patina

oh wow. I don't smell apples right off. Not crisp ones at least. What I do smell is pastry, honey, reisens, and assertive florals that blend into the musk. As the scent sits on my wrist for a while, the florals die down, but they're still noticable. It's lily of the valley, which is much softer and less soapy than the standard lily. It smells red, if that makes any sense. Cooked, red apples and honey and glazed pastries, and golden liquid amber, and musk and bold lily. This is good and I don't normally like pastry scents. Best for people with outgoing personalities who like being seductive. I don't know if I'd personally wear it for fear of overwhelming people, but it is good to sniff.

For a dry moss, I like Danse Macabre. But you've got to like cypress and frankenscence too for that one.

It's really sad that smells don't translate into words that well, but reviews can be a tiny bit of help. All I can suggest is to read the scent notes. If you happen to get extra frimps or sniffies, practice on those and look up the notes even if you don't like the scent. I don't think anyone except professionals can pick notes out all the time, but I've definately developed a more educated sense of smell.

Samara from The Ring? How about J-Horror? Why, that's perfect!

What about Samara? I know Undertow would fit, but I don't like it very much.

Bright, happy plums and brandy. I was scared of the suet, but I shouldn't have been. There's some woody holly and some pastryish foodiness, but this is mostly plums, rasins and booze. Very Christmassy. I'm happy I have an imp.

For spicy florals, I really like Cobra Lily Sundew also, though it is dewier and less spicy.

Oh wow. This is night time. This is great big dripping boughs of greenery and huge swaths of purple flowers. There's something like tobacco smoke (a wood?), and a breath of gardenia. Other than that, I can't pick out individual florals. This is not for people that don't like wood or are absolutely opposed to florals. I'm not a huge fan of floral blends myself, but this is probably going to be my go to nighttime scent. It's that good. Edit: I can't get the idea of a very posh funeral parlor out of my mind with this one.

To me, this is a very, very near relative to On Darkness. The rose (in Darkness, it's rose geranium), lavender, and dark inscence make them near-twins, but I do believe Odd Portents is a little better. It has a lovely throw.

In the decant, I really don't like this- the bay leaves and vetiver seem to be at odds with the sweeter elements. Worn, it's a fairly light black musk (if that's not a contradiction.) The vetiver and bay persist, but I can see why people compare this to pecan pie- pecans have that sleight bitterness to them. It is very much like The Hell-Gate of Ireland, minus spices, but I really prefer the Hell-Gate. Still, this isn't bad.

I get a bit of the cypress that was in Raven Moon, though of course there's no vanilla or chocolate in the House. It is sweet, though! Sweet, musky, woody, with an almost (but not quite) spicy smell. It's not for those who don't like wood or are bothered by a little bitterness or a lot of smoke in their perfume. EDIT: This review isn't quite right, because I realized I'd accidently layered this over The Unsteady Gravediggers. Alone, on the drydown, it's thick, choking tobacco in the back of my throat. Ugh. Not a favorite.

At first sniff, I get green bananas. Applied, it's the cousin of Black Forest, Hemlock and other bpal forest scents. The trees aren't sharp, though. They're a medium intensity and sweetened by the booze. There's some dirt thrown in too. I like this, but a decant's probably enough.

A large part of my brain screams "PLEDGE!" I bet the cleaning product is scented with sweet olive too. Other than that, this is a civilized floral, with a tiny bit of oakmoss. Not for me, but nice enough. EDIT: Also, HOLY COW the throw is strong with this one.

BPTP? I don't have a working camera right now, but the oils simply have the name of the oil in colored ouija-style lettering, with a fancy border around them. I have Licorice bats (pink lettering) and Sluagh (orange lettering.)

I can't really pick out the champaca much, except in the bottle. This smells like a sweet, dry, almost woody rootbeer. There's some tea in the background and what may be champaca- a dark, soft smell, but not CRAZY CHAMPACA. The whole thing reminds me of the Paduan Killer Swarm ( Except with sassafrass, not spices and minus the nose-stinging nettle and ginger). I don't need any more, but this is very nice.

What's this? Cherry cordials? I may be insane, because this smells exactly like some raspberry-flavored licorice I had once. It's very sweet and there's some dry cocoa/ tootsie roll rounding it out. Not sure if it's something I want to smell like, but it's delicious.

I find Othello masculine. Your milage may vary.

In the decant I smell something light and floral with darker elements beneath it. The lavender smells disturbingly medicinal and cool. It does evoke the image on the lable- miserable and wild. The lavender smells a lot like institutional cleaning-fluid for added realism. On my arm it smells much better and the medicinal note goes away. The currant is thick, dark and sweet, the magnolia is lovely. Sadly that stage doesn't last forever and something turns bitter. Maybe it's the musk, maybe it's the currant. I'll have to retest.

Ah, Hello there Mr. Nos...er, Cicuta. You do have a lot of candles around your underground lair. And powdered roses. This does remind me of the Rose Cross, though if I remember correctly that was more harsh. Lots of withered roses around here too. It's like Zombi with all the dirt and oakmoss scrubbed off. Zombi with waxy, parchment-like skin that permantly smells of yellow inscence and candle-smoke. There's little throw, but it's not faint either. I can't decide about this one- it's so much like some GC's and yet it has a charm of its own

Nightsbridge? Hunter? Also possibly Panther Moon or Inagorok Jewlers.

Sadly I think most, if not all mimosa scents were discontinued. But you might still be able to find imps of Eris, Madrid, Succubus, Masabakes, or Tanin'iver. None of those w ere pure mimosa, though. (There was a mimosa single-note released, but it might be even more difficult to find.)

Sadly I haven't smelled any magnolia scents that do the scent justice. I can detect magnolia in Unheavenly City (it's a lot like Hell's Belle I've heard) but it's more of a spicy scent and the magnolias take back stage.

I like this twisted little goblin. It is very smoky but the tonka and black musk ensure it's more of a dark perfumy scent than a pure smoke. It reminds me of a charcol drawing on brown paper- maybe one of Arthur Rackham's renditions of Rumplestiltzchen. Wicked and perfect for autumn.

Murky dim and lightly spicy. If it had a color it would be dark brown- dark brown water in a dark brown cavern with the air full of rising tobacco and inscence smoke. Polluted...but in a good way. This does really smell a bit like chocolate dirtied up with tobacco and clove.

Cool, a Changeling player! Give them my regards; I'm a consummate White Wolf fan. Awesome! And I was afraid people would throw tomatos. I sniffed Destroying Angel and got bell peppers weirdly enough but I'll have to give my friend the imp (enabling yay!) I'm also considering Zombi and Yorick. The great thing about black phoenix is it has almost any character you want already covered. Boggan? Dana O'Shee and so on...