Antonino, The Carny Talker

[zillah37]

As you approach an enormous patchwork tent, a curious sound catches your attention: the rattle of bones and the tinkling of tiny bells heralds the arrival of a gaunt and ghastly creature. An animated skeleton dressed in a jester's motley saunters towards the front of the tent, waving an orange and black striped cane at the crowd in an effort to clear a path. The jester makes his way past the fog-shrouded, faded, colossal posters that adorn the tent to a platform in front of the massive tent's entrance. His ivory smile frozen in a gleeful rictus grin, he steps up onto the platform, taps the cane three times, and the jester costume vanishes. Suddenly dark eyes appear in the empty sockets, bones are wrapped in muscle, sinew grows over the bones, blood fills rapidly appearing veins. Before your eyes, the skeletal jester has become a dapper, handsome man, dressed in black and orange, with a skull-ornamented straw hat tilted jauntily upon his shining black hair.

His smile is slick and conspiratorial. With a flourish and arcing wave of his cane, he booms:

“Step right up, ladies and gentlemen! This is Carnaval Diabolique's notorious 13-In-1: the finest freak show in all the Hells! What marvels await you, you ask? Simply the strangest and most fantastic creatures, human and inhuman, gathered for your entertainment, enlightenment and erudition!”

With the cane, he gestures at the gigantic posters that adorn the tent. The images, once hazy, suddenly come into focus.

“From the depths of the Black Forest: Arachnina, the Spider Girl! From the rain-swept streets of London: Hope and Faith, the Siamese Twins! From ruins of old Aquae Sextia: Wulric, the Wolf Man!

"Thalassa, the Galapagos Mermaid! A vision of life-in-death, Eshe!

"All in all, THIRTEEN anatomical curiosities, miracles of genetics, magick and science, masters of marvels, ALIVE ON THE INSIDE!”

White musk, wild plum, vetiver, black coconut, verbena, fig, and lavender.

In the bottle: This is another very complex scent. It's got a hint of verbena and lavender which gives it a sharpness but the coconut, vetiver and plum balance it out.

On my skin: Oh wow. This is so great! Coconut and plum with a hint of verbena. However, it doesn't last. It becomes something that doesn't work on my skin. It becomes too lemony sugar on my skin. I wish the plum and coconut stuck around longer. The first part of the scent works so well, but after it morphs it just doesn't work at all.

Final verdict: If I could figure out how to make the first half stick around, I'd be thrilled to death. Again, another lovely scent that just doesn't work on my skin sadly.

[m13]

This is ohmigawd wonderful on my skin (2+ hours now). It's a sweet plummy musk with just enough lemon to keep it from getting too sweet and the coconut and ... i think maybe the vetiver... rounding it out beautifully. Perfection, truly, one of those scents I'd feel comfortable wearing anywhere -- to a client meeting, wandering on a weekend, or out at night, be it to a loud club or a quiet restaurant.

 

Makes me think of someone who has traveled much and travelled well and has a suitcase of clothes that picked up scents from all of his or her ports of call, scents that have now aged and blended into one wonderful aroma that's both interesting/unusual but totally comfortable. Nothing screams "notice me" in this blend (odd given that a carny barker would be the center of attention!), but its far from a standard perfume. It's mysterious but mellow. Could work well on a man or a woman, I suspect.

 

I'll be stocking up on this one.

[zenvodunista]

On my first sniffs of this I got a bright, almost lime-like note. Brash, and bright, and cheerfully seductive, Antonio definitely pulls you in. An hour later and that brightness is gone, leaving me with a well rounded lushness on my skin, still seductive but instead of hawking the wares, whispering of the secrets that lie within.

 

n.

[Nachtwulf]

This is... certainly interesting. In the bottle, it's a sharp almost medicinal sort of scent, like lemon and sharp cedar with an underpinning of smoky incense. There isn't any cedar in it, in theory... I've determined what I'm reading as cedarish is the vetiver.

