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Carnival of Souls Marissa Zappas 2024

7.3 / 10 13 Ratings

A new perfume by Marissa Zappas for women and men, released in 2024. The scent is creamy-powdery. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Creamy

Powdery

Leathery

Gourmand

Floral

Fragrance Notes

Coconut

Amber

Frankincense Musk

Musk

Mimosa

Patchouli

Saffron

Vanilla

Violet

Perfumer

Marissa Zappas

Ratings

Scent

7.313 Ratings

Longevity

6.97 Ratings

Sillage

6.39 Ratings

Bottle

8.311 Ratings

Submitted by TheBladi11, last update on 11/07/2025.

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Reviews

7 in-depth fragrance descriptions

08/05/2025

Mlleghoul
458 Reviews

Mlleghoul

Helpful Review 2

wobbling, wonky naiveté

Marissa Zappas Carnival of Souls An involuntary grimace quickly smoothed into polite blankness, a gagging masked by a throat-clearing. "Is everything ok?" "Oh, it's nothing, I'm fine" and proceeds to throw up in mouth just a little, not too obvious. Honeyed floral cream turning sour, saffron like dried grass mixed into warm milk that's started to separate. Coconut cream sweet and plasticky with oddly-spiced grave dirt patchouli sediment settling at the bottom. An eerie seriousness that doesn't land and instead evokes a wobbling, wonky naiveté, dewy-eyed and desperate so much as to be repellent. I've found everything I have tried from Marissa Zappas too subtle, too fleeting, stories in which the characters and plots are instantly forgettable, leaving you wondering if anything ever happened at all. Carnival of Souls continues this pointless parade of almost-perfumes.

08/13/2025

10Scent 9Longevity 7Sillage

Ayomiyukki
15 Reviews

Ayomiyukki

1

strange and unusual

Carnival of Souls is perfectly named (inspired by the 1962 horror film of the same name) Beautifully haunting, curious, playful. Like opening a cabinet of oddities and curiosities. Or strolling through an abandoned circus. Once full of life and now nothing but the ghostly presence of it, like a dream. Dusty, foggy, ethereal.

It's like a beloved antique bookstore owned by a very elegant, mysterious lady that is later revealed has always been a ghost. Spooky and whimsy in a very comforting way.

Marissa Zappas truly captured a whole genre in a bottle. I've been comparing fragrances to film and here you have her literally creating fragrances for them. I know I say this a lot about most of my favorite perfumes but this one's so nostalgic. It takes you to a whole other world you randomly find yourself yearning for. Like a hypnotic music box, or a film that stays with you forever.

It's creamy, powdery, and warm. I get smoky, sweet incense, mimosa (new note for me, it's absolutely lovely), and amber. There's hints of wax that remind me of those weird and off-putting dolls (in the best way) or a room full of melted candles. Then vanilla, toasted coconut and violet that merge beautifully, like a grand finale. A true gothic gourmand.

02/27/2025

Byrehoe
205 Reviews

Byrehoe

2

mysterious benefactress

Rich, eccentric, and slightly spooky – the kind of scent I feel I have to wear with a floor-length fur with. This is scalded condensed milk, ladled to your lips on tarnished silver. Nurturing but intimidating. It makes me want to re-read some Lemony Snicket. There’s a wealth of notes here: leathery saffron, smoky incense, dainty violet, sweet vanilla, etc.... but carefully blended, with no one element overpowering another. Patchouli usually scares me, but it plays nice in Carnival, adding a layer of shadow to the picture. The cream is leaden, just beginning to caramelise. Divine. It’s also got that “antique shoppe” dust accord I love so dearly (see Byredo’s Bibliotheque). When it comes to performance Carnival is a slow, steady burn. Doesn’t leave much of a trail, but lasts a good four hours on skin and all night long in a fur coat.

Mental Snapshot: You’re an orphaned waif trembling in the foyer of your long-lost great-great aunt’s estate. It’s a dagger-gabled Victorian, painted in shades of shadow and curtained in ancient brocade. Your aunt’s face is obscured by an enormous raven-feather fascinator but she greets you in a Transatlantic croon – “Crumpet! Darling! Pet!” – and swaddles you in her mink. “Thank the stars you’re here. I just put a kettle on.” She won’t say what’s in the kettle, but whatever it is smells intoxicating.

tl;dr: A Series of Fortunate Scents

01/06/2025

8Scent 7Sillage

Cassrdgwy
42 Reviews

Cassrdgwy

1

Summertime Longing for the Winter

Cool, Fresh biting breath. Purples and blues, a cold scent with a layer of candied fruits. Theres the slightest hint of almondy-plasticy note, maybe helitrope? Very different, i wasnt a fan of it the first time around but now i find it really different and unique and could see me wearing it. Feels like the end of summer, when I am wishing for snow and cold weather. Not sure if it would wear weird on the skin in the summer with the heat, but I would find this very comforting when missing those shorter days and darker nights.

After reading notes: I really disagree with fragranticas notes. It is not a warm spicy or powdery to me. I don’t get the incense note, maybe in a dry down - it feels more metallic and cold than warm and smoky. The milk cream and vanilla are more prominent to me - like a cold foam. I dont get any coconut like the reviews say.

My second favorite from the entire MZ Collection!

06/23/2025

Katemorganb
33 Reviews

Katemorganb

1

Sweet and Eerie

Haunted violets growing outside an abandoned carnival, plus the soft peach perfume of a ghost that’s unaware of her new state of being. Incense, coconut, and vanilla lend a gothic gourmand quality, further grounding the already-earthy fruits and flowers that make up the rest of the scent. Carnival of Souls feels like a playground near a church cemetery, like a dust-covered makeup vanity or a doll that moves by itself. It’s playfully uncanny, pretty and eerie, creepy and cute.

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