TokyoMilk

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Waltz

TokyoMilk bottle with label featuring painting of dancing couple, and a pink rose from my garden.

TokyoMilk No. 14 advertises linden, honeyed rose, wisteria petals and white musk, and yep, that’s all in there, for two hours.

Soft clean lime notes and honeysuckle vibes, with a gritty musk that takes it out of the country and into urban garden territory–grape-sweet wisteria hanging from pergolas, but with some city grunge in the background.

I prefer a mazurka.

Edit – 8/15/21

Found this one in a box with a post-it marked “Try In the Summer?” so here I am.
87 degrees F, and 84% humidity on the east coast of the Bluegrass, today.

The linden has a much bigger presence on warmer skin–greener, with bright citrus florals–and the musky rasp at the bottom seems less synthetic than I remember.
I’m always fascinated by how much perfume changes with temperature and weather.

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You can waltz (or mazurka) to this one–

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Cherry Bomb

Bottle with cute cherry back-printed label, brown branding and a silver tall top, on it’s side.

TokyoMilk #05 touts Wild Rose, Osmanthus Chocolate and Vetiver, and while it’s not the pits, it does fizzle out pretty quickly.

The fragrance sprays on like the waxy chocolate one dips fruit in on Valentine’s Day–then turns into a sporty woody rose for a few minutes and is gone.
Nice, but too pricey for zero longevity.
I also bought the candle, which sadly smokes like a chimney, but makes absolutely divine furniture polish–my cherry wood table perfumes the room when the sun shines on it.

Edit – 2/27/22

Lasts longer in spring, with more herbal apricot than in my autumn test–or maybe the juice has ripened a bit over the past 5 years–but still doesn’t set off any fireworks.

Just blown out TokyoMilk candle, tin lid with cherry label, and yellow chamois cloth on a wood table.

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Sea & Sky

TokyoMilk bottle (with an embossed crest) and red and salmon seashell label. Ugh–I am such a sucker for MargotElena’s packaging.
And a sand dollar.

The bottle lists Clean Coral, Mineral Salt, Watercress, and Crushed Citrus, because why not be fancy? but it’s really filled with loud dish soap.

Edit – 1/29/2023

Yeah, the tide of suds settles down after half an hour and gives way to an almost plummy spice under salty aquatics, but it doesn’t make any beach waves.

I should probably get this to someone who might enjoy wearing it, rather than spraying it in my sink so my drain smells nice.

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A much better Ocean.

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Scarlett

TokyoMilk solid perfume and adorable matchbox with a glittered botanical illustration of a rose.

Raindrops on roses.
In a swamp.

This is supposed to be a blend of hyacinth, geranium, rose, and spices–and Scarlett is exactly that, though the spices are rather subdued, and the rest of it is kinda murky.
The opening roses are lovely but the geranium soon turns them too lemony and green, and as it heats up the dewy water hyacinth notes turn into sweaty green funk.

Not quite what I was hoping for, but might be nice cut with tiger balm for a mild muscle rub.

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Some rosy acid crunk.

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Wisdom

Yeah, I totally bought this for the packaging–a glass cigar tube, with a corked ceramic stopper base, the black bottle inside decorated with a white botanical drawing, and kelly green label listing the notes.

Victorian herbalist chic? Yes, please!

Wisdom (TokyoMilk Dark #26) starts with a muddle of plant-stuff in a mortar and pestle, with some aquatics to make it soupy.
The earthy sweetness of the walnut listed on the label comes through fifteen minutes in, and sadly doesn’t linger long.
The base is nondescript woodsy musk.

All that adds up to forest lake, in an elusive dryad way, but to be honest, I got this one for looking at, not wearing.

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Another dark take on wisdom-

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Lotus Sake

TokyoMilk solid perfume and matchbox, and gold capped bottle, both featuring two ladies in cheongsam dresses.

TokyoMilk #53 touts Crisp Greens, Plum, Green Lotus, Warm Sake on the label–
–and yeah, this stuff smells like a drunk dinner salad.
(The parfum solide adds oil to the dressing.)

Has an interesting vegan prep chef aura–I’ll toss the solid and keep the eau.

Edit 2/1/23

Unearthed this one today and did a double take, then did a comparison test, and yep, it’s got a LOT in common with Un Jardin sur le Nil—
Maybe I’m into alcoholic vegetables?

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A bit of crunk.


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Bittersweet

Black bottle with a white painted dragonfly silhouette, sitting in a bowl of chocolate chips.

(TokyoMilk No. 83 lists Cake Flour, Dark Cacao Bean, Osmanthus and Bronzed Musk.)

Big cocoa powder and apricot spice, a little musk at the bottom, but ooh, is this one rather delicious, sexy and gourmand yet a little prissy–like tea-time in the viewing boxes at a Victorian orgy.

The opening seems derivative, Angel without the wet patchouli, then settles to Hershey’s Syrup on the skin in 30 lovely minutes, with creamy florals on linen for an hour.

I’ll go through this quickly.

Edit – 1/29/2023

Yeah, I drained that bottle in a month. Not available any longer, but sometimes one can be spotted for resale.

This is the one that made me take notice of TokyoMilk Dark–and it was discontinued even back then–I think I scored mine at TJMaxx for $20. (Now they go for $150 or more.)

I’ve been going through old notebooks, and finding my scribbled thoughts on scents. I wrote about this one exactly six years ago, right after an awkward paragraph about the smell of dried kiwi (which is neither sexy or delicious.)

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A bittersweet song.

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Crushed

White cat sniffing a black bottle with a butterfly illustration.

#32 – Witchy grape soda.

This brand is ridiculous.

“Earth & Moss” and “Crushed Herbs?” Just say wormwood and stop being coy.
“Wild Grass?” Ookaaay.
The Jasmine I get.

It’s actually pretty good.

Edit – 2/12/2023

Well, I went back for it.

There’s an effervescent sweet wisteria purple that lingers for hours with hints of absinthe, that makes it enchanting and a little evil–poisoned soda pop at a birthday party.

Might be too young for me now–lately I’m more kitchen crone than fairy princess–but I don’t care.

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