YoakeNoKami

Eeeeeek! Roses, at first--wet roses! I LOVE roses… On, though… straight to soap and not loving me…and it stays soapy. A gray, sad kind of day in the imp, though, and the roses are abandoned on the doorstep.

This has that dragon's blood note that I get out of Wolf's Heart, a spiced, milky warmth, but at the tail end of this scent, there's a heavy--flat--and slightly unpleasant note that brings misfortune to mind. Despite the spiciness I can smell in this, there's a weird, weird sticky-sweet feeling to the smell of this. and it doesn't like me.

Imp: This is a bit weird in the bottle--a strange, sort of musty smell. On/wet: Yeeagh. Still the weird mustiness, like I got all the way through from Music of Erich Zahn. Drydown: Strange herbs and florals… wow, I'm not too sure about this one. That musty smell lingers a loooong time on me, and I get very little of the flowers and herbs before it fades, although the final is a beautiful scent. I'm not too sure I can stand it through the drydown, so I'll be passing it on to a friend of mine, as she gets the floral note from it.

Imp: Clean, tangy citrus On/wet: Still the lovely clean citrus, with a bit of sweetness beneath Drydown: This stays a nice citrus on me, without being overpowering. There's a teensy bit of sweet flatness beneath, a little like an orange, without being overpowering.

This one was... interesting on me. In the imp, it's chocolate, and maybe cool, sweet tea. On/wet...there's some of the fruity sweetness that was in Vice for me--which is concerning, since my skin ate up Vice really quickly. There's maybe a little hazlenut, too. Drydown: Sweet--but--again, my skin has done something strange with a scent! I get chocolate, and coconut...and cinnamon? It's an interesting, sweet scent. I like it quite a bit, though I may need to pair it with something a little more "stable" and less sweet to be able to wear it often.

Imp: Lovely roses and a slight crushed grass and petal smell. On: Err. Rose soap with grass? Drydown: This went the same way as London on me--a lovely, heady blend of roses in the bottle, but it goes to soap right away when I put it on. It's a shame, because I adore roses--but my skin doesn't seem to do too well with the blends I've tried where rose is heavy as a top note. P.S.: Fortunately, in blends like Crypt Queen and Thanatos-- I get roses out of the background notes in those, and they're lovely on me.

I know it might seem strange, but this one is lovely on me--pie with butter crust, that strange hint of something that makes me think of the turkey in the desription, and this faint hint of deliciously fruity freshness that wraps this up into a comfortingly foody scent for me. It's like steamed milk with vanilla and sugar, and coffee, and sugar cookies and all the other things all at once. It makes me hungry thinking about it, so I'm going to go slather more on. It's a wonderfully "homey" kind of smell--like dozing on the couch after a family dinner.

Imp: Fruity wine and deep red roses, I think... if there were white roses in here, they'd be stained red already. On/wet: No, no! Crushed rose petals and fruit! It's not too bad--more like the way eating fresh rose petals tastes... Drydown: Finally, a rose which works for me, for the most part. On fresh, though it smells crushed petal, it turns to back to the lovely (if odd) fruit-rose smell that I get out of it in the imp.

Imp: Fruity, almost bubblegum--but more fruity than Shango... On/wet: Still a lovely, almost edible fruit scent, and sweet lotus. Drydown: There's a floral in here, but it's a fruity floral--it's got this lovely sweet lotus and sort of a foody-but-not-foody fruitiness and underlying warm spice to it. Delicious!

This is nice in the imp--a damp, aquatic kind of rose. I seem to have a hard time finding rose and/or aquatics that works on me--and unfortunately, the two together was not good on my skin. On wet and all the way through drydown, I got soap from this one. I'm disappointed, but I'll keep looking!

Cinnamon and musk and dragon's blood, this one's very warm, with a muted kind of edge to the scent. The cinammon that I get from this is perhaps a bit too soft on me for some reason, and a bit powdery, but good, nonetheless! It reminds me a bit of Dragon's Milk and Wolf's Heart, but softer somehow.

Lovely apples and pears… at first, anyway. After that, it's pear and rose, and stays quite fresh on me all the was through--it's a rather refreshing scent, and it's bolstered my confidence in finding a rose that works… I used just a little, and it's got some staying power and pretty decent throw.

Oh, yum! In the imp, it's rose all the way--sweet, dewy roses, with just a dusting of sugar Wet: Still very rose, but I get the actual "sugar" note now. It's not soapy at all (thank heaven!) Drydown: I put on just a little smidge, courtesy of a certain friend of mine and it's still there--it's not as "damp rose" as it was earlier--it is, if you've ever had candied rose petals--nearly perfect to its description. It really is a very nice, sweet, slightly dry rose and sugar. Yum... thinking I might need a bottle of this...

Bottle: Bought unsniffed based on the lovely reviews... and it's tea with sugar and the faintest hint of lemon and cream in the bottle. Totally delicious! On/wet: The sugar fades a bit, and so I've got lovely, creamy, herb/lemon tea. It reminds me a bit of earl gray, with a bit of lemon, only with a more sneakingly herbal scent. Drydown: *drools* Okay, this is one of the ones I might someday have to stockpile. It's got some of the sugar back, and it's got this creamy herb, lemon, quietly dark kind of hint to it. On the surface, it's a straightforward kind of tea scent, but as you begin to really get into the depth of the scent, it really is a very dark, seductively smooth scent. I'm not entirely certain that the drydown on me with this is my absolute favorite... but... how should I say? I haven't really been wearing it, but my favorite bathrobe and my pillow smell of it, always! It makes me feel... heehee... dangerous, somehow.