 

Initially, when wet, it hits me like men's aftershave... a -nice- men's aftershave, yes, but still aftershavey, the vetiver being very predominant. I don't get much, if any, fruit whatsoever in it... it's vetiver, lavender, and a bit of musk with just a FAINT whisper of coconut. It dries down to a very faint sweetish vetiver... I think I'm going to have to try this by itself, without competing with Melisande and Candy Butcher, both of which have so much throw they rather dominate poor Tony, but overall... it's a surprisingly pleasant, rather masculine scent.

[Memnet]

In the bottle I liked this...mostly what I could smell was lavender with the other components mixed in. On my skin though..yuck! For me this truly does not work at all...it takes on a strong lemonly scent that is almost overwhelming; my husband smelled it on my wrist and likened the smell to that of a dirty dog. I don't think it is quite that bad, but it doesn't smell good. We did try it on him and it smells a little better on him, but not great. I've had it on for about half an hour; most of the lemony scent has faded, and I'm now getting just the faintest hint of the vetiver, but this still isn't working for me at all. Sigh, it is a disappointment, the description of the blend looked so good.

 

You can't win them all.

[edenssixthday]

Antonino, the Carny Talker - This is one of those blends that predominantly has notes in it I adore, and a couple that I don’t exactly hate, but which rarely make the cut for me. Sniffed in the bottle, I smell only lemon verbena and lavender. When I apply this, the very first note I smell is the strong scent of lemon verbena, followed immediately by a very strange, thick, and heavy combination of lavender, fig, and plum. It's one of the truly oddest collection of notes I've encountered on my skin. At this point, they don't seem to layer well, but of course, we all know that first impressions of BPAL can be quite deceiving, so I decide to sit back, wait, and see what happens next. So I go off and do some other stuff, and about 20-30 minutes, I remember to check in on Antonino, and what do I smell? A whole lot of barely nothing! There is the faintest (I mean, almost completely indiscernible) trace of very light fruits, and nothing more. Where is the vetiver?! I have yet to meet a blend with vetiver in it that doesn't leave at least a residual vetiver note on my skin for hours. The entire scent has completely disappeared on my skin. I'll give it another go, but if the results are the same, it's off to a new home.

[Diana]

In the bottle: fig/verbena, fruity, but not like a big bowl of punch.

 

Wet: Verbena is the strongest & most easily detectable note; sweet lemon, slightly powdery. There's a tiny bit of dark, rich fig notes in there too, but it's mostly lemon verbena right now.

 

Drydown: The verbena has lessened in intensity, and the fig is more prominent. The fig-lemon connection reminds me a bit of Cerberus, but this is a lot lighter. The coconut finally starts to come out, but oddly enough not the vetiver (??!!!!) and just barely the musk.

 

This smells a hell of a lot like Carnaval Diabolique; mostly coconut & lemon with a touch of musk. =/

 

 

ETA: a few hours later: this has FINALLY begun to smell different than CD! Now it's a nice musk, almost a fougere smell (probably the lavender). Still no vetiver, which is odd, because I usually amp it like all get out. Now I'm happy.

Edited September 3, 2006 by Diana

[shelldoo]

in the bottle:verbena and vetiver, and lavander

 

wet: verbena. lemony.

 

dry: bright, crystaline, clean, lemony.

[LiberAmoris]

Antonio is another CD blend that uses verbena to advantage (at least on me), like Phantom Calliope. It's primarily verbena and lavender, with white musk. I would love to get more black coconut (I can never get enough coconut!) and less vetiver, but I'm actually fairly surprised and pleased that the vetiver that's here does not completely take over the blend, as it usually does with my chemistry.

 

Because I can still smell the small amounts of spiky sourness that vetiver imparts whenever I wear it, this might not be for me. But I'll definitely be trying it again, as I love the way the plum and fig come out after a while and give this a rich purpley feel.

