oatmealneko

I received an imp of this with my last order -

Numb is what it is. It smells like a milky white powder with no distinctiveness to it. There's no mint, florals, green, woods, ozone, nothing. It's milky & powdery, a very mellow scent. Due to its lack of distinctiveness, I'm not able to describe much more than that. It doesn't leave much of a lasting impression on me, but it does last awhile, I'll say that much.

Grand Guignol is pure apricot brandy, as all the other reviewers have stated. However, it doesn't smell sweet. It's a very alcoholic, tart, yet dark apricot. The alcohol note is very strong while wet, but when it dries off, it fades, not enough to disappear entirely. On me, it amplifies the scent of apricots, which start to smell a tad sweet when it's completely dry.

Whippoorwill starts off kinda ozoney & green, nothing really specific. As soon as I applied it to my skin, different story. It gets green. Green green. I'm talking about lots of juniper, moss, & bamboo. Green green, then the green turns mean. Sharp & biting, I think this is where the black pepper & cardamon kick in. Seriously, if you sniff this close to your nose, you'll sear some nosehairs off.

If you're not one for sharp biting green scents, maybe this is not for you. There is still some ozone, but it's sneaking along quietly in the background. Overall, this is quite lovely, I wish I had purchased more than one bottle, but I'll probably milk this one for sometime.

This was a very fragrant floral, yet somewhat fruity. Plumeria & sweet orange right out of the imp, when the oil hit the skin, plumeria came out first. It's very fragrant. After a few minutes, the sweet orange shined right through, & I smelled bits of smoke. Kind of a smokey chocolate, but it's hard to tell unless I'm sniffing the skin close up.

It strikes me as a rather masculine scent, but very fragrant. It's nice, but it also smells like it might go to soap at any moment, so it's one for the swap pile.

Try scents with yuzu in it. It's a Japanese citrus, similar in smell to a grapefruit.

Aizen-Myoo

R'lyeh (not listed, though I'm almost positive it has yuzu)

Wet - Citrusy, green, with some ozone. The citrus didn't hit until after I applied it to my skin. The green note (or whatever it was) goes away after awhile, & the citrus starts to fade. This is another one where the ozone & some other ingredient doesn't agree with me, so it turns into detergent with some citrus scent at the end.

Hurricane smells like ozone & sharp, strong wood. The wood is wet & dark, possibly rotting. The ozone note remains the same, but the wood note gets stronger as it dries off. It smells strongly of rotting wet wood when dry. I could've sworn I got a bit of a pickle smell off the vial when I opened it, similar to fresh Goneril, though not as strong.

I had to scrub it off really quickly after it dried. Yuck.

Strongly oak & cedar in the vial & on my skin. Faint scent of lilies, but the wood notes are nearly overpowering while wet. Wood notes tend to fade in strength once they dry on me, so I decided to keep it wearing it.

Dry - the wood notes do fade, but the oak is still there, not as strong as before, but it's a sharper note than I'm used to. Lilies have come out to play, & there's some aquatics as well. Aquatics & lilies = fine. Aquatics + oak = this smells TOO weird. Oak & aquatic notes really shouldn't mix. One's too strong, & the other is rather passive... Ulalume is better suited to someone else's skin that can handle the mix.

Smells sweet & herbal at first, also smells of light white florals/linens. It has a clean quality to it, almost soap, but not quite. Sweet, but not fruity, tiny bit of herbal greenery that fades when it dries. It's very pure & innocent, clean & bright. It's a simple scent.

Imp, but probably not a bottle.

Apricot & clove. Apricot & clove. Apricot & clooooooove... It's a sweet clove, not the spicy strong clove found in Port-Au-Prince. Mixes well with the ripe apricot. Mostly apricot when wet, then it starts to fade as it dries, but doesn't fade completely. It's sweet, semi-spicy, & fruity at the same time. Definitely one of the better apricot-scented blends.

Of all the scents with lemon, Embalming Fluid is the only one with the sharpest & longest lasting lemon. My skin also devours lemon, & this one is a true lemon keeper.

Phantasm, Zephyr, Venice, & Shanghai have it also, but in much much smaller amounts.

Anyone know how to correctly pronounce "Goneril"? I've been saying it as "GON-eril" (short o), unless it's "GON-eril" (long o).

