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Baklava, is that you? This blend is almost a ringer for the sweet, sticky, nutty baklava I used to get at a Mediterranean takeout place near my last home. It's a little more almond-scented, which is lovely, but otherwise quite like that pastry's aroma at first. Warm, syrupy honeyed almond pastry with some sweet fig and a little cinnamon. I don't notice any overt myrrh until after drydown; even then, it blends well and just gives the perfume a touch of the non-gourmand.
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Cade leather! Surprisingly, I get a cade-juniper scent as the first impression, and a little smoky leather follows close after. Not a berry to be found (sadly). After a few minutes, black currant creeps out, but it's shy and hides under the leather. I love the Lab's black currant notes and always hope for a black currant-heavy blend that works on my skin. The leather has become the most prominent note in this by now, with just airy hints of cade and black currant. Later, I get more of a leathery, dark berry black musk. The berry remains faint, though. This one may fill out with time.
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Been a while since I have reviewed any scents, BUT when I saw this one, I HAD to have it! Anything with coffee, chocolate, gingerbread and pumpkin!! And with ALL of these, insta buy! I get every note sniffing in the bottle... and on, I get gingerbread, pumpkin & coffee...not so much the chocolate note, but any chocolate scents seem to disappear on me, but this is so amazing! This is a comfort scent and perfect for cooler weather. It has medium throw on me. I recommend this for any gourmand/foodie lover!
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Sweet and tart black raspberry and cherry (or raspberry and black cherry -- something smells like a darker fruit) jam. This is a fun fruity jam scent. I didn't anticipate the darker fruit scent I'm getting from something here, and I love it. I want to find the food version and smear it on a scone.
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Feminist Cenobyte opens as a pink cherry ZOT to the nose, like a pink lightning strike in a comic. The cherry is pinkish-red, syrupy, and maraschino-like. I don't smell anything else at first. The cherry settles down quickly on me. It's still present after drydown, but as a cherry wisp, soft and close to the skin. Also after drydown, I get faint impressions of citrus, probably from the chypre. On the whole, the blend stays a bit faint and hollow on me after drydown, which has sometimes meant it needs time to rest... a week to a few months, maybe.
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Oh, how gorgeous this one is! Musky, sweet pumpkin. I definitely get more pumpkin with a bit of musk, with a sprinkling of sugar over it all. Not getting the brimstone note as of yet, but I think that will emerge with a bit of aging and add more "edge". I love all the Liliths I purchased this time around, but I think this may be my fave.
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I love this and it will definitely become a bottle. Tart Honeycrisp apples (with a bit of that honey quality to them that Honeycrisp has), a little clean tea, and lots of cedar pencil shavings or cedar chest. Jasmine is present, but only as a light accent note that blends well into the apples and tea. Some of the honey impression I'm getting from the Honeycrisp could be the honeycomb; it reads at first like a part of the Honeycrisp apple type. I also get a little pinkness in this, reminding me of little pink flowers. In drydown, the honey impression grows a little and the apple tartness settles down. After drydown, the cedar is the strongest note, but it's still blended with the melange of other notes and the whole smells sweet and delightful.
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Pink laundry: flowery, cottony, clean, and powdery. Between Classes is a floral, cottony-clean laundry blend. I'm getting a lot of floral from this -- more than just carnations and lavender, I think of peony and sweet pea and other such sweet, innocent blooms. The carnation is even only faintly spicy; everything in this blend has been gentled and softened for a gentle occasion. ETA: Long after drydown, I get pink roses from this.
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(Photo by Elizabeth. See the original source here.) So often and so anxiously we have talked of this thing called death, that now that it is all over between us, I cannot understand why we found in it such a source of distress. It bewilders me. I am often bewildered here. Things and the fancies of things possess a relation which as yet is new and strange to me. Here is a mystery. Now, in truth, it seems a simple matter for me to tell you how it has been with me since your lips last touched me, and your arms held me to the vanishing air. Oh, drawn, pale lips! Nerveless, dropping arms! I told you I would come. Did ever promise fail I spoke to you? “Come and show me Death,” you said. I have come to show you Death. - from “Since I Died” by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, originally in Scribner’s Monthly (February 1873), as published in Avenging Angels: Ghost Stories by Victorian Women Writers edited by Melissa Edmundson (2018) View the full post.
