Callidora

[milo]

Blood musk, Egyptian myrrh, Mayan cacao, 7-year aged red patchouli, Siamese benzoin, and tobacco absolute.

Errgh, I thought I'd like this one, but this vamp is a bit too vampy for me!! In the imp, glorious musk, cocoa, and a touch of dark fruit. I really like this stage. Dry, it gets kind of dusty on me, and something is amping to high hell on me, I'm pretty sure it's the tobacco. So I'm getting mostly tobacco on me, strong, aggressive and perfumey, probably myrrh, and very little musk and red fruits. Wet, this is a lot like Smut on me, one of my faves. I'm a little scared of going out in public like this, I fear it will be offensive to some. A little bit goes a LONG way, and I'm thinking I should have applied lighter, because I do see the potential here. It's only been half an hour, so I'll see what it's like after a bit. I don't want to totally give up on this vamp, but if I need more, it will probably only be a decant, as this bitch is STRONG!!

[mymymai]

ITB: Sweet, delicious and resinous! Myrrh, red patchouli, benzoin, cocao (not overly foody, but just perfect), and musk. Gosh, this smells great so far.

 

Wet: Mmm. Cocoa, musk, patchouli, and benzoin together smell divine. It's sexy and resinous. The only way this could be better is if there were a leather note.

 

Dry: Once dried for an hour, it's slightly powdery, but with tones of must and red patchouli. The myrrh lends some sweetness to the scent and there are pleasant touches of benzoin, tobacco, and super faint cacao that make this a keeper for me.

[HighPriestessIce]

I smell the cocoa and something kind of sour/bitter that my brain is registering as old banana peels. There's definitely a musty old fruit thing going on here. Then there's something that reminds me of stamp glue. I don't know what's happening here. About 20 minutes later something resiny appears but I'm afraid the musty fruit is still there.

[Alethia]

Thoughts before testing: This sounds right up my alley, although I'm a little worried that the blood musk will have dragon's blood which typically doesn't work on my skin.

 

Wet: Strong, lovely red patchouli and a hint of cacao.

 

Dry down: The tobacco makes an appearance and mingles with the patch beautifully. The cacao stays in the background mostly, and I can smell the myrrh faintly.

 

Dry: Still a lot of patchouli, but the myrrh is much stronger now and elevates the patch into a sexy, sexy scent.

 

Final thoughts: I wish there was more musk and benzoin, but I'm willing to bet that they'll show up with a little aging. This is a dirty sexy scent and I'm so glad to have it in my collection! This is also Boy Approved as he's requested I wear this on our next date night.

 

Verdict: Keeping!

[Atrous]

In the bottle: Patchouli & Myrrh.

 

Wet Stage: The musk comes out strong. It smells furry.

 

Dry Stage: So many of my beloved notes playing so well together.

As this dries each of the notes marches on stage and acts its part seamlessly. I detect all the individual notes listed but when I take a great, big whiff they combine to create a fuzzy,warm,brown scent with a hint of sweetness. This was made for me.

[Monster]

I purchased Callidora along with Sylvia and wholeheartedly expected to fall in love with Callidora immediately due to all of the win notes in here, red musk, patchouli, etc… However, Sylvia won my heart first while Callidora has slowly been growing on me.

 

Out of the bottle I get a gorgeous red musk and patchouli, however, once I put this on my skin it's all tobacco and bitter cacao. Sometimes tobacco registers as "old man" to my nose and this one definitely does. Chocolate is also another difficult note for me as it sometimes drys down to an old cheese scent on my skin. Fortunately, this morphs again and transforms to a resinous red musk without any trace of bitter cocoa or too much tobacco. Up close I get a lot of patchouli while, from a distance the tobacco is more prominent. I wouldn't describe this as a sexy, sultry scent. It's more masculine than anything.

 

I'm not in love with Callidora yet, but with some age hopefully we'll learn to like each other

[Zii]

Wet: Musk, patchouli and incense, in that order with something a little sweet and chocolatey hanging around way in the back.

 

Drying: The chocolate is very much coming out now, but not in a foody way at all, which I really love. The musk is not bloody, persay, especially not when compared to some of the other things I've tried with blood musk, but it's very red and very prominent.

 

Dry: NOW it's starting to be a bit bloody, but not at all in an in your face way. The chocolate is almost gone, leaving this one a musk and patchouli blend on me. I think the tobacco is really making itself known now as it emerges from the musk note and it really draws this away from a feminine scent. I must confess to missing the more chocolate wet stage, but I think this could hang around.

 

Right now it's really reminding me of a darker Herr Drossylmeyer so while I like it I may not need to keep it.

[LiberAmoris]

Callidora is one of those blends that I save for nights out. It's nocturnal and dangerous and unabashed. Out of the bottle, it's really dark with cacao, like Boomslang, and similarly strong. The tobacco, myrrh, and patchouli are most prominent on me, with blood musk adding a pulse of something lighter and tangy (which is all but subsumed by the darker notes). It's almost like Smut and Boomslang had a chain-smoking baby! Or like a strobe light at a club cutting through cigarette smoke, humidity, and the haze made by a fog machine. Dry, it's an almost dusty tobacco with just a shot of cacao/patch. When paired with Silkybat hair gloss, they're a going-out dream team.

[porcelina]

omg, rich musky cacao. this is beaaautiful, and reminds me a teeny bit of boomslang.

 

cacao absolute loves me and i love it and callidora is no exception. there's a touch of tobacco and myrrh and the beautifully aged patchouli but moslty this is sexy musky cocoa goodness and it smells soooo good.

[tinyvulture]

Sexy blood musk, smooth aged patchouli, and cocoa. Reminded me of some other scent, Midnight Kiss I think. I also agree with the Mme. Moriarty comparison. The red musk is strong, as it always is with my skin chemistry. There's a little spiciness from the tobacco. The musk isn't completely taking over, so I'm a fan. Vampy, feminine, fun.

[inhumation]

callidora was really strong - the husband complained that he could smell me across the room, and that I smelled like "squashed fleas" (!). to my nose, callidora smelled like aperotos eros + something dark and stinky, perhaps the cacao. it was not bad, but not an everyday kinda scent.

[vanilla323]

Callidora...I went out on a small limb with this bottle. Gotta do that from time to time with BPALs. But sadly I fell off the limb because it didn't work for me at all. It was mainly a patchouli that wasn't sweet or complex and then musk. Which was also not very complex. I wanted more benzoin and cocoa but sadly they were not around to play. It also had short wear time and low throw. Ended up swapping this shortly after I tested it.

[Blood onmy hands]

My decant of this might not have aged so well. I find the musk to be sour and almost metallic, something is turning powdery (like baby powder and a hint of cocoa powder) and the tobacco & patch are gritty and smoky, reminding me of cigarettes and ash trays. I wanted this to be rich, heavy and dark... gourmand, but dangerous and sexy and smooth... like Blood Moon 05, The Tell-Tale Heart and Tezcatlipoca... but Callidora has gritty, ashy, sour tones that remind me of Midnight Kiss and it isn't working for me.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Wow - this scent is strong! And kind of bad-ass. A strong hit of cocoa, followed by tobacco and patch together, and the musk. Just a bit of sweetness from the benzoin. This is dark and kind of sexy.

 

 

Dry: This started out nice, but I have to agree with the previous reviewer - there's something a bit sour about this, and it's putting me off. Almost the way some woods notes go sour on me sometimes (rosewood and sandalwood). There are some lovely notes here, but something unpleasant underneath that's putting me off.