Epibulia

[Lycanthrope]

East Indian Mango, cassis, blackcurrant, orange carnation, sugared coconut, and Maid of Orleans.

RUH ROH. I wish I had done my research, since Maid of Orleans: Jasmine Sambac. All that said, I am going to give this a trial! By my skin type, jasmine goes all wonky crazy on me. I've tried several variants like Auriculatum (turns into golden, lighter jasmine smashing), Grandiflorum (turns into a gigantic world wrestling foundation flower match on me) and the Sambac (which has an almost bourbon/alcoholic like twinge). That being said...

In the bottle, this is a beautifully fruity, orange, squishy smooth tropical floral. This makes me think of sunny islands and sipping coconut based drinks by the water. The fruit notes must blend into a delicious little smoothie, since it's all there and like a tasty pina colada. I'm really reaching to find the carnation as it is one of my favorite notes, and I am wondering how orange carnation differs from the Spanish Red. Through this all the jasmine is crescendoing into a really strong white floral note that is overtaking the fruity drink. However, it's still quite nice, and not as unilateral as jasmine based BPAL can get on me.

It retains a bit of its orange/fruit vibe but only faintly. The colada has been drunk and now we are relaxing under a bower of jasmine flowers.

I would say if you are a jasmine amper as I am, this does not evolve well, however fans of lush, heady, tropical florals would definitely enjoy this.

[oakmoss]

Like Lycanthrope, I tend to amp jasmine, and not in a good way. But this blend stayed fruity and sweet on me, a very refreshing summertime scent. The words that came to mind were "tutti-frutti". Epibulia is a floaty soft fruit dream, with minimal throw and a brief life on the skin (my skin, anyway).

[Xue_Bai]

In the bottle it's sweet coconut, berries, and jasmine. As Lycanthrope, it's very pina colada like. Wet, the carnation blossoms, but the fruit is still strong. However, once dried, the carnation and jasmine are front and center, with sweetened coconut and berries beneath that, and something fruity but very green tying the two together in between...it's most likely the mango, but it's the skin of the mango compared to the flesh.

 

This is much more floral than I was expecting...I was hoping for more fruity! But it's still lovely and I'm glad to have it.

[puck_nc]

Origin: Straight from the Lab

 

Initial Thoughts: I love carnation, like coconut, and learned that Maid of Orleans is jasmine, which sometimes works for me. If only the fruits will behave...

 

In the Bottle: Cinnamon, coconut and mango are at the forefront, but they're clashing rather than blending. It's a bit sour and musty.

 

Wet: I'm getting mostly mango and maybe a little coconut, but that off-putting sourness is still there.

 

Drydown: That's better. The sourness has faded and in its wake is a very lovely, mildly fruity blend of coconut and florals. It skates toward suntan-lotion territory but doesn't get close enough to the edge. It's a summery, slightly musky-sexy scent.

 

Verdict: Glad I took a chance!

[Atrous]

Out of the Song of Nature scents, I expected to like this one the least. I amp carnation and jasmine like crazy and coconut often goes wonky on my skin.

 

In the Bottle: Sweet and slightly fruity.

 

Wet: Mainly coconut and floral. Wet, the scent is sorta dysfunctional. The individual notes really butt heads and the floral notes are a bit noxious. I'm getting nervous this scent is going to go the way I expected it to...Bad.

 

Dry: Huzzah! The scent has morphed quite a bit. Coconut certainly stands out as the dominant note and it's a lovely, creamy coconut. I'm so happy that carnation and jasmine decided to behave. The floral notes have a very tropical feel to them. I can smell both the mango and blackcurrant swirling throughout the blend. Underneath all of this is a slight sharpness poking through but not too aggressively. The overall feel of the scent is tropical...warm and languid.

Half of the notes in Epibulia are normally death notes for me, so I'm very pleased the scent came together so well.

This may very well be my favorite Song of Nature.

[stellamaris]

This is really good, it's got that wonderful stinky fruit attack like Urd, but a bit lighter on the incense. Lush and glorious. I can see this going into fall too.

[Gateau]

I took a chance on a decant of this, knowing that jasmine is going to be my downfall 99% of the time, but liking the other notes so much I figured it was worth a shot.

 

Off the bat, it's very fruity but that jasmine note is prominent. Not a good thing for me. It's not the worst kind of cat-pee jasmine, but it has that jasmine edge I don't like.

 

After about an hour, the coconut becomes a unifying base for all the tropical fruits and flowers. The jasmine is smoother and sweeter. I don't really get the carnation. It's sweet and tutti-frutti. Not a keeper for me, but certainly not offensive.

[SophieCedar]

Wet: WHABOOM! mango cassis and currant Sweet, tropical, toothachingly awesome. Tropical starburst candy.

 

Drydown: Still tropical starburst..which is kinda awesome and it sucks because now I have to drive to the store and hope to hell they carry tropical starburst. If you have a chance to sniff a tropical starburst, now you'll smell a hint of jasmine every time. Srsly.

