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loveandprozak

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Everything posted by loveandprozak

  1. loveandprozak

    Black Phoenix

    In the vial/wet on my skin: Cinnamon, almond, and maybe a touch of honey. This is a gourmand scent at this stage without being overly foody. I really like this stage; it creates a sultry feeling without being overly sexual. 10 - 20 minutes: The cinnamon stays, but is a background note and in its place are almonds and a very clean soapy note that I can't place. This is a very strange combination -- I never really would have thought to pare a 'clean' scent with something as spicy and almondy as it started. I'm not particularly crazy about 'clean' scents, but I have to admire this stage for having notes that I'd never personally think to pair together, and yet having them work quite well. 40 minutes - Drydown: Lotus. Suddenly lotus becomes very evident and becomes stronger and stronger until it easily is the dominant note. A slightly spicy and very clean-feeling lotus blend. I'm noticing a lot of the reviews are reporting rose, but I'm not getting rose at all. This is a very loud and screaming lotus note on me. Weird skin chemistry, anyone?
  2. loveandprozak

    Love Me

    Wet: I get the intial hot strange spicy tone that I get with most of the Voodoo oil top notes. Definitely not my favorite scent, or phase. Afterwards: Ahh, there we go. This has a sweet, spicy cinnamon scent to me that smells a bit like cherry. I've had to cut this review painfully vague and short because, while I like the scent, it has the same effect Eclipse has on me. In other words: My skin is getting bright red welts on it as I type. If you're one of the people who have issues with Eclipse, I'd highly recommend trying before you buy. This smells somewhat similar to me, after all, and I get the same allergic reaction from it. I'm guessing the offending ingrediant is shared.
  3. loveandprozak

    The blown-out candle smell...

    I second Joseybird. That's exactly what Darkness smells like on me.
  4. loveandprozak

    Love in the Asylum

    Wet: There's a slight flash of initial unpleasantness brought on by the tobacco. I was somewhat afraid what I'd put on my wrist at this stage because the mix wasn't altogether welcome to my nose. 5 minutes: The strange off-scent fades quickly, thankfully. In its place is a scent that somewhat resembles Old Morocco. The spiciness of the carnation is quite prominent. The scent begins to have a floral-incense quality to it. The ambergris and vanilla in this are warm background scents that influence, as opposed to making themselves strongly known. 30 minutes: Not too much change. Rose/Carnation/Tobacco/Incense. It's a very dusky scent. Drydown: As Love in the Asylum dries down it becomes somewhat sweeter, and the sweet resins come to the surface. It's a dramatic morph, but the scent that it morphs into is so gentle that there is nothing jarring about the changes. Sweet, ever-so-slightly spicy florals with maybe just a tiny whisper of heliotrope. (That could just be the vanilla and the ambergris working together, though, as they could very likely create a similar scent.) I have been looking forward to Love in the Asylum with much anticipation. The notes in it sounded very "like me", and I was drawn to order multiple bottles of it. After an initial strange couple of seconds on my skin, it doesn't disappoint me in the least. I've really been hoping that one day I'd log on to BPAL or DSH and find a scent that was dedicated to the Algonquin, or Dorothy Parker herself. To me, while this scent is not consciously dedicated towards such, it's probably the closest, scent-wise in evoking that fragrance-scene. The carnation, rose and tobacco create a moody, smoky, floral. This to me is not a romancing floral, but one that caresses a drink with cigarette-stained fingers and makes jaded, all too accurate reflections about the world around it. The flowers have been saturated just a little too long in an angry, crazy world in an even angrier, crazier city to offer either chaste love or idealism, but there's something alluring in the sharp looks, rough edges, and barsmoke all the same. Very evocative.
  5. loveandprozak

    Vicomte de Valmont

    This one did so little for me, I can't even bring myself to try to break it down note-wise. It smells like a very generic men's cologne, particularly one pre-1990's aquatic craze. It's dry and musky. Definitely not for me.
  6. loveandprozak

