zankoku_zen

Oh god, jasmine turns the rose into this sour mix of rose and jasmine... and it's just sharp, sour and in your face floral. Epic. Fail.

Oh Copper Phoenix, I had high hopes for you. Unfortunately the rose, pink pepper, and sandalwood are the most dominant notes. It's smooth, polished, but in general, too rosy, too peppery and too... spicy/dirty for me. Sad.

Cool, green, airy. I agree that this must have green/blue musk as on the drydown it does get to be musky. On wet and dry, I get a good bit of greenery and as it dries, the same chrome note as in Torture Queen. Very masculine on me.

Lemon cookies, leather and dusty woods. Odd. For those that were fond of Aziraphale and Miskatonic University, check this out.

Chocolate marshmallow coconut! That's what it smells like. And a tiny whiff of plastic. That might be the marshmallow though... or the googly eyes.

I might have to retest this one again, because I applied it at about 8 AM, and by now it has all but faded. From what I can recall during the wet stage, it was a nice amber blend with a hint of lemon. I was pleasantly surprised. I don't believe it ever went powdery on me, which amber has a tendency to do, but it has all but faded by now. ETA: My skin eats this up. Literally. Two hours later and no trace of it. An hour later and it was incredibly faint. Boooo.

Lemongrass, shiny metal and a swirl of ozone. It dries down to a metallic, manfume, which makes me think that perhaps BPAL's metal note is too aggressively masculine on me, especially on the drydown.

This goes to manfume on me. Lavender manfume. FIIIE.

Heady plum, with a base of wood (its the cypress!) and dark greenery (hemlock, is that you). This one is a very 'heavy' blend, which makes it a very good incarnation of lead. The wood and dark greenery again give it a 'darker' edge.

This smells like a green, rooty sort of scent. Definitely on the drydown I can smell the coriander.

This falls somewhere between 04 and 07 in my mind. Not as much cucumber on wet, but not as floral as 07. Definitely florals, and on the drydown the blue musk comes out.

Cherry pie, sugar and butter. Loads of butter. But that's just my skin chemistry.

Lemon, yuzu leads to a citrus blast at the beginning, and its very effervescent it shares that in common with Ackerman's Toys. However, as it dries, I get more of the evil jasmine smell. Ew. Definitely a bright, shining scent though. I liked the wet stage the best.

Oh, you are such an odd blend, Adoration. I get this limey fizzy pop on wet, and a cool aquatic with a strong lichen/moss/linen note. There's an almost fruity undertone to it. This makes me think of finding a cave by the a river. Cool stone, fresh water and a strong green moss presence. On the drydown it goes a little 'toilet' cleanser on me, which is sad... but perhaps the hubby would like to give this a whirl...

Oh yum. This one was nicer than I anticipated. Red musk can be so overpowering on me and plum can turn very cloying. This one is a nice, sweet musky plum with a drizzle of chocolate. I can smell the ginger and it keeps everything from being too much. Definitely Bordello's grown up sister. You know the kind. Mature, sophisticated, confident, and ready to take what she wants and is completely unapologetic about it. In fact, you look at her and think DAMN, I wanna be like HER when I grow up... Not my style at all, but seriously considering keeping the decant... ETA: This is for the prototype. Not so much red musk, and more of the plum and a hint of booze. It dries down to a boozey, grape candylike scent on me. More like Countess Willie hit both the sugar bowl AND the liqour cabinet a little too hard this evening. Not sexy, just sort of a plummy version of Jailbait.

This one is a bright, icy narcissus. I get a lot of minty snow on wet, but as it dries the snow gets sweeter and then the narcissus pops up. Soft, feminine, floral.

Honey honey honey. It's got a little zip of lemon and underneath a nice base of cardamom. Warm, sexy, and honeylicious. I'm not a huge fan of honey since it amps up on me but this one was nice, soft, and just... well, like a light smear of honey.

Vanilla smoke, with a hint of ginger and clove. It's not unpleasant, but not the kind of vanilla I'm attracted to. Damn.

Soft brown musk and powdery amber with a hint of rose. Soft, musky, and kinda comforting actually.

Wintergreen and animal musk. It dries to a nice, furry scent. In some ways, it reminds me to Papow. Except, less sunshine and more cold winter. It's a little soapy on the drydown.

Minty mums. The mums are dried, dusty, slightly woody bitter mums. Meh.

Pine! Snow! Dirt! This has the same sweet icy snow note from Ice Queen, but definitely with pine as opposed to IQ's fir. I also get a slight linen note as it dries.

This one is so... odd. I get this nutty incense (like hazelnut) and loads of lemon verbena. As it dries, I get more of the patchouli. Odd. Odd. Odd.

Holy crap. This is CEDAR and a hint of civet. It's a very potent combo. Like manly pencil shavings. And yeah, in this case pencil is totally a euphemism.

Old Ackerman's Instructional Toys. Ginger fizz. Literally.