[zankoku_zen]

Mango, coconut and jasmine. On wet, its very fruity but as it dries, I get bigger hits of jasmine. Admittedly, this is probably the BEST smelling jasmine blend I've had, since it has a tendency to turn into cat pee on me.

[Katlyntje]

In the imp this is very tropical with coconut and mango prevailing. On my skin the mango goes a touch sour for just a moment but the sourness is gone as fast as it came. I think I can detect a bit of blackcurrant under the mango and coconut but I'm not getting any carnation or jasmine. This does stay very true to the initial scent as it dries. While it is a very nice scent I think I'll be content with just an imp.

[tziporra]

I was sooooooo excited about this one because MANGO which I love, but it was not meant to be.

 

Wet it is all dripping wet mango in coconut cream and cassis, with just a hint of Jasmine (I am one of those jasmine ampers for whom this behaved really really well), which was lovely so I slathered. But then, alas, the sugary edge of the coconut started going very very plasticky on my skin, and that is where the whole blend ended up. Plastic. Yuck.

 

So still looking for the perfect mango.

 

Tzi

[Magycmyste]

Really looking forward to trying this because I love so many of those notes, and East Indian mango is so me (but I haven't had a chance to try a mango scent yet) - just hoping they play together well on my skin.

 

In the imp: Fruity - smells like a cross between a pina colada, and a mango lassi.

 

Wet on skin: Er... the jasmine's coming out. Which, normally, I don't complain about, but the jasmine and the fruit don't seem to like each other so well on my skin.

 

Dried down: Ok, that's better. It does seem like the jasmine has beaten the coconut and mango into submission. I can barely smell them anymore. They are there, but they're trying to hide from the big, bad, jasmine, while jasmine's laughing at the forefront about having two new minions. It's a good thing I like jasmine sambac. I think if it had been night-blooming jasmine, or one of the sweeter ones, this might have gotten too sweet on me, like decaying fruit.

 

Throw: I get a definite hit of scent off of this as I type. Funny - while typing, I get more coconut and a hint of mango rather than floral, but when I sniff my wrists, I get jasmine. ::shrugs:: I like them both.

 

Verdict: **** 1/2 The inability of the mango and coconut to play nicely with the jasmine brings it down a half-star for me, but if I can afford it, I think I'm going to go for a bottle of this anyway.The scent notes might be a little disparate on me, but the ones I can pick out are all ones I love.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: Mango pieces nestled in a bed of the other notes, not too sweet.

 

Wet: Much as on the cold sniff, but the warmth of my skin is bringing the sugar forward.

 

The dry-down: This really doesn't morph from the cold sniff, which is nice, but it doesn't last long, which is not nice. I'll keep the decant, though.

[Monday]

In the imp: blarg, over-ripe fruit salad.

On my skin wet: that's better, still a bit pungent though. Jasmine is taking over, the fruits have gone to the background and i get a tiny hint of coconut.

On my skin dry: the jasmine and coconut have turned into something waxy. It reminds me of a luper but I can't remember which one.

Way too sweet and fruity for me.

[milo]

Delicious spicy mango at first, and then the JASMINE comes roaring in. Jasmine is here to stay, and it smells like the 'better' jasmine, the night-blooming variety. Even so, it's just a bit too much jasmine for me. I wish the mango stuck around.

[astarinel]

This is one where I feel like I can smell all the notes, but I'm not sure I really like the way they're coming together.

 

Definitely mango/coconut/jasmine wet. This is not the jasmine note that I hate, it's the one that reminds me more of powdery candy. This blend starts fruity-floral, but as it dries the emphasis shifts to floral with only a vague background of fruity sweetness. The coconut hangs around in both phases, doing its coconut thing.

 

Across this update, I was hoping for more fruit and sweetness than any of the blends had. So if you are not like me, and prefer blends that are relatively unsweet with fruit notes that hang in the background, you should try some of the ones from this update. I mostly ended up thinking they were all interesting or okay, and none had weird skin chemistry issues for me, it was all nose chemistry and just not smelling what I prefer.

[mymymai]

ITI: It's fruity, but in a fruit bubblegum way. I think part of that might be the combination of the sugar, cassis, and mango.

 

Wet: Hmm, the bubblegum note reminds me of lotus, especially because there is that 1990's air freshener tone to it. It's sweet, but I can't shake the distaste for that first note.

 

Dry: It strikes me still like a Glade plugin- sweet yet slightly bitter in its floral saturation. I do get the orange carnation and coconut, which soften it, but this one is just not working for me.

[tinyvulture]

At first there's a stately, stuffy quality that reminds me of being in a high-end furniture store. It's a strongggg floral, Maid of Orleans (jasmine) and carnation are both super intense.

 

The mango and coconut are there if I really look for them, lending a tropical, pina colada vibe. They get deeper over time, morphing the scent from a stuffy floral to an elegant beach party. Not really what I expected.

[Cali]

Ooohhh, lovely lovely sweet pink & orange flowery and sugary goodness!!
The only things that start to amp when applied to my skin is the coconut and cassis.
I'm not too crazy about coconut which is the only reason why I won't need a bottle of this; otherwise it's just a wonderful sweet exotic scent!