    Lorelei

    Wet: Strong sandalwood with floral components lurking in the background. There's something slightly sharp in this stage. It smells fairly woody. 10 minutes: Little change. Sandalwood continues to be the dominant note. I realize that this smells somewhat like Keiko Mecheri's Bois de Santal. 15 - 20 minutes: Whoa. Total change. The sandalwood backs off and in its place there's a juiciness and delicacy to the scent. No longer is the woody note dominating the show, but instead it's become a sheer scent, adding depth to the florals. I think there may also be a fruit note in here, but it plays a very minor role -- perhaps peach? 30 minutes - Drydown: Such a lovely scent. Unfortunately, it does stay very close to my skin. If I'm close enough, though, it's amazing how the florals and sandalwood melt together to create such a smooth, supple, and warm scent. Overall, I love Loralei. I've sought out several sadness, particularly aquatic sadness, themed scents from BPAL and have yet to find one I was happy with. Many were fairly disappointing, such as Lady of Shallot. This makes up for it -- wistful, sweet yet adult, summery in the Indian summer last-rays-of-golden-light sense. I wish this had a bit more throw on me, but it definitely earns a place in my favorites and big bottle wishlist.
  7. loveandprozak

    Fae

    A brilliant, ethereal scent: white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss. Fae smells so close to Herve Leger to me that it's difficult for me to review it as anything else. Herve Leger is a tad more vanilla-ambergris-musky, though, while Fae is a tad more on the bright and sweet-peachy side. I like both of them, but Fae strikes me as definitely being the less adult of the two, so I don't think it's going to be hitting my big bottle list anytime soon.
  8. loveandprozak

    Sybaris

    In the bottle: This smells like a sweet, delicate incense to me. There's definitely clove and a whiff of a vanilla-related note. I seem to recall Tonka Bean is a listed note in this, so I believe that this is part of it. There's also something resiny-vanilla-spicy, however, that I can't quite identify. On my skin: Clove-vanilla incense with an emphasis on clove. I'm finding this actually quite a soothing smell. 10 minutes: The clove has backed off lightly and I smell a wisp of floral in the background. Mostly, though, I'm getting clove, and that sweet vanilla-like resin smell. This is beginning to smell like a "sheer" version of Snake Oil on me. 30 minutes: Yes, definitely a sheer version of Snake Oil. I don't get the overpowring resiny rootbeer smell that I do with Snake Oil. This smells like Snake Oils springtime/daytime companion -- in other words, one that can be worn in daily situations without causing everyone in a 30 foot radius of you to be overpowered with fragrance. Drydown: Becomes more resin vanilla-ic as it dries down, with just a few wisps of clove remaining. I find Sybaris to be quite a lovely scent, and among the higher ranks in Beth's catalog scents. As I read the other reviews now that I've finished mine (I never do so beforehand) I'm a bit surprised everyone reports such a strong violet scent. While I get it somewhat in the bottle, the sweet and spice overwhelm it near immediately once it touches my skin.
  9. loveandprozak

    Follow Me Boy

    With this oil I did what's generally an unthinkable for me, and that's read the reviews before I wrote this one. My reason being is that my memory of what the reviews said and what I was getting seemed far off that I just HAD to know if I was suffering from insanity. But no, I definitely know the smells I'm getting, and they certainly don't seem to mesh with many people on here. Wet: Sharp, sharp scent that I think is an herbal. I've noticed this one in several Voodoo blens and I am not particularly fond of it. It has the sharpness of something like pepper, but has absolutely none of the character. It's just sharp. For a moment, I'm rather fearful of the fact that something I dislike so much is on my skin. 1 minute: Whoah, a very nice transformation has taken place. The undesireable herbal note is still there, but now there's some things working with it. I do get a faint whiff of jasmine, but it's lurking in the background. There's a fairly pleasant musk scent that has surfaced -- it's nothing unpleasantly feral or dark like I find many of Beth's musk notes, particularly her civet bouqet. Also there's the very distinctive scent of a mapley brown sugar note that I imagine is vanilla + another note working together. 10 minutes: The floral/jasmine components have completely gone. Instead my skin is doing an erratic and unpredictable dance of bringing the herbal scent, the musk, and the brown sugary scent back and forth alternatingly to the foreground. 30 minutes: Eventually the musk folds into the maple sugar note, giving it more complexity.. Now the maple sugar note and the characterless sharp note exist side by side, both of them quite strong. There's something a little jarring about smelling something so warm, sweet, and golden with something so plainly astringent. I'd be liking this a lot better if the astringent note would just vanish (which it almost does occasionally, but it always comes back, making me weep.) Follow Me Boy is an interesting scent that ranks among the higher in a BPAL category I generally have bad luck with. I certainly find it compelling, however the sharp note in this keeps me from being a completely devoted fan. All that being said, my skin seems to do weird things to this since the jasmine note vanished within minutes of me putting it on, and I didn't get any lemon scent at all from it -- two notes that many reviewers cite as prominent.
  10. loveandprozak

