cranberry

Magus - Bewitching Brews

Notes: galangal, high john essence, frankincense, cedar, sandalwood

Wow – I don’t know why I haven’t tried this one before. I love these woody scents and this one is no exception. It starts out as a wonderful cedar scent. It smells like there could be a touch of incense in the background. Its like Aureus and Midnight Mass mated and this is their child.

This is a lovely scent and I like it quite a bit. The only problem is that it doesn’t last at all on my skin. I applied a good swipe about an hr ago and it’s totally gone. It reminds me of Aureus, Cathedral, Jupiter and Midnight Mass.

Himerus - Excolo

Notes: juniper, sandalwood, rosewood, red musk, orchid, bergamot, and lilac

When first applied, this smells of juniper and sandalwood. After its been on the skin for a minute or so, the juniper is gone and what's left is a woody-musky-flowery scent - sultry and quite sexy. It reminds me of Dark Delicacies - the orchid I think. It's well blended and hard to pick the notes apart. The juniper and woods combine to remind me of the patchouli accord in Mme. Moiarty and in Dark Delicacies. It's not quite as sultry as either blend but reminds me of both quite a bit. Same family if you will.

What a lovely surprise - thanks GC swap for inspiring me to try my imp! It's a sultry, sexy floral and I like this quite a bit! I'm tempted to get a bottle.

Phantasm - Bewitching Brews

In the imp and on the skin, this is a light, fresh, pretty scent. It screams innocence and youth. On me, this is mainly jasmine with the lightness of lemony tea. There's a touch of neroli adding to the mix but it's not overwhelming. This is a really beautiful combination of scents and this would be an amazing linen spray or to mist on clothing that's drying on the line, in the sun and breeze.

Jack - Bewitching Brews

Notes: pumpkin, nutmeg, peach, clove

mmm. pumpkin and spices. This is delicious!

Danube - Wanderlust

Notes: rhododendron, bellflowers, aquatic notes

Juicy, sweet flowers – so fresh. Splash of grapefruit.

This is a lovely watery floral that makes me think of Kindly Moon. It has a sharpness that Kindly Moon does not, and as it wears it becomes almost piercing in intensity. This is very pretty but it is a strong scent. It does remind me of flowers in rain and it smells moist yet cool. This isn’t the heart of summer, but perhaps the start of spring.

Rose Cross - Sin and Salvation

Notes: rose, frankincense

At first I was bit hesitant to try this as the rose blends are a crap shoot for me. Sometime they work and oftentimes they don’t. Well, I’m glad I tried this. It’s a lovely greenish red rose and blends beautifully with the frankincense. Very pretty.

Similar roses for me included Rose Red and Séance.

Kathmandu - Wanderlust

Notes: incense, saffron, sandalwood, cedar, lotus, chiuri bark, nepalese spices

Initially, there’s a lovely wood scent – mainly cedar, a touch of smoke and sandalwood. After it’s been on for about a minute, there’s a wintergreen scent. It sticks around for a while, then poof, the whole scent is gone.

Seance - Bewitching Brews

Notes: rosewood, rose leaf, hazel

My first impression of Séance is: roses! Rich, moist, lush roses. Slightly green. My second thought is that this is a good sub for Rose Red. It has that same fresh rose with a touch of greenery. After I’ve had it on for a couple minutes, the rosewood comes out and it’s not an exact dupe of Rose Red but still very nice.

After it’s been on a while, this still remains a beautiful rose scent, slightly woody. Beautiful. Just beautiful. Thanks GC swap – I probably wouldn’t have gotten around to my imp of this otherwise!

reviewed 6-4-06

Snake Oil - Bewitching Brews

In the vial: spicy, ambery vanilla

On the skin: damn, this smells good. spicy, ambery vanilla. Yum. This dries to a wonderful, slightly spicy vanilla. I know that there's patchouli in here but I don't smell it, it's all vanilla on me. But not vanilla as in a bland, "vanilla ice cream" type of way - no this is not an innocent, school girl vanilla. This is much more confident and sexy.

Conclusion: I love this scent and most of the scents in the Snake Oil family. There's a reason why this is a classic. It smells great fresh or aged. It layers wonderfully and is a slightly dark, sexy as hell scent. Confident. It lasts forever and that's even better in my book.

Voodoo - Bewitching Brews

Notes: myrrh, patchouli, vetivert, lime, vanilla, pine, almond, clove

In the imp and initially on the skin, this smells a bit like cherry coke. After it’s been on a while, it doesn’t smell exactly like cherry coke any more, but I’m at a loss at how to describe this. It’s a tad masculine, and I think it would smell really good on a guy.

