donnatron

Imp: To be honest, I just felt bad for Emma. She's been the redheaded stepchild of our last few meet 'n sniffs and I finally took her off aislingeach's hands with the intent to review her. In the imp I get a lot of pink rose and a little jasmine. Very little sweetness considering the overwhelming sweetness of the ingredients. Little pepper.

 

Wet: Huh. This smells like geranium in the wet phase. Like... seriously, just geranium SN.

 

Dry: I kind of understand why this was the MnS redheaded stepchild. It's oddly astringent on my chemistry with a very faint hint of warm vanilla. Otherwise it's like rose flavoured nail polish remover. I think it's the pink pepper doing this. There is also a scent that reminds me faintly of peanut butter but more like a cloth that has been used to clean up peanut butter and then washed but still kind of smells like peanut butter. Man... this is totally bizarre.

 

Throw: Thankfully mild.

 

Overall: This is an unfortunate combination on me. It will be passed onto someone else who hopefully will love it.

I'm a roller because I am a scientist's daughter and I know that shaking will snap molecule strands. But I do smash my wrists because I wear a scent for several hours. Yeah, there might be a very minute difference over the course of the hours if I apply to both wrists separately but I just don't care enough. I have a large collection and I have a lot of bottles that have lasted me several years. Mashing your wrists together is only going to effect the perfume you apply. If you're like me and have a lot of bottles and wear all of your scents infrequently, shaking the bottle is not in your best interest because you will break molecule strands and they'll have weeks if not months to break down and alter the base scent. I agree with the overall consensus: Roll because you want to love your scent for a long time. Mash your wrists together because it will either just help you not leave oil stains on everything or you'll find out that you are the nuclear fission department of the X Men.

Imp: My old nemesis, caramel, comes out swinging. There is a little red musk underneath it.

 

Wet: CARAMEL! Screaming, loudass caramel. And some patchouli. But mostly caramel.

 

Dry: Huh. The caramel never goes away, per se, but it does STFU after a while. The vanilla/patchouli combo is gorgeous as per usual and the red musk and champaca add a nice sensuality to this. It smells like a perfume concocted by a Victorian perfumer who has never been to the Orient but is trying to evoke the feeling of the Orient. The caramel is lurking behind a really lovely and warm perfume cackling to itself and occasionally sending bursts of grotesque sweetness out. It weaves between being a really beautiful red musk/vanilla/patchouli perfume and being ungodly sweet. It's like a caramel dipped Raven Moon.

 

Throw: Good. There's a lot of caramel, though.

 

Overall: Almost but not quite. Caramel simply does not agree with my skin and if I want to capture that gorgeous red musk/patchouli/vanilla combo, that's what Mme. Moriarty is for.

Imp: I wonder what those fruits are. They're not berries or plums. Something about this does remind me of apple flesh, not just apple blossom. The apple blossom is quite strong, however and I mostly smell that with a faint hint of osmanthus. Reminds me of a fruity, younger and less visceral Dreamland.

 

Wet: Apple blossom all the way. I always forget how much apple blossom loves my skin.

 

Dry: Still predominantly apple blossom with a bit of soft orchid duskiness. Not smelling the amber but this does seem darker and a bit more stabilized than the ingredients would suggest otherwise. A bit of dry incense from the sandalwood as well. However, all this shows up only when I get up close and sniff. The throw smells like Garnier conditioner on my skin. It reminds me of just getting out of the shower.

 

Throw: Good.

 

Overall: I like the scent of shampoo but don't want to smell like shampoo. I think this one is a pass.

Imp: Light, fresh cirtus men's aftershave.

 

Wet: Green tea. I wonder if the embalming fluid is actually, you know, Embalming Fluid as in the Ars Moriendi blend. This reminds me a lot of it, especially on my chemistry. This is a fresh, clean citrus/green tea sort of blend.

 

Dry: Citrus and green tea with a little something that does smell not necessarily like formedehyde but like something I sniffed in the chemistry classes of bygone years. It's pleasant and clean and inoffensive in that I could probably wear it absolutely anywhere. Borderline masculine but verging more on unisex.

 

Throw: Good.

 

Overall:I'm kind of ambivalent. I'm happy that I don't smell like embalming agents but I'm also not particularly wowed by how my skin worked with the overall scent. Smells like a clean man. Nice, just not my bag.

Imp: A thin, plummy jasmine. A hint of white floral that reminds me of several other blends--be there angel's trumpet here?

