Just got back from vacation here. I've been coming to topsail since I was young with my parents, but it's been years since I last went. I finally got to come back with my partner to celebrate my birthday
It looks like a knife fish with the skin of a khuli loach. I'm really confused. I've never seen something like this before, and I have my suspicions that this is picture is edited in some way. The edges of the tail look way too crisp to me, like it was photoshopped over a background photo. That might just be a trick of the lighting though.
Real fish, or fake ad? And if it's real, what am I actually looking at here?
I ordered a 2ml sample of Megamare from Scentsplit. I've heard a lot online about this fragrance, and it definitely seemed like something I would like. I have a special love for fragrances that take a unique approach to an aquatic scent, like Olm or Squid from Zoologist. After wearing smelling Megamare on a blotter and wearing it twice, here are my thoughts.
It's not a terrible fragrance, but it would be easy to mistake Megamare for many other designer aquatic fragrances. It's fresh, it's (kinda) clean, and it's absolutely full of aromachemicals. Trust me, the ambroxan and calone are impossible to ignore.
The smell itself is the same. It's not terrible. It's a little bit citrusy right when you spray it, but that fades quickly, and the synthetic musk overpowers almost everything else. Underneath the heavy blue musk, there is a faint dirty greenness, like seaweed washed up on the sand and left to bake in the sun. These green notes were very subtle on paper, but became slightly more pronounced once it dried down on my skin.
The internet wasn't lying about the strength of this fragrance either. Megamare is POWERFUL. Two sprays from the sample bottle was pretty overwhelming for an hour or two before it finally settled down, and even then, it was a constant assault on my nose. It lasted 48 hours or more on my skin, and projected for at least 12 hours.
I have a few complaints about Megamare. 1). it's noticeably very synthetic, and gave me a headache that lasted all day, like the time I smelled a counterfeit JPG Le Beau. 2). It's damn near impossible to scrub off, even if you don't give it time to dry down. I swear, this stuff is 80% ambroxan. 3). After drydown, it becomes very similar to many other fresh aquatic fragrances on the market.
Overall thoughts:
Smell: 5.8/10
Projection: 10/10
Longevity: count your days or showers, not the hours.
Sillage: extremely powerful, even obnoxious at times.
Skin scent: basic synthetic musk with a faint green undertone.
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It's not for me.
I just received a few samples, and among them was Secretions Magnifiques by Etat Libre d'Orange. I've seen the descriptions and the dramatic reviews, and I had to know what it smelled like. ELDO is one of my favorite fragrance houses, and I had a feeling it wouldn't be as bad as everyone online says. I ordered a 2ml sample, and it turns out, I'm right.
Forget the bodily fluids for a minute while I describe this.
Secretions Magnifiques is a powdery, slightly sweet floral, with a musky and lactonic base. It comes off as vaguely animalic, but it's not overwhelming at all. When I first put it on a blotter, I was surprised by how soft and appealing it is. When I tried it on skin, it got even better.
I probably won't purchase a full bottle. This isn't really my kind of scent profile. But even so, it is preceded by it's own reputation. It's really not terrible. It's got that signature ELDO DNA too, and I've grown very fond of their work. Overall, 7.5/10