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In the bottle: Really sappy, resinous, fresh-cut pine, like when they used to sell more than one kind of pine tree for Xmas trees...strong, sappy pine. On, wet: Wet and dry pinewood notes start to open up, the sharp high note of fresh pine really spikes. Getting a faint oil/turpin note also. Drydown: This reminds me of "strike night" at my Summer Theater Group in high school, when we broke down the sets at the end--lots of dry pine notes, pine sawdust, and a little bit of some kind of metallic note. If you are a pine fan, don't wait for Yules, just buy All Of This.
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One of my very favorite TALs. Great for relaxation and sleep. Sweet lavender that is not it's usual astringent self but soft and sweet in a cushion of vanilla marshmallows. I bought 3 bottles!
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Yes, yes, yes, thank you all for keeping me motivated!!! And that line about Amazonia's weather got me out into the bright, unexpected early autumn sunshine since the weather in the Pacific NW is now officially unpredictable (yesterday was supposed to be cloudy, it rained most of the day). If it's nice, I'd better get my ass outside. About a 45 minute walk with some good hills. WOSOTD was Hoiru because I didn't manage to get anything on before heading out for a very stressful doctor's appointment, and Hoiru was the most comforting scent I had in my car (usual purse decants were in my travel bag -- need to remedy that!). Hoiru's really lovely, but not exactly motivating. Anyway, the doctor prescribed high intensity interval training and/or weight training and yoga or tai chi. She particularly felt yin yoga (which I pretty much hate) would be good for my anxiety. So I'm going to be finding some online workouts to do. She said sweating every day is something to aspire to, to keep the brain healthy. So glad I have you all to keep me going!
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I’m so thankful for the tester of Laura Belle I got in a swap. I can’t tell you how many times I considered buying or swapping for a bottle of this.... On my skin, it starts off as an oddly disjointed leather and lavender. I assumed it would come together in the drydown. Unfortunately, what I got in the drydown was a thick, nauseating powder. All the notes sound like absolute win, such a bummer. It’s a reminder that decants are often life(wallet)savers.
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All fresh fir, all the time. I love this. I just spent my morning hiking through fresh snow, hemlock and spruce trees at 2000 ft in AK and when the sun hits evergreens in 20 degree weather, it is magical. Very similar to this perfume oil. I knew I would put this on when I got home. 🙂
- Yesterday
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In the bottle, I don't get pumpkin so much as the chocolate, vanilla, and hazelnut, with a hint of coffee. Nutella and coffee, and I am here for it. When I put it on, the pumpkin amps up loudly for a bit, and the combination of notes is almost overwhelmingly sweet. It does eventually settle to something closer to the in-bottle scent -- buttery pumpkin swirled into a hazelnut latte, as opposed to a PSL. It needs to settle on my skin before I really enjoy it, but I do like the post-drydown result.
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I acquired an aged bottle (10+ years old) of Anne Bonny. In bottle: the patchouli is still very apparent; unlike my face, some things do not age. Also a salty, metallic note. 20 minutes: As it was drying on skin the patchouli was still quite open and there was almost bitter edge on the dry down. One hour: The wood resins come out. I am actually starting to just smell like lumber. Like a freshly purchased cedar chest. 5-6 hours in: Now there's some mellowing and I'm finally getting the frankincense. I cannot think of an occasion where I would want to where this again. I need to send her on to a new home where someone with different skin chemistry can let her shine.
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This is 100% aldehyde, baby powder on me. Big throw, long lasting, 100% aldehyde. It's totally out of my wheelhouse. And I keep it because once a year, for a week, I have to do a huge networking and sales event, outdoors. I wear this scent.
