Every August I start to crave blackberry perfumes. When these musky fruits start to turn black on their thorny branches, I want to smell like fruit. I love blackberries. I love to eat them, pick them, and evidently, smell like them.
OK, you better like fruit if you are trying Murder Ballad Blues. Immediately, I get a thick blackberry jam with a warm, sweet muskiness. With time it seems that Murder Ballard Blues gets even “jammier” and the blackberry gets more berry. And underneath it all, there is a musky, warm almond milk. But, mainly, this scent is blackberry jam.
Notes listed include Appalachian blackberries, sugared mountain violets, coconut milk, sweet almond oil, and blackberry seeds.
Give Arcana Murder Ballad Blues a try if you like blackberry perfumes like Sula Blackberry Blush, L’Artisan Parfumeur Mure et Musc, L’Aromarine Outremer, and/or Villainess Trifling soap.
A bottle of Arcana perfume oil retails for about $14 and is available at Scent Addict and The Soap Box Co. Arcana only comes in perfume oil and they have soaps too. I would like this scent as a soap, I think.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – This perfume is blackberry jam. I would like Murder Ballad Blues much better if it was an EDT or an EDP. I feel it needs to be in an alcohol base. I think in that format it would be one damn good blackberry perfume that would devour L’Artisan’s wimpy Mûre et Musc. In it’s oil format, it’s just too “thick” for me and I don’t like the “feel” in August. In its current formulation it reminds me of a home fragrance oil. This isn’t bad and the price is OK if you want to use it as a home fragrance oil. I know I would wear the hell out of this if it was in an alcohol base.
I’m not sure I will like the scent but I like both the name and the label. Do you know if any B&M store carries it?
I do like the artwork. It is carried in B&M stores. Samples are sold at the e-tailers I listed.
http://arcanasoaps.com/retail.php
I think a store in Seattle will be carrying the line soon.
I agree with Undina I like the name and the quirky label. For the reasonable price and format it is in, do you think it would make a good and oil for a vapouriser/diffuser? Funny thing we were discussing The Bad Seeds – Murder Ballads in my last blog post. I will add this one to my list and must pull out my wimpy L’Artisan Mure et Musc which I have not yet tried.
I am using this with a few drops of water in an oil burner/diffuser. This stuff brags that it is “highly concentrated” and that’s my complaint about it! Anyways, as a home fragrance, I really like it. And for a home fragrance, the price is good. And yes, I’m a sucker for that cute fiddle playing kitty.
Oh, I like Mure et Musc but I think it could be better. I say it’s wimpy because it fades so quickly on me. And it’s not cheap, so I’m more judgmental!
My favorite blackberry is Mistral Wild Blackberry. It really smells like overripe blackberries scorching in the hot summer sun.
I also thought about that conversation at your blog when I saw this label. I’ll probably buy it just for it.
Oh, just for the packaging 😉 But, it is cute. I don’t think you’d want to wear it on your skin, but you may like it as a home fragrance. I really wish I could get the little kitty on a tote bag or something.
It would be a fabulous tote design. Intersetingly I have a small figurine of my grandmother’s of a kitty playing a violin, I will take a snap shot of it and load it on my blog..
Oh, do!
I like the sound of the notes, but I think I would also prefer it as an EDP or EDT instead of an oil.
And I *finally* got a chance to try Mistral Wild Blackberry and the Balinese Vanilla. Bought the blackberry but was relieved I hadn’t bought the vanilla unsniffed online – something just didn’t sit right with me.
It really should be an EDT or EDP. I prefer sprays. And I don’t like to wear oils at all in the summer.
Mistral Blackberry is wonderful. I like Balinese Vanilla, but the spice is amplified. Don’t you almost think of it as a men’s fragrance? It was like Old Spice in an angel food cake? I mean, I do like it but I can see it not being for everyone.
That’s a good description – Old Spice with cake. I liked it (I do like my boozy, smoky vanillas), but it was just on the edge of being too dry or masculine for me.
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The soap is pretty amazing. The lather is incredible and the scent actually lingers on my skin. I love, love Arcana.
I need to try the soaps. I’d love this scent in a soap and reading the description of a few of the others, I need them 😉
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