    Alice

    In the bottle: Candy-sweet and lovely. The rose, bergamot, and milk-and-honey notes all are working in beautiful unison here. I don't usually like citrus at all, and bergamot is certainly no exception to this rule, but this blends into the milk-and-honey so well it doesn't register on my noses radar as unpleasant at all. Wet: The balance softens quite a bit, and is not longer candy-sweet. Instead it smells very much like a milk-and-honey fragrance oil as it touches my skin. 5 - 10 minutes: The rose slowly starts to peek out from the milk and honey, and make itself known. With a name like Alice and notes like milk and honey, I'd be concerned that this would be a artificial girly rose. This is a voluptuous, red juicy rose though that is quite sultry. The bergamot very briefly makes a more noticable appearance, but fades almost instantaneously. 20 minutes - drydown: The milk-and-honey and rose notes come into alignment and dominate the scent. There's something quite lovely about the sultry aspects of the very adult rose coated with the comforting, soothing aspects of the milk-and-honey note. The bergamont exists only to brighten the scent slightly, and keep it from being sloth and cloying. Alice is really a remarkable scent, and one of my favorites in the BPAL catalog. ON many levels this "fixes" a lot of the problems I had with dragon's milk. The bergamot pulls the scent up and keeps the concept from being overly cloying like I'm accustomed to with dragons blood note. This is sweet, yet still sultry, comforting yet with an edge of provacation. Beautiful.
  11. loveandprozak

    Dorian

    In the bottle: Sweet, sugary, and vanilla. There's the faintest scent of black tea under this, but I can barely detect it. On my skin: Very lettle change at this point. It's a little generically sweet. 10 minutes: The black tea finally started surfacing. It's now more of a sweet tea. I don't get much honey out of this... really, just more of a sugar and tea scent. 30 minutes - drydown: The tea is once again overtaken, and the muddled sweetness dominates. My thoughts on Dorian are that it isn't a BAD scent, but certainly nothing that I consider fantastic. It's pleasant and sugary with just a slight amoutn of depth thanks to the tea, and if that is what someone is looking for it may just do the trick perfectly.
  12. loveandprozak

    Seduction

    I clearly am leaving with an entirely different impression than everyone else about this one. My nose just must be broken.. really.. because... In the bottle: Ylang Ylang. Beautiful, heady ylang ylang. Sweet, and smelling of the tropics. Perhaps a sweet Hawaiian girl is getting ready to go on a date to seduce and be seduced by a newly met prince charming. On my skin: The ylang ylang is singing on my skin, lovely and dominant. Her prince charming wines her, and dines her, and they spend the night smelling the warm, lush tropical blooms while they roll around in the sand. There's something.. strange in paradise, mind you. It lurks way, way down below the surface, though, so everything seems safe. 20 minutes: Huh? Clearly, this is a rather rude awakening to my olfactory journey. I smell musk... strong, tangy musk.. maybe even civet. This isn't the ambered musk of O, the translucent floral-fruit musks of BPAL's Snow Queen or Narciso Rodriguez... this is... the sharp, acrid civet-musk scent that takes center stage in Czernobog and many of the wine notes. Oh sweet Hawaiian lover, say it isn't so! Have you been abandoned? It would seem our Casanova left her to fend for a child herself, and she's a little too busy working on paying the rent to keep the little one in diapers. She struggles with her beautiful ylang ylang perfume to create the life that she once had, but it is of little use -- dirty, smelly diapers seems to dominate the air around her now. Dry down: Fear not, fair maiden, for just as I have scrubbed this stuff from my wrist until the skin is bright red, you too may scrub the past away from you. Raise your child well, find love again, claim a different fragrance, and above all else, I said ABOVE ALL ELSE invest in a good ventilation system to get that awful dirty diaper-slash-urine smell out of here. You shall live happily ever yet, which is more than I can say about me and my new bottle of "seduction".
  13. loveandprozak

    Ice Queen

    In the bottle: Wow, this smells almost like straight pine to me. Interestingly, I'm not turned off by it. A lot of pines I am repelled by, but this doesn't have that 'sharpness' to it that I am used to. Perhaps there is something sweet undercutting it. On my skin: Pine still seems to be the dominant note, but something sweet and chilled has definitely moved in. I'm detecting a lot of fruit in this snow... likely a pear accord, though if someone told me it was apple, I wouldn't be surprised. 30 minutes: This is just fascinating. The pine keeps dying and the sweet accord just keeps getting /frostier/. It's the most interesting powdery note I've ever smelled. It's sweet, tangy, and slowly overcoming the pine. I love this scent. It's truly a magnificient conceptual smell for me. Every time I wear it I get the image of a pine forest just before a snow storm moves in, and as the oil dries down the snow and winds get heavier and heavier until they overtake the forest. Beautiful. Not quite how I would express this very near and dear character to me, but just.. a lovely olfactory interpretation all the same.
  14. loveandprozak

