitterness" will probably keep me from getting a bottle. Very glad to have had the opportunity to try it, though!

 

2015 version: Lemony, more similar to Dorian now. I have Dorian and love it so don't need any of this.

Edited October 4, 2015 by milo

[angelicruin]

Oh Wow. This scent is one of my favorites. Earl Grey Tea and light vanilla musk define this scent on my skin. I get no Jasmine, thankfully. I got a decant of this to try and I now know that I need to be getting a bottle before the Carnaval comes down.

[tajana]

I wasn't sure whether to be excited or worried by Theodosius. I love tea, but jasmine hates me. The jasmine fear was enough to keep me from buying any amount of this, but I'm glad to have the opportunity to try out a little sample!

 

Wet on my skin, though, I don't really get any hint of jasmine. Just soft vanilla and creamy "pearlescent" white musk... only the soft whiff of bergamot keeps this from smelling super girly. As it dries down the fougere peeks out just a tiny big, but this hint of dapper gentlemanliness is squashed by pearly soft white vanilla musk, infused with a splash of black tea, and on me this smells like an even girlier Dorian, if that was possible... Dorian, on me, smells extremely girly... you couldn't convince me it was androgynous, let alone masculine. Theodosius is even creamier. The jasmine finally shows up after about half an hour, but it's just a slight flavoring in the tea rather than something potent enough to spiral out of control and ruin everything.

 

It finally dries down to a whole ton of creamy vanilla musk with an occasional hint of vague floralness. Not nearly as much tea as Dorian. It doesn't smell bad, just kind of... boring. I guess I'm safe from this particular CD perfume! Phew!

[Aldercy]

Dorian! Theodosius is Dorian, to the point where I'm considering testing them side by side to make sure this isn't some kind of devilish trick on the part of a decanter somewhere. Specifically, it's like aged Dorian (ultra-smooth). Maybe infinitesimally more masculine. And the slight citrus note is more bergamot than lemon. If you dislike jasmine, you've little to fear from this oil-- I can't smell it at all.

 

Naturally, I love it, but I don't need a bottle when I already have something so similar.

 

ETA: By the time I got to work with Theodosius, he was laughing maniacally and waving around icky rubber gloves in the manner of Mad Hatter and Phantom Cow. And then, after amusing himself with that for about half an hour, he put them away and settled into this kind of general white fog nothing like Dorian and nothing like rubber gloves. o_O

Edited September 12, 2009 by Aldercy

[Suu4LC]

Oh, I am so excited to try this! I love Dorian, and I love earl gray...I think I love every note in here! Hopefully they blend well together!

 

In the imp it's a bit...sharp. Some other review described it as acrid, and I can see why. Like Dorian that has turned...hmm...

 

On my skin, this is Dorian's manly evil twin. Sharper and more cologney than Dorian. It was almost lovely for a moment, but onne of the notes in this, I can't tell which, is just a bit funky on me. Almost choriney or chemical-y. It really just goes all wrong and morphs very weirdly on my skin.

 

I can see how on the right person, male or female, this could be a very sexed up evil Dorian cologne/tea rawr scent, but it just went odd on me!

[zee]

Dorian and Theodosius are most definitely brothers. Dorian is the younger brother, very refined on the outside but with a devilish debauched streak hidden away. Theodosius is the older brother, goes to heavy metal gigs and makes no attempt to disguise his hedonistic ways. He'd probably scrub up pretty well if he really needed to, but he'd still be aggressively sexy.

[Ravenclaw79]

Initially, I smelled lemon -- bergamot, I'm guessing, from the tea. When I first got it on, it was unexpectedly wonderful, a nice mix of tea and vanilla. But as it dried down, it went more man-ish. It's true, though, that if I smelled a guy wearing this, I'd probably want to jump him. But there's a masculine undertone that makes this... well, it's borderline, almost unisex, but nah, no thanks.

[greenranger]

I tested this today with no access to the scent notes.

 

At first i thought I smelled grapefruit, which confused me. I didn't recall any citrus listed.

 

However, once it was on a while I began to smell vanilla. Sniffing the skin where I applied it I was smelling something comlex and herbal...almost medicinal. However, wafting around me was a wonderful musky vanilla.

[cinderfallen]

A light and airy Dorian, that is, an Earl Grey tea without the heavy cream/musk notes. There's something about the blend that smells a bit like leather, but it's just a hint!