I can’t get beyond the cherry coke imagery in my brain for this scent.

reviewed 7-4-06

Spellbound - Love Potions

Notes: 3 roses, amber, red musk

In the imp this smells very much like Fenris Wolf – the red musk and amber dominate the scent. Once applied, the red musk softens and the roses peek through. The roses interweave with the amber and the musk provides a stunning backdrop. As it wears the roses take on a slightly powdery smell, but still meld well with the amber and musk. The amber reminds me of the amber in Sin, which is a good thing. There’s a smoothness to this scent and reminds me of polished wood, even though wood is not a part of this scent. The best words for this scent: smooth, dark, slinky, and sexy.

Nero - Sin & Salvation

Notes: rosemary, bay, pine, lemon

Initially this a spicy scent – herbal. Lots of bay rum, touch of rosemary. This is spicy and rich smelling, yet smooth. As it’s mainly a bay rum scent, this would smell amazing on a man. It reminds me of when I was a teenager – there’s something here that’s prompting that association but I can’t for the life of me figure out where it’s coming from. As it wears, the bay remains strong and true, as does the spice. The spice smells like clove. It’s wearing well and seems to have good lasting power. Very nice!

Ravenous - Love Potions

Notes: red patchouli, orange blossom

I just tried and reviewed Masquerade. Wow, what a difference. From first sniff I’m thinking YUM! From Masquerade, I got an odd doughy smell whereas I smell none of that here. I was blaming it on the orange blossom, but now I’m thinking orange blossom + ambergris was responsible.

Anyway, back to Ravenous. There’s actually a bit of a citrus edge here, like orange juice with a touch of rind or something and it brightens the scent considerably. The orange blossom doesn’t have that bitter, acrid note I oftentimes smell with orange blossom. There could be a touch of vanilla in here, this is much closer to Vixen than Masquerade. Vixen is a bit darker and more syrupy, whereas this is brighter, sweeter, and has an almost effervescent quality to it. As it wears I can’t help but thinking how fabulous this blend is and for some reason is reminding me of my beloved Snake Charmer. SC is a lot sweeter and stronger with vanilla, and the fruit base is different. I think there’s maybe a similar musk/patch base plus the sparkling fruit (citrus vs plum) that’s making me find a similarity. Regardless this is fabulous and I have to get a bottle of this one day soon.

Thanks GC swap, it would have taken me a lot longer to try this!

Masquerade - Bewitching Brews

Notes: patchouli, ambergris, carnation, orange blossom

In the imp and on the skin wet, this is strongly orange blossom. There’s a slightly doughy scent here that I’m thinking is either the orange blossom or the ambergris, or a combination of the two. Based on past experiences, I’m thinking it’s the orange blossom. As it wears, the doughy scent goes away for the most part, but still remains faintly in the background. There’s a touch of patch and I’m not getting any carnation at all. The patch and orange blossom combination is not a good one on me.

It’s funny because sometime I just love orange blossom and neroli, but it’s often a toss-up it seems. In this case it’s not working for me.

Salome - Love Potions

Notes: almond with star jasmine, oakmoss, red sandalwood and Egyptian musk

This is mainly almond and jasmine. As it dries, the jasmine becomes stronger and the sandalwood comes out. After it’s been on a while, this is almost all musk and sandalwood, and becomes quite sensual and rich smelling. This may be bottleworthy for me!

Crossroads - Wanderlust

Notes: garden of blooms, dry earth and mosses, incense, offertory herbs

This is from imp that I’ve had for a long time.

In the imp I get smells of dirt, moss, then flowers and a smidge of herbs. The predominant scent is loam and soil.

On the skin, wet, the dirt, moss and dust disappear and I get flowers, possibly gardenia or jasmine, or maybe both. It has kind of an Aveda type smell, which I love. It’s a beautiful floral. It's a lot more lush on the skin than in the imp.

As it dries, incense peeks it way in. The strong jasmine note remains but it’s blended with other element tempering it a bit.

As it dries further, I’m picking up a dusty, smoky note; that was a total surprise, I didn’t expect that!

Overall, I like it but I'm not sure if I need a bottle or not. I tried it when I first got it and I think I got more earth, incense and moss, and I fell in love and immediately wanted a bottle. Many months later I'm getting mostly a beautiful heady floral. If you're a jasmine fan try it! I will hang onto my imp though.

Masabakes - Diabolus

Notes: black currant, myrrh, bitter mimosa, mandrake

I’ve wanted to try this one for a long time so I’m thrilled to finally have the chance – thanks GC swap!