It's not the long, complicated names that tie me up, but the short ones. Except Tzadikim Nistarim, but that a whole different ball of wax.

Mabon is an autumn scent, though, at this point, I'd probably have to kill someone for a bottle. *glomps her imp protectively*

Milk Moon smells odd & good at the same time. It's rich, creamy, sweet, lightly minty, & lightly cucumber out of the bottle. The only time I've been able to pick out the cucumber note in any of the lunar blends thus far.

Strong, long-lasting (another 8+ hrs scent from this last order), & foody. Dessert food, possibly similar to Chaste Moon (which I read smells like butterscotch). Heavier scent, lightens a bit once it dries.

I like sniffing it, not sure if I like wearing it so much, maybe it's a winter blend.

Compared to the other lunacy blends I've tried (er, Wolf, Cold, Storm, er.. three, I've skipped a lot of lunars, shush), it's above Cold & below Wolf & Storm.

This is pure gingersnaps on me, warm, but slightly dark. It's very spicy & very gingery. Towards the latter end of the drydown, I think there's this amber scent that separates out from the gingersnaps. It's not that strong unless I'm sniffing close to the skin.

Lots of lasting power, though, 8+ hrs.

Wet: Apricot, pomegranate, orchid, & a touch of musk.

Dry: Apricot is the strongest note on me, normally it fades very fast. The pomegranate has faded somewhat. Orchid is the dominant floral note, I don't smell any roses here at all. It's very floral & fruity, more perfumey than The Hanging Gardens (don't slather - has lots of throw).

It makes me want a bottle, but I'll have to give it a couple of tries before I make a final decision.

I'd recommend Intrigue, it was dark chocolatey on me. I can't exactly recommend Centzon Totochtin, because it smelled more like dirt & less like chocolate when I wore it.

I noticed a similarity between Mi-Go Brain Canister & The Hanging Gardens. The Hanging Gardens is a little more floral, a little less fruity. The Hanging Gardens also has more staying power on me than Mi-Go, but otherwise, they are quite similar.

The Hermit was very strange. I was expecting some green, but I didn't smell any at ALL. It smells like gardenias & cinnamon. I thought it was just something odd in the wet stage, but it didn't change at all. Maybe a little bit, when it dried off, the florals smelled creamy. Still, creamy gardenia spice. Ugh.

Strength is sharply green right out of the vial. There's a mix of earth/wood in the green, I can't pinpoint which. It gives the scent depth. Eventually the earth/wood note fades away, & then it's mostly green again, & then it starts smelling yellow. A yellow flower buried under all that green. It's entirely un-herbal to my nose, so I don't care for this one.

Judgement is very very very resiny on me. A tiny bit of florals peeks through on the drydown, & maybe a hint of cherry. However, it is resiny throughout.

If you like Bordello or Lady MacBeth, then you might like Herbal Essences Fruit Fusions with Pomegranate, Persimmon, and Lychee.

If you like Embalming Fluid, then you might like B&BW's Green Tea & Cucumber.

If you like The Star, then you might like B&BW's Coconut Lime Verbena.

Vial: Reeks of coconut, even with the cap on. Once I opened it & sniffed, I could smell a bit of lime.

Wet: Now it just reeks of lime & sweet coconut. As it dries, I can smell a bit of mint also.

Dry: In order of the strongest - sharp lime, sweet coconut, & mint. The longer I leave it on, the more the lime fades away. It is the strongest & sharpest note wet, still very sharp dry, but it loses that over time. Yay. Many times has lime ruined a scent. Eventually, it's a light mint & sweet coconut, with some lime. It smells similar to Spooky, but the mint is much weaker here.

Carnal starts out as spicy mandarin. It has the hard spicy kick of fig, with the submissiveness of mandarin orange. When it dries, it smells like Celestial Seasonings' Mandarin Orange Spice tea, which is my favorite of the CS teas.

Vial: Ginger, tea/linen, slightly peppery.

Wet: Ginger is lemony like Kumiho. pepper, tea, with a bit of vanilla.

Dry: Lightly gingery lemon with sweet vanilla tea. Linen kicks in hard around wet/dry stage to the dry stage, & it becomes very overpowering. I think it is the linen, because it smells similar to white tea, & I know black tea smells different. The sweet scent grows stronger over time & my wrist reeks of sweetness & pepper & linen.

Blech.