Tess

Night blooming flowers? Oh dear, this could be bad. I can only pray that the sugared incense (yum!) holds it all down. In the vial - Oooo! I'm not get any of the usual scent I normally do with jasmine! In fact, all I'm getting is the sugar and the incense part of it, with a touch of honeysuckle. I like! Wet - Ah, there's the floral. Still not jasmine, but something extremely soapy. Drying - This is almost all soap on me. A very sweet floral soap. It really makes me wonder what florals are in this, as it's normally rose or apple blossom that tend to go soapy on me. I'll have to give it more time. I really, really want that sugary sweet nag champa scent back, darn it! Dry (1.5 hours later) - Well, the soap is mostly gone, but so is most of the scent. It's back to that super sweet nag champa smell, but I have to press my nose to my wrist to get it. Overall - Oddly, it had great potential, but the soap just kinda killed it.

I've always been more of a citrus person than a melon person, but that doesn't mean I don't have hopes for this. It pretty much all comes down to the spun sugar note. Normally Beth's sugar notes caramelize on me and go plastic, but we'll have to see. In the vial - Sweet guava orange sherbet. No, wait, it's more like gum now that I think about it. I'm not getting ANY pepper, darn it. Wet - This immediately grabbed an oddly bitter and rotten twinge to it. Drying - There is something very dark and sinister with this. Unless I'm mistaken it's the combo of the pepper on guava that's causing that feeling, with the hint of apple blossom giving it a floral rottenness. It's not BAD, seeing as it's faint and not nearly as dark and earthy as this state was in Queen of Clubs, but it's odd. Fitting with the description. Dry (1 hour) - Okay, the pepper is gone and so is the rotten feeling. It's dried to a faint sweet guava with just a touch of the orange. It's very faint, though. Overall - I don't know, it just doesn't thrill me. It's certainly not BAD, but it doesn't stand out in my mind at all. Oh well.

Oh dear gods, jasmine. I live in fear of jasmine... But for the sake of science I'll try it out and maybe the musk and the vanilla bean will keep the floral nightmare that is jasmine in check. In the vial - Ho-lee sheet. Jasmine, one that creeps around dark and bitter, slithering with the musk, only to jump up and screech at you. Wet - Jasmine stomping on all the really nice notes. Stomp, stomp, stomp. Drying - For those of you who like vanilla and get take florals, the throw on this would be quite lovely. The vanilla is actually somewhat more powerful than the jasmine, to which I am amazed, but it's still ungodly strong. Closer to my wrist, the more normal jasmine smell is hanging, completely overriding the musk. Guh. Dry (45 minutes) - I just can't take this anymore. It's gone that pure jasmine route that makes me ill. Overall - Gee, did I call this one or not?

Sarsaparilla! I don't know if it smells good, but I just can't help but think of Westerns and spurs with it. In the vial - Almond with some smoke and a clarifying hint of pine. Nice! Wet - Almond, almond, almond... Drying - I remind myself of a very girly drink, something with cream and a shot of vanilla. This isn't overly sweet, but there's only the barest touch of pine and no patchouli to speak of. If memory serves, sarsaparilla is a sweet soda-like drink, so that might be kicking up the sweetness. Not at all what I expected. Dry (1 hour) - This went incredibly complex, with the previous sweet cream drink feeling with more than a hint of pine with a dark background of patchouli. Lovely!!! And then... it started to go soapy and fade. That's where it is now, a faded and somewhat soapy version of the goodness. Overall - I'm tempted to grab myself a bottle of this anyway, just because I have a severe love of creamy scents, but this reminds me enough of White Rabbit that I don't really have to get more. The pine almost went lemon on me, really.