    Eclipse

    This one makes me so sad. Wet it was very cinnamony, though it dried to this lovely cherry scent that was quite amaretto-ish. After that, it got quickly washed off because my skin had a big red blotch that was growing by the minute. I thus can't comment on the scent beyond this. It seemed like something I'd love to buy a big bottle of if it wasn't for the skin reaction. *sniffle* *mourn* *cry*
  15. loveandprozak

    Gingerbread Poppet

    In the bottle: Cinnamon dominates in the bottle, no question. There is a ginger-molasses scent, but it seems to only complement the rather overpowering cinnamon. Wet: Wow. Where did that come from? The cinnamon instantly weakens on contact, and in its place is the scent of true gingerbread. It's not the craft-store kind of fragrance, this is... earthy. It has that rich bread smell, as opposed to even home-made cookies. This is amazing. 10 minutes until drydown: There really is no need to go into detail with a lot of phases for this one, because by this point it's pretty much what it remains. I'm saddened that the earthy scent fades slightly, but it is only slight, and the cinnamon and ginger come out beautifully on my skin. This is a rich, gourmand scent that has enough spice and depth to it to keep you from smelling like you spilled syrup on yourself. I love Gingerbread Poppet. It's certainly a mood scent -- I don't think there's anything particularly empowering or seductive about gingerbread, after all; I do see where this one could provide some comfort and a sense of domestic security, though. It's a beautiful scent, truth be told. I'm in love.
  16. loveandprozak

    Glitter

    In the bottle: I have to concur with the "bubblegum accord" people are talking about. I think it's a mixture of Beth's pear note, and an unusually undistinctive heliotrope. (Far, far from the powdery-vanillaic-almondy scent I'm use to from my beloved heliotrope note... this just adds a sweet layer of powderyness.) Wet: Wow, fruity. The grape note in the wine takes center stage and is complemented by the pear. I think there is a floral in here adding some small depth to the mix, but it remains far, far in the background. This is sweet on me, a llittle too uncomplicatedly so. Dry: Ah, hello wine note. Beth's wine notes never quite work on me... a feral scent starts appearing in fragrances that I'm not sure really should have one. Until I conferred with a friend who also swore she smelled something animalaic in Beth's wine note (grape plus civet, perhaps?) I would have been convinced my nose was just being loopy. It's definitely here on my skin entertwined with the grape, and overpowering most of the pear. Hmm.. I really don't love or detest this one. I've learned in the past anything with Beth's wine note in it really isn't going to work on me, but it's very strong in this, so for people whose skin chemistry reacts positively to it, it might be a good scent to try. Looking beyond the wine note, I still think that this scent is a little too one sided and "kiddie" for my tastes.
  17. loveandprozak

    Searching for the Perfect Vanilla?

    Hello there BPALers. I was wondering if anyone could give me any suggestions on what BPAL oils have pronounced spicy vanilla-type notes? Thanks!
  18. loveandprozak

    Black Pearl

    I was a little hesitant to try this one after reading some of the reviews. I was pleasantly surprised, however. In the bottle: This smells pleasant, even though it isn't grabbing me particularly much. It smells like coconut with a little bit of boozey warmth. Honestly, it reminds me a bit of coconut rum. Wet: Ahhh, and the iris suddenly leaps out of nowhere and covers up the coconut. It's a gentle iris, however -- very green, and with a touch of sweetness that I am attributing to the dominated coconut. 30 minutes - Drydown: After a few short minutes of a suddenly-sharp iris I am quite delighted to find a fragrance that smells very close to L'Artisian Premier Figuier. The same figgy, milky, and green scent is here that I have come to recognize in the L'Artisian bottle. Actually, I find the green scents in Black Pearl a bit more interesting due to the iris. This is definitely a nice fragrance that seems a perfect spring/summer addition. I think it's unisex even for people who are a bit cautious to cross over gender lines. Very fresh, slightly fruity, and pleasant in all of its stages. Lovely.
  19. loveandprozak