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Am I the only one who does not wear this scent well? I got an imp and the honey turned to cat pee on me. I ended up having to wash off in short order. Very disappointed.
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was this a one time thing? cause i love it!!
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Ahhhight my Witchie Luvs, I'm getting back on track. Buckle up for a looong post, as I am playing catch-up and a lot has happened recently. Apologies in advance, I would spoiler the gory deets if I knew how. First off, thank you to everyone who has been able to keep going, while the rest of us dealt with life, watched from the sidelines, and cheered you on! You all have kept me from sinking into slug mode 😊 @Seajewel I'm glad you're back! I have never been a distance runner, so two miles is impressive to me. I'm more built for speed, and about one mile is the point where I'm like...I'm good, thanks 😂 @VetchVesper whaddaya say we modify it from a 30-day Challenge to a For-the-Rest-of-Our-Lives challenge? Oh, and good work getting the husband involved. I still haven't managed to do that. @Madame Mew moving furniture totally counts! I used to do it for a living, and it is WORK. @Lucchesa, thank you for holding it down, sister. I look forward to your posts daily! Granddaughter is back at home this week, and yep, I am the cool Gammaw. She didn't want to go home, and made her daddy call me Sunday night to tell me that she missed me, and to thank me for her rainbows. I have a giant faceted crystal in an East-facing window, and the morning light shining through it is one of her favorite things ever. I made her a necklace with a Swarovski pendant, so she can have her own rainbows when she's not here. It's a pretty amazing feeling to know that a tiny human is thinking about you when you're not around 💜 One of my husband's work family (a team manager and Hubby's protégé) left the office at 2pm on Friday, and his wife came home at 5pm to find him collapsed and blue on the living room floor. They brought him back temporarily, but emergency efforts to keep him alive were unsuccessful. Autopsy shows a "Berry" aneurysm exploded in the base of his brain. He was younger than us, had kids and a new grandbaby, and everyone loved him dearly. Just an all-around nice guy. It really drives home the fact that we are temporary here, and we should live every day like it's our last. Hubby is not coping well, as we also lost another old friend/former coworker to suicide last month. It is...a lot. Yesterday was a no-go since our sewer line backed up Sunday evening, and I had to wait all day for the plumbers. A tentative "around lunchtime" appointment apparently means 5:45pm 'round these parts, and I didn't want to get sweaty until I could bathe, cuz...eeewww. Today I am wearing a mélange of scents, including a Chaos Snake (crisp white fruit...pear?) that went sharp and sour on me, so I slapped Boomslang over it (not enough "oomph") and then NAVA Vanilla Copal over that. I smell confused. I guess that fits, since I did a 20 minute Adriene yoga video, then an hour of Tae Bo. Totally different worlds, LOL The weather is no longer cooperating with my long walks, so the boring-ass treadmill is looming in my future 😐 Again...thank you all for keeping me motivated!
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Inky black pomegranate, blackcurrant, cassis, red sandalwood, ambrette seed and fossilized amber, pink peppercorn, and guiaicwood
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Inky black pomegranate, blackcurrant, cassis, red sandalwood, ambrette seed and fossilized amber, pink peppercorn, and guiaicwood
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Walking My Daughter to Class
zankoku_zen replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Black Phoenix Trading Post
Bergamot, citrusy Dorian and a whiff of lavender. This one is basically a more citrusy and vanilla Dorian to me. Good throw and wear length. -
Flan and vanilla batter. It does smell like a super custardy vanilla flan. Medium throw and wear length.
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Oh, I like this. A lot. (Drat!) Cozy but tart apple cider, dried sage and grass, with a little backyard dirt and dandelions. A bit after drydown, it seems that there is also... a little light brown musk? Once this dries, I get occasional whiffs of soft, fuzzy, dry-grass musk that reminds me of Coyote. I wonder if "squirreltail" isn't just a grass, here... But then that settles back into the blend, if it was ever even a thing. Ghost squirrel! After that, this is a mild cider and dried grass blend. It's cider in a field, and it makes me want to drink a cold hard cider... in a field.