This is a dark chocolate scent, so it should work on me! Yay! It's always the sugary notes that get me. I've heard the cream can go sour, though. Hrm, I've never tried a cream note before. In the vial - This is an extremely thick and gooey chocolate! Almost like a dark chocolate frosting. Wet - Very, very cocoa and not as creamy as earlier. Whoo, throw! Drying - Do NOT get close to my skin. Ick. But the throw is a lovely, very powdery cocoa. This is much lighter than mole on me, more of a hot chocolate kind of scent. Whoever mentioned chocolate cake batter is right on the money, but on me, it's powdered. Dry (1 hour) - Burnt hazelnut and sour milk, with no throw. Overall - I just dispair ever finding a chocolate scent that I can wear. Why can't my skin just chill out and let me wear what I want to wear?!

There is one note here that could mess this all up: fir. I sure hope it doesn't amp, as this sounds like a wonderful scent for me! In the vial - Darkly medicinal. The amber is sweetening it up, at least, and the musk is giving it some body. Wet - Strong, strong fir and cedar, but the musk is pulling it in and keeping it there. Drying - Dear gods, the throw on this is fantastic! The musk and amber are the base, over which the cedar and fir and just a touch of leather are dancing. I am very much getting a smokey feeling from this and it's just SEXY. Pick up women in darkened bars SEXY. Dry (1 hour) - Something about conifers makes my skin go wild. The fir and cedar are much stronger than they had been, with the amber barely keeping them in check. The leather is only apparent when you are very close to my skin. Overall - Well, the fir in this is a thousand times better on me than the pine in Geek. The dry stages most reminded me of a lighter version of Yggdrasil. I do like the leather clinging tight to me, but I wish the amber and musk were slightly stronger. I'll continue to try this and see if it grows on me in the dry stages.

Earl Grey tea leaves, a white fougere, jasmine leaf, pearlescent white musk, and vanilla bean. I've just realized that I've yet to try Dorian... Well, I guess if I like this one, I know which to hunt up. In the vial - Ooooo! Bergamont and musk with some sweet vanilla bean! The jasmine is doing slightly odd things, though, and I can't smell any tea at all. Wet - Odd skin and cleaning fluid? Mreh? Drying - This is super light. I can get the bergamont and the musk most clearly, but it's so faint I'm having issues with it. Darn it, what's going on here? Dry (2 hours) - Wow, this is completely gone. Overall - What can you say about something that doesn't stick around for more than a few seconds?

Everything about this one screams that it's a scent for me. It sounds dark and yet creamy, which is something I dream about. Oh, yes, I have high hopes for this one. In the bottle - I'm getting quite a bit of patchouli, only it's not as dry as normal patchouli. The red musk is also at the front, with just a touch of the plum and vanilla sweetening it up. Wet - The plum almost smells like pomegranate on me... The vanilla backs up as per usual, so it's not quite as sweet anymore. Drying - The musk is getting a twinge of that cola scent that I get in mass quantities with civet. But it's just the barest twinge, so I'm dealing. The sweetness is really gone, with the patchouli being the main note mixing with the musk. Dry (1 hour) - So, I'm a big dork. It seems from rereading the notes that the pomegranate I was smelling WAS pomegranate. Oye. This has really lightened on me, as well as sweetened and become powdery. The patchouli is faint and crumbled, with mostly a sweet, powdery musk with just the barest hint of plum. Overall - The dry phase rather killed this for me. In fact, I would say my skin in general killed this for me. I really liked it in the vial, but that's about it. Ah, well, it's still nice.

I've run into this little problem where I just have WAY too many imps and WAY too many boxes to hold them all. So, I'm considering trying to sell it all off as "mystery box sets," including the really cute boxes. I have 3 that I currently use for bottle and imp combos and two for just imps, not to mention 3 more that are slightly on the plain side, but would look quite nice with stickers or the like. Yeah, that's 8 boxes I want to get rid of. Minimum. I'd probably do 10 imps and a bottle or so for the big boxes, 10 imps for the small boxes. (Yes, I really do have that many imps to get rid of, shush.) Question is, would people really be interested?

