It's Only Smellz - Tokyo Milk Dark Arsenic

Tokyo Milk Dark - Arsenic

The beetle played an embarrassingly significant role in my purchase of this fragrance

 Read more after the jump!

Cost: $36

Size: 1.6 oz

Top O'the Bottle - Mine has as weird printing mistake

Look! Notes!

Fragrance Shifts:

Initial Spray: Immediately, you're hit with the absinthe (and some alcohol, woo hoo alcohol base).   The absinthe starts to fade, however, into a kind of sour vanilla that's weird, but very appealing.

Middle Part: This part is really cool.  The fragrance changes from sour vanilla absinthe to some absinthe splashed on a block of fresh wood and rubbed with some grass.  It's strangely pleasing, and I've definitely never smelled this combination of scents before.

End: The final phase of this scent is what I would describe as a "muted fennel."  Fennel smells a little like anise (or licorice).  This fennel is mixed with the woody undertones of the middle part, and that addition cuts the sharpness of the fennel.  It's a really pleasing combination, but at this point, the perfume is pretty faded, so I'm not sure if anyone else but the wearer will notice this stage.

Wear and Sillage: I'm a bit disappointed in the wear time.  It lasts about three hours or so on my wrists.  It's also not a scent that will come into the room before you do: I had to stick my wrist in my husband's face for him to notice the smell. For the price though, I think that its lasting power is about right.

I have no idea what this number means.

Packaging: The bottle definitely fits the Tokyo Milk ascetic, in that it looks like something one would find at a high school student's sketch of an 18th century pharmacist's counter.  My major issue with the packaging is that the glass is so dark that you can't see how much perfume is left.  I guess you could shake it to check, but I'm not sure how accurate that is.  It's also really easy to smudge with fingerprint marks, though if that's a concern for you, you're probably at the wrong blog.

It's, um, easy to spray.

Bottom Line: Until I can find a longer lasting version of this scent, this will be my go-to "I'm sophisticated, sexy, and probably have something wrong with me - isn't that exciting?!" scent.