In the imp and once applied to the skin, this is rich, slightly spicy, and a bit hard for me to describe. Initially I’m getting mainly myrrh that’s softened up some. There’s a wee bit of currant that adds a juicy quality to this scent. It’s strong and it’s making my hand tingle where I applied it. It smells like there’s moss, loam or dirt here, maybe that’s the mandrake. This is an unusual one. Dark, sexy, rich, spicy. Powerful. I’m so glad that I tried this!

Bliss - Bewitching Brews

Notes: Milk chocolate

I can’t decide if this is chocolate brownie or hot chocolate, but either way – YUM!

Iago - Illyria

Notes: black musk, wet leather, vetivert

Vetivert and leather. And a sweet smell that’s surprising – amber? It does remind me of black licorice for some reason but not quite. It smells waxy and thick. Pretty good in fact. I love leather, like black musk sometimes and usually like vetivert, but for some reason I was convinced that this would push over into the way too masculine side and I wouldn’t like it. So this is a surprising scent for me. Yes, I can see that it would smell amazing on a man.

I got it - this reminds me strongly of Haunted. It must be the black musk. While Haunted went powdery on me, this is not. Smelling this makes me want to layer it with *something*…. but for the life of me I can’t figure out what.

Blood - Bewitching Brews

Notes: dragon's blood resin, myrrh, cherry, clove

In the imp and on the skin, this smells of dragon’s blood and cherry. The cherry is a bit artificial to me and reminds me of a cherry slushie. As it dries the myrrh and clove comes out and softens the artificial cherry smell. This smells way better to me dry than wet, the myrrh and clove make this smell downright wonderful. Spicy, sexy, seductive. This is a fabulous clove scent and delicious!

Burial - Dark Elements

Notes: juniper, patchouli, loam, floral

Initially, Burial is strongly juniper with a touch of sweetness. As it wears after it’s dry, the patchouli comes out and adds to the juniper. Sniffing my wrist from a distance there’s the faint scent of powdery flowers mixing with the patchouli and juniper. The loam seems to be absent. Maybe the powder is better attributed to the patchouli rather than the flowers but the powder is there nonetheless. This scent really sticks!

This scent is very calming and soothing.

Kumiho - Diabous

Notes: white tea, ginger

This scent starts off all tea but then morphs to a lemony tea with a bit of spicy fire. It is light, clean, refreshing.

It reminds me other white tea products out there. I like white tea so I do like this scent, but it’s just too similar to the mainstream tea scents. I think I prefer to get my tea fix from other tea blends such as Holiday Moon, Dragon Moon, Dorian, etc.

Empyreal Mist - Bewitching Brews

(wow - I reveiwed this 9-5-05 - a long time ago!)

Thanks to the generosity of the Lab I got to try Empyreal Mist.

Initial Impression, in the Imp: Light, clean, pretty floral. Very sweet.

On the skin: Still a light, clean floral. Brings to mind white flowers.

I'm not good at distinguishing florals, but these are very, very sweet flowers. Stays sweet on the skin, a bit too sweet for my taste. There may be a sliver of wood grounding the scent - but it stays very very subdued and very soft. I get some melon that adds a bit of juicyness to the scent. It lasts a long time on me - even after doing the dishes and applying lotion I can still smell it.

Overall: Too floral and a lot too sweet for my taste. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to try it though. Still, it's going in the swap or gift pile.

Delirium - Bewitching Brews

Notes: Apple, rose, lemon

Delirium is mainly a rose scent on me. The apple is soft and a supporting note to the rose rounding it out and stopping it from going sour, nasty rose on me. The lemon adds a wonderful tartness and freshness to the rose but doesn’t step over into sour territory. As it wears the rose becomes stronger and the other components recede. But it’s still being tempered by them so it doesn’t go to the rose that hates me and my skin. Overall, this is an ok blend. Not one that I would seek out but one that I’ve enjoyed trying.

Ephemera: Bewitching Brews

Notes: violet, chamomile, muguet, white geranium, calla lily, tea rose, autumn leaves

In the imp and wet on the skin, this smells like soft florals with a hint of spice. This is a soft, quiet scent, pretty and refined. The flowers are soft – I can barely smell the rose but it’s there. I have a love-hate relationship with rose and I’m happy to say the other flowers temper the rose so there is just a whisper. There’s a herbal aspect to this scent and I’m having a hard time identifying the other flowers. It doesn’t last long and remains soft, gentle and sweet. It’s nice, not something that I’d reach for on a regular basis, but I’ll hold onto any imps that come my way.