Mars Corotiacus

[Mergekat]

MARS COROTIACUS

Mars of the Cavalry

A dark leather chypre with white sage and juniper berry.

I'm finding I really love the Lab's chypre and fougère blends. This is a perfectly clean, and yet a cool green scent! Imagine a dashing cavalryman wearing this on his days off. I found this to be a perfect conglomeration of what I love in the two fragrances of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Henry Jekyll. Now I visualize these characters crossing over literature; and meeting at the Diogenes Club to talk about puzzling matters (no Hyde or hair to be seen). There is that clean, refined leather note I get in Holmes. Then it goes a bit to the greenery side with the juniper (and possibly bergamot) I get in Jekyll's blend. Unlike Jekyll though it doesn't go powdery or sharp in its dry down, as I think that may occur from the use of cumin or basil there. Luckily, there is no cumin or basil noted here.

On application, this lasted pretty consistently for me at work for around 6-7 hours (though longer in a scent locket).

Edited February 24, 2015 by Mergekat

[Atrous]

I love the wet phase. I get a strong blast of Juniper with a bit of Sage tagging along. Its very green at this point.

Chypre shows up a bit later. I was excited because the Leather Chypre was tempering the green elements nicely and giving this blend a sophisticated but gritty edge.

I wish it had stayed that way. Unfortunately, this dries down to a generic men's cologne that you could pick up at the drugstore.

It's also too masculine even for me. I can see the potential for this scent to be other than cheap drugstore cologne so I will have to test it on my BF.

[zankoku_zen]

Clean chypre, hints of gin and sage, tiny bit of leather. Very clean, very sophisticated male cologne.

 

And then it's gone after 30 minutes.

 

I may have to try to mr. zee_zee and see what he says.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: Not as sharp as I would have thought - the leather is very dominant, but it's a smooth, sophisticated sort of leather. There's also something musty-musky-herbal which I assume is the sage. No juniper as of yet.

 

Wet: Okay, there's the sharpness. The juniper and sage take a BIG step forward, while the leather fades to the background. It's now a very masculine, cologne-like scent - I'm definitely getting the gin comparison above! (Sidenote/random train of thought: it's ironic that gin is considered such a sophisticated dude's drink now, as it was the cheap swill of the masses, and actually a mark of a LACK of class, not too long ago. Divergence over.) However, the pure juniper-sage stage turn out to be just an initial blast, and it quickly settles down into something much smoother, but also much more difficult to describe. Let's put it this way: in my notes, I have a category called "fancy lady grown-up scents", and this is the perfect male equivalent of those. It's smooth, sophisticated, self-assured, and at once classic and modern, if that makes any sense.

 

Dry: It settles down into something eerily like the smell of the leather armchair my grandfather used to sit in, in his cabin in the Sierra Nevadas - I'm guessing that's mostly the leather and sage. But it really does smell like a very lived-in, well-loved leather armchair. Alas, this one doesn't last too long on me (none of the Ode to Mars seem to do so), but really having to shove my nose into my wrist to get at it just enhances the sense of coziness.

[quickdrawkiddo]

This reminds me a lot of Marche Funebre, which was one of those scents I loved initially but found myself not wearing that much since it's kind of gloomy. This is brighter and warmer -- I'm definitely getting the sage, which I love. But on the whole this has the same dark, serious feeling as Marche Funebre. If you liked that scent and/or missed out on it while it was available, jump on this.

[MCS4096]

When I applied this I was immediately reminded of the Neverwhere blend Hunter (Leonine amber, tanned hides, clove, and clary sage) as they are both leather, light spice, and sage scents. Hunter is a lighter, whiter leather while this is a slightly darker brown leather. This blend is clean, slightly herbal-spicy, and warm-leaning. The blast of juniper you get upon application is fleeting, and this dries down to be quite well blended and well rounded. It may not be very exciting or unusual (and I prefer Hunter actually, but that's my personal taste), but it's an excellent every day type scent for when you'd like to smell good but not too exotic.

[Balame]

This reminds me of Knight in Shiny Armor, but it’s made more Yule-y due to the juniper. A bit bright at first, but in a mature way. It feels like there could be a little white musk in here, or maybe some combo of the notes is just reading that way. It isn’t sharp or cloying at all.

 

I do love me some sage, and this gives it a beautiful platform on the soft woodsy/leather base, with the citrusy aspect of the chypre joining it on the top. No single note is trying to push the other out of the way; it’s blended well. Juniper is usually iffy on me because of Xmas tree associations (don’t always feel in the mood for that), but here it’s tempered nicely. It makes for a clean woodsy skin scent roughed up gently by the leather. The leather gains strength making it more woodsman than businessman as it dries. Kind of like a lighter, more refined version of Ranger to me. Very nice.

[Roogna]

wet: dark, sweet, sage and juniper bite, leather underneath.

 

dry : Fades fast to a soft sage with hint of juniper, turns perfumy. Not bad, but no leather

[milo]

Leather, cologne and musk. Kind of citrusy, very nice masculine blend. This is a clean hot guy dressed to the nines for a night on the town. There is no doubt in my mind, single or attached, he's gonna get lucky tonight;)

[grnwoodtree]

This started out as men's cologne, straight, clean and simple.

 

Dry-down brings out this leather note that I do not enjoy as it smells like old fashioned hospital smell, with a background of faint cologne.

[tailoredshirt]

I thought I had reviewed this but I guess not!

 

Wet, this is a lot of juniper, sage, and chypre, but the leather is present.

 

An hour or two since I put it on, I am mostly getting brown leather that reminds me of Hunter. There's a little bit of freshness left from the juniper/sage.

 

I would say this does smell very traditionally masculine, which I enjoy. It is a very clean, leathery scent.