 

Wet: Morgause goes on thick and takes a long time to dry down on my chemistry. Wet on the skin I get a bright, tart fruit that smells like plum with something else--maybe currants, maybe blackberries, maybe both. The jasmine sort of twines through the whole thing doing it's usual, jasmine-y things on me (good things, I'm actually quite fond of jasmine). Faint hint of incense and violets.

 

Dry: All those separate scents blend together into a really lovely purple incense sort of scent. I don't know what the incense stick would be called, just that it would be purple (and this is also an ideal world where you don't get the dry dustiness from burning incense). I wonder if there is a touch of nag champa in here? It feels like it--might be the incense. It's very pretty and while it's not delicate it is more reserved than I would expect it to be. Smells very ritualistic.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: I like Morgause and I think it's a pretty, interesting scent. It seems to poke at some deep down memory or emotion in me that makes me not want to wear it. It's perfectly lovely on my skin but there's something about it that makes me a touch uncomfortable. I applaud it for having such an interesting effect but I like my scents to make me feel pretty and confident, not uneasy. Maybe later, Morgause. For now we shall part ways.

Imp: Simgle note opium.

 

Wet: Amped up, single note opium.

 

Dry: Opium. Smokier than the usual opium I get from other blends. Sort of smells like a freshly blown out candle. I like opium in a blend but usually need it grounded by a resin or something a bit heavier. This is just like insubstantial opium smoke--like blowing out a candle.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: Eh. Doesn't exactly sing on my chemistry. It's pretty but not my bag.

Imp: Sweet, dense BOOZY prunes. Actually very plummy but too sweet to be a true plum.

 

Wet: The spices amp up and I get a good hit of ginger over the prune. The sweetness actually tones down a bit and this gets more plummy.

 

Dry: Very similar to Frumious Bandersnatch although a lot spicier and a touch sweeter. Boozy plums as a base with a spicy kick from the cassia and ginger. I agree with other posters who think it smells like Christmas. It reminds me of winter scented candles and Crabtree and Evelyn's Noel line minus the pine.

 

Throw: Good.

 

Overall: It's an interesting, evocative scent. I think it's a little outside my usual comfort zone but it's fun to try.

Imp: Buttery toffee and pineapple.

Wet: Oh, ick. It reminds me of a poisonously sweet vanilla coffee-type drink an old coworker used to buy. There is a scent here that is definitely reminiscent of empty coffee cups--a scent I am not at all fond of. Also: Very highly amped toffee/caramel. Yikes.

Dry: This be here the personal pineapple upside-down cake of Beezelbub himself. A foody, sweet, sickly sort of scent that is making me feel a little nauseous the longer I sniff it. Very cloying, sweet and heavy on my chemistry. I think there is a cream accord here that is making it even sweeter and denser and it is not fairing well on my chemistry.

Throw: Moderate.

Overall: I know that foody scents don't tend to work on me and luckily I rarely have the desire to wear one. This is not working for me but I'm really not that sad about it. It's not as dense and sweet as Gluttony but it is definitely one of the densest and sweetest scents I've encountered in the GC.

Imp: Leather and vertiver and evil. It smells like Highwayman without the lighter contrasting ingredients.

 

Wet: Sweet fancy Moses this is strong! Like head slappingly strong. It goes on with a searing leather/vetivert combo and the musk which is usually pretty dominant on my skin is nowhere to be seen. For about five minutes after application it smells like burning pleather. Yeah. There be plastic here.

 

Dry: Smoky, smoky leather. At least the plastic scent is gone. But this is hella leather. Not a nice leather, an evil, sweaty sort of leather that smells like a saddle that just came off of Satan's personal workhorse. This scent is eeeeeeviiiillllll, yo. And it's just really unpleasant on my skin. There's an acrid, man-sweat thing going on here that just does not sit well on my chemistry. All of the elements work separately on my chemistry (at times, there are always exceptions, there might be a misbehavin' trifecta here) but this combo is just ungodly on me.

 

Throw: Ample.

 

Overall: Not for me. I actually dislike it enough that I think I wouldn't even want to smell this on a guy or anyone else's chemistry even for curiousity's sake. Too animalistic and too... creepy for me.

Imp: Slightly sour honey with a hint of tonka sweetness and the zip of hyssop. I can't identify what hyssop smells like per se but I can identify it in a blend now. Weird.

 

Wet: The honey sours but the tonka sweetens and the chamomile comes out to play. Totally weird.

