Shollin

Oberon might actually be a decent one to wear when it's hot. It does have that deep woodsy thing going on, but it's very fresh and cool rather than stifling.

 

If you're not into light florals.

Holy *bleep.* I was JUST about to post that.

 

Oberon is one of my favourites... woodsy and wild without being too stubbly-manly for Elrond. It's got my vote.

First sniff: Gluttony is very strong – I can smell this clearly even with the vial closed inside a little plastic zip-bag. From here the smell is reminiscent of the Hazelnut Coffee candle from Yankee – very dark and rich, not sweet but still with the feel of something delicious and decadent. Smelling the wand itself, it isn’t nearly as dark, and the coffee scent isn’t there. It reminds me a bit of the warm sweetness of Hellcat, but not quite as blatantly boozey.

 

Wearing: YUM. Gooey and darkly sweet, and the coffee is back! Weird! It smells more high-class than I expected… rather than sitting in front of the TV gobbling chocolates, you’re out at a nice restaurant sipping bitter French coffee and watching the waiter drizzle dark caramel sauce over a complicated and beautiful dessert. There’s a hint of spice here too, maybe even cinnamon. Can’t wait to try this one in the burner and see what it turns into.

Phantasm is gorgeously light and springy and fresh, a very soft lemon. I suspect I'll be wearing it a lot this summer when it gets insanely hot and muggy.

 

Ingenue strikes me as a light spring scent too - it's a very pretty floaty floral with melon.

 

I haven't tried Embalming Fluid, but that one sounds promising.

The descriptions of Ingenue and Vicomte were posted on Shiny & New as part of the November update but I don't think they were ever in the official categories. Am I right?

They're certainly not similar scents, but I wore Virgo a couple days ago after washing with the Merry Christmas limited edition soap (which is pine to the infinite power), and it worked surprisingly well. Piney and earthy definitely get along.

Florentine Iris, from Single Notes.

 

First sniff: Powdery, watery and pale blue. A very definite scent, if that makes sense – it knows what it smells like and by God it’s sticking to it. Nice and strong in the diffuser - like being swallowed up in a soft blue flower.

 

Wearing: Decidedly powdery and flowery without being old-lady-ish. Pretty, but not me. Stayed true throughout the evening - I can still smell it faintly, nearly twelve hours after application.

Fae, from Bewitching Brews:

 

It is my number one favourite BPAL scent so far. For me, it's long lasting, sweet yet not sugary at all. Very light and airy, I love the peach and musk combo. It almost has a masculine twinge to it, but overall it's very pretty and reminds me so much of my visions of the Fae and what they'd be like. The heliotrope is very bright...it's almost like it's a sparkly scent if a scent could be sparkly, at least at first and then it becomes more and more natural coming off my skin. LOVE it.

 

I quoted Laivine's Fae review (posted in the Welcome thread) over to here so it'd be easy to find. --Shollin

I haven't worn either of them, but it probably depends on whether you want a sweet scent or an assertive sexy scent. Lilith sounds decidedly seductive and Lady Macbeth has often been compared to cherry cough syrup (but usually in a nice way).

 

LMB is probably more similar to Blood Rose than Lilith is.

Rose Red sounds like it would have been perfect... alas, it's sold out.

 

The only one I've actually worn that matches what you're talking about is Ophelia - have you tried that one? It's a very innocent scent all 'round and the primary note (at least on me) is rose, with a touch of something sweeter. Ingenue is also very innocent, but I didn't smell rose when I wore it (though it's in the description).

 

Of ones I haven't tried (just going by description), Maiden sounds like it might be the closest match. Eve is apples and roses, that might be a possibility. Silentium Amoris is rose and ylang ylang, though that one sounds more wistful/longing than innocent. Lucy's Kiss is rosy and several folks have said there's something candy-sweet underneath. Also, the Lab makes a single-note rose oil, which might be worth a look if you just want rose by itself without anything else affecting the tone of the scent.

 

Hope this helps.

Put this one on today as I try a different one each day if I can (yesterday was a Le Serpent qui Danse day-lovely) Out of the bottle I smell violets big time (& I adore violet) but on my skin it's strange. Imagine if you will a buttery violet?! It's not sickly sweet as violet can sometimes be, it's a very mellow violet smell, with a buttery softness, bordering on the foodie type smell I get from Hellfire. It reminds me of baby smell a bit- that milky babay smell mixed with violets. Pleasant, but not one I'd get a big bottle of as it's more my sister's kind of smell than mine.