    Saturnalia

    Hmmm... okay, so I'm sure reading the reviews this works out beautifully on some people's skin. Mine was definitely an exception to this. In keeping with my determination to honestly review every scent I try for my further reference and database, though, here goes nothing... In the vial: I'll have to concede to the other reviewers -- this is dark. It's as if Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and a Queller Demon (You know the drooly gnome thing that chasted after her mother? Yeah, that.) are fighting within the bottle on a bed of violets. Neither has won yet. There's a heavy, sweaty scent that has fallen over the gothic violets.. not quite making them sharp, but definitely astringent. I think the Queller demon may have knocked over a bottle of patchoulli in the Magic Shop before Buffy chased it here. Wet: The Slayer has bested another demon. Soon its alien-green blood explodes over the violets, covering whatever sweetness they have in an acrid, plasticy, unhuman scent. What is left of the violets are withering away under the Queller demon's free-flowing blood. Dry: Buffy has since moved on to more important things, but the Queller demon is still atop the wilted violets. Its body slowly begins to decompose into the earth even as post-mortem gasses are released from its pores. The once pretty violets give a final agonizing cry before melting away from the ever-increasing stench. Nothing grows atop the land again for a very long time.
  20. loveandprozak

    Sugar Skull

    I was quite hopeful about this LE from the description and reviews, so acquired an imp of it. In the bottle it was a quite lovely sugary and fruity smell. Yum! I was quite pleased for the first few moments it was on my wrist, as it smelled strongly of brown sugar -- a scent that I love. However, soon afterwards, thanks to the joys of body chemistry it turned into a rather sharp, astringent bug spray smell on my skin. So sad! Ah well, atleast I won't have a lemming for this limited edition (for once!) To the swap pile with you, my sugary bug spray!
  21. loveandprozak

    Czernobog

    Before someone flames me for this review, I'd like to point out my previous reviews of scents. They usually are quite mild-mannered and analytic. I am unable to be analytic about this scent, however. Top note: A demonic cat with a yeast infection is starting to pee. Middle notes: Bacteria-infected demonic cat pee. Base notes: The frustration of trying to get bacteria-infected demonic cat pee off the carpet.. or your arm for that matter. (Which people who've had cats, demonic or not, know this can be quite a chore...) Now where did I put that bottle of nitric acid...
  22. loveandprozak

    La Petite Mort

    In the bottle: This smells nice enough. It smells a lot like BPAL's honey note, with just a hint of musky darkness lurking under it. This reminds me a bit of O's drydown. Wet: The honey has all but completely faded from my nose, and the myrrh has come swirling in. The ylang ylang makes a slight, complemantary appearance. This is a nice scent, if a wee bit sharp for my tastes. 10 minutes: The sharpness has faded, fortunately, and in its wake is a very musky sweetened myrrh. At this stage, I'm beginning to question if this is a somewhat less complex version of Creed's Angelique Encens. 30 minutes: Wow. This is another one of Beth's scents that doesn't come into its own until it has settled onto my skin, but when it does, it is simply *amazing*. This takes a fragrance of BPAL's I already love, namely O, and changes anything about it that I'm slightly uncertain of. Yes, I am /in love/. Little O has grown up into something vampy and powerful. The myrrh has backed off enough so the scent is a dusky, musk-laced honey fragrance that is laced with incense. There is nothing coy or sweet about this honey-resin-musk scent, though, it's charged with sexual power, seduction games, and siren's calls. Overall, this is a beautiful scent that doesn't quite come into its own until the drydown. I consider this in a family of several scents that I commonly refer to as 'mood scents' -- for me, these are fragrances that can actually change the way you are feeling about yourself at a given moment. And wow, does this smell and make you feel sexual..
  23. loveandprozak

