Mr. Vandemar

[angelicruin]

MR. VANDEMAR
The second of the visitors, a tall man, the one he had thought of as a wolf, his gray and black hair cut bristle-short, stood a little behind his friend, holding a stack of photocopies to his chest. He had said nothing until this moment---just waited, huge and impassive. Now he laughed, once, low and dirtily. There was something unhealthy about that laugh.

Dark and gangly, with a glint of razor-sharp stainless steel behind it: opopponax, costus, black pepper, black sandalwood, and polished metal.

Skin tested at C2. I got light opopponax, pepper, & metallic out of this blend.

[voorishsign]

Just got all my Neverwhere decants and my Croup & Vandemar bottles in the mail today - glee! Can't test them all now though, have errands to run, they'll have to wait until the afternoon, but I did put Vandemar on as my scent for today

 

In the bottle, this is just like its namesake: imposing, dark, somewhat monstrous, very intimidating. On wet, the pepper and opopponax with hints of metal.

 

On the drydown Mr. Vandemar becomes much friendlier. The sandalwood provides a nice base, the pepper takes a quality akin to curry powder - which other reviewers had pointed out before and which was one of the things that intrigued me most about this blend, and I'm glad I'm getting that note on me! Metal barely detectable, gives the blend a nice little edge. Absolutely wonderfully blended. A new favourite!

[edenssixthday]

Mr. Vandemar - On me, this is mostly pepper, black sandalwood and metal. The metal is not a crisp, clean, bright, shiny metal. It is dark, rusted, and heavy. It smells to me like there may be some blood accord in this, as it has a weird coppery-tangy scent to it. Now that I'm reading the other reviews, I see the comment about curry powder, and while I'd have never I.D.'d that scent on my own, I totally "get it" now that I read it. Overall, it's a really well-blended scent that probably smells great on the right person, but isn't really my type of fragrance.

[forspecial_plate]

There was a chance I might like this, but it was pretty risky too. Fortunately a kind forum member sent me a decant with a recent purchase, so I got to try it, risk-free. : )

 

It's way too harsh for me, and it kind of reminds me of Hastur or Ligur (I always get them confused), which didn't really work for me either. The black pepper is way too strong, and it's a note I'm not crazy about in the first place, but especially here, it's just too much. Underneath that is some kind of weird chemical note, which might be opoponax, but.....I thought I liked opoponax! I think in some blends it just turns bad for me, for whatever reason, and it's happening here. This is indeed a dark scent, harsh and peppery, with a strange chemical quality that I just didn't like. It's not very often that I have to wash off a bpal scent but I had to wash this one off.....and then apply something else to take away the memory! : (

 

PS.....If you liked Hastur and/or Ligur, and you like black pepper in your perfume, I think you should try this scent!

Edited May 15, 2010 by Forspecial Plate

[Lethran]

In bottle: opopponax and polish mostly. I like what the pepper is doing. The whole thing is vaguely unsettling as suits the name and concept. Wet: There’s the sandalwood! The polish generalizes over metal and wood. It’s a touch gentler and sweeter on the skin, more intriguing than unsettling now. I wasn’t sure about it in the bottle, but my skin seems to really like it. As it warms it goes spicy on top on the polished wood and metal. It’s fairly androgynous and oddly fresh smelling despite the oiliness of the polish/opopponax. Dry: It turns sharp and viscous all over again. The mix goes very fierce and dark and aggressive. The polish blends better with the other elements once it has time to settle. I think I can pick out the costus now, as there’s a strong scent I don’t recognize, so I figure that must be it. This manages to imply predator without resorting to actual predator scents. This is not for daily wear as it’s not an easy scent to live with. It sure is interesting and appropriate to it’s concept.

[Dharklady]

In bottle: Sandalwood and pepper.

Wet: I’m not familiar with many of these notes, but I’m getting a noseful of pepper when wet.

Dry: Again, I don’t have a good feel for the single notes involved in this blend, but it feels, sharp, artificial, and a touch metallic.

Notes: Again, a really interesting blend, I always enjoy trying unusual scents…

 

[Blood onmy hands]

I liked this when I first got it, but it has gotten sort of sickly sweet with aging, and is starting to remind me of bbq. The opoponax is syrupy sweet and smells a lot like bbq sauce when mixed with the black pepper and smoky wood. The drydown is a bit off and sour...

Edited January 29, 2012 by Little Bird

[Iceblink]

Strong, STRONG black pepper over sandalwood. So strong I can't believe I'm not sneezing when I sniff it! Way too peppery for me. Good staying power, though.

[Pottersville]

Apparently Mr. Vandemar has BO, which is in keeping with how I pictured him, but not what I want in a perfume oil. Srsly ... upon first slather something in this blend hit me as SO WRONG that I wanted to immediately wash it off. It may have been the metal, as I haven't had much luck with the Lab's metal notes. I fought the urge and after a bit, the wrong note backed away enough to let the others come out to play, so I had a nice -if indistinct- slightly sweet, somewhat peppery scent to wear. A few hours later I started to wonder if my deodorant had failed. Nope, it was just Mr. Vandemar. Peeyeewwww!

[milo]

Wet, very strong, acrid. I actually thought it was vetiver until I looked at the notes. It ends up being a peppery, strong forboding musk like blend. I get no metal, thankfully. My skin really loves sandalwood, and it smells amazing on me when I heat up, so I'm hoping that will make an appearance later. At this point, however, it is really much to 'dark', of a blend, (even for me, as I like dark blends), to consider a bottle.

[zankoku_zen]

I get a very masculine blend - with black sandalwood, black pepper and something musky. Just a touch of metal that livens it up. But in general, very hulking, very bruising.

[whisperstilled]

In imp: Mr. Vandemar is not for the faint of heart. This must be what the sharp edge of a knife blade smells like - metallic, spicy, and deadly. The sandalwood gives it a dry, sharp edge, with a hint of pepper.

 

Wet: Peppery and metallic. Definitely smells like an unholy demon in the pit, but in a good way if that makes any sense.

 

Dry: Stays spicy, but calms a bit. While it's not my sort of scent, I can totally see what most people see in this one. 3/5

[filigree_shadow]

Mr Vandemar creeps me out in Neverwhere, but this scent doesn't.

 

The imp-sniff is very metallic, almost like oiled machinery, but when the oil is on my skin, it doesn't smell like that. It smells dark but not dank, peppery but not spicy, and smoky but not like something is burning. It smells slightly creepy but not unhinged. To be honest, I find it kinda comforting, and wouldn't mind having this as a room scent, even though it's a little too masculine for me as a perfume.

 

The pepper is pretty strong, so if you like peppery scents definitely try this.