Giant Vulva

[reconditarmonia]

Skin musk, sugar cane, honey, beeswax, vanilla flower, and copal.

 

Aaaaahhh, now I know what the note is that made Philologus smell so much like cologne! It's BEESWAX! And I love how beeswax smells in real life! I was expecting this to be sweet and honeyed and feminine - but it's just...cologne.

I think I'll be passing this on. I know many people will appreciate it better than I could.

EDIT: Okay, it's not cologney any more. Now it actually is sweet and honeyed and feminine...but perhaps juuust a bit on the too-sweet/foody side, thank you sugar and vanilla. Still passing it on, but a little more reluctantly.

[strahlend]

I do love this scent. It's unique to my experience in that it is somehow both light in feel and also unmistakably present. There is some musk, something tart, something sweet... and they come together to make this absolutely fascinating whole that is beyond description. A masterpiece.

I might consider Velvet Nudie and Philologus in a similar family of scent.

[yakiguri]

Strangely enough, Giant Vulva smells like a lighter Illustrated Woman on my skin. I'm guessing it's the copal coming off like pine on me. Unfortunately this blend is a little TOO light, my nose barely picking it up unless I grind my nose into my wrist. Within an hour it's gone poof. Ah well, there are plenty of other second-skin blends out there that have much stronger staying power.

[griffonner]

In the bottle- Musky sweet with just a hint of copal.

Wet- Copal and beeswax comes through the strongest, with sweet undertones.

5 minutes- The sweet is melding with the copal. Just a hint of beeswax.

Dry- It all comes together as a musky sweet incense.

 

One of the first scents I bought, I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not but it has become my favorite scent.

[Alethia]

Thoughts before testing: I've recently discovered a love of beeswax, so I'm quite excited to try this.

 

Wet: Oh wow. I can't even begin to pick notes out because this is so beautifully blended.

 

Dry down: It's going just a touch powdery, but still quite beautiful.

 

Dry: This is a beautiful blend.

 

Final thoughts: I was all prepared to proclaim victory and start scouring the web for more of this when my mother walked by and said "What is that?! You smell just like your grandmother!" in horror. And upon further sniffing, I do indeed. My grandmother was not an easy woman to get along with, and we had a particularly rocky relationship. Sadly, this association has ruined GV for me

 

Verdict: Beautiful, but off to the sales!

[Gateau]

In the wet and early drydown phases of this I get a sharpish and sort of powdery honey cologne scent, which I'm attributing to the copal and skin musk. After it's good and dry I start getting the smooth lovely sweet and warm vanilla scent people are so wild about. However, having started out this year with Blossoms in Springtime, I think I have a means of getting to that kind of scent more quickly. This one makes me go through a phase I'm not crazy about.

[volpe]

Clean, fresh, happy, healthy snatch, and honey. Beautiful, delicious. Totally unwearable. It's not a perfume, it's a sex toy. Makes me howl at the moon.

[ModderRhu]

At first sniff this smells exactly like The First of the Three Spirits. As I'm wearing it, the skin musk comes out quite strongly. I'm able to identify it only because I have an imp of Neutral it gets kind of perfumey, but later on the musk settles and melds with the sweeter elements of the oil. It's quite nice. Not what I was expecting though. If you are looking for a less BPALicorny version of this, try The First of the Three Spirits. It's almost exactly the same.

[neuilly]

I'm getting a lot of beeswax, vanilla, and skin musk...and something spicy? Is that copal? I have no idea what copal smells like. It's a nice scent, and it's got a lot of notes that I love but it just doesn't feel like me. Off to swaps!

[Magycmyste]

In the imp: A slightly sweet perfume scent. At the moment, my nose is a little stuffed, so I don't think I can get more specific than that, unfortunately.

 

Wet on skin: I'm getting something floral, tempered by a bit of sweetness, though I'm not sure is it's the honey, sugarcane or vanilla. Actually, since it's vanilla flower, maybe that's providing the floral quality I'm getting.

 

Dried down: A little bit sweeter, but still heavier on the floral.

 

Throw: I'm not getting much unless I sniff my wrists, but my nose is stuffed, as I said earlier. My OH said he couldn't smell it, either, though, and he's about a foot away.

 

Verdict: **** I think this scent is really pretty, but I'm not crazy about it for some reason. I think this will either end up in my second chance pile or my swaps pile, unless something catches my attention as it stays on my skin that makes me really want to keep it.

Edited July 22, 2013 by Magycmyste

[lohengrin]

In the bottle: Department store perfume. Damn. Skin musk is usually a safe-ish one for me, so I'm surprised.

 

On skin, wet: Same as in the bottle. At least it's not super strong, so it's not giving me a headache.

 

On skin, dry: Ah, there's the "clean" scent I get from skin musk. On the down side, that is ALL I smell.

 

After an hour: Same as the initial drydown. I was really hoping for skin musk + honey from this! Or even the cane sugar! Some sweetness, is the jist of what I wanted. I don't hate it and it's not causing any bad reactions so I will give this one another shot in a month or so, but. Disappointed.

[DJ Sin]

I didn't look at the notes when I tried this one.

It is so well blended that it was hard to tell anything apart. It just smelled very cologne-y at first.

Hours later, I can smell a soft vanilla and a light touch of honey.

 

4/5 for me!

[Deliciousness]

I find this blend has a very perfume-y vibe, very mature smelling - but not in a bad way.

It wears like a sweeter, strong resin - which must be the copal. I can't detect the beeswax or the skin musk because the copal is at the forefront of this scent.

The throw is decent and the wear time is quite long.

This blend is warm, resinous and very "sexy adult". I like it!

[TorchedEarth]

In the imp, this smelled warm and sweet.

It turned quite a bit more musky on my skin, and while smelling gorgeous, it was nearly immediately headache inducing.

I don't get the honey at all (which is a good thing for me.)

15 minutes later I have to shove my face into my wrist to smell it.

It's really nice at some stages, but I think this will be added to my swap list.

[bellumed]

A lot of musk and honey blends have that sexed-out vibe to them (as the Love Potion forumites say, SMF or smells like... you know). But Giant Vulva isn't quite like that. Instead of a raunchy, filthy honey that proclaims I JUST HAD SEEEEEXXXXX, Giant Vulva is the Hollywood version of the afterglow, artfully tousled hair and make-up intact, a vision of feminine perfection. The beeswax stands out; I think that's what de-sexes it a little bit. Perhaps not my style but a definite goodie!

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Mmm, honey and musk, one of my fave combos. Though it's doing a bit of that weird thing skin musk does on me sometimes where it's a bit citrusy. Not a fan of citrus, so hoping it burns off. This is really sensual though.

 

 

Dry: Sexy, but not overtly. It's much lighter than expected, mostly skin musk (which thankfully lost most of its citrusy quality) with a bit of honey and lovely, light vanilla flower. It's a very delicate fragrance. I really really like, and will likely slather in it this summer.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: The musk is what hits me first, and is the most dominant. I'd say... sweet skin musk, with a touch of honey.

 

Dry: Beeswax has arrived! Otherwise, pretty similar to the wet stage. It's a tad muskier, but still perfectly nice. Low throw. I could see this being a good first-date kinda scent.