greenranger

Sweet beeswax, with a faint hint of something like the flowers the bees were harvesting from. There's the very faintest hint of flowers behind the wax. I don't know, but, there could be skin musk or something in addition. It is possible that there could be vanilla, and if there is, a little aging and time will reveal it. My skin loves vanilla above most things.

I don't get any smoke, at ALL. Hanerot Halalu was smokier, and those bees were harvesting from a different flower.

I'll be in the minority and say I like Hanerot Halalu better, because I like smoke, and I also enjoy darker scents. This is light and bright, with no flickering shadows anywhere. However, this is a good substitute if you can't get that.

This has quite a bit of throw. It starts off Leather, with no messing around with that cologney smell I sometimes get at the start of many many MANY leather blends. The oppoponax and the tobacco do eventually get through. Amber takes a good bit of aging before it really is noticable on me, so I'll expect it to show up next spring.

Even though resins love my skin, this is a LEATHER scent.

I wore this today to work, and got a compliment from someone who knows my perfume habit. She sniffed the air and said, "I like that one!"

It does have some throw.

I get sawdust at first...but it's wonderful sawdust. It's that fantastic scent found in a busy inspired workshop using good woods, rather than scrap and plywood.

For me, sandalwood seems to be the magic wood that makes rose behave. Rose is iffy on me. It can amp. However so many LE scents that I wanted lately have had only rose as the note of doom...and also had sandalwood, and they worked, somehow. Therefore I had to try this one too.

It works. It's a sweet purehearted rose married to the smell of an industrious creative woodshop. I don't know yet how often I will reach for it to wear it, but, I like it.

With all the resins and vanilla, I was sort of expecting a warm scent.

What I got was the scent of dark feathers and cold iron.

It's really really evocative, and perfect for the name. It's a mournful, dark, slightly cold, and metallic scent.

Given the list of ingredients, it will probably change as it ages for me. Most probably it will get warmer and sweeter as the vanilla and myrrh develop, but right now? This is a cold metallic scent that may be my rainy day scent that I could never quite find;water notes don't often *quite* work on my skin, so finding a cool rain on cement scent is probably out. I think this works well as an alternative, though.

If it does eventually turn into a warm spicy resin, I won't be heartbroken, though, as I love those as a rule.

~Edit~ about 4 hours in the scent did change over to a warm, spicy resin and vanilla scent, and it is fabulous. It's still sort of feathery. I like the way the scent starts and how it changes on me. I liked Falling leaf Moon, but I LOVE Raven Moon.

It dries down to cream cheese frosting, vanilla and spices on me. It also has tremendous staying power.

I can smell the snake oil, but, not the Dorian, yet. Maybe as it ages, and this should definitely age well.

I tested this today with no access to the scent notes.

At first i thought I smelled grapefruit, which confused me. I didn't recall any citrus listed.

However, once it was on a while I began to smell vanilla. Sniffing the skin where I applied it I was smelling something comlex and herbal...almost medicinal. However, wafting around me was a wonderful musky vanilla.

I tried this at Will Call and had doubts. The rain note was not really behaving on me.

However, I had already ordered a bottle unsniffed, and this week it arrived. I don't smell as much rain in it, and I like it so very much more.

This is all leaves and resins, this time. The leaves could be maple and apple tree leaves, because a close sniff gives me the impression of cider, though apples and cider are not listed. It smells a bit like a huge pile of clean leaves, the sort of clean leaves you'd have no trouble jumping into a huge pile of just for fun. Then you go inside, still smelling of leaves, and make cider as a reward for the work of raking up the yard.

It lasts and lasts and lasts on me. Plus, it just gets better, as the resin and leaves that I like best in it, are apparently also what like my skin the best. I put this on yesterday early morning before work, and I can still smell it on my skin now, the next morning.

I got a little bit of the cypress at first, but, mostly this was not-quite-water and ozone. I didn't get olibanum, unless that was the note that was causing it to last and last and last...

I like the smell of real rain, why didn't I like this?

Mostly I got this because of the frankincense and myrrh.

I do love resins. Mmmmm.

On, this is smoke. Rich, intense, bonfire smoke. This is a fire that was built to burn, not cook.

This isn't a pretty candle on a table or a back yard barbeque or even something at the beach to roast marshmallows over. It isn't pretty fireworks way up high to ooh and aaah over...or even surreptitious sparklers or fireworks that go bang or shriek.

This is a fire as EVENT.

This is bonfire as tradition and test of courage.

I can definitely imagine smelling like this after jumping through a bonfire.

It took a while before I could really stand to sniff it. It started off COLOGNE.

It dries down, after an hour or so, to leather and cologne. It seems nice, but, more of a clean, manly guy smell than something I want to smell of myself.

I haven't found any flowers in this yet. On me, this is almost all chestnut, with resin and musk in the far background. The chestnut is verging on foody...but always seems to stop short because of a very slight woody scent.

