patina

Initially the green note before drydown is a little unsettling. Not entirely pleasant in a way I can't describe (stifling old lady cologne, plasticky?), but after a short time it becomes lovely. You know that deep cola note in myrrh? This has something similar, but in a lighter, golden way. Less sweet but still fairly sweet. This scent does have a strong emotional effect on me, like a security blanket. I imagine this will improve with age too.

The one hair gloss that seems to last forever on me, this is dark musk and cocoa, mostly. Very edible smelling but a bit powdery with the oude.

I am very strongly reminded of September Midnight except without the chyphre. The mandrake and pennyroyal combine for a prominent herbal element. This is very fruity with a certain incense or craft store quality.

I could swear up and down I already reviewed this scent. Hopefully I didn't do it in the wrong place. Anyhow, this is like standing in a shower and having a bunch of cold wet violets dumped on your head. It's delicate and the eucalyptus is prominent at first but it steps back to allow more of the very faintly lemony ice musk to come thorough. The scent is fresh, slightly powdery, clean. Did I mention cold? If you wanted a snow or ice and violet scent this is a good one to try. It's similar to Ultraviolet, but less powerfully menthol, more pale and delicate.

I was worried that either the scent would be SN: Salt or the iron would make the scent too metallic, but this is a lovely room spray. Simple, but refreshing. If you're bothered by anything that smells the slightest bit soapy that might be a problem, but the ozone in this is only subtly detergent like. Inoffensive to my nose.

This reminds me of Autumn Grove, except it has oak instead of dirt, making it more airy than earthy. There's the usual lab's dead leaf note, which smells like a somewhat pungent dry cologne. Although I can't wear that scent well, I like it in an atmo. It's the dry essence of fall. Cozy. EDIT: It becomes less pungent quickly turning to toasted wood. Still cozy.

The beeswax is a lot more like honey than other beeswax scents in the Halloweenies this year. It is white without smelling like a white floral. On the drydown, I think the incense is a light Nag Champa? I may be wrong. It smells a little less white when dried. But still lovely.

This starts off very tart and a little like a berry candle, but on the drydown the leaves come out, just enough to give some depth to the scent. It's a little candy-ish but not too sweet. I'm getting a strong impression of fuscia? magenta? whichever one of those colors is more purple than pink.

Beeswax (not honey), soft dirt, wood, and the faint very slight scent of ivy. Very much an outdoors scent, it reminds me of Druid in a way.

I'm getting a delicate, pale purple from this scent. A berry/grape incense store kind of scent with occasional rare flashes of what I'm guessing is belladonna or nightshade berry accord. Something that smells dark purple and toxic anyway. It's glorious. Too bad it does a fading act.

Dead leaves by themselves can be a disaster on me. October certainly was. This starts out as leaf cologne, green a little bitter, but not too bad. Then after a while it starts heating up and sweetens a good bit. It's astringent and never quite foody-sweet but it's a really lovely cold outdoors scent like a blustery and dark fall night. On the late drydown there's a faint waxy note I can pick out but the scent is still nice. I'm on the fence. EDIT: No longer on the fence, this smells better the longer I wear it and is also good layered with Tumbling Over a Ghost.

Dark or Brown musk? This musk also smells kind of burgundy to my nose. It certainly isn't red musk, it might not be blood musk but there it is. and...pine? There's a faintly camphorus element here. Does it have burgandy pine pitch? This is interesting and I'd wear it but I don't think I'll need a bottle.

Amber and moss. I'm strongly reminded of Lyonesse, except Gambols has a floral element and no sandalwood. It's warmer than that scent, golden, and a bit like scented tissues, which must be the olive blossom.

The pulpy coconut mixes with the white musk and white florals like it does in Snow White, but the florals are more tropical and there's a generous amount of ginger. The whole thing has a lemony cast to it. This would be a delicious drink.

It is pretty faint, but then I guess even hardened black musk lovers like me don't want to smell like they've been dipped in the stuff. Cedar can be overwhelming too but it's well behaved here and gently rounded by the incense. As it is, this is exactly what I want my hair to smell like, when I can smell anything at all. If only there was a perfume version. I'm sad I don't have long hair.

