Invidiana

HELIOS The Sun, the source of light, by beauty's pow'r Once am'rous grew; then hear the Sun's amour. Venus, and Mars, with his far-piercing eyes This God first spy'd; this God first all things spies. Stung at the sight, and swift on mischief bent, To haughty Juno's shapeless son he went: The Goddess, and her God gallant betray'd, And told the cuckold, where their pranks were play'd. Poor Vulcan soon desir'd to hear no more, He drop'd his hammer, and he shook all o'er: Then courage takes, and full of vengeful ire He heaves the bellows, and blows fierce the fire: >From liquid brass, tho' sure, yet subtile snares He forms, and next a wond'rous net prepares, Drawn with such curious art, so nicely sly, Unseen the mashes cheat the searching eye. Not half so thin their webs the spiders weave, Which the most wary, buzzing prey deceive. These chains, obedient to the touch, he spread In secret foldings o'er the conscious bed: The conscious bed again was quickly prest By the fond pair, in lawless raptures blest. Mars wonder'd at his Cytherea's charms, More fast than ever lock'd within her arms. While Vulcan th' iv'ry doors unbarr'd with care, Then call'd the Gods to view the sportive pair: The Gods throng'd in, and saw in open day, Where Mars, and beauty's queen, all naked, lay. O! shameful sight, if shameful that we name, Which Gods with envy view'd, and could not blame; But, for the pleasure, wish'd to bear the shame. Each Deity, with laughter tir'd, departs, Yet all still laugh'd at Vulcan in their hearts. Thro' Heav'n the news of this surprizal run, But Venus did not thus forget the Sun. He, who stol'n transports idly had betray'd, By a betrayer was in kind repay'd. What now avails, great God, thy piercing blaze, That youth, and beauty, and those golden rays? Thou, who can'st warm this universe alone, Feel'st now a warmth more pow'rful than thy own: And those bright eyes, which all things should survey, Know not from fair Leucothoe to stray. The lamp of light, for human good design'd, Is to one virgin miserly confin'd. Sometimes too early rise thy eastern beams, Sometimes too late they set in western streams: 'Tis then her beauty thy swift course delays, And gives to winter skies long summer days. Now in thy face thy love-sick mind appears, And spreads thro' impious nations empty fears: For when thy beamless head is wrapt in night, Poor mortals tremble in despair of light. 'Tis not the moon, that o'er thee casts a veil 'Tis love alone, which makes thy looks so pale. Leucothoe is grown thy only care, Not Phaeton's fair mother now is fair. The youthful Rhodos moves no tender thought, And beauteous Porsa is at last forgot. Fond Clytie, scorn'd, yet lov'd, and sought thy bed, Ev'n then thy heart for other virgins bled. Leucothoe has all thy soul possest, And chas'd each rival passion from thy breast. To this bright nymph Eurynome gave birth In the blest confines of the spicy Earth. Excelling others, she herself beheld By her own blooming daughter far excell'd. The sire was Orchamus, whose vast command, The sev'nth from Belus, rul'd the Persian Land. Deep in cool vales, beneath th' Hesperian sky, For the Sun's fiery steeds the pastures lye. Ambrosia there they eat, and thence they gain New vigour, and their daily toils sustain. While thus on heav'nly food the coursers fed, And night, around, her gloomy empire spread, The God assum'd the mother's shape and air, And pass'd, unheeded, to his darling fair. Close by a lamp, with maids encompass'd round, The royal spinster, full employ'd, he found: Then cry'd, A-while from work, my daughter, rest; And, like a mother, scarce her lips he prest. Servants retire!- nor secrets dare to hear, Intrusted only to a daughter's ear. They swift obey'd: not one, suspicious, thought The secret, which their mistress would be taught. Then he: since now no witnesses are near, Behold! the God, who guides the various year! The world's vast eye, of light the source serene, Who all things sees, by whom are all things seen. Believe me, nymph! (for I the truth have show'd) Thy charms have pow'r to charm so great a God. Confus'd, she heard him his soft passion tell, And on the floor, untwirl'd, the spindle fell: Still from the sweet confusion some new grace Blush'd out by stealth, and languish'd in her face. The lover, now inflam'd, himself put on, And out at once the God, all-radiant, shone. The virgin startled at his alter'd form, Too weak to bear a God's impetuous storm: No more against the dazling youth she strove, But silent yielded, and indulg'd his love. The searing brightness of the sun: Gum Arabic, frankincense, liquid copal, cistus, neroli, golden cedarwood, and saffron. Wow. I have to say, and not just because my heritage is Greek, that all the scents in this series are just fantastic. Beth really has managed to capture the searing brightness of the sun in Helios without burning any nostrils. This is a gorgeous, shining, exotic resinous scent, bolder than Clytie but every bit as evocative and compelling. The frankincense and copal are really the two key players at the forefront here, really shining in all their glory. Like the frankincense in Clytie, neither the frankincense or copal here is dark and brooding (though I love those versions too), but rather proud and shining, with the same "liquid gold" feel as Clytie. I love gum mastic and gum Arabic, and can definitely smell the smooth sweetness of it here as well. The resins are backed by sensual cedarwood (which surprisingly behaves on me) and saffron, and there is just a breath of florals in the background that is discernible but not overbearing. Another winner from this series!

