Commando

This scent is really weird. I have no better word to describe it. It starts with a very metallic fresh citrusy note that lasts for an hour on me. Then comes a really soft and realistic musk, that reminds me of the smell of a cat's head. It's exactly that. People around me said I smelled like black pepper which is the note that my skin always brings out in any perfume. Commando acts like an highlighter for your natural smell, if that makes sense, for about two hours, and then softens into a slighly powdery tonka bean with a light vanilla undertone for the rest of the wear time (about 6/7 hours). edit : I definitely get the indoles in the opening now, but it's still a very wearable kind of animalic.

Commando is a completely original take on a "skin scent." My experience with skin scents to date has revealed that most of them turn to a soft, clean white musk, sometimes with a little sweetness of amber or vanilla thrown in for good measure. Commando does something completely different. This is truly a "skin" scent. It smells like a not-dirty-but-not-freshly-washed person who has spent several hours in the sun and wind. It captures that salty, earthy, natural "human" aroma, with just a tiny bit of sweetness from tonka bean, which actually gives it almost a rubbery aroma. It's not a dirt smell. It's not the smell of perspiration. Commando manages to smell uniquely personal even in the bottle, and merges with your own skin's aroma to become something new and and different. I'm reminded of Grenouille's "human" perfume in Patrick Susskind's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. The rank smell that Grenouille composed was appropriate for a time period when people did not bathe regularly, brush their teeth or use underarm deodorant. Commando is almost like Grenouille's smell for a sanitized 21st century population that showers twice a day, uses a minty toothpaste and applies unscented anti-perspirant. Truly the scent of human skin. Oh, and lasts ages! Remarkable!

I wonder if SmellBent has reformulated, because the free sample I got was just a plain sweet musk, not the shit smears the other reviewers smelled. Dear lord, I hope it's just been updated and not that I'm anosmic or whatever to the smell of poo chemicals. I thought it was a nice, yet boring, scent so I mixed half of it and half of "Hideous Heart" from BPAL into a spray vial and was quite pleased with the result. Warm, musky cinnamon! Hopefully that poo business is cleared up. I certainly didn't smell that, but eesh I'm almost apprehensive about wearing this out now.

First whiff, straight up Tonka Bean. Which you'd think is sweet medicinal vanilla, Anise like. I also get a persistent "Coconut", suede leather like vibe the whole way. There is a sweet powdery vibe in the back, but this is a far cleaner musk than i'd think. This reminds me very much of a University locker room. Body washes. This is like... a guy's body.. fresh out of the shower after using a sweet vanilla body wash. Sillage: modest Longevity: good

To me, this just smells like a man's hairy skin with maybe a little halitosis in the mix. I wore it a few times and it smelled cuddly and human, not gross (thankfully). Then again, I've dated crust punks before, so I'm not easy to disgust in terms of bodily odors. Commando reminds me of a less complex Muscs Koublai Khan. I love the bottle, and the cute puns, cartoons, and wittiness of SmellBent in general.