Imp: Huh, smells familiar? Like salt/sea/ocean, for some reason. On/wet: Faintly floral... but... really, I think it smells like something else. Drydown: Okay, so it smells pretty good on me... but... and this is not a good thing--It smells just like my dad's cologne! I can see it working for a guy, or for another girl, but...err... not for me. I wouldn't be able to stop laughing.

Imp: Light citrus and tea... mmmm On/wet: Wow! This is so yummy smelling! The citrus is really clear, and the tea is a nice touch. Drydown: Citrus--lime, it seems... ginger, lemon... lovely, clean tea. It's a deliciously edible kind of scent and I wish I had some tea that tastes like this smells.

Imp: Sweeeeeet. Fruit and... uh... marzipan? Not what I was exppecting... On/wet: Marzipan. Overwhelmingly marzipan. Drydown: There's cherries in here... wow, where did they come from? I think it's too sweet for me, personally, because the cherries are sweet, sweet, sugary cherries--and they don't like me.

Dia de los Muertos 2007 Bottle: Faint night florals... On/wet: Still the florals, but it seems to be warming a bit. The floral is very clean, with a hint of something sweet beneath it. Drydown: Hmmm! Still sweet, with what seems to be a dry cocoa powder and fragmented bits of sugar in it. There seems to be a faint incense-tobacco note in it too, and a floral which smells light a lighter, cleaner sort of gardenia (not that I have any problem with gardenia, but it gets really heavy on me...) Overall, a floral-cocoa combo... anyhow,

Imp: Faintly lily, with a strong undertone of something else. Gardenia? On/wet: A bit more lily, but still rather faint. Perhaps elegant-dinner kind of lily, Not easter-lily, thank god, because mom would kick me out. Drydown: Odd. Rather decidedly odd. Lilies and vanilla, but a fuller note to the lily which is less sweet and more dry- balanced, if you would. I guess that as a lily, this would be a poised, quietly elegant, but fading--falling petals at a funeral, backed by dark reassurance, inevitability: lacks the sickly sweet edges of white easter lilies. Overall, a warm, cleanly elegant kind of scent. Warning: Do NOT slather!!!!!!

In imp: Pepper and honey... er.. On/wet: still pretty peppery, but with (?!) oatmeal and honey... like milk moon, wtf? Drydown: Oh my god, the GC solution to Milk Moon 2007! They smell almost exaclty the same on me, once the pepper in White Rabbit dies down a bit. Only difference in the scent is that I have to be a lot more sparing with Milk Moon--a little goes a long way. Heavenly, of course!

Imp: A bit like Dana O'Shee, but a fuller, warmer honey with a bit of spiciness to it. On/wet: Warm, spicy honey... I'm wondering if that faint spiciness is the Dragon's Blood? It's a bit spicy-flowery but the floral seems to be going away. Drydown: Okay, so what I'm getting out of this is perhaps a bit different than what I thought it would be--I generally think of dragons as being scaly, etc. which this is not. Instead, I'm catching a faint lilac, warm honey and milk. It's got a teensy bit of spiciness to it, like a honey made from a certain kind of flower--cannot quite recall the name--but it gives this overall gentle warmth. The spice of dragon's blood under soft milk--warmth and the beating of an impossibly huge heart. *looks around nervously* something about wearing this feels utterly sinful... *needs a bottle*

For me this was another scent that called up imagery all its own. Thinking of what it's named for, in conjunction with the scent, brought up all kinds of interesting things in my head... Imp: A bit of the sharpness from Yew Trees, but also a fresh, slightly grassy smell. Err. A bit alcohol... On/wet: still a bit alcohol... more herby, though, and that off sort of crushed flower scent I get from wet Sundew. Drydown: I can't say I really care too much for the effect of this on me. A sharply herbal, slightly astringent, airy kind of scent--once again, lovely, but it's hinting that it could turn bitter dependant on what my skin is up to that day... Damp holy herbs, the tiniest bit of apple, grass. Personally, it's too green for some reason, though I really could not say exactly why--I think part of it is that it does cling to the crushed plant smell that I didn't like in wet Sundew, instead of morphing into a fuller scent. Impressions: Sharp, biting; a vicious defender with deep disregard for others and an unmatched protectiveness of her own- the guarding perched in a tree which is being strangled by mistletoe. Death as mother and fury all at once. The gale over a bare plain.

Damp, flat wood--a nutshell over cool, dark, flamelit open space, with a hint of extinguished resin torches. A smugly dangerous, sleepy, disastrous hint of an unending and final kind of sleep. What is the heavy damp wood note?

A stray, impetuous youth--mercurial and unsettled. Wood and cola swings through sharpened stakes of bubblegum into high ceilinged palaces. This is a tasty one, at the very least. I get stray bits of banana, pomegranate, and pineapple... a heady tropical fruit sort of smell which is almost dangerously sweet. But I love it anyway--a fun scent for anyone with a sweet tooth.

In bottle: Hm, odd milky sort of smell, topped with a smidge of fruitness... a milk-almond-unsteady sort of smell in the bottle, like White Rabbit wet but without the pepper. On/wet: The milk is smacking the fruit to death, I think, with a whole basket of dry, raw almonds. Drydown: Oooh, there's the fruit. The pomegranate, at least, which hits me as having the same sort of White-Rabbit-y ness that I caught earlier. There's the milk, warm, over crushed oats, the pomegranate and dry dry shattered almonds, and the faintly lingering sweetness of perfect, honey-sweet figs. Final: It comes out as White Rabbit on me. Must buy more White Rabbit to feed my Milk Moon addiction...