alioth

Bakeneko is amazing on me. I was a little scared, because there was an odd sharp smell when the oil was in the bottle, but once it hits my skin it blooms into this warm, spicy, musky, somehow almost furry scent lightened just a little by a whisper of orange and maybe a hint of sakura sometimes. It is all cozy and warm, and then has these odd moments of darkness when I get more than the usual whiff of a deep musk. All in all, utterly gorgeous, and I'm so glad I got my hands on a bottle of this. Into the favorites box it goes!

I have personally found that a combination of Bitch and TKO, worn together but not layered together, (I swipe one on my wrist and then swipe the other an inch or so away so that the scents blend but the oils don't), have helped even out my moods. Bitch doesn't smell 'good', but it does seem to work.

Also, do you have any positive scent associations? A perfume you usually wear when you're happy or something that reminds you of a good experience? Wearing/being around that scent can really make a difference.

In that sort of same realm, is there anything you can convince yourself to get out of bed for? Even if it's just something like a good cup of tea or using your favorite soap in the shower or putting on your favorite sweater, little things can at least get you moving. When meds bother my stomach (disclosure: not heart meds) candied ginger sometimes helps and is also tasty. If your tummy can take it and you've got it in the house, a little bit of chocolate can honestly give you a little lift (just don't eat it to the point where you start feeling guilty or gross, that's counterproductive). And get to the doctor as soon as you're able, if your meds really aren't working.

Good luck, and I hope things start looking up for you. This depression stuff really, really sucks.

My bottle of Olisbos was so heavy on raw, wet leather on my skin that I ultimately sold it, so maybe find a decant of that to try? Crowley has a nice leather note to my nose, but there's a lot of other stuff in there as well and it's a very polished leather, like a leather couch in a man-study. Ivanushka is leather, but it's more of a 'wrapped in furry animal skins in winter' kind of thing.

I don't get cherry at all on me in this, which is a fantastic thing, because cherry notes tend to go all luden's cough drops on me, and this didn't at all. It's got an undertone of deep sweetness that's probably the cherry, but I wouldn't actually identify it as cherry-ish at all. Mostly this 13 is dark dusty cocoa, musk, and all kinds of woods on me, with that dark sweetness pulling it all together. My favorite of the 13s that I've tried.

I am a lover of SO, so you can take this with a grain of salt, but: on me, Boomslang smells like aged SO--all delicious spiciness with vanilla and creamy dark chocolate. Green Tree Viper is barely SO at all, mostly minty and vanilla-y. Cake Smash is like crossing the good bits of SO with Dorian's musks and adding some foody sweetness. I tried Habu awhile back, but my notes say that it's wet, sharp, green woods with vanilla and a little of the SO spices.

edit: oh yeah, and Womb Furie--it's basically exactly as advertised (O+SO), so if you aren't an SO fan, it's probably not one to try until it's aged a year or so.

In summary, a lot of SO blends are mostly other stuff with a base of the best bits of SO, so don't necessarily fear them! I've never tried a snakepit blend that had the same medicinal sharpness new SO can have.

As everyone else has said, this is exactly as advertised--honey and Snake Oil. On me, it really takes the best part of bpal's rich, musky honey notes with the sweet spiciness of aged SO underneath. I get more honey than spices, which works great for me. For my chemistry, at least, two great tastes that taste even better together.

When I did a spot-test of this last night, it was all sharp lemony green tea, with no chocolate or matcha smell to speak of. I think I'm going to toss it into a dark drawer for a month or two and see what comes out afterward. I adore matcha (it has a memorable scent that's different from regular steeped green tea) and really wanted this to have that specific smell. We'll see how it is with a little aging.

I don't really get 'masculine' from Ronin at all. On me, it's light, sweet honey and gentle riceflower with an undercurrent of damp muskiness and a tinge of sandalwood sharpness. Out of all of bpal's honey blends I've tried, this one has struck me most as a 'summer' honey--there's something cooling and refreshing about it, not cloyingly sweet at all. I kind of amp honey, so it's the most prominent note in the blend, but it's not squeeze-bear clover honey or super sexy honey like O. The oakmoss, sandalwood and pepper keep it sophisticated and cool, and on me it never quite goes into sexpot territory.

In short I am kinda in love with Ronin, and it seems like it will only get better with age.

I bought a bottle of Wood Phoenix awhile back and it's been sitting in my drawer ever since, because when I opened it the peculiar scent of Luden's Cherry Cough Drops smacked me in the face. But after rereading the reviews, I decided to be strong. After all, there's always rubbing alcohol if necessary.

And wow, am I annoyed at myself for waiting this long. The Luden's scent is gone as soon as it hits my skin, leaving warm deep woods and spices and a sweet something that I'm guessing is fig going right for me. It dried quickly and stayed close to the skin, or at least it did on my (admittedly really dry) hand. For some reason I find myself surprised by this one despite the fact that woods and I generally have a fantastic relationship. Definitely giving this one a full wear tomorrow--it has the sort of warm weight that's perfect for cold weather.

