marared

Some scents don't always call to mind the season they're meant to evoke, but this one deeeeeefinitely does, and it's the "dry leaves" in particular that leaves that impression. Dry leaves, teak, patchouli. It smells like a solid wood hope chest that once held detritus of the earth - leaves and flowers and bits, and you can still smell them in the empty box. Sits very close to my skin and not much throw. Given ten or fifteen minutes, the wood and leaves slowly fade into the background and the ivy and hyssop become more noticeable.

 

I don't get the vetiver impression other people mention, although I can understand why they'd think that, but vetiver is stronger and sharper to my nose.

I love this stuff - it's a fabulous rich honey. What I usually do is one spray into my hairbrush, which lasts for a few uses each time. My hair does a great seaweed impression if I ever apply oil directly, but done via hairbrush, by the time the oil builds up enough to make my hair heavy and floppy, it's time to wash it anyway. It's strong, but it doesn't have much throw - I can smell it in my own hair, but other people generally don't notice it unless they're right up in my space. Just how I like it.

 

It's *great* for the days when I have to use tar shampoo, and it will get used again tomorrow after I'm done with a henna touchup.

2011 edition. I've been eyeballing this one for a while now, unsure because wine of any kind often dominates a blend on me, but these are just the grapes... and frankincense and especially myrrh have a track record of not playing nice with my skin, but not always.

 

Happily, it works. On me, it's a slightly grapey frankincense and olive leaf - I do not smell the pomegranate or even the cakes, but perhaps it's the cakes that lend that hint of sweetness to the blend. It's a little strong for the first fifteen or twenty minutes, but it damps down after a while and hangs on for at least five or six hours before the scent evaporates. Not foody or winey at all - just smooth resin that will age like a champ. I will have to get a full bottle of this after all!

The honey smells much like the GC honeys, which unfortunately is not all that great on me. I was hoping for more of the orange and linden blossom, but it's really just a golden amber-honey without any real zing to it.

There's absolutely no reason this should work on me. Almond? Ew. Balsam? Usually overwhelms every scent on me, as does cinnamon.

 

But oddly enough, it DOES work. And it's GOOD. Like second-tier favorite. Like I might actually get a bottle. Cinnamony orangey vetiver. My first impression involved an almost magnolia-like gooeyness, although that dissipates after a while. I like it.

Sweet dark golden musk. A bit of smoke. I only catch a *hint* of vanilla on the drydown, and it mostly develops into a sweet woody musk without the smoke.

Another vote for fruit punch - specifically Veryfine Fruit Punch with a few extra spices. I get very little actual apple - it's orange and cinnamon and lemon zest and I'd swear there was a hint of pineapple in the blend too, but apparently not.

A friend of mine who is not on the forum, splag****@yahoo, says she sent an email about an order that was shipped two weeks ago but has not yet arrived, and she has not gotten an answer. She says she did check her spam. I'm sending up a flag on her behalf.

This is a big ole whack of patchouli. I can smell a bit of the cocoa and a bit of the tobacco, but it's mostly woodsy holy-cow-patchouli. Filthy indeed, but in a good way - I need to give it more time on my skin to be sure, but for once, the tobacco doesn't turn all greasy-gasoline on me.

 

Edit to add: When it's had several hours to sit on the skin, it's really lovely. It's still distinctively woodsy-patchouli, but it's not so loud and not so filthy. The tobacco definitely does not take over (thank goodness!) and works with the cocoa to mellow the patch. I really like this now, and can't wait for it to put on some age.

 

After a second test tomorrow, I'm sending this off to the aging box in the closet, to be huffed every few months or so - I imagine this sucker will take a couple of years to truly mellow out.

 

If you like Boomslang and you like a lot of patchouli, you'd probably like this.

This was much sweeter than I expected - I had thought it would be more... beery. Instead, when it's dry it's sweet pumpkin, and when it's wet it's all sweet honey. I do like it though!