I sniffed this at lilfaerywingz's house and so I immediately wanted to try it out fully. In the vial - Coconut and caramel, this is almost boozy. Wet - Very spicy and caramel like. It's unusual and nice. I'm not sure how this will end up for me. Drying - The currant is doing... odd things on me. And there's a hint of caramel apple? This just a nice, but odd scent. Amber? I just... can't describe this at all. It's so layered and complex. Dry (1 hour) - ...I don't like this. I wish I did and I wish I could explain it, but I just don't like it. There's a sour apple note floating around that I can't explain that I think might be the result of my skin's strange caramel reaction added to another one of the notes. Overall - Wet it was much simpler, but as it dried, the complexity just didn't work for me. This review is so broken and disjointed, but that's rather a reflection of what happened with the scent. Poo.

This is my first real step into the world of smelling like a chocolate bar. I'm hoping it works out for me in ways that other sweet scents can't. So long as the cherry behaves and the orange blossom asserts itself. In the vial - Not overly sweet or overly chocolate. I'm getting a strong almond and cherry scent from this. Hmm, almond isn't great on me. Wet - I am your chocolate covered cherry cordial goodness. Drying - The almond is seriously amped. I am getting cherries and cocoa in the background, but not even a smidge of the orange blossom. The cocoa seems almost... burnt in a way, too. It's odd. Dry (1 hour 15 minutes) - I swear I've said this before, but this smells like those fake little plastic foods you have as a kid. You know, the ones they try to give a scent to be more realistic. That's what this smells like in a very faint way. It's not actively unpleasant. Overall - Nope, no good on this. I think I should just give up on food scents. Sigh.

Dark, dark, dark. From the notes, this is one dark scent. Not usually my cup of tea, but who knows. In the vial - This is fantastic... I'm getting mostly the dark musk sweetened a bit by amber with a large kick of bergamont. Wet - Bergamont go poof, but the frankincense came out nicely to play with the not quite so sweet amber and musk. Drying - The bergamont is on the way back! Joy! I am having joygasms here over this. It's very true to the scent in the vial with the added layer of smokey incense underneath. If this stays true when it dries, we have a winner! Dry (1 hour) - It's much more dry than before, heavy on the incense, but it still has that lovely amber+musk and just a touch of bergamont on the edges. Overall - This is the perfect scent for a leather corset, a glass of red wine and a sly smile at a targeted lover. While the wet stages are by far my favorite, the dry isn't bad. This is a bottle scent for me with experiments in scent lockets. Very fitting for the powerful man it's named after.

I really like orange blossom and I ADORE white musk, so it'll be up to the apricot to see if this works. I know the note doesn't stick around on me for very long, but we'll see if it overwhelms. In the vial - It smells like a Jolly Rancher. Only, not nearly as sweet. It actually reminds me of a vase of orange and peach blossoms. Wet - Light, so so light. Drying - This really isn't sweet on me at all! And it's just barely there. BARELY. No throw at all and just... barely around at all. From what I can smell, it's mostly the apricot, but the barest glimmer of the orange. Dry (45 minutes) - Seriously, this is just the palest non-sweet apricot ever. It's clinging for dear life onto my skin, but it takes me pressing my nose to my wrist to smell it. Overall - Well, what can you say to something you can't really smell?

The main note that gets thrown around with this scent is gardenia, so I'm thinking I may like it; gardenia is one of the few florals I can wear. However, it has also been compaired to the vanilla in Dragon's Milk which could be doom. In the vial - STRONG floral, much stronger than I had hoped. I'm getting the barest whiff of vanilla and no spice, especially no cinnamin. Wet - Yup, gardenia backing just like it always does on me and letting spice through. Drying - This doesn't remind me of cinnamin, as that's more of a "front of the nose" spice and this is a "back of the nose" spice. (Does that make any sense?) The floral is coming out strong and it does have a hint of that sticky vanilla in Dragon's Milk. It's just a strong, strong scent and it reminds me of something else I've had the chance to try, but I don't remember what... Dry (45 minutes) - Okay, I don't know WHERE it came from, but I'm getting a very cool mint from this, to go along with the spiced floral. It's truly a strange combo. Overall - This just isn't for me. I thought the floral would be lighter, but it's overpowering and with the addition of the mint... Just, not for me.