It is also lasting pretty well on me at 6 hours, and still going strong. That's pretty much the wear I'd expect on me from anything with trees, resin and musk in the notes, though.

Wet, it is bright, slightly astringent in a good way, and very peppy. I feel a good deal more awake after sniffing this, and that's good since I was having a very slow start this morning.

Drying, the kumquat fades quite a bit, but, it's still a peppy, very awake scent.

This was a good one to stumble upon this morning!

On me, this is rose, frankincense and sandalwood. I'm not sure it's love, yet, but, I think that it will probably age well. I'll try it again in a few months.

2009 version.

I smelled the corn at first, but, when it dried all that was left was an incensy sugar(there's at least one sugar note that turns into incense, almost, on my skin), and a tiny tiny whiff of the corn. I like it fairly well, but, I don't know that I need a bottle of it.

On me, this almost isn't foody. The caramel doesn't last(no surprise on me.), but, the butterscotch, apple, and coconut rum blend together so very thoroughly that they make a different, almost but not quite floral scent.

far drydown is butterscotch.

Yow! Tomato, like standing in the yard picking off the tomato worms.

Drying, it settles down a bit, and I can smell the rosemary, fir and pumpkin. It's still a little rough and sharpish. Definitely a garden, and a productive one. If I came inside after working in a garden and smelled like this, I'd know I had been working.

Later, it settles into a warm musky spice, that still smells just a little like sunwarmed leaves.

Pumpkin, almond and honey, at first. None of the notes can decide which is going to be dominant and they keep switching. The musk is in the background, waiting for the three primadonnas to make up their minds.

Very foody. It smells spicy with things that aren't listed in the notes, like a pie with cinnamon and allspice perhaps.

Roses and buttery pumpkin, at first, drying down to some pumpkiny baked good flavored with rosewater, and then all the buttery baked goods scent vanishes and it is all rose. It isn't a screaming rose, but, it is all rose.

*ponders*

*sniffs*

Actually...this is a nice rose. I have been finding some roses that work on me and beginning to wonder if my skin chemistry has changed THAT much, or if it is just what these rose notes are blended with? This really should NOT be working on my skin.

This one was way sweet on me. It was sweet pumpkin and vanilla with spice and a bare hint of the coffee, chocolate and hazelnut.

It didn't change over time. It stayed almost exactly the same from when I applied it to nigh to 12 hours later...when it was still about as strong as when I applied it.

Sweet, spicy, staying power, Batman!

Veeery foody. Veeery sweet.

I'm beginning to think that as much as I love myrrh under most circumstances, I should stay away from anything where myrrh is blended with pumpkin. I may hold onto it a little while to see if it changes, but, this one isn't working.

I love clove, love tobacco, love black musk, and love myrrh, but, this ended up smelling...soapy.

In about 6 hours, the soapy problem went away and all I could smell was myrrh. I can't give up on it yet, though, and will try again. sometime, before I swap it away.

wet, I smelled billows of cotton candy, just like standing downwind of a cotton candy vendor at the county fair.

Then it changed to one of the the strong incensey sugar notes from Sugar Skull 2008.

Then, the cotton and cream showed up and pulled the sugar under control. Now it's smoother, softer and more wearable, instead of piercing sugar shock.

Foody, but, wearable. So far it has good throw, and it seems like it will probably last pretty well on me, in some form. I still have to see how the cotton behaves longer term on my skin, but, this is good so far.

~edit~spelling

Do I have the same scent?

In the imp I smelled greenery.

On me? I smelled bitter herbs...for hours.

All bitter herbs.

7 hours later, if I sniff very very closely I can detect a slight hint of floral.

I wore this at work today with no reference to the scent notes.

On me, the scent was a deep almost piney resin, roughened by bonfire smoke and spice. Pine isn't listed, and now that I can see the listed notes, I suppose it must be the mixture of the bitter labdanum and the musk.

I really like this. Is the one bottle enough?

If you loved Minotaur, or wished you could get Minotaur, try this!

2009 version.

on me, wet...

don'tchangedon'tchangedon'tchangedon'tchange...

Ah, well. It was fantastic when it was wet.

At first it was a lovely blend of sugar, musk, smoke and booze...drying, the booze drowns the rest.

Maybe it will change back? Not likely.

Maybe it will change again and the alcohol will step back? Maaaaybe...

I had to check the imp after I applied; I thought maybe that I was smelling Heusos de Santos...but, no...

No orange, no anise, but, the feel of this is remarkably similar to Huesos de Santos from last year.

Sniffing carefully, I think I can find the beer. The cake I DEFINITELY smell. The incense is somewhere in the background.

Drying, this isn't quite as close to Huesos as I had thought. There's more beer(my skin loves alcohol, usually), but, hopefully the cake will stick around.

Well, it is fading fast on me. Unfortunately that leaves me undecided as to whether the imp will be enough. I didn't really fall in love with Huesos de Santos till after it left. Hm.