 

Overall, this smells like a great unisex perfume, not just one-note black tea, but a whirling eddy of airy citrus, light fougere, and Earl Grey tea leaves that are tannic enough to insinuate leather without toe-ing over the line. The slight hint of vanilla is just a perfect touch. It's a sophisticated, gorgeous blend and I can't stop sniffing myself! This is what I wanted Dorian to be (it was just way too heavy and foody for me). I definitely want a bottle of this.

Edited December 10, 2009 by cinderfallen

[arlith]

Initially, I was a little afraid of Theo...I didn't think he'd be a complete fail, but I didn't think he'd be good either. I'm not fond of jasmine, it usually reminds me of cloying commercial perfumes, I have no idea what the fougere is...but I was sure it wasn't good, and vanilla turns plastic on me over half the time. I actually put him on this morning, hoping to clear another slot in my imp/decant box because I ran out of room in there. Looks like his slot is going to remain full!

 

To me, this is Cheshire Cat and vanilla. I love Cheshire Cat, and I love Theo! I'm going to have to do a side by side test to see if they're different enough to warrant a whole bottle of each. From a bit of a distance from my wrist, Theo is musky vanilla with some other unidentifiable stuff in it-it smells a touch masculine and a little sharp-but still creamy. With my nose plastered to my wrist, it was almost all Cheshire. I really like it, and I've been huffing my wrist ever since I put it on. Yippee!

[CiaoBonefish]

Oh this blend is so good. So good. I never thought I would love it as much as I do!

 

In the decant it's woah Earl Grey with some major musk action going on, so much so that it smells almost peppery with the tea. I'm not getting Earl Grey as much as Im getting strong Black tea. No sugar of course. Wow this smells wonderfully manly and crisp and deep and complex. Much better than Dorian in my opinion.

 

On my skin the scent stays pretty much the same, though now the scent is more rounded. The pepperyness of the blend fades somewhat giving way to just a really strong Black/Earl Grey blend with a touch of musk. I can't smell vanilla or jasmine but I'm sure they're giving the blend a kind of base. Really lovely. It's weird because I almost feel like I shouldn't like such a masculine scet on me, but I can help it! It's spectacular!

 

Average throw. Fades beautifully to a

more vanilla ish strong Black/Earl Grey tea scent. It should be noted that this blend is never sweet though. I have a feeling that aging it will help it lose some of that peppery quality making is just yuummmuyyy!

[countessmouse]

Lemony vanilla tea in the imp and wet on my skin. After about five minutes, the fougere and the jasmine leaf start peeking out. After 10 minutes, the musk hits and the scent becomes an absolutely wonderful musky floral. On the bf, however, it turned oddly mediciney after about five minutes and stayed that way.

[voorishsign]

I was rather excited about this one, since it was described as a butcher Dorian, and while I always liked Dorian well enough it's always been a bit sweet to my nose.

 

In the bottle - Yep, light tea, maybe some vanilla.

 

On wet - faint & sophisticated. Tea, vanilla, musk, fougere.

 

Drydown - The Earl Grey remains strong, and the jasmine leaf is there without being overwhelming. There's still a light hint of vanilla. I also notice the white musk, which so rarely works on me but does with this one. It's a different scent from my usual, which tends to be darker than this, but this is light, gentlemanly, witty and perfectly charming. Am glad I invested in a partial bottle here.

 

It really is that butcher Dorian I've been looking for. It shares Dorian's tea and vanilla note, but contains less lemon and less (possibly no) sugar - and the musk deepens it. If you, like me, like Dorian but felt it was either too lemony, too light or too sweet, Theodosius is the man for you.

Edited May 7, 2010 by voorishsign

[Venneh]

In the bottle, this is very reminiscent of Dorian, only with what I think is a stronger white musk note. On my skin, this is white musk, tea leaves, and just a hint of jasmine that I'm hoping will be drowned out. We'll see how this goes. Moved this onto a second skin test, because the end stage I got on the one wrist test (vanilla and tea and the fougere) was absolutely amazing, but on the full skin test here, I'm mostly getting the white musk and jasmine combining to create a similar smell to insect repellent (and if it works, hey, I'm all for it, I've been getting eaten alive at work here), and that gentle final stage I got last night just isn't appearing. Gonna give it another full skin test tomorrow and give it one more chance to get what I'm hoping to get.

