Mud

Mud is a beautiful smooth, milky sandalwood with vanilla-chocolate undertones. The chocolate isn’t dark or bitter but reminds me of the one in VC&A Orchidee Rouge, which smells like the milk chocolate bonbons filled with a dried berry. In both, the vanilla is more prominent than the chocolate, balancing it so you don’t smell like just that. The rose also blends with the vanilla nicely, but isn’t jammy. This is just right in terms of sweetness, the perfect blend of different scent profiles, and is very cozy. There’s some spiciness from the resins that adds a nice little, but noticeable, twist. The twist is the exact description of the elemi note: fresh spicy, balsamic, citrusy. This has moderate projection and lasts for hours on my skin, great longevity. This would be perfect for fall and I can also picture the mud baths at a spa having this aroma.

with a name like mud i thought this would be more earthy and complex, but it's a very safe feminine gourmand. on me, it mostly smells like cocoa butter and sandalwood, with a light citrusy top note and a hint of dark chocolate. pleasant, not particularly challenging, but i do get compliments when i wear it.

Unique but with a mass appealing feel. Was surprised to see that an orange accord isn’t listed as that’s what I got in the opening. And it is very nice. It’s a seductive and sensual gourmand with light and dark facets blending together perfectly.

Seems a little masculine at first, spicy and sharp, dries down to such a nice semi sweet scent.

I find this scent delightful! The first thing that always comes to mind is sunscreen, but in the most positive way, kind of reminiscent of a Beach Bum or Hawaiian Tropics brand product in feeling just a little coconutty, a little powdery, but with a touch of clean wood like a balsa wood or an incredibly light sandalwood to keep it from being overwhelmingly sweet or overtly tropical. More specifically, it smells like a rich people sunscreen, the type of thing you would borrow from a friend and be like “Oh this is nice I’m gonna remember the name and order some when I get home!” and then google the brand only to realize it’s, like, $65 an ounce and you know you’d use that up in a month. That is to say, it’s a very nice, refined, subtle, understated scent that doesn’t scream expensive unless you happen to be ~in the know~ about the brand. One of those rich people secrets. In terms of notes, I also get the cocoa but in a sharp, clean, cocoa krispies/toasted rice kind of way as opposed to a sweet gourmand, desserty kind of way. I also get a note that seems to be pretty consistent across BTSO fragrances, a kind of department store-esque, muted musk and vanilla that has a distinct but so pleasant feeling of artificiality to it and a touch of earth and minerality, almost like smelling acrylic paints (hoping maybe someone else with a little more experience could identify this compound/note- I really do like it!). I know much of this has to do with individual skin chemistry, but don’t be deterred by “sweet” being listed as the top accord. I notoriously hate sweet scents and yet don’t find this to be particularly sweet. Out of the 10 samples included in the BTSO discovery set, Mud stands out as a favorite to me and a top contender for considering purchasing a whole bottle. However, that love is not without critique. When looking at this scent in the context of the brand as a whole, I’m not quite sure it accomplished what I think it set out to accomplish. The brand is literally called BORNTOSTANDOUT. The promo images, especially for this particular product, are messy, drippy, sticky, oozing. Where is the ooze. I want more ooze from this. To me this feels half way to being a skin scent, and for that I love it. But it is not necessarily standing out. It is not bombastic and loud like the brand’s stylized all caps typesetting would have you believe. But I do like it.

It’s a soft and sweet nostalgic perfume. Sadly, it fades quickly - yet in a way, that’s fitting as It feels like a faraway memory of someone we once knew. The sky is cloudy, and rain is on its way. A man sits alone on a bench, feeling sad without knowing exactly why. He thinks about an ex-girlfriend from years ago and tries to remember how her hair smelled. But it’s been so long that it’s only an echo now, a memory, sweet but touched with quiet sadness.