 

Dry: This is quite pretty, actually. Like a quieter, more skin close Mead Moon. It's not a boozy scent, just a clean, quiet honey blend with a slight swirl of chamomile and hyssop and a grounding base of tonka. The throw is all honey but the up close skin sniff betrays the chamomile and tonka. The hyssop is barely present.

 

Throw: Mild and skin close.

 

Overall: I used to mix O into unscented lotion for an allover honey scent but found it was somewhat overpowering even in limited amounts. I could see using this instead as it's quite light and pretty and would make an excellent base for a lot of my preferred scents. Will ruminate on a bottle.

Imp: Aquatic. Slight melon scent.

 

Wet: Very melon-y. A very blue-green sort of scent. It's not a freshwater aquatic like Danube. This is definitely a seawater aquatic.

 

Dry: I am surprised by how much I like this one. Olokun is a clean and calm deep green ocean aquatic. It's really calming and refreshing and I've run through most of the imp by wearing it to bed these last few days. Very fresh and clean calming without being soapy or harsh.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: I think I've just been on an aquatics bender lately. This is gorgeous and unusual and definitely something I am going to think about getting a bottle of.

JUST tried White Chocolate and Sugared Violets from the US Imp Swap box. Totally in love. Any recs on how to recreate this scent? Thanks!

 

Faith is really, really similar to the point where I swapped my WC&SV away because I couldn't justify hanging onto both.

Imp: Sweet dirt. Straight up dirty dirt. Loam and clay and grit and, well, dirt. And a little angel's trumpet sweetness just adding to the overall WTF? factor.

 

Wet: Sweet dirt. I think I amp angel's trumpet accord because this is becoming very floral very quickly. There is still dirt. It's not unpleasant, just smells... dirty. Like I've been gardening and the scent has clung to me. There's a warm cinnamon-esque scent here as well. It reminds me a little of one of the floral notes in Sundew and Chuparosa.

 

Dry: Predominantly angel's trumpet with a little bit of the dirt note underneath. This really reminds me of Chuparosa and Sundew. I wonder if they have angel's trumpet in them or share an accord with angel's trumpet. It's a strange scent. Bursting with a lush, tropical floral but the dirt is entirely dry. I wonder if I would like this more if the dirt felt as steamy as the florals? As it is, it's a gritty, sort of strange but ultimately alluring scent. It smells like a heroine from a William Gibson novel. A bit of classical, feminine floral and then a whole butt ton of grit.

 

Throw: The throw is all angel's trumpet. Up close I can smell the dirt.

 

Overall: This is a weirdass scent. I like it but doubt that I'd ever wear it because I'd be too self conscious about smelling like dirt. It's an interesting scent though and I'm glad to have tried it. I will probably hang onto the imp just to smell how WEIRD it is.

Imp: Warm, sweet almonds and a hint of spice. Like Hecate without the furriness from the musk.

 

Wet:

 

WET: Oh, this amped into something really unpleasant. It smells like nail polish remover, I don't even know how.

 

This. Usually almond behaves itself on me but this smells like I just swam through a vat of nail polish remover. There is still a lingering, pleasant almond-y quality to this. It's just really, really hyperactive.

 

Dry: This dries down to a soft, sweet, skin close almond scent. It's pretty but nothing too exciting. It's sort of like a pared down Bastet--a scent that took me a good long time to figure out, let alone love. A little like a lotion I used in junior high.

 

Overall: It's pretty and I like it but it pales in comparison to Bastet and the drydown is a little scary. The imp is nice but I probably don't need a bottle.

 

Bottle: Medicinal rootbeer. The juniper is particularly strong and I can smell the sweetness of the sassafras with a little bit of juicy fig beneath that. There's a general herbal/woodsy quality probably coming from the goat's rue and mandrake that adds to the medicinal quality. It's medicinal but not in a modern way. More like an old timey apothecary's shop.

 

Wet: Almost like Buckley's Cough Syrup. There's more sweetness here but it definitely reminds me of that menthol-y zing you usually get from that. The juniper is the dominant scent with the sassafras close behind. This is pleasant but not something I'd ever wear in public. It smells like a vapour rub.

 

Dry: Okay, the juniper dries down to a managable strength and this is really nice now. I don't have any sassafras scents that aren't incredibly sweet and this is a dry, herbal scent sweetened with sassafras. The fig lends a subtle sweetness and juiciness to the scent while the rue and mandrake seem to be adding a dry, dusty sort of herbal feel. Again, this smells like an apothcary's shop but in a very lovely sort of way. It reminds me of horehound candy but not as sweet.

 

Throw: Mild.