 

EDIT: Moved Gothabillywench's review to here as we had two Phantom threads. --Shollin

I'm wearing Twilight today (or will be when I head to work). Tried ONO yesterday and while it was nice, with a decent helping of spice at first, it was a bit too honeysuckle-sweet for most of its wearing. Hoping for slightly more subdued things from Twilight.

 

And no worries about the babbling - it gives me things to put in order, which always pleases my Virgo soul.

I've discovered through the Lab that resiny scents like incense and amber do NOT work on my skin, and I wanted to share Elizabeth's comment on Bust with anyone else with whom resins don't get along.

 

I'd asked if there was a note shared by Cathedral and Aureus, as both of them went unpleasantly sweet-sharp on me, and here's what she said:

 

Shollin, there isn't a note that both Cathedral and Aureus contain, but they are very similar in that they're resinous blends. The scents you're going to want to stay away from include anything dominated by frankincense, copal, the drier myrrhs, and amber. Extremely dry woods like cedar and rosewood are probably a no, too.

 

So there ya go. Seance has rosewood in, and it smells fantastic in the bottle, but I haven't tried it on yet - hopefully it'll behave.

The closest I've smelled yet is Venom - it struck me as a very elegant but ice-princess sort of scent.

 

And I completely agree with BP capturing characters so well - Ophelia and Oberon are both shining examples of that, and you should have seen me freaking out when I read the characteristics of Saturn after posting my review because it matched so well and I thought my brain was just being weird when I fixed on the image of a scowly male schoolteacher.

From the Twilight review:

 

This was one my sister got & she loves it. It's very pretty & most definitely a floral. I tried it on my wrist the other day & it was delicate-girly. I'd put it in the same category as Old New Orleans but it's not quite as sultry as that one, if you like Old New Orleans, then you'll like this as it'a a slighly lighter & more fragile version of that kind of floral blend. It made me think of a yellow-orange & pink sunset.

 

I'm trying to keep other comments out of the review threads, so I moved this down here. I think it's interesting you made this comparison, Goth - when I placed this order, I put in the comments box that I was having a hard time deciding between Twilight and Old New Orleans, and asked them to pick for me. (They sent me both, of course. Crazy lovely people. Same thing happened with Seance and The Hermit, incidentally.)

 

It'll be interesting to see what sort of evening it turns into on my skin.

First sniff: For some reason I was expecting another dusty scent like Seance. This one is anything but. It’s very round and solid and warm, and there’s a fruitiness or an herbiness to it – nothing musty-old-bookish at all. I like this one a lot out of the bottle and it'll be interesting to see how it does on me. Seems very unisex.

Wearing: A nice unisex clean scent with a hint of soft lemon and possibly herbal tea. It reminded me of a lighter Oberon, which is weird, because there’s none of the wildness Oberon has; it’s much more restrained and tame. Didn’t last very long on my skin – I’ll have to try putting more on next time.

Carnal, from Love Potions:

 

First sniff: Very bright orange with a shadow of something more reserved backing it up.

 

Wearing: At first touch the orange is much lighter than I expected – it doesn’t leap out and bite you on the nose, it’s just floating generally around you. It’s a paler, more reserved orange than the aggressiveness of Ravenous... rather ironic from something named Carnal. But I like the warmth of this one a lot. I can definitely smell the fig, though if I didn’t know that’s what it was I would never have been able to define it. It’s making me hungry, and confirming that orange scents really do work well on me, though I’d never have thunk it. I should find more.

Jupiter, from Celestials - Planetary Oils. Characteristics listed on the site:

 

First sniff: This smells more like Mercury to me -- sharp-edged and mischievous, in a chaotic rather than playful way. It's not the steady regal scent I'd expect for the king of the gods. (But then, Jupiter wasn't exactly steady and regal when he was off boffing all the mortal women he could get his divine paws on... *quickly dodges the lightning*)

 

Wearing: Definitely sharp and a bit haughty. It's masculine, but not in the typical way -- it's arrogant and withdrawn rather than husky and macho. Much darker on me than in the bottle -- at first touch it's bright green but quickly dulls to something almost sullen. After a few minutes on, it smells exactly like pencil shavings (which to my brain fits perfectly with the "politics" aspect, though I really can't explain why).

Saturn, from Celestials - Planetary Oils.

 

First sniff: Very masculine. Dark, strong, woody and almost nutty. A scowling magistrate dressed all in black… maybe with a tricorn hat. I actually got a flash of evil priest guy from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame... yikes.

 

Wearing: I really shouldn’t smell this straight out of the bottle – it’s way too strong and dark and GRRRR. It backs off very quickly and warms up a tad… like when you’re visiting the professor in his office and see the photos of his family and suddenly realise he’s a real person who has a life apart from making yours difficult. There’s a lighter note whispering around the edges that smells almost soapy. Very sober and grounding. Can’t see myself wearing it often – it’s just too wooden.