Edited July 11, 2010 by Venneh

[KesHiro]

Long story short: Dorian's suave, sophisticated (though no less mischievous) older brother.

 

In the bottle, Theodosius is the best quality Earl Grey tea with extra bergamot. Wet, the vanilla emerges and hangs along the edges of the scent; I suspect the jasmine leaf is there too, as there is something vaguely floral in the background. I cannot, however, detect it unless I jam my nose into my wrist. As the oil dries, the fougere develops and after thirty minutes, the white musk rounds out the blend. Ultimately, I'm left with something that smells like an extremely expensive, well crafted, and exclusive niche fashion house cologne. I mean this in the best way possible. This would make a great enabling fragrance: it has a mainstream quality to it while retaining those elements that make it unique to BPAL.

 

If Dorian is the playful and mischievous Victorian gentleman, Theodosius is his cooler, reserved, and sophisticated brother. He dines and shops in only the best establishments and looks effortlessly stylish at all times. His jokes are drier and his tastes a bit more high brow. He may seem aloof but he's really just a nice, quiet guy who prefers observing before jumping in. If Dorian seduces with playful pats on the behind, Theodosius does it first through thoughtful comments and playful expressions before moving into physical contact.

 

Great scent and it's going into my top choices!

[sunlitgarden]

Theodosius, the Legedermain -- Decant from March 2008 (almost 2.5 years at this point, though I only recently bought it.)

 

I got Theodosius kind of thinking that Dorian: Theodosius :: Snake Oil: The Snake Pits (yes, I actually liked those analogies, how could you tell ) I do smell an undercurrant of what is like Dorian, but it's more citrusy (from bergamot?) and herbal. I'm not really getting jasmine, fortunately, as it usually doesn't work on me. Unfortunately, this is going a bit... powdery/soapy, and fading. I'm not sure if it's due to the age, but I like Dorian a lot better...

Edited August 15, 2010 by sunlitgarden

[SophieCedar]

Wet: while the comparison to Dorian rings true, it shifts quickly to a spicier creamier version on me. Something like a earl grey honeycomb, heavy cream, and clove. I can smell the jasmine leave and white musk, probably adding to the creaminess and the association with Dorian. Glad I tried this again. 1st tested in the summertime and I barely smelled anything.

 

Drydown: After a little while, the earl grey is more apparent. Still creamy and now fragrant vanilla bean is really dominant too. The white fougere and jasmine leaf swirl around in the background. ZOMG..this is amazing!

[theandorran]

Any more, I only ever share my most tragic BPAL stories in reviews. I wonder why that is...

 

I bought Theodosius because I love Dorian. I won't pretend otherwise. I was fresh out of the shower, all ready to try him on, and dabbed on a bit from the cap onto the insides of my wrists, like I always do with my oils. It's almost always plenty for me, but I wasn't really getting much of any kind of scent, so I went to tip some more oil into the cap, except I didn't have it screwed on tight enough and I dumped oil all over my hands. At least I can smell it now? :\

 

Anyway, with this nice whiff...

 

In the bottle: Theo is a very citrusy fougere. It actually reminds me more of Villain than Dorian. But since Villain and Dorian are sort of like cousins, it's a subtle distinction.

 

Wet: This is where Theo starts to develop his own character. It's much more jasmine-y than I expected, which gives the perfume an almost woodsy quality. I would definitely call this a masculine scent, although I tend not to care about stuff like that and if I like it, I'll wear it. It's very sophisticated, but a tiny bit sexy. (That must be the musk. Musk is always sexy to me.)

 

Dry: It took forever for this to dry down because there was so much on me. My nose doesn't really know what to do with it now that it's dry. I think this just evaporates on me really fast. Theodosius is sophisticated and manly. Dorian's older brother is a good analogy. Whereas Dorian is fast, free-spirited, and wild, Theodosius is more restrained. I can see him looking at his little brother and giving a shake of his head. The tea starts to come through dry, and it's definitely Earl Grey tea -- citrusy and sauve.

 

This is one of the few BPAL perfumes that I've tried and haven't been sure if I could 'pull it off.' Maybe because it's so masculine to my nose. It's sort of a weird feeling. I'll have to see how the day goes wearing it.