The Cat

[LizziesLuck]

Sleek, black, dark, and clever: benzoin, honey, cedar, and dark musk.

 

Wet: Cedar, which is briefly really sour, but then the honey warms and it sweetens right up. I take a gamble every time I try someone with cedar, but right now it's kind of nice. Sweet, hints of dark musk. It hasn't turned to pencil shavings yet, so we're off to a good start.

 

Dry: The honey and musk in this are to die for. The cedar just grounds it, it doesn't overwhelm. The benzoin is fairly prominent compared to other blends (on me) and gives it a resinous quality. I can't stop huffing my arm. This isn't really my usual kinda thing, and that may be one of the reasons I like it so much! I need to track down a bottle, I think.

[unxolve]

Starting out this is baby wipes )8

 

I can DETECT the black musk and benzoin trying, but the combination isn't working out. Maybe cedar is doing this.

 

And then once it's dry I get the same thing as Balame, a sweet comforting baby shampoo. Not offensive, just a warm, fresh-from bath skin smell that is actually??? Super beautiful, light, human, and pleasing. It doesn't smell anything like what I'm used to from any of the notes involved. I actually really like this... ||:

[nok]

I've been wearing this one a lot lately and figured I should say some things about it. This is one of those unique oils that truly smells like nothing else I've come across, bpal or niche in general. A carefully crafted treasure where honey and benzoin sweeten a sawdust cedar with barbershop musk and baby powder. It's a rich, thick, deep golden colored oil that goes on sticky like real honey itself. In many ways it doesn't smell like an intentional perfume/fragrance at all, and it wouldn't surprise me if someone were to smell this in passing and think it was a unique smell of place-or-time and not a personal fragrance. It's definitely an 'outside the box' scent and rather abstract smelling. Sometimes it smells like a simple but perfectly crafted combination of 4 or 5 notes, yet at other times it seems to have an unspeakable complexity to it. To me, this is ultimately a dark honey musk fragrance - like an avantgarde film noir version of Sed Non Satiata (which would be a hypersaturated modern crime/romance). The Cat also wins the award for longest lasting bpal I've tried. Not sure if it's due to the viscous nature of the oil itself or the ingredients, or both, but this stuff lasts and lasts and lasts. A must try.

[yakiguri]

I don't know how Beth does it, but while The Cat doesn't actually smell like burying your face in kitty fur, it smells like the idea of it. It's musky and sleek thanks to the musk and cedar, but soft and sweet thanks to the honey and benzoin. The cedar and musk gain more prominence as the blend dries down and veers a bit too close toward pencil shavings, but as my bottle is lab fresh I'm sure more aging will smooth this out.

[Teamama]

The Cat is hard to pin down in the bottle. I couldn't pick of the notes out except a hint of honey.

 

Wet on my skin, it's a sweet herby-woody melange. The aromatic cedar teams up with the benzoin & honey to smell almost like root beer for a bit. There's also a near-citrus scent in there at the start.

 

As it dries, the musk begins to warm up and do its stuff. This is my favorite kind of BPAL musk; warm and furry. The cedar is warm, too, and sweet rather than sour and sharp.

 

As The Cat dries, the honey keeps everything smooth and sweet, and provides that animal hint. Very cat-like, very enjoyable.

 

ETA: Lasts all day :-).

Edited July 9, 2017 by Teamama

[raptorsmile]

I was a little nervous, after reading the reviews of this one, but I greatly enjoy it. I'm not sure it specifically calls to mind the Cat from Coraline, but I really like it.

 

Wet: Smells like a mixture of honey and cedar. I don't get any of the other notes in this on my skin, at all.

 

Dry: VERY strongly honey. Not sticky, bright honey, but a deep, woodsy honey. The cedar note all but vanishes, and I'm left with a musky honey, which is very, very nice, but I don't get the cedar or benzoin at all, which is kind of a bummer. Still a keeper, and a weekly wear.

[animalcules]

To echo a previous review: smells like J&J baby shampoo on me - sharp, powdery, overly sweet, clean yet just a little bit 'off'. Amps an unfortunate and strong baby powder odor when wet, after drying it's more Cedar-y but I'm still not a fan. I think the honey note is the culprit, I have a lot of honey blends I love but in some others it just doesn't work.

Edited November 7, 2016 by animalcules

[Spaztic]

Why oh why do you do this on me honey?!

The honey has gone sweaty on me boooo, especially because I can smell the musk and benzoin underneath and it's beautiful.

It dries down nicely once the honey eases up but I just don't think I can endure that honey every time I wear it

[Lucchesa]

I'm on the fence about The Cat. It just arrived in the mail today, though secondhand, not fresh from the lab, so I probably should let it settle and test again next week. In the bottle I got a lot of benzoin and was very happy. But on my skin the cedar took over and really hasn't let up. It's a nice cedar, and as it dries it gets warm around with edges with some honey and benzoin. 90 minutes in I'm still waiting for the black musk to emerge.

 

Ok, now about 2 hours in, The Cat is coming into its own, which is kind of amazing because with my skin, many BPALs are toast well within two hours. I'm starting to get the musk, the cedar is backing off, it's turning into a lovely warm deep comfort scent, but still with an outdoorsy vibe from the cedar. And it lasted nine hours. I think The Cat and I are going to be good friends.

[RedPersimmon]

Cedar and cedar and cedar and then baby wipes.

[donkehpoo]

(Side note - cedar is one of my death notes... but I've still been wanting to try this out for a loooong time.)

 

Wet: Cedar! Also, more cedar.

 

Dry: Warm, musky, sweet.... cedar. Too much cedar for me; but if you're a fan of cedar, I think this is the nicest cedar-prominent blend I've tried. I just wish the cedar would have been kept more in check.