Dandelions! Faintly soapy but not offensive, I smell like I rolled around in springtime. I'm also reminded of Galbanum SN. Is there a resin here? As this dries down the cypress and moss become more prominent and it begins to smell more like a fall scent. Damp grass indeed, well blended with the heavier slightly medicinal cypress and moss.

Deep rich burgundy with a lighter carnation element. The spices aren't strong enough to trigger sneezing. The patchouli is present. It almost smells like red patchouli. Cozy scent, but might not be for people who dislike patchouli as a room scent.

Just as promised, slightly smoky beeswax, vanilla cake and leather (the leather fades after the initial spray, becoming less prominent.) I also get paper, but I sprayed it in a room with a lot of books, so it's hard to tell what is the room and what is the spray. Some of it is certainly the spray though. Cozy! Editing to say this smells like a thick slice of faintly lemony vanilla cake mixed with Candlelight atmosphere spray and old books. It's good. Edit: Apparently long after I quit smelling it, I still get the occasional sniff of candle smoke.

Sweet snow and fungus-y graveyard dirt. The labdanum and opoponax almost smell like root beer. Almost, but not quite. Then they subside and I mostly get a faintly smoky mint (which is the birch). I also get almost! tobacco. The wood and birch may be contributing to that. It's too clean to be tobacco really, but that's what I'm reminded of.

Out of the unimaginable blackness beyond the gangrenous glare of that cold flame, out of the Tartarean leagues through which that oily river rolled uncanny, unheard, and unsuspected, there flopped rhythmically a horde of tame, trained, hybrid winged things that no sound eye could ever wholly grasp, or sound brain ever wholly remember. They were not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor vampire bats, nor decomposed human beings; but something I cannot and must not recall. They flopped limply along, half with their webbed feet and half with their membraneous wings; and as they reached the throng of celebrants the cowled figures seized and mounted them, and rode off one by one along the reaches of that unlighted river, into pits and galleries of panic where poison springs feed frightful and undiscoverable cataracts.
 Membranous green mandarin with dread-choked black sandalwood, opoponax, pine tar, mimosa, mugwort, and acrid tagetes. Immediately on applying I smell camphor, but that vanishes quickly. I get citrus, but a sort of herbal citrus. The mugwort is strong here, silvery and herbal. It must be what I mistook for camphor. I can't really pick out the sandalwood or tagetes. Yes, it's a little sour, maybe even acrid, but the opoponax and mimosa seem to be doing their part to keep it from being a screeching sour horror. I do like mugwort and here it smells very delicate and silvery. It's not unlike the lab's White Sage SN. My mother tells me this smells to her like nice soap (must be the sandalwood) and cedar.

First applied, this is straight-up strawberry candy. Nothing but. It makes my teeth hurt. After a while it becomes more juicy and I can detect some subtle woods beneath. The white musk occasionally makes it smell clean, like a fancy fruit shampoo but it never turns to straight up soap. The woods here are really giving the scent some much-needed balance and sophistication though they stay subtle and in the background. The throw is fairly low on me.

Opening I get the sense that there's lavender in this, but that disappears when I apply it. Are those crushed narcissiuses along with the grass? They disappear quickly too. It is cold and chilly and gray as promised and I do smell stone and plenty of crushed grass. Ozony and near aquatic. Similar to Amsterdam.

Green, melon-y, probably has green tea, maybe bamboo, but it doesn't smell woody at all. The best comparison would probably be Embalming Fluid. This is less lemony though.

I get cocoa. Like very dry chocolate cookies. There's a strong floral perfume component that clashes, but the scent settles down pretty quickly. It's odd. The over the top old fashioned floral should scream old lady, but instead it seems kind of young, not subtle, like a child dressed up in her grandmother's clothes. Or a little girl's bonnibel cosmetics mixed with old fashioned perfume. It morphs between cocoa and straight up florals. Also I get the sense of orange somewhere. Like those orange circus peanut candies. I imagine this as pink, white, and brown. It's safe to say I've never smelled anything quite like this.

A blast of banana candy and yellow cake quickly turns to almost a SN Vanilla with bananas and sweet cream.