delicate_fangs

Should I do fandom swap again?

Intrigued Fangs is intrigued. It sounds like a lot of fun.

Hm. To me it doesn't smell like old people. It smells like old books.

Like others say, that passes off fairly quickly, though.

Wow, the basil really roars out on me here.

Wish it were a little more resin and less herb on me, but they keep see-sawing back and forth. Still, it's fascinating!

Oh, this is really cool! Sweet grasses, a few dandelions, and pancake syrup, maybe some scorched wildflowers. Really neat. It's not like anything else.

I probably won't wear it often, but boy, does it bring back memories. (Um, I went to a tiny parochial school in the country.. and no, it was not Miskatonic Valley. )

Wah. Mine starts out as lovely dead leaves, and morphs into strident cologne. Wah!

Oh, well. Off to swaps with the decant. But I had such hopes.....

Alas, no fruit ever shows up on me. It's just caramel-corn sugar, slightly burnt.

I had such hopes for the candied fruits, and I keep testing it, hoping that this time they'll be there, but no such luck.

Oh, well. Such is life.

OMG this and my skin chemistry combine to form something of truly legendary scariness. Waah.

Um, yeah, rotted oak... and cleaning products. It may have a gorgeous drydown, but I am never going to last that long.

Well, gotta be adventurous and try stuff, right?

Huh. Pumpkin IV is really perfumey to me. I can smell pumpkin under it, but just barely. There's a whole bunch of high notes in the way. I didn't expect this, but I guess the cactus blossom and the sage are amping and going high on me. Eeesh. Not for me, this one. Oh, well.

The Lurid Library

in the decant: This smells like aftershave to me. And dust.

wet: Whoah. Now it smells like mildewed books and a faint bit of aftershave. i imagine foxed volumes and a sinister librarian....

later: Eeeeuw. This is not good on me. It smells like bandaids and liniment and mildew. Oh, dear. My Lurid Library is not a good place to hang out. Wah! Off to swaps goes the decant and the full bottle too. (I got a bottle because I grew up in a library, and i so wanted this scent to work. Oh, well.)

Wait! No, it's morphing. Huh! Spicier now, and I can finally smell some incense.

Still not sure I need more than an imp of it, though, if that. And getting through the initial phases is hard.

in decant: This smells like a pumpkin pie sitting next to a lemon meringue pie!

wet: Even more so. Stronger lemony scent, and sweetness. It's quite pleasant.

drying: I love the ginger in this.

later: Wow, this disappears entirely on me. Huh. Very short wear life. Nice while it lasts, though.

in the decant: very very VERY floral. I approach with trepidation.

wet: VERY floral. Much high-noted floweryness. This is probably not going to work on me.

Yep, there comes a jasmine soap parade! Though there's something nice in there too.... is that stephanotis? And a creamy background which is rather pleasant. But the soap festival of jasmine and friends, or whatever that is in there, is drowning them out.

later: Huh, now it's going to herbal soap. A change, but still not a win, alas.

later yet: Almost washed off the scary flowers just now. But am going to give it a bit longer.

still later: eventually there is a very pleasant drydown, but I think for me it's not worth the long journey. Oh, well. Floral lovers will like this one, though.

In decant: This smells like straight pumpkin to me.

Wet: Whoah ~ there are berries and nuts in here! No, wait: the nutty smell is probably the tobacco blending with the tonka. Dunno what champa flower is, but maybe it and the carnation are doing the berry smell. Huh. There's some pumpkin here, but mostly it's submerged under the riot of other stuff.

Wah. The carnation is going a little bit soapy on me.

Later: this dried down to a very faint pumpkin with extra sweetness. It's nice, but not spectacular on me. At least the soapiness was a short-term thing.

The Forbidding Foyer in the decant smelled like a mildewed rug with stale cigarette smoke, like a funeral home from the 1950's, but once on, it smells of rotting woods, and paper, and mysterious dusty places, and cold stone. Huh! Might be too dusty-and-woody-and-stoney for me, but it's interesting.

Oh! Brimstone. That's what the stone smell is. Yeah, this is definitely stone. Spooky, too.

Later: it winds up being an unexpectedly sweet dry powdery scent on me. How very odd! Quite the morpher indeed.

Sweet and fruity! There's apple in here, right, or some other fruit? And I can smell the warm rich pumpkin. Nice, but I am always wary with apple because mostly it hates me and goes to compost, alas. We shall see.

Oh, wait -- this is not apple. It's pear! Hmm. And I can smell the tea in it. And the grapes; it was the combo of the grapes and the pear that was making me think of a juicy apple. Grapes are good on me, so I have hopes for this. But the fruit seems to be receding, leaving pumpkin and tea.