    Chaste Moon 2005

    In the bottle: A smooth, not-too-rich, not-too-sweet buttercream scent. Not the overly dramatic and foody type of buttercream scent you'd expect from candles or most fragrances, but a more genuine and true buttercream scent. Wet: The buttercream begins to peel back slowly while never going fully away in order to show more notes. This reminds me quite a bit of Tarot: The Wheel at this stage. First, there's a fresh, crisp note that after hashing it out with my BPAL partner in crime we've decided is likely a light touch of frankincense. There's also a very subtle, slight waft of mostly white florals in the background that are hard for me to deduce. I'm fairly certain there's some linden blossom in there. Beyond that, my nose isn't doing very good detective work today. 30 minutes: The minty-but-not-minty note culprit that might be frankincense peeks around just enough to lend a freshness to the scent. The white florals are still present, but now the honeyed creaminess is really kicking in, and making them more indecipherable. There's something faintly green and aloe-like in the mix, if it was a little sharper I'd say it was osmanthus flower. Perhaps it is, or an osmanthus bouqet, and some of the other notes are softening it? 45 minutes - Drydown: Okay, this morphs into one of the few truly beautiful skin scents that I can think of. When Ms. Chanel said that you should put fragrance where you expected to be kissed, I can't help but think this is exactly what she had in mind. It is what I'd expect someone would smell like after having a very luxurious and rich, foamy milk bath with a touch of honeyed sweetness added to the water. It's a true skin scent that stays very close, and complements your natural scents rather than masks. Part of me wishes that it didn't stay so close in this very lovely stage. Then again, going back to Ms. Chanel, there is quite a nice intrigue in the idea of a lover smelling a sweet, milky *something* from far away and when they move in close to kiss, they get a delicate noseful that compels them to stay. Chaste Moon is a very nice scent that turns breath-taking in the dry down. It's a little too light to be a holy grail scent, I think, because while it is appreciabe at a distance, someone would have to be intimate-close to truly comprehend the parts of it that are delicious. That being said, I will definitely cherish my single bottle, and weep occasionally that I wasn't around when it was live on-site to buy and horde a stock-pile. Very lovely!
  24. loveandprozak

    Scarecrow

    A friend of mine had sent me Scarecrow some time ago, and after three minutes I was scrubbing it off my skin madly. I talked to him later, and he said that it was a typical reaction, but it got really good if you waited, so I decided to give it another go: In the bottle: This smells like mostly an herbacous, slightly sharp, slightly sweet smell. Wet: Ah yes, this is what I remember quite well. There's something that becomes very strong and harsh on my skin.. it smells almost dusty. 10 minutes: Well, the really unpleasant dustiness did fade. In its place it smells distinctly like... Carress brand soap. I actually find this scent quite pleasant, even if it isn't something I'd actively search out. 30 minutes all the way until dry down: First of all, this scent lasts a long time on me. A LONG time. It's been over 12 hours since I put it on, and I can smell it quite easily still. The sweet-soapy fragrance has faded, and in its place is a dry, slightly herbal -clean smell. I really am not good at discerning this type of note, but I imagine if you looked at the notes in a clean-smelling gentleman's fougere (I *KNOW* I've smelled similar notes in Chaleur D'Animale Pour Homme, for instance,) you'd have a good clue of what was in it. Overall, after the first ten minutes I would say this a very nice, somewhat masculine scent, even if it really isn't anything I'd ever choose to wear. On the right person, it would definitely work quite well, however. I want to say that this is, conceptually speaking, the more masculine counterpart to Rochas' Mystere.
  25. loveandprozak

    Le Serpent Qui Danse

    In the bottle: Wow, the violet certainly is dominating this scent. There's something sweetening it, though, which must be what the blend description is naming as vanilla. It's an unusual vanilla, though -- it's very 'back stage', serving as a sweetener more than an independent note. Wet: Sweet violet is still in the center here. It's similar to the bottle scent, but the violet seems to be getting stronger and wilder. This scent is overwhelmingly strong on me. 10 minutes: Something very green has emerged that is what was fueling the ever-wilder violet. It's interesting, because somehow the violet has managed to be simultaneously sweet /and/ edgy; I see this as an uncontrolled and rambling flower rather than something restrained or elegant. Green notes aren't my nose's specialty, but I want to say that it's the very green and somewhat bitter scent of violet leaf. If someone told me there was a very small bit of vetiver in the oil, I wouldn't be surprised. 40 minutes: The unruly violet has finally begun to subdue, and consequently is finally registering somewhat pleasant to my nose. 1 Hour through Dry Down: The fragrance has morphed from a screaming, bright, sweet violet to a subtle, sweet powder scent on me that is laced with a kiss of violet. I'm guessing that this is from the type of vanilla that is being used, or perhaps the oils that are simulating gardenia. Fortunately, the bitter green scent has completely passed. This was definitely an interesting and evocative scent for me. To be honest, it's the type of scent that I can admire in concept, but don't think I'd particularly appreciate smelling on myself or anyone close to me. The violet is just too wild, and too untamed for someone like me who tends to like more subdued, elegant, and dusky scents. For someone who wants a no-apologies bright type of violet, though this is a perfect choice (atleast until the drydown that is somewhat evocative of violet baby powder.) Incidentally, this remiinds me a fair bit of a louder, more extreme version of Caron's Violette Precieuse. (Caron's has a sparkley olfactory aspect that this is missing, however.)
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