Mud features a starchy floral that I associate w/novelty bar soap---paired with the vanilla, I can't think of anything further than the marketed muddy grass! Still incredibly wearable & pleasant. I'm wearing side-by-side with Andrea Maack's Coven on the other wrist, so it could be that the VERY vegetal earthy quality of that fragrance pushes Mud into a clean-sweet category by comparison. In any case, I'm happy.

This is not deep, rich, dark chocolate, but walmart checkout isle chocolate made of coco powder and milk. Childish, artificial, but in a way that is also subversive and magical. Reminds me of being a 6 year old and using glitter glue to draw on craft paper while chomping down some kiddie chocolate bar. Makes me feel like a magic girl.

Resinous amber. Vanillac milk (as opposed to chocolate milk). Chocolaty undertone. Very synthetic, due mainly to the lactonic vanilla accord. Nice mesh of nuance. Subtle nuance. Smells pretty good. Unisex. Fun and casual. Not too youthful. Check this one out! Cons: intensity fades fast and longevity isn’t very good.

Nice and easy gourmand done well. Good silage, very unisex, easy going. I truly like this, but it’s not that close to Eau Duelle, this is simpler - what is not a bad thing. Great for new gourmand lovers, a bit redundant if you are in this for a while (my case).

One of the most UNIQUE perfumes I have smelled. I would describe this as a vintage gum smell. It smells sweet and balmy, a bit medicinal and earthy. It is so hard to describe - it is not complex as a scent but I haven't tried anything like it before.

Opens ambery aromatic with a hint of sweet vanilla It's kind of an aromatic version of br540 - amber that is very volatile and hard to detect a while after spraying More detectable sandalwood after drying for a bit

chocolate milk, like the school lunchroom kind, mixed with amaretto and soil. slightly more milky on dry down. sillage is “personal”, and is a very fluffy/cozy “huggable” scent. inoffensive enough for office wear.

At first this smelled like damp earth with a twist, but as it dries down it truly becomes more of a hot chocolate scent which is a shame, I liked the initial damp earthy vibe of it.

Very pretty mellow vanilla with a hint of Barbie doll head. Unfortunately it's not worth the price bc it only lasts like 20 minutes.

Super inoffensive and subdued in a nice, comforting way. Perfect fit for the first shy autumn days.

I get a skin scent of vanilla sandalwood and not much else.

sweet. reminds me of commes des garcons's concrete

Been racking my brain trying to figure out what this reminds me of then it finally hit me. First, you get hints of unsweetened baking milk chocolate like when you start chopping them up and you get that certain smell and texture. At this phase, it reminds me of Wicked Good by Gallagher. Then, it goes thru its juicy fruit gum flavor phase with that sweet berry banana tropical fruit type smell. That’s probably why someone put Dolce Amalfi in the “remind” section but Mud doesn’t have the amber-y feel. But, the overarching scent profile that runs through the entire fragrance that really reminding me of something is the Gypsy Water profile which is that piny subtle citrus almost powdered milk vanilla thing. The notes are very similar, too, especially in the base. I think the transitions are nice and the overall profile is very likable. But, I’m not a fan of gourmands. This is sweet but doesn’t go to the sickening point. It might get sweeter on skin, though, and be cloying in very high heat. Not for me, but I can totally see a lot of people liking this.

Mud is... okay. A muddy depiction of masculinity, but gourmand. It starts off with a bit of an almond vibe rather than the expected chocolate, maybe somewhat like a chocolate-flavored nut nougat that’s been warmed by a cozy fire. There’s something like dried fruit littered among the nougat mix, though it’s just subtle and overshadowed by its neighbouring nuts and that dried dark-choc coating. There's this light sweetness too, almost like a sprinkle of sugar crystals, maybe even with fine resin thrown in there, but it’s more vaguely pleasant than mind-blowing. The almond note sticks out a bit too much, personally, while the other elements sort of hover in the background. A scent that feels like it’s trying to be more interesting than it actually is. One with a composition like mud.