Many people mention a strong cherry kick to this, but I can't help hoping it will stay with the blossom for me, since that's not nearly as strong or sweet. I'm not sure how I feel about anise, but we'll have to see, won't we? In the vial - Holy freaking cherry. I'm so very afraid... Wet - Oh, the sandlewood brings the cherry down NICELY, although I'm not getting the anise yet. Drying - Oh, oh, oh! The anise is out now, the strongest note, but NOT what I was expecting! It's spicy and dry with the sandlewood and the cherry blossom is just a hint in the background. It's kind of soapy, though. Hmm... Dry (30 minutes) - You know that black candy that's made with anise? Yeah, I smell like that. And freshly washed. Overall - My skin did NOT like this one. I don't know why I got the soap, but it was REALLY soapy. And the anise... yeah, the anise was just too strong.

I have this problem recently where I just cannot get to sleep and, even having slept 8 hours or more, I feel drained in the morning when I get up. I'm looking for an oil that will help remedy this problem. Bonuses for one that will help me have vivid and positive dreams. Thanks in advance, all!

Food scents and I don't tend to get along, but this has lovely, lovely currants in it. I'm hoping it doesn't go sickly sweet (ala Dragon's Milk) or plastic (ala Midway) or boozy (ala Gluttony)! In the vial - Vanilla cake with dried currants on top and some fresh ones baked inside. YUM. Wet - Cake. CAKE. Drying - This may be the first food scent I can wear! The currant has two layers, one very berry and sweet, the other dark and beneath the surface. Interlaced, of course, by that vanilla not-too-sweet cake. Dry (45 minutes) - Arg, the vanilla went the way of Dragon's Milk. It's gotten that overly, somehow slightly sour sweet to it and the currant is gone, gone, gone. Overall - Darn, it was so very promising for awhile there. Just goes to show that I can't ever wear sweet scents. Bah.

Mmm, mango and fig could do lovely things, if only the green tea will be calm. In the vial - So very fruity with a dark hint of madness lurking at the edges. NICE. Wet - Figs on the ground after falling off from being too ripe and sitting in a little puddle of mango tea. Drying - Darn, the fig is leaving, the mango taking its place. This smells like having a cup of steaming mango green tea with a little slice of the fruit on the side in room with the faded lingerings of patchouli. Dry (45 minutes) - Uh, what happened? This became the faintest mango green tea, sans fig and patchouli, that I've ever happened to smell. It's like the very last drop that you never can seem to get from the bottom of a mug. Overall - It was promising, but then just disappeared.

Mmm, lime and musk. I wonder how this'll compare to Embalming Fluid...? In the vial - Whoo boy, this is refreshing. Green tea and lime in here is strooooooong. Wet - Almost all green tea on me, oddly. And it's my least favorite note. Drying - Oooo, the lime! The tea is backing off and the musk and aloe are coming out. And the lime! Lime! Yum! ...the drydown bit will have to wait, as I'm off to work, but so far this is REALLY simular to EF, only with some mint tossed in. Edit: Dry (45 minutes) - I didn't have time to even ARRIVE at work when the complete lack of smell occured. This soaked into my skin fast and just disappeared completely. I couldn't smell anything at all of it after about 30 minutes. Overall - It's so nice, but it's just gone. Why do the nice citrus ones do that to me?