Bottle? Pumpkin pie. Yum. On me? Smells just like the Feb '09 13 - one of the spices just doesn't work, and I'm leaning towards the brown sugar. It doesn't smell bad, but that one spice is taking over, and it smells nothing like the yummy pie in the bottle. Definitely very noticeable and long-lasting through at least two hand-washes.

I never did review this when I had the decants, but I loved it enough to buy a bottle. It's refreshing, both sweet and tart at once - not noticeably floral, just grapefruit and lime and honey and ginger. There is some jasmine way at the bottom of the scent, but it's not the cat-pee jasmine by any stretch. I occasionally run back into my bathroom to huff after I've used it - if there was a perfume oil of this, I'd have snatched up several backups already.

Tobacco Honey was nauseatingly gasoline-sweet to me.

Wet, it's herbal lemon and something else in particular that I can't identify. Floral, definitely, but I couldn't tell you what it is. Maybe bergamot instead of lemon? It reminds me very much of The Butterfly, but not as fuzzy.

 

I've had it on all day (it's not loud, but it's tenacious) and it settled into something almost powdery, like amber.

Dirty/earthy patchouli blends that I can think of:

 

Banshee Beat

Ecstasy of True love is kind of a sister blend to Depraved, to my nose, although it's not as dirty

Bat of Wealth

Vixen (probably the dirtiest patchouli I can think of)

Love this. It smells just like sangria in the bottle and freshly applied on the wrist - a very cool, sweet, alcoholic blast of berry, but not hyper-sweet like the Luau scents. After it dries down, it's mostly just sweet berry musk. I can barely detect the amber, just a bit of warmth behind the musk. Yum.

 

Edit to add that if you like Lampades, this is a definite family member, but a little softer and sweeter.

I don't like Pussy. When I rub it on my hand, it smells nasty.

 

SERIOUSLY.

 

It's very pretty in the bottle. Warm and golden and honey with herbs. Even on initial application, it's a lovely summery herby honey, and a beautiful background whuff of saffron. After ten minutes, it starts smelling funky. I think it's either the tobacco or the brown sugar.

 

Actually, now that I've let it sit for a while longer, the funk has died off a bit. I think this is something I'll have to revisit in a few weeks or months.

Medb v4, a prototype. It's a sweet lemonade when it's wet, but it dries to down to vaguely lemony shortbread. J'adore.

My favorite hot weather scents are:

 

Medb (this has aged nicely and smells less like lemonade and more like a lemon cookie)

Ecstasy True Love

Mead Moon

O

Hetairae

 

 

I do like the sultry ones like Banshee Beat too - but I have to use considerably less of them when it's hot, because it doesn't take much for it to get overwhelming!

In the bottle: whoa red musk. While slathering: whoa sweet orange. Now that it's been sitting on me for a while? Orange and patchouli. So very lovely...

Absolutely delicious in the bottle. On me... well, guess caramel is a death note in bath oil too. *sigh* Too bad, it was SO yummy until it sat on my skin for about half an hour!

What immediately came to mind were Szepasszony and Danube - both are aquatic florals, very cool, very pretty.

Oblivion. mmmm. I like Love's Philosophy quite a bit too.

You know how they say scent is a powerful memory trigger? Something in this has kicked me back about twenty years, and I'm not 100% sure what it is. It's making me think of this "create your own lotion" thing I read in a magazine or something once, and I have no idea what the ingredients were to do so, but it smells just like the results of whatever I made. It's very odd. It's kind of a combination between "clean cotton" and aquatic - very murky, musky floral. Pretty, but noooot my thing.

In principle, I love almost all of the notes in this blend except tobacco flower, and the castoreum is an unknown factor. It's a lovely light wood scent in the imp and when it's freshly applied, but thirty seconds later and the tobacco flower dominates. It's still got a woodsy undertone, and it's *almost* even kinda unisex/masculine, but alas, that nasty tobacco flower does not play well with my chemistry. sigh.