La Femme de Satan

[Dark Alice]

Nikolai Kalmakoff
Red musk and cacao with clove, caramelized tobacco, aged patchouli, red currant, black leather, and vanilla-infused amber.

Wet: I swear as I live in breathe this smells like Reese's PB cup on my skin. Fruity Reese's butter cup.

Dry: The woman of Satan smells fierce. Light red musk, no caramel, vanilla infused amber, and no black leather . This woman is truly the baddest bitch in town and she knows it. Not strong at all. Very light, close to the skin but damn if it is not sexy!!!

[Nepthys]

Based on the ingredients, I thought this would be heavy and possibly cloying. I was SO wrong on both counts! This is light and perfect while being sophisticated and seductive. This is going to be one of my all-time favorite BPALs, I can tell. It's just delightful. And it completely lives up to its name.

 

On me, no particular ingredient dominates. I can just slightly detect the leather and amber and red musk. Carmelized tobacco? Nowhere to be found. Really it's just an expert blend.

 

If you were on the fence about getting a bottle, go ahead and splurge.

[DiesMali]

In the bottle: Musky cocoa and clove.

 

Wet on my skin: ...Cola? Fizzy root-beery cola? I don't know, don't ask me. I can smell the hint of Reese's peanut butter cups too, but mostly cola.

 

Dry: After a while, the fizziness subsides for the most part, and this turns into a light but GORGEOUS mix of primarily clove, dark cocoa, amber, and red musk. The patchouli is barely detectable, but grounds the scent along with a faint breath of leather and sweet tobacco. I'm not getting any currant or vanilla, but I think they're contributing to the sweet airiness that makes this a fairly light, feminine scent rather than a rich and heady one. I was hoping for rich and heady, but this is so beautiful that I am actually not disappointed in the slightest.

[LizziesLuck]

initially I get lots of cocoa and that makes me happy.

 

As it dries, the cocoa burns off, as does any sweetness, however what I'm left with makes me pretty happy too.

 

Keeping in mind that I am so excited I'm testing straight out of the mailbox, on me this is sexy dark patchouli, musk, tobacco and leather. This is really dark and seductive. I love it, and can't wait to see how it settles, and then how it ages. Also, one of the few blends where I have enjoyed leather, just FYI.

 

ETA: I'm testing this again, now that it's settled. Still glorious. The only notable difference is a bit of sweet fruitiness from the currant, making this all the more mysterious and seductive.

Edited October 26, 2015 by LizziesLuck

[agirlnamedfury]

This new boy I'm seeing was playing with the new weenie decants I had laying out on my table, and after spilling a bit of this one he declared "it smells like sex". Good, right? This is definitely one of those vampy scents, as you might guess from the name. Lots of leather and patchouli, and I get quite a bit of the clove too.

 

I do really like this one but I don't know if I would necessarily reach for it over the other sexy musky scents I already own.

[verystarry]

I wish I had gotten more of the leather note in this but all I could smell was the strong scent of clove. Clove and more clove! Which irritates me sadly I had to swap her. BUT I will say this she is one of the more lasting scents I have ever had from BPAL.

[Poenari]

La Femme de Satan - so far, no cacao, caramel, or leather, just red musk and clove. My skin does amp red musk whenever it's found, so that's not surprising. But this is exactly like Mircalla Lite. I rolled my bottle first to make sure it was well-blended. This is not bad, but I adore Mircalla (enough to have 4 backup bottles of her.) If this doesn't age into something too different, it will be a less "in your face" version and therefore wearable in more situations than I can wear Mircalla. I'll be setting this bottle aside for a while to age, and will be interested to see what happens.

[patina]

The Seekim from the Yules plus red musk and redcurrant! I get strong cacao, leather, and chewy patchouli, plus red musk and redcurrant, plus a grape jelly note. I get absolutely no caramel and this is surprisingly light. Try it if you're a redcurrant or red musk lover.

[LiberAmoris]

La Femme de Satan is a dark beauty. Wet, it's loads of red musk and cacao, tobacco, and patchouli...like a clove cigarette-infused red musk with a kiss of chocolate. As it dries, I get more currant and clove, and the leather and vanilla-infused amber purr along. The black leather note is very subtle on me. It has good staying power, and in the air I'm getting red musk and patchouli darkened with a scrim of cacao, tobacco, leather, and currant—all handled rather delicately so they don't crowd others out. Nice, and will only get better with time, I suspect!

[aquazoo]

There are all kinds of wonderful things here that work well together on me. The leather and vanilla make a nice base with just a hint of the clove and cacao.

[Roogna]

In the imp: heavy cacao and clove, then vanilla-amber, current, maybe red musk. No patch. No leather.

 

wet: very nice, current and cacao mostly, layered over musk, amber and tobacco

 

dry: a musky fruity scent? really, I can't pick out any particular notes after it's been on a few minutes. but it smells nice I guess? It's also fading away in general, so it's hard to pick it up. If it didn't fade away from what it smells like wet it would be wonderful, and the first cacao scent to really work on me..but it just doesn't have the staying power that I like

 

sadly, no leather ever shows up

[milo]

This starts off lovely, red musk, amber, dark fruits, and maaaybe a bit of Siberian Musk. Turns to a cologney, musky mess. No.

[Lorelai1945]

This is absolutely lovely on me. This is red musk softened and mellowed with a perfect blend of all the other notes, no one really discernable over another. It's subtly sweet and incredibly sexy. I was worried that the clove would take over, but it didn't. Possibly my holy grail of red musk scents!

[zankoku_zen]

Red musk, cacao, tobacco, patchouli and a hint of vanilla amber. La Femme de Satan is gorgeous and almost sways me to the red musk side. On me, the red musk is the most prevalent, and this is a sexy blend. Good throw, good wear length.