 

Edited to add: I remembered that the planetary oils had several characteristics listed on the site, associated with each planet... and I have to say Beth nailed this one.

 

Discipline, control and reverence, indeed. Guess that's why I was seeing authority figures.

The Star, from Tarot Oils.

 

First sniff: Bright white. There are several scents that are almost here but the second I think I have one pinned down it runs off to smell like something else. Almost coconut, almost powdery-but-not-too-sweet candy, and something that’s almost lemon comes tickling around the fringes of the aftertaste just when you stop inhaling. Star and Luna remind me very much of each other, which is interesting – the same sort of unidentifiable white sharpness.

 

Wearing: This is such a complex, bright and interesting scent! In the first five minutes I had it on it smelled like coconut, lemon and lime by turns. If I sniff my wrist directly it’s a bit too sharp, but the aura is lovely. The coconut is true meaty coconut, not the too-sweet pina-colada smell of suntan lotion. After a few hours’ wear it settled into a gorgeous bakery smell, not overly sweet but warm and homey. I might need a full bottle of this one.

Libra, from Celestials - Astrological Oils:

 

 

First sniff: A fresh, clean scent, pale green in the bottle and in my nose. Slightly astringent. It strikes me as a bit stiff and formal, which isn't terribly Libra-ish - I expected something a bit more wishy-washy.

 

Wearing: First touch -- lily of the valley or possibly hyacinth. A sweet spring flower.

Virgo, from Celestials - Astrological Oils:

 

 

First sniff: The first thing I notice before even opening the vial is the colour -- it's dark brown. Appropriate for an earth sign, I suppose. The scent is definitely earthy with a hint of incense, which doesn't bode well for my ability to wear it. I'll try it on anyway just in case it decides to like me. Definitely matches its dark-brown colour, though the scent is more cherrywood-coloured than dirt-coloured. It's a bit on the dry side too, and more musty-earthy than Hermit.

 

Wearing: I'm not entirely sure. Woody and earthy, yes, and very deep. Must wear again when I have more time to analyse. It didn't go immediately bad (in a sharp-sweet resiny sense), which is encouraging. I'm intrigued.

 

I'm a Virgo-Libra cusp, incidentally - Sept. 21.

The Hermit, from Tarot Oils.

 

First sniff: Less dry than Seance, definitely. This isn’t an old-crazy-guy-with-a-long-dirty-beard Monty-Python-type hermit… he’s holed up in a nice cabin in the woods so he can study his mysteries without interruption. A sabbatical hermit. The scent is dark but not ominous, and tinged with a purple that could be a sorcerer’s robe. Hermit isn’t one of the few Tarot cards I’m familiar with – I need to do some research and see what he means.

 

Wearing: On first touch it’s a fluid herbal scent with maybe a hint of citrus. Through the night it fleshed out into a warm purple, maybe red grapes or berries or even an inkstain. Decidedly unisex, very nice, and completely unlike Séance… so I’m glad I got to try them both.

First sniff: Dry, dry, dry… but not quite dusty, and there’s something lighter if you give it a moment. An old, abandoned house with a shaft of sunlight falling through a window onto a bare, dark-wood floor. If anyone saw that rather silly four-hour ABC miniseries written by Stephen King, called Rose Red, about the old mysterious house with a dark soul… this is what she’d smell like.

Wearing: It’s warmer and the lighter note is more apparent on my skin. Shifts from foreboding to welcoming. Still old houses, but it’s more like poking around in your grandmother’s attic, looking at picture albums and old wedding gowns. At one point during the night I sniffed my wrist and it smelled a bit like Lush’s Butterball (which is primarily vanilla and synthetic musk)! That was bizarre, because the scent-aura around me was still decidedly old houses. I liked this a lot more on me than I expected to and will definitely wear it again.

First sniff: This one is very hard to pin down. A definite floral, with a high yellow note that has a bit of bite to it and almost makes my nose itch. I thought at first it was a very warm summer evening, but it cooled off a bit as I sniffed. September, maybe, just as the leaves are starting to turn.

Wearing: Caressingly warm, softer and darker on me than in the bottle, which is a good thing. Warm soft purple. My kinda floral. Over the course of the evening it upgraded itself from “just trying it on” to “definite keeper” to “must have more!” About halfway through work, four or five hours in, it developed an intriguing wet green smell around the flowers, like a garden in the rain. That stage didn't last long, but it was decidedly nice. After one wearing, it's gone on my favourites list.