"smells like someone tried to make a good perfume out of the smell of the holly sulfury poopoo caca of the pope on the fresh spring grass in front of the church" is what ly girlfriend said, now she has to smell that allllll night while sleeping hope she doesnt have bad dreams about the pope shitting himself like bardella in the amphi n de tolbiac (even tho she says the pope's poopoo caca smells better than bardella's

The marketing for Born to Standout is incredible. Forward, bold and great imagery. The scents? Not so much in my opinion. Mud was a scent I was very much anticipating to smell. Maybe it was the marketing and the name but this just smells like another naturalistic vanilla. Think Eau Duelle or Liis Bo. Light amber and elemi with a hint of vanilla. Nice but I’ll pass

I was expecting more with such a polarizing name as mud. There are no green, earthy, wood or nature like notes on this Perfume. It reminds me of a sweet chocolate almond milk that if it could be served hot and to project, this would be the result. It does lean more feminine which is also a surprise. Not bad but I did expect more experimentation.

On first sniff I got bright, ambery, sandalwood, and maybe a sort of slight citrusy pine? The chocolate came on in the dry down but I got no almond or milk. It was almost like a beautiful sawdust smell with chocolate in the background. Not at all what I expected and not for me, I’m afraid.

This one is odd.. I do see the similarities to Eau Duelle - this is a very ambery vanilla with a lotion-like quality to it. It’s resinous and the almond/plum/rose combo takes it a little too far into medicinal territory for me. It’s resinous and warm, a little sickly. I’ll pass.

Kinda boring. For some reason, shoes I had from Steve Madden smelled like this in the box. Also reminds me a bit of Aimez Moi Comme Je Suis by Caron, but much weaker. (They aren’t dupes. But it does remind me of that one. I’m quite indifferent to both)

Despite the name it's very clean. Very lotion-esque, pretty similar to cocoa butter. There's a bit of citrus in the opening, and a slight of something medicinal. It's a pass for me since it's pretty basic for a high price point

It’s like a Barbie doll took a bath and got squeaky clean, then drank a hot chocolate before getting tucked into bed. In the morning, she forgot what she had done. So much potential going down the drain.

For a perfume named Mud coming from BTSO I was really expecting something more interesting. Not bad but just not that interesting. If you're looking for a milky vanilla give it a try.

it's... fine! really heavy on the plum and chocolate with a hint of almond. perfectly acceptable but not compelling for the price point. overall rating: 🩷🩷💔🖤🖤 2.5/5

This is hot chocolate made with water instead of milk, then cooled down at room temperature. It's still chocolatey but not quite right.

it does not smell like mud fortunately, its quite a pleasant perfume but i doubt it will leave much of a sillage. very mediocre perfume

Sometimes I really do wonder how many people select the notes without ever having tested the fragrance themselves. Usually I can understand other perspectives, but sometimes I really wonder. Then again, after testing this fragrance blind and getting an initial aromatic opening that dried down to a very mellow hintly sweet vetiver vibe (touch of smoke?) others probably think I've lost it. I don't get half the notes. No chocolate for sure, no plum, and while I guess this is a hint (like a drop) sweet, to me it is far from gourmandy milks, whatever milk vanilla mud it is trying to be? Mud? Really? I get no groundwork, clay, earth here, or fields here. While the longevity was good, it is pretty mellow. So much so I almost forgot if I put anything on today. So it has a very intimate projection, hanging around so close only the most intimate encounters will know. Born to stand out it is not, not even close. Born to be shy, or comfortably repressed, maybe. It's not a very charismatic or intriguing fragrance, even at an intimate level. I find it slightly masculine (not feminine) and really only such. Don't use really good soap with something like this because they'll battle it out at such an intimate level, you won't know till you smell yourself.

Bummer. Tried it on a paper and it actually smells so soapy. I'll try it on my skin and update if any change but as of now this is such a pass for me :( notes looked so good too...

Somewhat similar to Eau Duelle at first... dries down to barnyard funk. Not for me.

Took an expensive chance buying a full bottle of this and Drunk Saffron. They both disappear within seconds of spraying. I’ve tried dousing myself with them, and nothing! What a waste of $!