 

Sexy medieval woman.

[sprout]

In the vial, smells complex, gourmand rather than foody. Red musk is obtrusively present.

Wet, the cocoa covers the red musk, amber vanilla and clove base like a warm, fuzzy blanket. This phase is glorious. Unfortunately, as all things of beauty, it is not stable enough to last.

Drying, the leather aggressively asserts itself. The red musk, being the power hitter it is, amps equally. Red musk and black leather circle around the ring, entangling, then separating, sparring for dominance. The clove, vanilla infused amber, tobacco, soft patchouli and red musk merge to create a complex base that is slightly sweet, warm, musky-sexy, and resinous. The cocoa is MIA. Despite the powerful notes, there is not much throw.

Late drydown, less sweet, more leather, clove, and red musk. This is somewhat smoky. This smells like a new leather jacket wrapped around a sexy vampire, who fed a few hours ago. Sexy and menacing.

Next day, I can still smell the amber and red musk. What was lacking in throw is more than compensated by longevity.

 

Final analysis: I wish that I had Sunshine Daisy Bliss's note removal machine to extract the leather. I like my leather well worn out, not new. This leather note took the scent to a masculine level that clashed with the warm, gourmand, clove currant, tobacco vanilla feminine base. I'm very tempted to purchase a bottle to age it.

 

It evokes the inspirational art magnificently. Clove is one of my favorite notes and it is glorified here with the pairing with red currant on a resiny base of vanilla/amber, tobacco, patchouli and red musk. I'm thinking age will soften the brusque leather and hopefully allow a truce with the red musk. The notes list reads like a Who's Who of my favorite things. My hesitation comes from having a BPAL box overrun with sexy, red musk scents and this being not quite right for my skin chemistry due to the rebellious leather note. Should be easy to rehome if the leather doesn't mellow out, right?

Edited November 29, 2015 by sprout

[SophieCedar]

Heeeyyyy. red musk I can actually wear!

 

No really. This is well blended. Reminds me a bit of Thirteen 8/13/2010 with the red notes. Its dry cacao, musk, dark fruity currant, amber, vanilla. Well balanced, enticing, warm.

[dementia_divine]

In the decant: Mostly red musk and cacao, followed by patchouli and tobacco.

 

Wet: The red musk and cacao are still the most prominent notes, followed by the patchouli and tobacco. I'm not a red musk fan, and I'm not enjoying this combination at all. It smells very musky and dirty on me. I was hoping that the red musk wouldn't be a main player in this, but alas, I should have known better since it was the first note listed.

 

Dry: The red musk still reigns, although it has calmed down. The tobacco is more prominent now, and I can still smell the cacao and patchouli. The black leather has also made an appearance. It's mostly red musk, tobacco, and leather on me by this point. Unfortunately, I'm not getting any of the vanilla-infused amber.

 

Verdict: NOPE.

[Allumina]

Sigh. My chemistry has been weird lately, so maybe that's it, but this was a disappointment, especially since I love all the listed notes. Wet, I get a hint of red musk, cacao, and something else, but within about 15 seconds of hitting my skin it decides that the caramelized tobacco is the only note in this blend. Which isn't unpleasant, just not what I was hoping for.

[Katlastrophe]

I took a chance and bought this to my SO for Christmas while I still were very new into BPAL.
"This sounds both yummy, sexy, gender-neutral, and it's named after a devil-themed painting, what can go wrong?"

Well, actually, nothing went wrong. It's perfect.
I don't know a lot about notes yet, but it's a smooth, sexy blend with a little fruit.
The cacao stands out.
I can clearly find the tobacco(which I know from Elegba) and the red currants(same as in Eat Me).
A part of it reminds me about my loved Hollywood Babylon, I think it's the red musk+vanilla+amber-thingie.

I'ts not as strong as I thought, more cozy soft in a dark brown way.
And yes, very gender-neutral, it doesn't scream "sexy LADY" for me at all.

It really suits my SO very well, takes movie-snuggles to another level, if you know what I mean...

[Blood onmy hands]

Red musk amps up on me, which is fine, because I really enjoy the lab's red musk. And I love all of the other notes in this that swirl around underneath the red musk. I wear this and catch hints of dark, sweet cocoa powder, spicy clove, and earthy patchouli. I usually dislike how tart/sour red currant is, but it just melds into the wine-like, fruity tones of the red musk. It's really sexy and reminds me of Midnight Kiss, which is one of my favorite bpals.

[InThePines]

I recently received this in a swap and it instantly became one of my Top 5 BPAL scents. With limited perfume funds, I chose other Weenies over this one during its original release but I'm so glad to have a bottle now! It's so beautiful. Each note blends together to make the perfect Autumnal perfume. It leans sweet but isn't what I would describe as sugary or tart or gourmand. I can discern tobacco and red currant, but it really is well-deserved and has the perfect throw (not super strong, but certainly not faint). It has a similar vibe to other scents I love like Perversion and Fake News.

[ramblingrambler]

This has been in my swap box for a couple of years, but I took it out yesterday to reorganize my storage areas, and after re-testing it fell in love. I usually amp tobacco to high heavens, which is why I probably put this aside, but whatever tobacco in this melds deliciously with everything else. It's truly difficult to pick apart the notes because this is a luscious, indulgent blend that reminds me of glamorous femme fatales hellbent on vengeance. I love it wet and all the way through drydown (and on drydown, it is straddles high-end perfume and high-end indie on me). Wear is loud and long and strong. I'm keeping this. Sorry, folks.

[goblingrin]

Had a lot of hope for this one, as it smells so nice in the bottle. The tobacco is just so strong on me, though. The red musk and a hint of the cacao comes through, but that tobacco... the scent has a really good staying power! Which would be lovely if I enjoyed the scent more.