R'lyeh

[Beckiemort]

The sunken city of the Great God Cthulhu. A hellishly dark aquatic scent, evocative of fathomless oceanic deeps, the mysteries of madness buried under crushing black waters, and the brooding eternal evil that lies beneath the waves.

 

I got this as a frimp. It's very interesting because it is aquatic or ozonic, but also rich and spicy. Those two styles are usually not found together. The oil itself is dark brown in color; it is the darkest of the oils I have.

In the imp I just smell the watery scent, but when it's on my skin, the rich herbal/spicy scent comes out. I do not get grapefruit at all. After a few minutes the two are blended together.

I think this scent would work better for a man than for a woman.

 

I agree with everything above (except that it would work better for a man...but maybe I'm biased because this becomes a very sweet,spice with hints of salty aquatic on my skin). It doesn't feel evil, but rather soft and comforting like a giant duvet on a cold winter's day. I'm so surprised that I like this scent so much - it came in my last order as a frimp and it was the one that caught my nose at first and I finally gave it a full wear today and have just fallen for it.

[kythe]

A lab freebie! Smells like honeydew bitten down to the rind over something musky. It's spicy, dark, salty, and fruity without being sweet (again, the rind, but not the fruit). Evocative of swimming several feet underwater and looking up at the surface.

 

Another wonderful scent adventure that I wouldn't wear as a perfume.

[LateOne]

Tried this from a friend of mine and fellow Lovecraft fan. She told me it would work well on a guy.

 

In the bottle: Citrusy. Grapefruit. A little dark.

Wet: More grapefruit, but with darker aquatic scents kicking in.

Drydown: Shifting to flowers and pine for whatever reason. Still a bit dark.

Dry: More dark pine and citrus, almost flowery - any aquatic once there is gone after about an hour.

 

My friend liked it on me, though I was told by other women that it was something that they would wear - "not very masculine" on my skin. I'm a bit torn, as it does smell nice, but The Sunken City is not for me personally.

[Xue_Bai]

I have no idea what to expect out of this one. It was a Trading Post freebie. I've never really tried anything described as aquatic before, so....let's get on with it.

 

Imp: It does remind me of a larger body of water, but the salt is missing, as is the heaviness of fresh water. Weird. It's dark, but not heavy.

 

Wet: Same as the imp.

 

Drydown: Now it's getting some salt to it. Not quite ocean or sea, but more brackish from a estuary.

 

Dry: There's a slight fruit/floral in there now, which isn't quite grapefruit to me, but does have a citrus element. Still very similar to the imp. It's got a nice wet green thing going on, very fresh with a dark, cold undertow. The throw is HUGE on it, however, at a distance it comes across as a bit too masculine to me (weirdly like men's body wash).

 

Annnnd 30 minutes in, I get itchy like I do when I'm around dogs. No rash, just itchy all over. Guess it's a good thing it's a touch to masculine for me, otherwise I would have fallen in love and been disappointed.

[lucycat]

This was a frimp from the Lab.

 

Unfortunately, it's Eau de Hallmark Store on me. It's definitely fruity and spicy, but it's the fruit and spice of dozens of scented candles and potpourri in a card and gift shop mingled together. A bit overwhelming for my nose.

[JuliskaMarie]

In the imp: Dark, cold, wet, creepy &... grapefruit. What? This is almost exactly how the lab describes it... & then there's the grapefruit. Previous reviewers were not kidding about that!

Wet on skin: The grapefruit is much milder so far - it's just hovering around the edge of the scent. There's seaweed & darkness & all manner of spooky underwater things here! Something almost floral too.

Dry on skin: A dark, wet, evil, grapefruity musk. This is bizarre & I don't yet know how I feel about this.

After a few hours: Evil grapefruit musk.

Verdict: I... have no idea! It's not a bad smell, it's just... really weird! I don't yet know whether I'll wear it or not! Maybe if I get a scent locket?

Edited September 18, 2014 by JuliskaMarie

[dementia_divine]

In the imp: A dark aquatic, indeed.