[lorajc]

Antonio is the perfect exception to "I can't wear Beth's vetiver blends". The only other blend I've been able to wear with Vetiver has been King of Spades. Antonio is another one I can't even detect the vetiver in. This is very light and very nice. I really like plum, musk, black coconut, and fig.....so I thought I'd like this, but the lavendar and vetiver scared me, as lavendar tends to amp on me. This is very light and quite a surprise. I'm glad I bought the whole Al-Gazam or I would have been afraid to try this. This is gender neutral.

[blueroses]

In the bottle: Sparkling white musk and lavender, mostly, but I can smell verbena in the background and vetiver lurking. I like vetiver, but it tends to overpower everything else in a scent on me.

On: Musk and vetiver. A wee tiny bit of fig! Coconut never seems to show up on me unless it's one of the primary notes.

 

Drydown: This dries down to a light creamy musk with vetiver. Occasionally I get a whiff of lavender.

 

Pretty nice. I find it more gender-neutral than the other masculine scents so far.

[Tramp]

This is a surprise winner for me. And I mean Winner. Lavender - in all it's forms turns to pure BO/cat litter box on me. But not this. I freaking love this scent. The coconut is delicious and the vetiver is warm and smooth. Did I mention that I love this? I got an initial flash of the lemony verbena when wet but it is gone on the drydown. Instead a subtle hit of figgy goodness comes out and just a hint of sweetness - which plays so well with the coconut and vetiver.

 

Am so glad I can't smell the lavender - or that it doen't go weird on me - this is a new favorite blend for me.

[wolfie13]

This one was a real surprise on me - I didn't get most of the notes listed at all!

 

Initial sniff and wear: Lavender and the herbal lemon of Verbena. I actually really like both of these notes, but I'm shocked to find I'm not getting much else! It's a tad bracing at this point, but not in a bad way.

 

After about 20 minutes: The same two notes, but the white musk develops and softens and smooths everything over. (I love the way the labs white musk does this!)

 

Late drydown: I get a teeny whiff of plum now and again.

 

Final thoughts: This a much lighter blend than I would have imagined. And far less masculine than I would have thought as well - very gender neutral as others have said.

 

It's actually very nice! (But I have another BPAL in the collection that is very similar on me, so I will try to trade for other CD)

[savage_rose]

In the bottle: VETIVER and fruits and spices. It cleared my sinuses pretty thoroughly in that one whiff. Whew!

 

Wet: VETIVER getting over its control issues a bit.

 

Dry: The sharpness fades, then holds steady at a moderate level. The musk gently cradles the black coconut, that's the predominant scent on me. The plum is only an occasional whiff, and the lavender/verbena add an old-fashioned sweetness to it. Very complex and satisfying...not too spicy, not too sweet, with a lot of fullness to it.

Edited September 10, 2006 by savage_rose

[Kittyflop]

Have I mentioned my love of vetiver? Oh, right, every chance I get.

 

In the bottle and wet on the skin this strongly verbena with vetiver backing it up. No plum or coconut yet at this stage, but it seems to be morphing.

 

As it dries it does sweeten up - perhaps the plum/fix might make an appearance yet. I know the lavender is in there but it's not scaring me like it sometimes can.

 

Further drying - everything is blending and balancing beautifully. As others have noticed, this is gender-neutral - I can see it working on anyone.

 

Verdict: fabulous!

[Bagfish]

On wet, Antonino is shoutingly loud verbena-lemon zing. I do not like these brash first few minutes, but after 10 minutes or so the shouty-loudness of the verbena segues into mellow musky plum, grounded by the vetiver.

 

It stops smelling like a super-sour lemon fizzy candy and starts smelling OMG deliciously semi-sweet and musky and mysterious. I can smell the fig and the coconut very faintly in the background, which may very well be what makes this scent so fantastic. Antonino delivers far more than he first promised and dries down to sweet musky gorgeousness!

 

This is a total grower on my skin, and I reckon that this will be bottleworthy. Absolutely lovely, and totally unexpectedly good on me. This is a serious contender for second best CD after Mme Moriarty.

