Tamamo-no-Mae

[eviltemptressdq]

... Tamamo-no-Mae's scent is soft skin musk, brushed by white tea leaf, rice flower, black locust flower, white sandalwood kodo smoke, dry ginger, benzoin gum, and Amacha.

Yup... one of my favorite scents EVER (Hungry Ghost Moon)'s little brother has come out to play!

There is something in HGM that is not in this one... it is like HGM was harvested before it "matured". LOL. It is delicious! Missing the sharp grapefruit note, maybe? Very creamy-tea... with ginger.

I love this! must find a backup bottle to hoard

[bulletslc]

Very much reminds me of Hungry Ghost Moon....only with more musky tones. I love musk, but I have to say I like HGM better overall. I'll probably keep my imp of this for now....but wouldn't hesitate to use it for a good swap, as I think I'll reach for HGM before I'd reach for this. It IS lovely for those who adore variations on the asian scent theme, however!

[Extispex]

I've been looking for a 'peachy' tea scent since... hmmm.... since first arriving at BPAL. I cannot believe I've finally not only found it, but it has surpassed my wildest dreams. Tamamo-no-mae is a gorgeous, beautifully blended scent. In the bottle its very fruity to me, with an underlying sharpness that vanishes when it hits my skin.

 

On, wet, its actually quite heady on me, very rich with lots of throw. A very abundant scent, bursting and ripe and intoxicating.

 

It lightens a bit on the dry-down, and thats when the peachiness comes out. It doesn't smell like a peach, but rather hints at it. This one is really a bit hard to pin down. Its neither fruity nor floral nor woody, but elusive and ethereal. A ghostly beauty.

[Cheri]

I agree with the peachy note in Tamamo No Mae. It must be chemistry, but my husband said he likes it a lot. Sometimes it takes me a few tries to love a new scent and this might be one of them. It sure is keeping me sniffing my wrist for the last few hours. I might have to update in a few days.

 

Liber Amoris said:

There’s something almost peachy about the way this plays out on my skin, although it must just be the combination of notes striking my nose in such a way to create phantom notes. The ginger is barely audible on me---there’s just the barest brush of it.

[supremegoddessofall]

In bottle: Benzoin and smoke.

 

On me: Soft sandalwood, skin musk, and suntan lotion.

[kwsix]

On me, Tamamo-no-Mae is a bright fruity floral. I don't get any sandalwood from the blend. It's very summery and feminine, and I agree that there's a certain peachy feel even though peach may or may not be present in the blend. I get very little ginger, and as it dries the skin musk really starts to come out. I'm not too fond of the wet stage on my skin. It's too bright and sharp for my liking, more like a classicly feminine department store perfume. And the skin musk smells too musky and dirty, but that's definitely just my skin. Musks are always iffy on me. But when it dries, the sharpness turns into a surprisingly lovely glow that is sweet with a hint of tartness and ever so slightly spiced. Tamamo-no-Mae settles into an amazingly delicate skin scent that no department store scent could ever achieve.

[alicia_stardust]

Tamamo-no-Mae is a gorgeously soft, smooth Asian blend. It reminds me ever so slightly of Hungry Ghost Moon, but Tamamo is much more sultry and delicate. It is more refined.

 

On my skin I can really detect the skin musk and rice flower above all else, but I do detect the benzoin gum and it's among my favorite of all the resins. I love the quality that the tea leaf lends to this.

 

I agree that there's a bright note in this somewhere, but I don't get fruit or peach from it. It's light and breezy without being ozone-like. It's feminine and eloquent.

 

This is breathtakingly soft and delicate and I love it. I will definitely keep my bottle.

[phantasmmysteria]

I can see why the Emperor and his concubines would be so enamoured with this mysterious courtesan! She smelled DIVINE!

 

I'm afraid I haven't sniffed Hungry Ghost Moon in order to draw a correlation between it and T-N-M, but for some reason this reminds me of a creamier Dr. John Seward! They both contain sandlewood and ginger, as well as the creamy notes of tonka (Dr.) and benzoin (TNM). The ginger of Tamamo only lends a whisper of spice to the blend, however, and helps keep the blend from being too sweet. This is so feminine without being too floral or cloying. It's perfect.

 

A friend of mine remarked that I smelled like coconut milk when I wore it once. I think it smells a whole helluva lot better than just coconut milk, but I guess that can't be a bad thing, right?

[Mamacat]

I didn't expect to fall in love with this blend. And even though so many of the reviews said "peach tea" I still ordered it (thanks nursekins!)

 

Wet: huh . . .it smells like Republic of Tea's Ginger Peach. Tea doesn't usually work for me.

