As you approach an enormous patchwork tent, a curious sound catches your attention: the rattle of bones and the tinkling of tiny bells heralds the arrival of a gaunt and ghastly creature. An animated skeleton dressed in a jester’s motley saunters towards the front of the tent, waving an orange and black striped cane at the crowd in an effort to clear a path. The jester makes his way past the fog-shrouded, faded, colossal posters that adorn the tent to a platform in front of the massive tent’s entrance. His ivory smile frozen in a gleeful rictus grin, he steps up onto the platform, taps the cane three times, and the jester costume vanishes. Suddenly dark eyes appear in the empty sockets, bones are wrapped in muscle, sinew grows over the bones, blood fills rapidly appearing veins. Before your eyes, the skeletal jester has become a dapper, handsome man, dressed in black and orange, with a skull-ornamented straw hat tilted jauntily upon his shining black hair.
His smile is slick and conspiratorial. With a flourish and arcing wave of his cane, he booms:
“Step right up, ladies and gentlemen! This is Carnaval Diabolique’s notorious 13-In-1: the finest freak show in all the Hells! What marvels await you, you ask? Simply the strangest and most fantastic creatures, human and inhuman, gathered for your entertainment, enlightenment and erudition!”
With the cane, he gestures at the gigantic posters that adorn the tent. The images, once hazy, suddenly come into focus.
“From the depths of the Black Forest: Arachnina, the Spider Girl! From the rain-swept streets of London: Hope and Faith, the Siamese Twins! From ruins of old Aquae Sextia: Wulric, the Wolf Man!
“Thalassa, the Galapagos Mermaid! A vision of life-in-death, Eshe!
“All in all, THIRTEEN anatomical curiosities, miracles of genetics, magick and science, masters of marvels, ALIVE ON THE INSIDE!”
White musk, wild plum, vetiver, black coconut, verbena, fig, and lavender.
Annie –
I like this one, though I’m not sure I’d buy it again. In the bottle it smells weird and fruity, but not like real fruit, more like a fruity candy or fruity bubble gum. It takes a minute on the skin to smell the patchouli, at which point the fruity smell becomes more… I don’t know how to describe it other than to say that, on me anyway, it smells like I’ve recently used a generic “purple fruit scented” body wash, but a REALLY nice one, whilst also using my usual Karma perfume from Lush (I guess because they both share the patchouli base). Which, I mean, that’s a good thing, I love my Karma perfume, that’s why it’s my usual xD I just wasn’t expecting the somewhat familiar mix of “Karma perfume under fruity bodywash” here.
After a few minutes that smell starts to mellow as well and you’re left with more of a sweet and almost spicy smell. I think it’s fair to say around the 15 minute mark is when it starts to smell like a “proper perfume” rather than a bottle of absurdity. It still smells fruity but more like a fruit tea at this point than a fruity bodywash. Curiously, as it fades, the tea smell becomes stronger, giving the impression that I’ve left the tea bag in the cup and forgotten that it’s brewing. That strong tannin smell of a neglected brew… that’s a smell I know all too well.
Overall it’s a very nice fruity perfume, but again I don’t know that I’d buy it a second time, if only because I don’t much like fruity perfumes, personally. I bought this as a curiosity and my curiosity is now sated. In spite of the fact that I’ll probably gift rather than use the bottle, I certainly don’t regret the purchase. It’s a fun little smell and it made me smile, hopefully I can give it to someone else who will grin at it too.
olgaleshchova –
I find ” Tweedle Dum” to be a very perplexing scent. In the bottle, and upon application, I get a strong note of bubble gum thst quickly transitions into a sour cherry, candy note. The sugary notes die down within a minute on my skin, and are replaced by something that smell like pine trees. The note of pine trees last for quite a while on me. Lastly, I sense a soapy type of a note. I received “Tweedle Dum” as a Christmas gift. It’s a lovely perfume oil. But, I think I need time to decide if I should use it as a perfume, or an incense oil. This is another Black Phoenix Alchemy lab perfume oil that, I am very curious to know how will age, overtime.
Dame_Cat –
This is a playful, fruit-candy scent. Faintly I detect the patchouli… Yes it’s in there, but the fun fruitiness is the star. I received this as a frimp, and though it’s not my usual taste, I liked it because it reminded me of the fruit flavored products I’d wear when I was a girl in high school (about a century ago). In the locker room at my gym I can tell when someone is putting on Bath & Body Works because it’s a sugary explosion from across the room. It would be nice if that stuff weren’t so obnoxiously sweet… Which is why this scent is good if you’re in the market for something young and fruit-flavored, but not so heavily sweet that you can’t detect the notes. It brought to mind the taste of a little gummy fruit snack in my mouth. I mean that in a good way.
Gloame –
I like this one. It’s a fun and odd mix with the mango/fig and the patchouli. Yes, it’s absurd, but it totally works.