Beast Mode

Two words -- ELEGANT RESTRAINT. Beast Mode is an extraordinary perfume. At first I didn't even know what to make of it, it's so unusual and ingenious. First of all, it must be tried on skin, because it is a changeling that depends on your warmth and chemistry. The first time I tried it, I smelled some waxy tuberose and pepper, as a skin scent, and I didn't think it would be my style. But I couldn't stop thinking about it, so the next day I wore it and that time I smelled mostly salmiak (salty licorice) with a little bit of rubbery tuberose. It became a sort of compulsion, to wear it again and dig deeper into its mysteries. I finished off a 2mL sample in a week while waiting for the bottle because I was applying it twice a day. • To me, the most prominent and remarkable part is the silvery base. It smells like ambergris butter. Although there is no natural ambergris in the fragrance, the perfect blending of the ambroxan with the studio-tinctured vanilla and natural civet has made unexpected gritty-waxy OCEANIC MAGIC. Now, I do love big white florals, so at first I thought that a minimalist tuberose was sacrilege, but I'm also a Selkie, so every time I smell that resplendent but cozy, shimmering, buttery musk, I think to myself "thank goddess he didn't hide it under a pile of flowers!" It is a skin scent but actually wafts right off me when I'm moving about, and lasts for hours and hours.

I can't make heads or tails out of Chris's description of this scent, and there are so many adjectives dropped on it (floral, animalic, unisex,) and then this whopper of befuddlement: "Beast Mode, an eau de toilette of deceiving strengths, posits an alternative kind of savage — one of cunning and intention rather than of ostentation and amplitude." How could anyone discern what the hell this is? I'm wearing it right now. Let me be direct. This is a peppery, dry, subtle, scent. It has a gentle and reserved manner, not at all "BEAST MODE." It is more attuned to solitude than sex, more introspective than in-your-face. I don't detect civet, the way I do, for example, in Mitsouko. There is no nasty cat anus gland in here. There is ambroxan and vanilla which seem to give it a warm, amber undertone to cancel out the sharpness of the black pepper. Tuberose? It must be 1% of the composition because I cannot smell it. There is nothing that I have in my collection that smells like this scent. It is different and unique and very well composed, an original. It is, unfortunately, cursed by obfuscating marketing, rendering it confounding and strange when it is really quite intelligent, understated, quiet and lovely.

For the first 20 minutes: bright twangy anise suspended in a ghostly, holographic amber. It's a beautiful smell, fresh warm glowy gossamer. "Minimalism" really does feel like helpful descriptor here. It's understated but captivating, wide open in a way you can really walk around in. The brightness starts to mellow a little and the composition warms, opening up space for a pale breath of vanilla aglow with buttery tuberose. At around 3 hours, the sharp-shiny-peppery corners of the licorice accord have melted away, leaving it earthy and sweet, almost hinting at cinnamon; a languid breeze of ambroxan through tuberose maintains the feeling of uncrowded dimensionality. After a couple more hours, I notice the vanilla get creamier and muskier, and the civet take on definition in its interaction with the licorice. 6 hours after the initial application, it settles into a beautifully blended glowing base that I spend the rest of the day compulsively inhaling whenever I get the opportunity. It's "your skin but better" after about 10 hours. I could never really do it justice, but this is complex, interesting, soothing, and lovely. I love getting to know it better every time I wear it.

Not everyone "clicks" with this fragrance. Beast Mode is a statement, a stroke of creativity, and boldly different. It is bold and a powerful scent who's sillage drifts far, but it never overpowers the room. It is the use of ambroxan in a restrained sense, preventing the aromamolecule from assaulting its environment. The molecule is then twisted and played with throughout the evolution: at times you get a strong muskiness, a sharp pepper, a creamy floral, all melding with the ebb and flow of the day. Beast Mode is a scent you should sample and wear a couple times before you conclude on a lack of creativity or thought. It is every bit as provoking and stimulating as any Rusak creation. Beast Mode is purposefully named to provoke users of the term: people who's only goal is to try to smell mainstream will despise it, yet people who find a liking for Beast Mode will smell quite nice to others.

This is one of those that really needs to be tested on skin. I tried it first on a test strip (came in with a lot of other things) and it gave me a frighten~ (I think the civet might really come out to play on paper). However some kind of gorgeous alchemy happens when you actually wear this stuff. It’s light and amorphous but always seems to “glitter” in the air around me. It’s one of those fragrances that will make you grateful you had the opportunity to smell it. Definitely full bottle worthy~