Later: huh. This does not play well on my skin. I think the fruits never quite come together for me. Oh, well.

My skin chemistry's antipathy to florals strikes again. Wah.

In the decant: smells like scary Jergen's Baby Lotion.

On me: smells like REALLY scary Jergen's Baby Lotion. Aiiiieee! I am going to leave it on and see if the drydown improves, but I think this one is destined for swaps.

Later: The drydown is very soft Jergen's Baby Lotion with a dusting of talcum powder. Wah. Oh, well. Glad I tried it, though.

I'm testing Samhainophobia 2007, and having the same experience as enderfem did: it's all about the oakmoss, and not in a good way for me, alas.

Here are my review notes:

Starts out very sharp and masculine-perfumey, and then goes to garden-oakmoss-soil, and now it's doing an impersonation of a rotting turnip. I think my skin chemistry does not like this one. Oh, well. Might have to wash it off.

edited to add: later, and even after I wash it off, there's a very nice drydown that I think would smell wonderful on a man or on a woman who likes men's cologne scents. It's not one I can wear, but it's got a lot of goodness to it.

Jack, when it hits my skin, is a very sweet pumpkin blend. It's almost as if there's sugared lilac on top of it or something. The intense sweetness lasts for a couple of minutes, and then the pumpkin begins to come out more underneath.

At about half an hour in, there's something in the pumpkin that goes a little plasticky on me, alas. But this recedes soon, and settles down to a nice pumpkin midrange.

On my skin, this scent doesn't have staying power, though. It's four hours later, and I can hardly smell a thing on my wrists. Alas, Jack, you and I were only meant to have a fleeting relationship.

I smell the magnolia and some other floral floating above the more incensey notes. Something about this also reminds me of Antique Lace; is there something they have in common? I tried this because I have a passion for kush lately. Not sure the kush is strong enough in this to satisfy my craving, though. I think the florals get in the way, too, because I am amping them way too much. At two minutes, the jasmine-and-magnolia rises and overwhelms the opium and patchouli almost completely. Ah, well. Swap it to somebody who loves it, I guess. Still, there are nice wafts at a distance, when one's out of range of the floral amping of doom.

edited to add: On the other hand, the very late drydown is heavenly incense, so maybe I'll just hang on to this then. Hmm!

OMG. I just got a decant of this, and it is the total crack! WANT. I want to bathe in this. I want to swim through oceans of it. The sassafras is perfectly mellowed by vanilla and something else, probably the onycha, and it's good good GOOD.

I want my whole house to smell like this. Oh, so good.

I got a decant of this, and tried it: yep, I am one of the people who amps it to ROSE ROSE ROSE GNARR I AM THE ROSE MONSTER ALL MUST BOW BEFORE ME and no incense at all. Ah, well. I know a hardcore rose lover who is probably going to bliss out over it, so that's good.

This is really, really wonderful, with all the incensey goodness. What startled me, though, is the other thing that is hiding in it and apparently amps on my skin: there's a light and flowery grapefruit-like note in there. One friend says it's grapefruit, and another says it's Meyer lemon. To me, it smells like the furniture polish on those church pews someone mentioned above.

I love this scent. I need more. More more more!

Alas, I am finally facing the fact that Treat #2 and my skin chemistry are Not Friends. It goes to a weird orange plastic rubber ball scent on me, overlaid with sweet sweet figs -- not a combination that works. Off it goes finally to swaps. I've had it since I got it from the Lab, and have decanted some for swaps, but it's time to let the rest of the bottle go.

I treasure my 10ml of O, and the one of Tarot:Death.

(edited because I has faulty typing and speling both)

In the bottle it smelled like fruit and ... fish? No, but something aquatic. That might just be the power of suggestion, though.

On, it went to mixed fruit lifesavers immediately, and then with a touch of extra tangy lime and... Deep Woods Off?? O skin chemistry mine, why art thou on crack?

We'll see what it morphs into next. Gonna be a wild ride, it looks like.

CLXXV: OK, this is a tricky thing to describe. In the bottle, I smell tonka, and some sweet thing, and a little floral. When I put it on, it is immediately "HELLO the BUTTERSCOTCH BUSHES are in BLOOM NOW kthxbai!" Then it mellows a little, and the tonka comes out more. There are flowers peeking around the edge of it. It smells like some very sophisticated... suntan lotion? Something retro. Whatever it is, I can't wait to see what it does next. It seems to be a real morpher.

EAT: Ooh, now there is an interesting blood-and-metal tang coming out. It's a candy store for vampires -- a candy store in a scary city, with a big metal grating!