Venom

[MaeKitty]

Darkly seductive and lethally compelling: sinuous opponax, galbanum, dark wild berries, a drop of lush jasmine and a sliver of lime.

In the bottle: Jasmin, berries and lime. Wiiiierd combo.
On me: Definitely dark. The lime is throwing me off a bit. The opponax, galbanum and jasmin are lush, dark, dusky and warm. The berries sweeten it and the lime brings a freshness to counter the darkness. I don't think this one is for me, but it's gorgeous and mysterious. Ominous. If this scent were a lady, I would not mess with her.

[theseagrows]

i am so delighted that i've finally gotten to try venom! it's a beautiful scent- warm, dark but with a coolness at the same time. it's very opulent. mostly it smells like incense on my skin, and i can smell the dark berries in the background. venom is in the same family as voodoo queen, if i remember correctly. in my head they remind me of each other. i'll have to try them side by side to see for sure. i am definitely keeping my imp of this.

[Jenesis]

I was frimped a sniffie of this, and I must admit that I'm glad I don't like it. All I get out of it is "feet covered in hair dye". Don't ask me where I get that from, but to me I can smell sweaty-feet-stink with the pervading chemical tang of ammonia-based hair dye. Oh well!

[moonstonemama]

this is really nice. it's sweet and citrusy and somehow floral at the same time. berries and citrus and flowers. I should like this, this shouldn't smell this good... but it does. it smells really, really good. I don't think this is something I could wear often, but it's sweet and fun and playful. I wouldn't mind getting some more of this.

[ElinaMakropulos]

Good godamighty, this is gorgeous. Normally I don't like jasmine or florals in general, but this is just so smooth and lovely. Somehow the jasmine and resins blend and smell like the most perfect tuberose ever, another one I generally don't like. I get none of the lime, just lovely, round florals.

[zankoku_zen]

Hmm... so jasmine doesn't go cat pee on me... but it does end up smelling like a dark lilac perfume. Yes, lilacs. It's sophisticated, dark, mature... lilacs.

 

Hrm.

 

Doesn't float my boat, but I'm glad I got this so I can share the love with a few peeps.

[tartchef]

I can totally see where zankoku_zen is getting lilacs - after the initial jasmine blast dies down, it combines with the resins for a deeply purple floral scent... the lime & berries add a zippy little bit of sweetness. Pleasant, but too flowery for me, in the end.

[Lamia]

I was blessed by tartchef with a frimp. I desperately wanted this to work, as it smelled so magnificently in the bottle.

 

Nice to know that my nose isn't crazy - I applied this without checking the ingredients and thought "Poison, with a touch of lemon". Ah well.

 

As I was blessed, so will I share the mojo, and find someone who wants to love this.

[filigree_shadow]

I guess I smell some jasmine in this, and a little bit of dark haze, and I suppose those are berries but it kinda smells more like plum to me. It's hard to me to tell exactly what Venom smells like because when I sniff it pretty much the only thing I think is that it smells an awful lot like Poison, which I wore for several years about 20 years ago. Because of that, it is instantly a familiar, comforting scent. I definitely like it. If I could get a bottle of this, I sure would.

 

I've had this on my wishlist for like 4 years now, and nary an additional drop has come my way (except for that initial decant I somehow got a hold of). You used to see a couple of bottles on eBay now and then but they were all out of my price range. I had been hoping to find some, but I've given up by now. It's okay... I can always get a bottle of Poison.

[ljaylh]

First up, I want to give a big shout-out to the lovely Edens Sixth Day for graciously sharing a little of her Venom with me, so that I could try it.

 

The main thing I notice in Venom when I first apply it is the 'dark wild berries' which end up translating to something that smells very much like a slightly smoky plum on my skin - it's reminding me of the plum note in Hellion. I do not wear jasmine well at all, and just a couple of minutes after putting the oil on my skin I can definitely pick up the jasmine note in here - it's slightly interfering with the berries - not so much that it's being unpleasant about it at first - but over time, the jasmine comes out more strongly and does start to amp out over everything else.. just a bit too much for my liking, I would have preferred it to stay in the background.

 

The lime is interesting, when I first read the notes for Venom I did wonder what lime was doing in there - it seemed like an odd addition - but I'm finding it's adding a very subtle sweet tangy freshness that works quite nicely with the earthy/woody tone of the galbanum and the resin-y sweetness of the opoponax.

 

I can see why this is such a highly sought after blend - whilst it reminds me of some other BPALs in the same type of berry/resin combination family, it is not quite like anything else I've tried before and the note combination is really interesting. I do get the comparison to Poison, but in my opinion this is nowhere near as sweet or rich/strong as Poison - it's more sultry.. where I always saw Poison as deep purple in colour, I see Venom as a rich burgundy colour.

 

Thankfully, this is not something I'm going to go nuts trying to find. I'm really glad I got to try it though - I think that if there wasn't jasmine involved, I could have really fallen for Venom.

[mxtine]

I've had Venom on my WL since I was a BPAL newbie because of the comparisons to an old favorite, Poison. Thanks to the lovely saralaughs for the awesomely testable sniffie!

 

In the vial, I can smell the comparison. It's a wickedly dark plum/berry resin. To my dismay, the jasmine note amps on my skin. The jasmine doesn't stay strong and I'm able to smell mostly wild berry resin and a bit of lime. The lime complements the dark notes very well, keeping this from being too sweet by adding a citrusy zing. I loved to finally review this, but something tells me the floral aspect would get in the way too much for me to really enjoy it.

[celestia]

♔ Venom

In the Bottle: Dark forest berries, silvery lime musk, and cologne white florals.

Wet: Wow! Venom smells like what one would wear to and slinky dark, upscale lounge. I can smell forest berries hidden in a bushy hearth, along with some sort of tart lime juice. It’s not super sharp or tart, quite soft and a little powdery. And the white florals definitely do not have that distinct Jasmine note I get from sweet Jasmine blends like ‘Follow Me Boy’ or ‘The Flowers Cleave Apart’.

Drydown: It’s slowly transformed into mint-lime forest berries- the florals have disappeared. It smells like a slow, seductive poison, almost hypnotic- there is a wafting darkness surrounding the alluring trap of nature’s sweet fruits, with the lime being the only tell-tale sign to run. The opopnax is not as dark as I’ve tried from other blends, the jasmine florals, lime and berries seem to have tamed it down quite a fair way. I get more lime towards the end of the drydown phase, sharp enough to be detected in a concoction of what has now become jasmine berries and lime fougere- similar to the role of lime in Adante Con Fantasia. Overall it’s alluring, even a little entrancing- but not for me, I ain’t no poison nub.

TL;DR: Spiky forest berries with powdery lime and faint white floral.

Edited April 11, 2017 by celestia