zankoku_zen

Sandalwood incense, ti leaf, and honeyed saffron.

HAHA GET IT? Not bees, B’s. Might not be that funny to anyone else, but I haven’t had much sleep, so it’s hilarious to me. Dragon’s blood resin, wildflower honey, and beeswax. Honestly, this was like a ginger type honey on me. I think it may have been the dragon's resin combining with the honey. Delicious. Good throw and wear length.

RUDE. Sweet black patchouli and pink peppercorn right in yer face. Ash and smoke! This is really a smoky patchouli with a slight peppery edge to it. Good throw and wear length.

A braaaaaap of oakmoss, labdanum, lightly-chewed villager, and smoke. Citrusy-edged smoke, aquatic oakmoss and a tinge of labdanum. This one is an interesting mix of both smoke and aquatic. Medium throw and wear length.

White and red rose petals, sweet labdanum, vanilla bean, prune, red sandalwood, and orange blossom.

Honey, beeswax, pink peppercorn, and honeybush tea.

No additional scent description. To me, this smells like a manly, and sandy, version of Florida Water. So yes, this has bay. And laurel, and water. And it smells clean and magical because anything even remotely Florida Water like to me (which probably means orange blossom) smells clean and magical. Medium throw and wear length.

No additional scent description.

The Great Eastern Brood is now hatching, and this is our homage: moist roots, sugarcane, hay absolute, a summer-scorched golden amber, upturned soil, dew-dappled leaves, nootka, hazelnut husk, moss-touched tree bark, and a dribble of 17-year aged patchouli.

She seems happier lately. We want whatever Meemaw’s having! Peel back the wrapper of universal consciousness and savor this hard nugget of butterscotch with a decidedly suspicious aftertaste.

A rolling, unhurried, volcanic passion sustained by a love that is slow, shy, patient, and wise – and expressed through a scent as warm, languorous, luxuriant, and comforting as a cloak of heavy, soft red velvet: deep burgundy musk, red labdanum, smoked rose petals, opoponax, 17-year aged patchouli, blackened vanilla bean, dried black cherries, blackberries, and tobacco absolute.

“When you separate an entwined particle and you move both parts away from the other, even at opposite ends of the universe, if you alter or affect one, the other will be identically altered or affected. Spooky.” Instantaneous correlated action between entangled partners: rose-infused sandalwood with violet leaf, frankincense, geranium rose, and a spark of elemi. Spooky Action was almost all roses and sandalwood on me. Massive amounts of sandalwood. With a hint of violet and rose. But yes, ALL SANDALWOOD ALL THE TIME.

Boozefest in the orchard

Salt-crusted wooden planks warmed by cardamom, 7-year aged patchouli, tonka bean, mace, and black pepper.

Snuggly musk, milky puppy breath, upturned earth, and a gently-gnawed bone.

Turn your face southward toward the summer isle: rolling green grasses, Taitian vanilla, white coconut, fig, orange blossom, baobab leaf, and golden amber.

Milk bread, amaretto, star anise, almond cream, and cardamom.

Rice milk, rice flower, fossilized amber, champaca, and frangipani.

No scent description.

I was asking for something specific and perfect for my city, Whereupon, lo! upsprang the aboriginal name! Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient; I see that the word of my city is that word up there, Because I see that word nested in nests of water-bays, superb, with tall and wonderful spires, Rich, hemmd thick all around with sailships and steamshipsan island sixteen miles long, solid-founded, Numberless crowded streetshigh growths of iron, slender, strong, light, splendidly uprising toward clear skies; Tide swift and ample, well-loved by me, toward sundown, The flowing sea-currents, the little islands, larger adjoining islands, the heights, the villas, The countless masts, the white shore-steamers, the lighters, the ferry-boats, the black sea-steamers well-modeld; The down-town streets, the jobbers houses of businessthe houses of business of the ship-merchants, and money-brokersthe river-streets; Immigrants arriving, fifteen or twenty thousand in a week; The carts hauling goodsthe manly race of drivers of horsesthe brown-faced sailors; The summer air, the bright sun shining, and the sailing clouds aloft; The winter snows, the sleigh-bellsthe broken ice in the river, passing along, up or down, with the flood tide or ebb-tide; The mechanics of the city, the masters, well-formd, beautiful-faced, looking you straight in the eyes; Trottoirs throngdvehiclesBroadwaythe womenthe shops and shows, The parades, processions, bugles playing, flags flying, drums beating; A million peoplemanners free and superbopen voiceshospitalitythe most courageous and friendly young men; The free city! no slaves! no owners of slaves! The beautiful city, the city of hurried and sparkling waters! the city of spires and masts! The city nested in bays! my city! The city of such women, I am mad to be with them! I will return after death to be with them! The city of such young men, I swear I cannot live happy, without I often go talk, walk, eat, drink, sleep, with them! - Walt Whitman I will return after death to be with them: the gleaming sharp scent of these high growths of iron, the amber of the bright sun shining, and broken ice on the river. Mannahatta has a very fougere sort of start for me, and I get both the amber, the metallic iron, a whiff of snow. In a lot of ways it's a gender neutral/masculine version of Broadway. This is a sophisticated city gentleman, well-heeled and self confident. Good throw and wear length.

Toasted vanilla cream, smoky white fig, rice flower, and a drop of clove and patchouli.

Streaks of blue-white lightning slashing through a plum wine sky. Lemony incense smoke with a touch of ozone. This one was much more citrus and ozone than I expected. Medium throw and wear length.

Elevator going up! Sucking on these fruity, low-dose tongue-tinglers will turn your mouth fun colors. But count ‘em out carefully — losing track of how many you’ve popped may result in overly-personal small talk on public transportation, dancing to the music playing in the grocery store, or panicking at the sound of helicopters flying overhead.

Whoa there, pardner: this bag was supposed to last you several weeks!

Travel brings educational experiences that you just can’t predict. We visited the German Spy Museum in Berlin on a whim, and Lilith learned all about the history of espionage, data encryption, cryptography, and cypher machines, poisons and truth serums, and the strange and clever artifacts of Cold War spycraft. For me, the most interesting part was the Stasi’s collection of scent samples of German dissidents. For Lilith, the best part of the museum was dodging beams in the laserparcours, full Mission Impossible-style. Here, Lilith is inspecting the poisons exhibit after watching a reel about the Bulgarian umbrella. Leather shoe phones, the gleaming metal of a M-125-3 Fialka cipher machine, a femme fatale’s heady, dark perfume, and a breath of castor bean accord.  Jasmine, perfume, and a whiff of metal and leather. This one smells like a femme fatale. You get the jasmine, the old timey perfume, and whiffs of metal and leather. Good throw, great wear length.