marared

Argh. I thought for SURE I was gonna love this. It's certainly divine in the bottle - a dark and creamy vanilla. On me, it goes a little wonky. I initially blamed the molasses, because it is essentially sugar, and sugar notes don't like me, but it's not the scent of sugar turning sour. Come to think of it, it's not even *wonky* so much as the scent just doesn't particularly agree with me. I think it must be the moss. The vanilla is nowhere to be found now, and the currant and the patchouli are faint in the background, and it's mostly moss and molasses. I don't hate it

Off to the box, I guess, and I'll reevaluate in a few weeks, but I don't have a good feeling about this.

I wasn't too sure about getting this as a bottle because sugary things don't do well on my skin. It's usually the sugar note specifically rather than naturally sweet things like vanilla - the cream, though, was a cause for concern. Happily, after 30 minutes there isn't a hint of sour!

I smelled cream cheese frosting in the bottle - my favorite kind, hands down. On my skin, I get cream soda - really rich cream soda, and in fact makes me want to go across the street for a four-pack of IBC. It reminds me just a very tiny bit of Mead Moon - the sunniness of the saffron has the same effect as the boozy honey. And it gives this *personality* - straight up vanilla and cream would be yummy, but the saffron gives it that exotic edge. I think I'll have to wear this a bit more and see how it grows on me.

Powdery peach. It's a very nice fresh peach, not loud and artificial, and I can smell the vanilla behind it. The sandalwood, not so much. I think the powdery aspect must come from either the rosewood or the osmanthus, as none of the other notes have that effect, and I'm not especially familiar with those two. This is a very nice *girly* scent, something to wear with a floaty dress and cute sandals.

Fresh out of the imp, it's all musky neroli. mmm. After a few minutes, the neroli fades into the background and it's more of a musky amber with barely noticeable frankincense. Sandalwood? Nope. It has virtually no throw - it doesn't disappear, but it blends and hangs close to my skin. It's warm and sexy.

I'd put it in the same family as Hunger and Oblivion, in that it has a masculine quirk to it, but it's perfectly adequate for a woman. If it had more throw, I think I'd get a bottle, but I'd have to slather this to get any effect.

This one morphs quite a bit.

It starts out lemony - the lemon is really the common thread through all the stages so far. Not even remotely like Pledge - muted lemon, like a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade (as opposed to the stronger artificial lemon). It then turns a little floral, ALMOST soapy but not quite. As it dries, it gets more herbal - I get the menthol impression, but I agree that it's probably verbena. I don't get any berries at all. It doesn't have much throw, but it hasn't faded at all.

It's definitely a cousin of Host of the Air, as has been said several times, although this is much more yellow than green. It's definitely a wonderful summer scent, and I hope there's a full-blown release of this in the future.

I didn't get a bottle of this because I was afraid of the sugar cane - with good reason, it turns out. It starts out as a nice musky honey sweetness - I'm surprised the copal didn't overtake it, but it behaved itself nicely. But after about 30-40 minutes, I guess, it goes a little sour. Not AS sour as sugar is wont to do on my skin, but it's still pretty much unwearable. *sad*

I'd call this a cousin to Mead Moon - it's definitely more herbal than honey (whereas Mead Moon was more honey than herbal), and when I first tried it yesterday, there was something that went a little off about it. I'm not sure which note it is - there are too many that I'm unfamiliar with - and it's still trying to go a little bit wonky, but so far it's behaving itself this time. It's definitely a nice summery scent - I think if I layer it with a little MM to give it a little pep, it'll be perfect.

Later edit: nope, it's still going wonky. Sad - it starts out so nice for the first few minutes.

Strawberry bubbleyum, yep. It gets a little greener, and I like the green, but I was hoping for a more natural strawberry, and it just continues to smell ... gummy. I'll give it another couple weeks, but this is almost guaranteed to go in the swap pile.

Lily soap - mostly soap. I think it must be the lily that has this reaction on my skin, because I've not ever encountered it with the other notes; the soap completely overwhelms everything else.

Goodness. I'm not sure I would ever have tried this based on the description, but it was a lab frimp, and I usually give them all a go. I thought it had wood and fruit - vaguely appley - without looking at the notes. I got the hawthorn, obviously, and I sometimes get apple from dragon's blood. The leather is there, but it's not as overwhelming as it is in prior blends. Spicy woody leather with a slighty fruity finish. This is going on my "maaaaybe a bottle" list, but I'm going to keep trying it over the next couple months to see how it ages, first.

TKO doesn't put me to sleep any faster than usual - in fact, there was one night I was awake far too long because my brain wouldn't shut up over stupid things - but I've consistently had a battery of Really. Weird. Dreams. Not the totally batshit crazy kind of dreams that are so off the wall that I gotta write them down, but I do not typically dream that much. With TKO, it's been *every* night, to the point where I'm still kinda tired when I wake up because it doesn't feel like my brain shut down with my body.

Ah yes. I was so very much in love with Danube in the imp, and the bottle just wasn't quite the same. Same with Szepasszony. I'm holding out hope that Danube will improve in another year (the bottle's only a bit over a year old now), but I had Szepasszony for 2-3 years and it never matched the wonderfulness of the imp. It's also possible that aquatics just don't work on me in general, and I didn't realize it with such a small base of comparison, but ... broke my heart, man.