Pride is floral and more floral. Is this why I'm not normally a prideful person? In the vial - SO MUCH ROSE. Whoa! Wet - Uh, rose? Lots of rich, velvety rose? Drying - I've never seen a rose scent go soapy so fast on me, but that's exactly what this is doing. How odd. Dry (1 hour) - I wish I had more to say about this, but I just... don't. It's fading away now, but it's still just soapy rose. Overall - Pride isn't me and pride isn't me.

I loves me the musk, but the dragon's blood can be touch and go. The patchouli doesn't work very well at all. In the vial - Musky musk musk. Dark and syrupy musk. So dark it almost has the scent of chocolate. Wet - I'm not kidding, this really does remind me of chocolate... Drying - The scent is dying off and I mean fast! There's some musk still, lingering, with just a touch of patchouli, but where the heck are the other notes? And where the heck is the whole darned thing disappearing to?! Dry (30 minutes) - Meh, it's patchouli with some musk and dragon's blood. It's not really... interesting. Overall - I thought this would be more layered and interesting, but it's mostly just patchouli to me. Kinda... boring.

Grapefruit! Oh the love I have for grapefruit! Let's see if the spice notes and the aquatics work with my skin with this one. In the vial - It's not grapefruit that I'm getting, but a type of spiced melon. I'm tempted to say papaya, although there is a touch of citus in the back. Wet - Mostly just spice and something twinge like at the limits of my senses. Drying - There's almost a menthol feeling to this, what with the spices. Perhaps that is the grapefruit, but if so, the actual smell isn't quite there, just the clarifying nature. I'm not getting anything that actually allows for notes, per se. It's not very strong. Dry (1 hour) - This really is a dark papaya with some spice. I just can't move from that whole "papaya" scent. It's slightly aquatic, too. Overall - This isn't at all what I expected, especially from a scent that is supposed to smell like grapefruit. To prove to myself that I wasn't smelling wrong, I compared this with Cheshire Cat, which is almost ALL grapefruit, and the notes are completely different. Ah, well, swappage.

I've never had much luck with rosemary, but I love orange blossom. This is a frimp and I'm pretty happy they tossed this in for me. In the vial - Whoa, this is HEAVY rosemary. I can sense the florals back there, but it's heavy on the herb. Wet - This is so heavy on the rosemary it's actually making me cough... Drying - Holy freaking throw, Batman. This is strong like crazy with a bizarre mix of rosemary and orange blossom, the rosemary dominating. STRONG. Dry (1 hour) - Something about the combination of these notes makes this smell exactly like rose geranium with some spicey rosemary. Don't ask me how it works, but that's the way it goes. Still tons of throw, too. Overall - Very much not my thing, but someone might find this lovely.

Considering I just tried out HoP, doing another sweet scent right away may kill me. In the vial - Straight up bubblegum, possibly a berry flavored type. Wet - True to in the bottle. Still that gum smell. Drying - Ooo, this is darkening and losing its sweetness. I'd almost call this some sort of berry single note. Actually, it smells like blackberry and raspberry together. Very faint. Dry (45 minutes) - This has faded to almost nothing. There's a teeny bit of powdery berry if I press my nose to my wrist, but that's it. It's just gone. Overall - Well, I can't say I feel any more joyful that I did before. Really, I prefere TAL Joy.

Reviewing scents with no note listings is tough for me. At the very least, I'm hoping this will have effects on my life more than just as a perfume. In the vial - Almonds with some vanilla, cherry and something clarifying and bitter. Wet - I WISH I knew what was this bitter note. Drying - Hrm, plasticy with the bitter almond and cherry. Bah, there may be a sugar type note in here. Those always go plastic on me. Dry (1 hour) - This smells just like Blood Kiss with some added spice to me. It's almost pepper spiced, but if it is the cherry is covering it up. Overall - Not something I'd ever wear, but I'll keep it around to see how it handles magical applications. Edit: Not even four hours after application and with no intent or ritual, this has already worked! The roommate and I just found out that we had somehow overpaid our cable bill by about two months and have a huge credit! Label me freaking impressed and a complete supporter of this oil.