 

Overall: I have been grimly hanging onto this bottle hoping the juniper would finally sit the hell down and shut up since it came out. And the juniper finally did just that! A very interesting and unusual blend that I am excited to wear into the coming spring months.

The first red musk/jasmine blend that springs to mind is Giallo: opopponax, black plum, night-blooming jasmine, benzoin, red musk, violet leaf, orange blossom, mimosa, mandarin, smoky vanilla, tobacco, patchouli, and black amber. No sandalwood and retail only so you might want to check the swaps forum for a decant before nabbing a bottle.

 

Current Lupercalia LE Picture Books and Pleasure Toys might be a good blend to try: Pink rose, red musk, red sandalwood, oakmoss, vetiver, nectarine, black tea, ambrette, jasmine, and blackcurrant bud.

 

There are no red musk/jasmine blends in the GC as far as I know but there are a few red musk/sandalwood blends:

 

Fenris Wolf Diabolus Rosewood, amber, red musk and a dribble of red sandalwood.

 

Himerus Excolo juniper, sandalwood, rosewood, red musk, orchid, bergamot and lilac.

I love this one. The juniper rounds it out nicely and gives it a bit of bite against the other, more buttery ingredients.

 

The Dodo Mad Tea Party Red musk, lemon peel, sugar cane, cassia, white sandalwood, mango, and agarwood

To my nose this all fruity red musk and cassia. You may fare differently.

 

And There Was a Great Cry in Egypt The Salon Dark myrrh, white sandalwood, amber, hyssop, frankincense, honey, cypress, red musk, cardamom and saffron.

This is unimpable so you may want to check the forums.

 

If you want a scent that combines the three notes you might want to try layering them. Scherezade is a great scent for red musk and New Orleans is a perfect honeysuckle-jasmine. I can't think of a blend close to single note sandalwood at the moment (Anne Bonny, maybe?) but if Picture Books and Pleasure Toys isn't your style, layering allows you to control exactly how much you want of each blend in your perfume.

 

Imp: Light, citrussy floral. Probably lotus.

 

Wet: Yep, it's lotus. A lot like the lotus from Tenochtitlan--very sour and angry on my skin. A little cinnamon.

 

Dry: Sour lotus (maybe there is lemon in this?) with a faint hint of cinnamon. Unpleasant on my skin and not very sexy. It smells like I haven't been bathing and have chosen to cover it up with cheap air freshener.

 

Throw: Mild. Mercifully so.

 

Overall: This is dirty but probably not in the way it was intended to be.

Bottle: Pomegranate, wine and blood. Very strange.

 

Wet: Right on the skin this acquires a sort of nasty unwashed skin quality that I can sniff just under the pomegranate/wine combo. I think it's the leather struggling with the blood note. And maybe the galbanum.

 

Dry: It dries down to a spicy pomegranate/leather with a bit of grapey wine and some blood. There is a resinous quality that I assume must be the remaining ingredients. That unwashed skin note is gone. This is kind of a scary scent. It's fruity and sweet but the leather and blood note really darken it and make it a little threatening. It's a beautiful fruit scent but not for the faint of heart.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: I waffled on this one so much last year and then immediately regretted it when the Yules went down. I'm glad to have scored a bottle and I'm glad the funky drydown didn't temper the rest of the scent.

Hey there, me! I guess not a lot of Chaos Theory testing has been going on in the last month or so.

 

Chaos Theory V: CCCVI

 

Imp: Strong and green. Definitely fir here and maybe a bit of pine pitch. I think there's cypress but if there is, it's minimal.

 

Wet: Fir. So much fir! Luckily I love fir so I'm excited about this. I can smell a faint hint of the Snake Oil in the background but it is good and buried there. I'd pin these notes down as fir, juniper and pine. Not pine pitch, which I generally find a bit sweeter, more of a pine needle/barker scent.

 

Dry: The Snake Oil sweetens up the blend considerably but still isn't really noticeable as Snake Oil. This is primarily a fir scent with a bit of a bolstering from the underlying sweetness of the Snake Oil. There is also a hint more patchouli to this than I normally smell in Snake Oil. It's a soft, woodsy sort of scent with the addition of the more lascivious Snake Oil.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: I really like this but I also have a feeling I can replicate it more to my Snake-Oil-to-fir ratio preferences with something like Hexennacht or Thanatopsis. It's a lovely scent and I love it and will enjoy the imp. Thankfully it's not the bestest ever scent I've ever smelled because I'd probably not be psyched at all if my holy grail scent was an entirely unreplicable Chaos Theory imp.