Initial impression is floral wood - not strong overpowering wood, but definitely wood. The pear comes out a minute later. Yep, pear and wood. And musk. Kind of a nice mix, actually. I'm not sure I'd want to wear this right off the bat, but I think this one will age well.

First impression: Motley's a LUSH! Smells like he's soused on sweet currant wine while rolling around in a bunch of champaca. It's a very purple scent, in the same family as Penumbra, but MUCH sweeter. Too sweet for me, really, although it does get incensier as it dies. Interesting, but not a keeper.

Frankincense? Check.

Musk? Check.

Sage? hmm, maybe.

Currants? Currants? Bueller? No currants. ...oh wait, there's the currants. I wouldn't know they were there if I wasn't snuffling for them.

I was hoping for more fruit to it. Sigh. It threatens a bit of soapiness but happily doesn't cross that line. I think I'll swap this off, or donate it to a male friend maybe...

Frimp from the lab; I dabbed myself before going out into the hot sun, and woo! I swear there must be amber in this - there's definitely honey and happily the lily isn't too strong, but it's got that warm golden powdery drydown that I always get out of amber. I bet this would layer awesomely with Khrysee.

Woo strong citrus. This is definitely a man's perfume - not SO masculine a woman couldn't get away with wearing it, but the overall impression is that of a man. It's strong, too - I got a coworker (one who sometimes remarks on whatever BPAL I'm wearing) to let me use him as a guinea pig, and one liiiiittle swipe of the wand on his wrist was very noticeable from a couple of feet away. I thought it would be darker and grittier with the leather and the patchouli, but neither of them are strong enough to really stand out; they just keep the citrus from exploding. I look forward to testing this on anyone else that'll hold still long enough...

It's a pretty violet and patchouli in the imp, but on my skin, it's straight-up violet soap! Where on earth am I getting the soap smell from? No patchouli, no currant, just violet soap, and I've not known moss to have any kind of a soapy effect. Perhaps it's the violet, although I don't recall having a problem with it before. I'll have to dig up my other violet blends and check. It's hard to wash off, too.

Someone, somewhere, said that El Bandito smelled like a more masculine Morocco, so naturally I had to nab one and see. I can kiiinda see the comparison; the spices must be the common denominator between the two. This is most definitely clove and sweet tobacco; I'm not really picking up any of the cedar - which is a good thing in the end, really, because woods are not one of the better notes on my skin.

I'm not so sure I'll keep this; will revisit in six or eight weeks.

I ordered this because patchouli + fruit are typically a great combination on my skin. This is like Dionysia's ditzy blonde sister with a black streak in her hair and leather panties who does business in a western saloon with a shotglass of apricot brandy always in hand. It's not as complex or voluptuous or sultry as D, but it's ... kinky. I like it on principle, but it's a little more dusty-dirty than I want to smell like in general.

09: Ooh, lemony, and not Pledge lemony either! Fresh lemon and greenery.

However, this isn't like FLORAL, it's like standing in the back room of a florist with lots of broken flower stems rather than standing in the middle of a bunch of blooms.

 

That's exactly what it is! I was having trouble finding the words but that's it entirely!! There was a florist in one of the tiny shops at the bottom of my apartment building when we lived in Japan and they used to let me come in and would give me one of those moisture blocks and some flowers to arrange in it. And this is what the shop smelled like. Thank you for opening up that memory for me!!

I'm going to second this review also. Green green green, and flowery, but not in-your-face flowery. I actually really like this one and might well get a bottle if it doesn't do weird things in the next thirty minutes....

This started out as honey and patchouli, which was nice - I usually can't go wrong with patchouli. Shortly thereafter there was a little bit of soap in the background, which probably is the orris root. No florals, no fruit, no musk. After a few minutes, the soap gets stronger and ... vaguely ammoniac now. Ick. Strike that one off the wishlist...

I got this as a lab frimp a while ago, but it's been sitting in my box for a few weeks. It smells like an 800 calorie sweet chocolatey coffee in the imp, but on my skin? Ew, no. It's not precisely *sour*, as sugar notes are wont to turn on my skin, but it's ... hm. Burnt? In fact, this is exactly what Dark Chocolate & Pepper Smoked Caramel does on my skin after a few minutes. I had blamed the pepper, due to the smoky/ashy smell it picks up after a few minutes, but now I wonder if it was the *caramel* - a previously unrealized death note.

LXVI (66)

An *extremely* full bottle, all the way up to the second twist at the top of the neck. I'm not familiar with Penitence proper, so I can't compare it against the base, but the short version is that this smells like really good incense. I can't pick out anything except the resins. I think there must be some wood in it from the scent in the bottle ... now that it's dried down a little bit on my wrist, there is definitely a little wood and ... there's a flower peeking out. What is that? It's not rose or jasmine, that I can tell, but it's a heavy floral like that, but it doesn't stand out very much because it's pinned down under all that resin and wood (which is a good thing). I kinda like this, but I need to sit on it for a while and see how it ages.

Edit: ...deodorant?