This is a zingy juicy tangerine, red musk and pomegranate for a couple seconds until gaaaaah geranium. It completely stomps over everything as geranium usually does with my chemistry. What a shame, because I love red musk scents and I think without that infernal plant I would have really liked this.

Wet I get a lot of lemon meringue, but as this dries down the lemony stuff fades to just a trace and lots of lovely clouds of vanilla and white chocolate come out to play, dotted with hints of mint and absinthe. Thi isn't an overpowering absinthe scent like Absinthe; there's just a trace of it to hint at somehting sinister but it's mostly lovely creamy vanilla and white chocolate on me.

This is delicious; I really get the gooey blueberry filling and buttery piecrust plus mounds of marshmallows. The lmeon cuts the sweetnes but doen'st take over like screeching lemon verbena tends to do on me. There's a trace of hemlock in the wet phase but it doesn't show up much on my skin. Further on in the drydown the marhmallow becomes more prominent and th elmonfades, but the blueberry and piecrust still stay true the whole way through. Love it!

This is not really a fruit scent but a fruit blossom scent. I get a lot of lovely apricot and plum blossom, which have vestige of apricot and plum fruit a part of thier character but aren't really fruity scents per se. These rest on a really pretty floral background of mostly peony, lily and hydrangea--thankfully I don't really get any honeysuckle. I think there must be some white musk in here as well, giving it a soft airy feeling. This is a really diaphanous, pretty scent perfect for the warmer months ahead.

Eden Eden v7 Geek.Goth Jolly Roger Lady Lovibond v2 Luna Moth Marae Marie Celeste v4 Opuhi Paper Kite Pele Plastic Pink Flamingo Pirate Moon Scurvy v1 Stinky Sweet Life Tiki Princess Tiki Queen Tupapau Upa Upa Velvet Tiki ...and any of the Atomic Luaus

The first thing that came to mind for me was Enchanted Wood Florist. Even though I amp the sweet sap, which turns out in my favor because I love that kind of thing, others have said it smells like a florist's cooler and sniffing straight from the bottle I can definitely see it. Might be a bit difficult to find, though. Have you tried Amsterdam? I don't know about "cold" but there is definitely a breezy aspect to it.

Ohhhh yes I second this. I don't really get green tea because I amp the sweet stuff but Lady Una is delicious. Also, try Eat Me! It's buttery cake and currants.

I can vouch for Sweet Life. It's a really heady, sensuous white floral that makes me think of Marie Antoinette in the tropics.

This one is a really dark carnation blend if you're looking for that: The Byronic Antihero: An aristocratic cologne of titanic passions, moody and brooding. This scent is dark with disillusionment and cynicism: a Victorian fougère and a dashing carnation boutonnière tainted by a cloud of khus, yew, and patchouli.

This has a delicious dark and syrupy, almost boozy cherry note. It's definitely a candied black cherry rather than the brighter red maraschino, or maybe there's some maraschino in there but it's predominantly a rich sticky black cherry. I get mostly the cherry on my skin though I can tell there is some dark chocolate under there deepening it. It makes me think of a mixture of cherry cordial and Godiva Liqueur. I was putting off getting a bottle of this forever but I'm glad I finally did.

Wow, this is definitely different from the Cleric proto I tried at NYCC, and for the better. That one was all lemon Pine-Sol; this one is a beautiful grapefruit-vanilla musk. It's the perfect juxtaposition of bright (but not bitter) grapefruit and soft vanilla musk that has something of a fluffy, marshmallowy quality to it as well. It's both comforitng and uplifting at once, and I really hope this is closer to what's released as opposed to the NYCC version!

This one is all sweet, sticky goodness. It's mostly rich fig with the brightness of tamarind at first, and as it dries down the dark chocolate becomes more prominent. The tamarind has a juiciness anda bit of a candylike quality to it, a little bit citrusy but not extremely so. The combo of these three is like a sweet syrupy mess you just can't get enough of. It makes me think I have to lick my fingers!

I have to admit this one smells really weird in the bottle, but don't let that put you off. It's a little discordant at first but dries down into a strangely addictive smoky chocolate scent with spice from the cassia that isn't too overpowering. There is a bit of saltiness from the bacon, of course, but this still remains a sweet and chocolatey enough scent without going into savory territory. It actually reminds me a lot of the Vosges bacon chocolate that I love so much, except with the addition of cassia.