On: Wow! This is so creamy and much more complex and delicate than peach tea. Must be the tonka and benzoin. Mmmmmm . . .

Dry: Love! Creamy and sweet with just a hint of ginger and tea. Just gorgeous!

 

I love it! And the label is too beautiful. I'm glad I get to keep it.

[LadyCrow]

In the imp: Sweet, sweet floral; ginger; and something tickly. (Here I go again with all of those really technical terms.)

 

Wet: The above, plus an upsurge of musk, and -- if I'm not very much mistaken -- sandalwood.

 

Drydown: I'm getting the green tea note very strongly in the throw, but close to my skin is, I hate to report, the same clingy, cloying peach that's driven me nuts in Jack and Pumpkin Queen -- or so it seems. Here, it seems clearer, as in Yerevan, because obviously it isn't being muddled with pumpkin -- but on me, the fruitiness overrides the complexity of the other notes, and gets muddled... with the skin musk. I'm not even very far into the drydown on this, and I'm starting to get a perfumey, almost aldehyde note that's like headache in a can.

 

Verdict: Man, talk about the girl you fall in love with and then discover she's a giant two-tailed kitsune.

[khiseer]

This is a lighter less sweet hungry ghost to me. Still smells 'peachy' but i can pick up the light ginger in it as well.. Skin musk works out so well with my skin chemistry and that makes this sit really well on me. The tea makes it light and sweet but it stays creamy the whole way though. Gorgeous, very glad to have 2 bottles!

 

 

Label is stunning.

[aine]

Tamamo-no-Mae is all creamy peachiness on me. I was seduced by words like tea, ginger, benzoin, smoke and sandalwood in the description, but I couldn't have pegged the 'feel' of this one more incorrectly if I tried!

 

It is a little like an asian milky jelly sweet that a workmate used to make (I know, not so helpful when I can't remember the name of it ).

 

Overall, a lovely scent and I can absolutely understand why it is so highly sought-after. And one of my favourite labels ever. But alas it is just not something I can see myself ever wearing.

[Ishtar]

Love at first sniff!

I inadvertently bought a decant of Tamamo-no-Mae from two different forumites, but I am very happy to know that I have more of this wonderful perfume on the way!

 

As many reviews mentioned, Tamamo is a delicious blend of fruity and creamy notes, a combination I adore. In fact, it reminds me quite a bit of Eos, another fruity / creamy scent and another absolute favourite.

 

This is a light, gentle, very well-balanced blend. It stays fairly close to the skin, which is just as well, because there is something so delicate and intimate about this scent that I almost do not feel like sharing it with the outside world...

 

Absolutely gorgeous

[ND¢]

I didn't find this to be fruity or creamy, and it's very hard to describe-- Felt that Beth's description of the courtesan summed it up perfectly. It is a gentle, sweet, sexy/demure blend-- I don't even really get the ginger... it's just the perfume I wear when I want to feel like the most desirable gal ever. Oh, Tamamo!

[Astarte]

This is my current number one bpal scent I've fallen in love for this scent and I can't believe I missed when this went live.

 

A delicious melange of peach, ginger and musk on initial application. Tamamo settles softly and loses the initial sharpness into a gentle skin scent with the hint of peaches.

 

This scent could not be any more perfect.

[Miss Lynx]

This is quite nice -- definitely the musk is the strongest note, but it's a very light, almost ethereal sort of musk, not heavy at all. The other notes give it added complexity -- a touch of floral sweetness, and a bit of incensey depth, but overall it's a very light, gentle scent.

 

It's slightly reminiscent of Sudha Segara, but it doesn't disappear as fast on my skin as that one does. Also a bit remiscent of Vasakasajja from the Faces of the Heroine series, or the eventual drydown of Schlafende Baigneuse. It's very feminine, but not overpoweringly sweet; subtly sexy while not being over-the-top enough to be inappropriate in polite company.

 

Might almost be worth tracking down a bottle of, though it's not likely to be a daily favourite. But it's definitely something I'll enjoy wearing from time to time...

 

Grade: B+

[usamimi]

In the imp: Sweet and spicy fruits!

 

Wet: Sweet and gentle florals, with a fruity, Asian tea kind of smell. The ginger is very gentle and doesn't try to overpower everything.

 

Dry: This got a little sweeter on me--possibly from the lotus, that tends to go bubblegum-y on me--but it didn't end up making me smell like a gumball like most things that have lotus do. Awesome! I love the balance of scents, this is probably one of the best Asian-inspired scents I've ever tried. I wish I'd known about it when it was released, I would've definitely gotten a bottle of this!

[CrazyPretzel]

Well.... after all of the hype, this one could really only be a disappointment, eh?

