America's New Gods

[joopjoop]

Now, as all of you will have had reason aplenty to discover for yourselves, there are new gods growing in America, clinging to growing knots of belief: gods of credit card and freeway, of Internet and telephone, of radio and hospital and television, gods of plastic and of beeper and of neon. Proud gods, fat and foolish creatures, puffed up with their own newness and importance.

Scorched wires, silicone, tar, chlorine, wax, rubber, and exhaust.

Well, this is.... something.

The good news is that it smells exactly like its description, but that's the bad news too.

In short, It is a melange of industrial and off-gassing smells that is oddly pleasant one minute and utterly awful the next. I find it strangely compelling, but there is something in here - I think it is the silicone but really it could be anything - that is giving me a headache - and the man and child both physically recoiled when they sniffed my arm.

So for now a scrubber, but I feel compelled to hold on to the decant - I want to see what a little aging does. And besides, there is something very honest about this scent. These are the deep gods of capitalism and industrialization - the drivers of the economy - the powerful but unattractive forces that we try to gloss over with shiny glass and carefully manicured landscaping. The truth about our New American Gods isn't always pretty, and it is worth being reminded of that fact every now and then. Edited May 4, 2018 by joopjoop

[Blood onmy hands]

This is the same sort of horrible that God's Own Country is (I guess the descriptions are kind of similar, as that one is 'circuit boards, cathode rays, exhaust, frankincense, myrrh, soil and blood'). Metal filings, garage full of dust, old oil and grime, just a putrid, dirty scent to my nose... where God's Own Country flips towards actual, rotting blood and dirty hospital smell, this one flips to more of a smoky, heavy smog that's probably the tar and exhaust. I actually like the smell of chlorine irl, but this is chemical and harsh and all over just bad... I can't wear this one and had to scrub it off after a half hour.

[StevenBoatman]

This smells almost citrusy to my nose. Maybe a bit of the chlorine, but mostly a sort of orange-citrus smell. Like if a computer tried to describe what citrus smells like. It's good, surprisingly. Weird as all get out, but good.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Doritos. And cola. And my Grandpa's work shop. There's something effervescent in there I was not expecting at all. I sort of like it! There's an odd savory note - I'm wondering if that's the "scorched" bit I am smelling, which is translating to Doritos to me. When I got back and look at the notes, I wonder if the "exhaust" isn't the part that I am getting so strongly that reminds me of both Grandpa's work shop, and his lingering scent at our cottage. He was always working on farm vehicles, and the large trucks he used for his landscaping business. This is a really neat scent. There's something strangely comforting about it. It's totally different than anything else I have experienced. I would actually really like it and consider wearing it, if it weren't for that weird Dorito (smoky-sweet corn chips would maybe be more accurate, there's no cheese going on here) type scent I get.

 

Dry: As it dries, the corn chip scent fades, as does that of a work shop, and it smells much more like plastic and wire mechanical components. I could easily see a fried computer that's been smashed open smelling like this. Interesting, but not something I would wear.

[zankoku_zen]

Rubber, grime, effervescent Fresca, and ozone. Yeah, I don't get this either. But HELLO SCENT WONDERLAND TRIP. This is sort of like the Disney version of It's a Small World, but instead of giving you a five minute tour of a diorama of around the world dolls singing loudly and cheerfully, it's more like a five minute tour of a gritty neighborhood in a city that you've been warned is too dangerous for a tourist like yourself to be wandering through. Low throw and low wear length.

[whisperstilled]

Holy hell, this is horrific. That's essentially what I figured from the description, but yep. Sickening sweetness over a nasty scorched bitterness. The only scent I can relate it to is Drink Me - not because it smells similar, but because it has that same kind of sickening mix of totally incongruous notes.