[midnight_aeval]

This is a super lemony blend! Must be the verbena, which sad to say I just had to google because I didn't understand why verbena=lemon.

 

This reminded my of a lighter version of Haunted... There's no dark musk to be had here. Sadly I do prefer Haunted to Antonino... This was too much of a happy lemon scent for me.

 

The drydown was very nice.. mellow, not heavy lemon, I think the musk and plum come out. Since I wear a scent locket I don't get to really enjoy the drydowns; too bad, it was nice!

[akw]

At first I thought this might not work because of the intense verbena. When the lemon backed off, the remaining luscious, exotic sweetness didn't last long. However . . .

 

Wait until the lemon dies back, then apply again, and wait some more, and OMG, it's gorgeous. I can't pick out any of the specific notes (past verbena I mean), but I suspect some of it is fig as that works well for me. It is luscious, sexy, exotic and rich.

 

I wore some on my wrist to an accounting class tonight, and kept myself entertained all evening. The throw isn't huge, so it can work in situations like that.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Antonino sounds like a winner for my hubby--he's fond of coconut, et. al. But I must say, I kinda like what Antonino does for me, too. The wonderful fresh verbena topnote is similar to Phantom Calliope. On the drydown, the warm fruits start to show up, especially the fig and plum. This is a bright, happy scent--if Antonino himself is as cheery as this, he could probably talk me into visiting the carny tent.

[yeahbutnobut]

Antonino, the Carny Talker

 

In the imp: lemon verbena with a hint of coconut and lavender.

Wet on skin: lemon verbena and lavender with something sweet at the base. It's very similar to Carnaval Diabolique.

Dry on skin: this is a more masculine version of CD, I think, and without the candy sweetness. It has a greener lemon note to it, with the darkness of vetiver smouldering underneath. I get a tiny, tiny amount of plum and a hint of white musk, and that same toasted coconut note I got in CD. This is very nice so far but lemon verbena does go oily or soapy at times-let's hope it doesn't in here.

After a while: the verbena does develop a slightly odd oily scent but it's not too bad here-underneath I get a lot more plum now, sweet and almost creamy-fruity, with the musk and coconut. I get a very slight nod to King of Spades but thanks to the verbena and the lack of green and berries the scent is quite different. The coconut adds a sweet, toasted feel to it all, the vetiver is delightfully subtle but it's definitely there, it's slightly lemony aspect working in tandem with verbena.

Eventually the scent is a strange lemony vetiver verbena scent which is a little metallic on me-there are hints of sweet coconut and plum but they somehow seem to clash with the vetiver. The good thing with this vetiver is that it doesn't smell like the really strong, overpowering stuff.

At the end, this smells like very watered down lemony vetiver-it's ok, but it's not something I'm crazy about. But it does improve a tiny bit with the return of coconut just before it disappears.

Verdict: this started out very nicely, like a masculine Carnaval Diabolique, with a similar coconut-lemon thing going on, backed up by plum and musk and vetiver. I wasn't so keen on the drydown though-the notes that worked so well together before seemed to clash, and the vetiver, despite it being of the subtler variety, seems to take over, adding an almost metallic scent to it all, before it remains the only note of this scent that stands out. A shame really because this had a lot of potential to start with. I really prefer CD, which is very similar, but more complex. Not sure if I'll keep it-it's nice but I'm not sure if it's a real keeper. Having said that, this scent does 'round off' this series of CD thanks to it's resemblance to the namesake blend-it's like the series has gone full circle.

Emoticon rating:

If you like this, try: Carnaval Diabolique

Edited September 28, 2006 by yeahbutnobut

[Alchemy21599]

I am rarely someone who is taken by surprise and this scent really surprised me, in a good way! I've thought that vetivert was one of my moral scent enemies, but perhaps not! Since I feared the vetivert, I first obtained a decant rather than ordering a full bottle.

 

In the vial: lemon and lavender deliciousness. A burst of summer!