Like a soapy, chocolatey scent. I get orange in the opening notes too, very like Terry's Chocolate Orange. Not for me.

Mud is the most ironic fragrance from this line so far. The name evokes something that should smell earthy, messy, dark and rich. But I get this soft vanilla amber, with hints of creaminess and touches of resin and wood. There is a dusty chocolate undertone, but it's fleeting. I'm actually wondering if the scents from this line are pulling this way only for me, as perhaps I'm mildly anosmic to them to the degree that I'm just catching only a percentage of everything. Because everything I've tried so far is so gentle and soft (with the exception of the holy hell of a mess that is Not Vanilla).

It is a “mud” in a sense of clay sole. It also reminds me of clay figurines that have been lightly perfumed to scent the space around. I can clearly pick up rose and resinous notes. The opening feels very multifaceted. This is one of those fragrances that adapts to the wearer. I am of a “light-presence”, and as a resinous notes fade, what remains on me is a soft clay-like powder with a gentle warm-rosy nuance. On some skin, it for sure might lean more toward chocolate (rather, cocoa)

The name is certainly misleading but I don’t understand the hate for this. Very plum forward with a chocolate nuance in the background, more cacao than chocolate and not much rose to speak of. I’m glad of that as rose has a tendency to take over everything. Can’t really detect the almond note either and no fecal note for me as the reviewer below noted. Overall a very well blended release from BTSO but nothing muddy as the name would suggest.

Massive disappointment. I was so keen to try these after reading about them on here and made a special trip to Bloom to do so. I'm assuming the description is tongue in cheek "Mud" as in "Mississippi mud pie", because there's nothing grassy, earthy or watery here it's a deliciously sinful dark chocolate dessert. Unfortunately the longevity is atrocious, not even a skin scent or on clothing two hours later. At this price ? Behave

I knew I wasn’t getting what I expected when I read the notes but a small part of me still hoped the notes would somehow create a muddy wet almost plaster smell... nope. It was actually rather unremarkable it smells like 2 or 10 other vanilla scents I’ve smelt before. I was excited to smell this but it leads much to be desired if I’m being honest at least on my chemistry!

A bowl of Nesquik chocolate cereal but you ate all the cereal and find yourself hunched over, sniffing the bowl of now chocolate flavoured milk. A lovely scene and scent in my mind, but I generally love simple gourmand scents. Doesn’t really have anything to do with mud, kind of like you don’t want to think about how Nesquik cereal look like bunny droppings.

I get zero milk, zero almond, zero chocolate. Could it be that they sent me a different scent in my Mud sample? Lol. This smells woody and citrusy on my. And reminds me of a late 90s cologne that I can't quite put my finger on. It's not a bad scent by any means, but if you're looking for a true, sweet, mouth-watering gourmand, this is not the one.

Initially this smelled exactly like Comptoir Sud Pacifique Armour De Cacao to me. Chocolate and orange. As it dries down, I still get milk chocolate and maybe a little vanilla. It is nice, but Amour De Cacao is way cheaper, and smells the same to me.

This went on like something from my childhood, then vanished. I added a ton more in a huge wet spot and got anise fading to hay in a lovely way but then it vanished again. I just can’t smell this one. It’s like it doesn’t exist after ten minutes.

At first it reminds me of chocolate truffles, the candy. Later you get a hint of plum and rose. Then you get more and more elemi, to the point when in drydown that's all you can smell, just sweet elemi. Reminds me of church (the drydown).

better on paper. on skin it’s an okay easy vanilla. i wish there was more of that mud in there, maybe more cocoa & soil with just a hint of almost undetectable patchouli to live up to the name. Projection/sillage is not good either.

Powdery violet, milk chocolate, patchouli and bergamot. A lot going on here but a different take on a fresh gourmand, wears beautifully.

⬇️⬇️ Did you get fakes? These fragrances from this house have really decent, to even beast mode performance. They are full of ambroxan