Wet: I can't pick out the notes, but this smells like an incense-y aquatic to my nose. The incense becomes somewhat sweeter, and there is a strong aquatic note that I think may be seaweed. Aquatics tend to have a somewhat soapy quality on me, and this one does have a bit of one, but not as much as the other aquatic scents that I've tried.

Dry: A dark aquatic (with a distinct watery feel) with a sweet incense.

Verdict: This isn't my thing, but I enjoyed this more than the other aquatics I have tried thus far.

[DoktorDandy]

In the imp: Wow that's a dark-colored oil! A little intimidating! The smell is dark too, rich and fruity. Impression of black cherry?

 

Wet: Pretty straightforward- dark incense with something fruity. Then, in quick succession R'lyeh changes. Goes sweet, almost vanilla, falls to distant molasses, climbs back up to grapefruit rind and brown sugar. After only about five minutes the fruity chorus packs up and leaves.

 

Dry: After it settled a while, I kept sniffing my wrist, trying to catch the memory this was triggering. Then I remembered- bare with me- this is a dead ringer for blueberry incense my family would buy in Acadia national park/ Bar Harbor, Maine. It's not a blueberry cobbler, fake blueberry or real blueberry. It smells like it's own thing. Just very weird to find it here, of all places. As a reader of Lovecraft, and possibly a distant relative, I find all these cheerful, fruity Lovecraft scents to be pretty funny.

 

TL;DR- this is a dark, sweet incense that might have a distance acquaintance with spruce or pine.

 

Not bad, not my favorite, but could get better. We'll see how I use my imp.

Edited June 2, 2015 by DoktorDandy

[DiesMali]

Note: I expected this to smell awful on me and was not disappointed.

 

In the imp: Sour and sweet at the same time.

 

Wet on my skin: Oh gods is that grapefruit?

 

Dry: Ffffffffffffff- yes, it's grapefruit. So far, all of the Arkham aquatics have either made me smell like a muddy hole or cleaning solution, and this one makes me smell like dirty mop water. I'll just...go mop the floor with my face now, or something. Maybe it'll scrape this off my skin.

[roseus]

Well, it has been said before but this is evil grapefruit. Dark, deep, salty, ozone-y, grapefruit. Don't think I'll ever really reach for it, but a very interesting scent indeed.

[Casablanca]

Usually when a lot of reviews list a note, I get it too, but not in this case. No grapefruit here.

 

Bottle: Dark, metallic and salty ocean. A deep gray, darkly green-tinged scent. Does this have vetiver?

Wet: Goes extremely salty on my skin. Then I get something like metallic rotting kelp.

Dry: This reminds me of the zucchini in Orc, but metallic and super-salty. I found Orc nauseating and have about the same reaction here.

I'll try to avoid putting this on for date nights.

[rachelos]

The bitter phase of this is great, but it quickly morphs into something too sweet for me, similar smelling to Tweedledee.

Edited July 3, 2017 by rachelos

[BuxomM]

Prominent aquatic note. I get something green bitter with a hint of citrus, but it doesn't smell like grapefruit/lemon/lime/or verbena to me. The scent smells like green water. I don't get a dark note. It settles into something aquatic & dryer sheet scented. I prefer the foodie stuff, so not for me

[achildoftime]

For me, this is pretty much what it says on the tin. It's a deep body of water. I don't think it's as salty as the ocean is, but more like a large lake. It's still deep and dark, but it doesn't smell like brine. It reminds me more of algae and moss than seaweed. I like it a whole lot. I wish this is the scent that I actually ended up smelling like after a day in the aquarium.

[lady_pandora]

Not dark at all on me--it's melon shading into more of a mixed fruit scent with light ozone. It's a fresh summer scent, but not quite my thing.

[monocainsheresy]

Another viscous aquatic rears its ugly head

This was a frimp. I've been very cautious around any and all aquatics since the Deep Ones incident of 2016. Unfortunately, as soon as I opened this the old, familiar smell of my enemy hit me: fresh, sickly, where-is-the-rotting-octopus BRINE.

.

.

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This will never touch my skin.