 

Wet: scrumptious verbena.

 

Dry: OMG, this gets better as it dries. The fig comes out (and maybe vetiver?) to give this blend depth. The musk grounded it after about half an hour. I think this is a lovely gender neutral scent. A big bottle purchase for me

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 1/5

Summarised in a word or two: Evil Lemon.

 

In the imp: Verbena, vetiver, and lavender. None of these notes are ones I'm particularly fond of, so I'm not exactly chewing at the bit to continue...

 

On skin, wet: Lemony! But darkly so. This ain't so sunshine-y, happy lemon. Very... earthy.

 

On skin, dry: Once more, same as before! Antonino as a scent is as loud as I imagine the Carny Talker to be, and no less bold. You walk by, trying to politely ignore him, but no! — Antonino the perfume will not be ignored. Worse, right here you have three of my most loathed of notes, all clamouring for the spotlight. It's kind of like a darker, edgier, corrupted version of Carnaval Diabolique, except that CD's lemon mercifully backs off after a while. Antonino's verbena just gets stronger with time.

 

Conclusion/Notes: Me, like something with verbena, lavender, and vetiver? I had to try a drop anyway.

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle, this is all white musk and lavender. Chilly and crystalline. Strangely, I can't really pick out either of those notes once this is on my skin.

 

On me, this is a strange one. I can smell a beautifully sweet black coconut, fig, and plum trying to beat their way through the sharp lemon verbena. It's like an exotic and creamy fruit salad that's being smothered in lemons.

 

Catching whiffs of this from afar, it's really lovely. The woodsy fig mixed with a creamy toasted coconut and fruity sweet plum... it smells candied and edible. However, if I sniff my wrist up close, it's overpoweringly lemony.

 

This would be such an awesome blend if there wasn't any lemon verbena in here to muck it up As it is, the lemon is way too sharp and eats the other notes on my skin.

 

The Carny Talker is pretty much a fruity blend on my skin, dominated by sharp lemons. I can't pick out any vetiver at all.

[QueenFae]

A gloriously refreshing lemon scent. The lavendar, fig and verbena combine to form a sharp top note. I really like the combination of fig with lemon, and I love the fig note Beth uses (it's the same one as Eden). The lavendar helps to powder down the lemon note a little and make it more inviting. I thankfully cannot smell the vetiver at all, as that note really disagrees with me. But I do wish I could smell the coconut more. On the dry down, the fig becomes even stronger with a hint lemon sugar in the background. This is a gorgeously complex blend, and I love it on both me and my husband.

[jewelbug]

 

Imp: This is a very unexpected blend, the notes are crazy together (but in a good way). In the imp, I smell lavender and verbena predominantly, but don't think for a moment that its a run-of-the-mill herbal, cuz under those herbs is a hint of dark fruity sweetness, proming curveballs in your near future (or mine, at least).

 

Wet: Lemon verbena is the primary note when this hits my skin. Its incredibly bright and cheerful. There is the barest hint of darker heavier fruits, but wet...almost all verbena.

 

Drying: Its still lemony, but its backing off so you can get more of the other notes. Plum comes out, as does the white musk. And...coconut! Now, usually, coconut turns playdoh-y on me, but I think black coconut is a sometimes-exception, and luckily that is the case here.

 

Dry (45 min-1 hr): the lemon is but a faint whisper to the dark fruits (which are almost winey/montressorish to me), and the musk/coconut combo. Its truly beautiful, and not at all what you'd expect from the way the scent starts out.

 

Verdict: A glorious cacophony of notes. So complex, and definitely a scent adventure, probably not unlike the adventure that antonino himself is selling. So far (but i've yet to try them all), this is my CD standout, and I'm seriously considering a bottle.

 

edited: I've worn this more since, and its come to remind me of LUSH's Jungle scented solid conditioner, which is one of my favorite smells ever. So yeah, that bottle I was considering? I ordered it.

Edited November 10, 2006 by jewelbug