 

To begin with, with the exception of ginger and sandalwood, I'm not familiar with the notes in here. Wet, I can smell coconut mixed with light musk and - surprisingly - something fruity, but the coconut disappears once it dries.

 

When the scent dries on me it's very light and has hardly any throw. Initially it's still a little fruity with a soft flower (rice-flower?) that I can smell if I inhale very deeply. The drydown varies between a sweet light musk with a little tartness and on the other hand a slightly foosty woodsy smell.

 

Ah well. I've been collecting decants and now I suppose I can begin swapping them!

[n3m3sis42]

In the imp:

Fruity, like oranges or something similar but more exotic.

 

Wet:

Juicy citrus! With something like ginger behind it, I think. And some sort of soft floral.

 

Dry:

Hmmm, mostly oranges and florals. Very pretty, but not a must-have. If I happened to run across one on eBay, I'd buy it, though.

Edited September 23, 2007 by n3m3sis42

[greymatter]

I got 2 bottles of this at the brick & mortar back in May because I'd read nothing but good things about it. I couldn't wait. When I got it? I was underwhelmed. It was "nice," but more perfumey than I like. I put it away and didn't think anything more about it.

 

Tonight I took it out - just a few minutes ago - and dabbed some on just out of curiosity.

 

O.M.G.

 

This is insanely beautiful. It just makes me feel pretty and happy. It's so sweet (not cloyingly, just soft) and pretty and feminine and just gorgeous.

 

My goodness.

 

I am so glad I decided to try this again instead of just swapping it away. And now I have 2 bottles.

 

Between this and Bakaneko, I'm insanely happy. Why do I have to love the LEs?

[ClareN]

I absolutely love the scent of this when it's freshly applied and still wet on my skin - it's a creamy almost-vanilla/tea/musk with pure, high-pitched floral notes and sweet green grass, but all blended together into one smooth scent.

 

However, it morphs in a bad way as it dries. BPAL's fruit notes almost always turn "fake" and generally awful on my skin, so you may want to take this review with several grains of salt. But what I got was a fruit note (artificial peach-strawberry) that soon drowns out almost everything else, with a hint of spicy ginger in the background. (The ginger scent is almost burning my throat!) For the next few hours, it stays this way and smells like a fruity perfume that would be marketed to very young girls. It's odd that no fruit notes are listed, because fruitiness is definitely the dominant "feel" of this blend. I can also understand the comparisons to suntan lotion.

 

The scent is so different from the listed notes - I want more benzoin, sandalwood and tea! But I'm not too devastated that this doesn't work on me - I'm relieved I don't have to try and track down a bottle of such a coveted LE scent.

[myoubi]

This is nothing like the listed notes, to my nose. Except for maybe the kodo smoke and the sandalwood.

This is creamy without being thick, and gently sweet without being sugary. It is quite light on my skin, and smells slightly of tea and slightly of smoke. It has a vaguely vanilla-y quality to it, but it's /not/ a vanilla blend. It's /very/ light on skin. I don't get much fruit from this one.

 

I like it. I see why people love it.

[ImperatrixMundi]

I absolutely love the scent of this when it's freshly applied and still wet on my skin - it's a creamy almost-vanilla/tea/musk with pure, high-pitched floral notes and sweet green grass, but all blended together into one smooth scent.

 

However, it morphs in a bad way as it dries. BPAL's fruit notes almost always turn "fake" and generally awful on my skin, so you may want to take this review with several grains of salt. But what I got was a fruit note (artificial peach-strawberry) that soon drowns out almost everything else, with a hint of spicy ginger in the background. (The ginger scent is almost burning my throat!) For the next few hours, it stays this way and smells like a fruity perfume that would be marketed to very young girls. It's odd that no fruit notes are listed, because fruitiness is definitely the dominant "feel" of this blend. I can also understand the comparisons to suntan lotion.

 

The scent is so different from the listed notes - I want more benzoin, sandalwood and tea! But I'm not too devastated that this doesn't work on me - I'm relieved I don't have to try and track down a bottle of such a coveted LE scent.

 

 

 

I so agree with this review, except that I dont get so much ginger. This does not work at all. It sounded so lovely and smells great in the vial but all I get on my skin is the unpleasant sharp and sour smell of fruit notes gone wrong, almost all of them do that to me.

 

Good bye Tamamo, you will be swapped.

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

there are a couple of notes in this blend that i have no clue what they should smell like...

that being said, on me this turns into a waxy-plastic peachberry.

[Honeygirl]

Bottle: Very asian smelling, ginger and tangerineish

 

Wet: Fruity and gingery, love it!

 

Drydown: Some tea comes out here, it stays very asian inspired. I love this!

4.0 outta 5