I ordered a bottle of this one unsniffed because I really like the listed notes on their own though I have to admit I was a little nervous about how the mint would interact with the lime. It's delicious! I never expected them to play so well together, but it's a smooth mint-spiked dark chocolate with the refreshing zing of lime that blends right in. The further it dries down, the more the chocolate comes out, and the lime settles to just a hint but is still present.

This is delicious creamy milk chocolate and buttery, sweet butterscotch tempered with a hint of ginger. Thankfully the ginger isn't sharp or overwhelming, just a hint that compliments the chocolate and butterscotch notes perfectly. The pairing of chocolate and ginger here remind me a bit of Chocolate Espresso Gingerbread without the coffee, except that seemed to be a darker chocolate while this is true milk chocolate. Too bad I haven't yet encountered an edible one of these yet.

This is really yummy! Mango is one of those things I don't really like to eat that much but smells fabulous on me as a perfume. This is a nice sweet mango with just the right hint of tartness over a really creamy and slightly buttery white chocolate, which becomes more prominent as it dries down. It's going to be fabulous for summer.

Wow, this is a lovely smoky blend. No doubt that delicious smokiness is brought on by the toated sandalwood and nicotiana. I love me some teak, and I get lots of that really deep and warm teak as well. In the background there is a bit of sweetness brought on by the vanilla and also a hint of patchouli that complements the rest of the notes. As Ellebelle said, very adult and sophisticated as well as highly alluring. There is also something very musky about this, and I found out why: I wiki'd castoreum which turns out to be a sort of musk that beavers excrete when marking territory. Of course since this is vegan we can all rest assured no beavers were harmed in the making of this perfume.

I think Suu said it best--a crumbly almond cake made with lots of butter, a bit reminiscent of Irish soda bread since it has that toasty, slightly vanillic scent, but richer. It's a dry cake in the sense of smelling like a dense cake without a lot of moisture but not dry in the sense of making you thirsty like, say, uberdry sandalwood. I don't sense any red currant here, just the crumbly buttery cake and sweet almond. It's different from the released but I find them both equally yummy.

This is very distinct red rose and carnation with a tinge of something lemony in the background, possibly lemon balm because I amp lemon verbena and lemongrass to hell and it isn't happening here. The rose and carnation notes are very true, full-bodied and realistic, almost like an actual bouquet of them. I'd say it's a bold velvety red rose like the one in Harlot along with pink carnation. Not really my thing personally, but if you're a rose and/or carnation fan who likes the dead-on scent of those flowers, it's defintiely worth checking out.

This was a hard one to pick out notes from, but I think I've pieced together something. I got the sense of red wintry berries, probably cranberry and possibly some redcurrant. There seems to be something "icy" about the red berry here, not exactly mint but just a cold feel. I get what must be a bit of almond too, and then something woody and smoky, like smoldering wood, in the background. Maybe this iteration of Dreadful Lies was supposed to be bloody frostbitten berries over charred wood? It actually smells a lot better than it sounds, kind of like evil cranberry pie filling.

I've always been enchanted by carnivals, and this took me right back to the local ones I'd go to every summer as a kid. There is a grassy note, but it's very fresh and breezy and pleasant, not in-your-face grass clippings. There is definitely cotton candy in here, or at least what I'm percieving to be cotton candy, and--I swear I'm not imagining this--something far in the background that reminds me of water balloons! The best I can describe it as is like a trace of that almost candyish doll plastic note from Pediophobia (which is not harsh at all) with a drop of something aquatic. There's also a trace of what I take to be other carnival sweets, though I can't exactly make out what. It isn't foody like Midway but it's so nostalgic for me, and I've completely fallen in love with it.

This is absolutely beautiful. I get a smooth creamy Madagascar vanilla, vanilla orchid (think Opuhi) and white musk, in that order. There may be some other light florals hiding in there as well. It's all vanilla wet, and as it dries down the white musk and floral aspects emerge. It makes me think of Tolkien's glittering white Elven city of Gondolin captured forever in a bottle.

Some rose scents can be too sharp on me, but this isn't one of them. It's like candied rose petals in smooth, creamy milk, and everything stays true as it dries down with nothing rancid going on like both Milk Moons. Very evocative of a lady of the era without actually smelling sharp like those vintage perfume bottles hanging around in my aunt's bathroom. If you like Thouros, you will love this one!

This is cake, pure unadulterated CAKE! It's the buttery goodness of yellow vanilla cake positively slathered with cavity-inducing creamy vanilla frosting, and only amps on the vanilla as it dries down. As opposed to the released which is distinctly red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting plus Snake Oil, Dorian and Doc Constantine, this is a true frosted vanilla cake. It's one of those which you need to keep reminding yourself is indeed not edible.