Imp: Primarily orange blossom with a strong hit of vanilla/amber.

 

Wet: More vanilla and a slightly powdery orange blossom. The amber is strangely (thankfully) quiet.

 

Dry: Sigh. It's the amber from Haunted. The supremely nasty amber from Haunted. So a gross, powdery play dough amber with a really pretty vanilla/orange blossom underneath. This scent is like the Rosemary's Baby of Haunted and Hunger, the former of which is a spectacular fail on my chemistry and the former of which requires so much aging before I find it palatable that I've just given up on it. It's really not working on my skin.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: This is a nearly dry sniffy and Khrysee is ridiculously popular. It's probably for the best that I don't particularly care for it and don't have to hunt down a bottle this long after 2009's Lupes have left town.

Imp: Pine and eucalyptus. I love pine and am ambivalent about eucalyptus. Getting absolutely no orange.

 

Wet: Pine. And eucalyptus. This is not exactly the most surprising of blends.

 

Dry: This dries down to a basic sweet pine pitch note with a little bit of extra bite from the eucalyptus. It's very warm--this is not a chilly pine in a snowy wood. It's more like a pine tree just chillin' in the forest on a summer day. The pine is very sweet possibly from some of the so far hidden orange note.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: I like it but it's really not my holy grail of pine scents. It's like a de-sexed Hexennacht 08 without the sultry skin musk or incense notes. A nice, bright pick-me-up but I'm not clambouring for more. Very pleasant, very energetic, definitely reminds me more of an aromatherapy blend than it does a proper perfume.

Imp: I don't know why I expected The Bad Rose Note to not be in here but I did. And I was mistaken. A sour rose over a more lush rose scent.

 

Wet: Sour rose. Man, this particular note (it's not exactly a tea rose but definitely one of the tea rose/pink rose notes) drives me up the wall. Most roses work on me. And then there's this bastard coming in to rough me up and ruin my rosy experience.

 

Dry: Sour bathroom air freshener rose. That one sour rose is stomping all over all the other notes which actually smell pretty good. I can tell that in two or three hours the sour rose will have worn off but is it really worth smelling like an air freshener for two hours for a scent?

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: My chemistry has a note of doom in here that it unfortunately amps. As an aside, I usually can smell green notes loud and clear (pungent and clear?) and pull absolutely no grass from this. It's a little unnerving--that's how strong the unfortunate tea/pink rose note is.

Bottle: Definitely jasmine and a hint of something that is... lotus? Citrus? Some other floral as well. I'm going to take a stab at it and say white rose.

 

Wet: Strong, sassy jasmine. I think there might be both lotus and citrus here. The jasmine is really dominating but I happen to love jasmine so I'm okay with that. There is a green note in here as well. Could just be some sort of "stem" scent. It's certainly not myrtle or fern but I'm not much of a pure green scent fan so telling notes apart is difficult.

 

Dry: This is really lovely. A lush base of sweet, dense jasmine with a background of lotus/citrus and maybe a white rose. A soft, powdery but pleasant sort of floral. It reminds me of a saucier Clarimonde so I'm going with white rose. The green note gets a little stronger as it wears on but it works. This is like walking into a greenhouse in direct sunlight at high noon. It smells like hot florals.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: I do love me some florals and Lydia is a glorious example. A very lovely jasmine blend that manages a bit of complexity and interest without losing the lushness of the jasmine. Love it.

Imp: This is quite complex. I mainly get the tea rose with a faint hint of dragon's blood. The light florals are present as is a little furry edge of the dark musk.

 

Wet: Sweet, candied tea rose with an undercurrant of musk. Light hint of currant. The sandalwood and musk are balancing each other out as they can be... odd on my skin

 

Dry: I don't think I quite appreciated Lucy Westenra fully until I smelled Wilhelmina Murray. The two work together fabulously as a set. Both are ethereal floral musks but Wilhelmina is a little more grounded and earthy from the black musk and dragon's blood. Lucy is sharper and juicier from the blood orange and a little more feral, despite the dark ingredients in Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina's scent is very dark but not brooding, more languid. The rose and dragon's blood are the top notes backed by the sandalwood and musk with the faintest tart bite of the blackcurrant. It's very sweet and warm and very feminine on my skin.

 

Throw: Mild.

 

Overall: I'm glad to have tried it because it really is a beautiful companion to Lucy Westenra as well as a beautiful scent on its own. The light throw and minimal wearlength makes me think I probably don't need a bottle of this but I'm happy I got to try.