Oh Red Lantern. I forget how much I love this, because it just smells funky to me in the bottle. I can't even describe the funk, just that it's something astringent-sour and weird over the sweetness. But then I put it on, and that weird funk burns off to reveal a fantastic amber-tobacco with this darkness swirling underneath. It's super sexy and feminine and also kind of slinky-fun, and I really, really need to remember that between wearings.

This reminds me of some kind of delicious custardy dessert with spices mixed in. It started out with a floral sort of tinge, but a few hours later it's very warm and smooth and creamy-spicy--almost like an indian rice pudding, but not, and almost like carnation, but not. There's a bare hint of something metallic, like the tang of warm steel. So glad I jumped on this one--for such a terrible name, it's amazing.

I tried Milk Moon 07 first, and found that I LOVED it except for those pesky super-sweet fruits. (Milk and champagne grape smoothie just didn't do it for me) Well. Milk Moon 05 takes care of all that. It's very simple, just lush, realistic, creamy milk sweetened up by honey. There is a little sharpness there--not sour milk sharpness, but the little edge of sharpness that good fresh yoghurt has. It's really a 'how the hell did Beth DO that?' kind of scent.

Perhaps I don't REALLY need both this and Phantom Cow, except I really, really love them both. So glad the lab's milk and cream notes work for me.

I don't know much about the Alice scents other than How Doth the Little Crocodile, which might be great if they love mint and chocolate. It's not girly to me, but it's sort of got a nice chidlike quality. Also maybe Tombstone? It smells like root beer on me, that could be fun for little boys. If you can get ahold of a bottle, Detestable Putrescence could be equally fun for the childlike quality. If they're little explorers, maybe a dirt-based blend would be good too? (I don't personally have any but Season of the Inundation, but I'm sure lots of people can rec). Also Shango (fruit salad!) Pickled Imp (cinnamon and vanilla) Squirting Cucumber (nice and clean) The Deep Ones (seashore!) and maybe one of the piratey scents might be things to consider? They're all pretty unisex and not very age-limited.

I really wish I got the sweet caramel everyone else is talking about. On me, Now Winter Nights Enlarge smells like I've been thoroughly doused with the dust swept off the bottom of someone's very old spice cabinet. I'm really, really hoping it changes up with age, or it'll be off to the sales page.

I wanted to love this. So much I wanted to love it.

But no, indeed no. Instead of smoky vanilla and patchouli and clove and sage, I get generic Christmas Berry candle. I get where that one student said that it smells 'just like Christmas' because...it smells just like Christmas air fresheners, which might theoretically have once been based on real things people brought into the house. I'm really really sad about this one.

2006 version:

Smoky, musky sweetness with a hint of something that might be booze. Unlike everything else boozy that i've ever tried, though, it doesn't amp into ugliness on my skin. I can definitely smell 'dried leaves' in this. It's a nice, bonfire autumnal scent, like snuggles with candies out in the woods.

I think the caramel is where this one goes wrong. It smells like cheap candles, very very very sweet. There are no words for how sad I am about this. Did the same thing both tries, so this imp is off to sell or swap!

I really wish I could describe Sunbird half as well as Yeahbutnobut did above me, but all I can really say is that on my skin it was the perfect accompaniment to the chapbook, bright and hot with sun and desert and the perfect blend of spices for cooking something so divine as the Phoenix. It was also very strong, with a powerful throw--the only perfume I've worn that my mother commented was 'overpowering'. It really grabs my body-heat and runs with it, to the point where I could just faintly smell it lingering in my car the next morning. Not at all a bad thing in my book, but something to be careful of. Mind the Sunbird, or be enveloped!

All the spices of Snake Oil plus deep bitter cocoa and sweet milkiness. Love love love. It's kind of a mating of Snake Oil and chocolate-chip cookies, but totally unfoody. I think it's the rice milk that makes it so heady and soft, without the sometimes-astringent edge of fresh SO.

Everyone who says this is divine? Is so very right. This is divine. It's sweet, musky, sexy skin, the most idealized and sexual kind of womanly body-smell ever. There's something just a little spicy-smoky about it that gives it a very elegant, almost dangerous edge. So glad I have a bottle of this. It feels classic enough to wear to dress up, and it's oddly empowering to wear. Really captures Judith's expression in the painting perfectly somehow.

And it lasts and lasts--9 hours after application it's still wafting up to my nose.

Okay I know this is a crap cameraphone picture, and please excuse my fat fingers, uneven talons, and potentially questionable taste in literature, but is this the original Black Lace label? This is the bottle I received from Dark Delicacies today, and everyone keeps saying 'black and green', but this label is most assuredly not green at all. The lace MIGHT be bluish, and it's certainly very pretty, but no green to be found. I ordered my bottle pretty early, I think. Not that it's really important, just curiosity.

edited cause i cn grammar gud.

During the day I wore Boomslang, and now tonight I'm testing BTBT, and I have to say that they're nothing alike on my skin. BTBT starts out dark and bitter, mostly unprocessed cocoa and rich wet tobacco. Dry, the chocolate takes a backseat, the tobacco dries to something very pipe-tobacco pleasant, and the musk comes out to play. This is dark and sexy and a little bit smoky/dusty, somehow very much a temple burlesque troupe. These are some slinky dancers, but they're priestesses, for sure.

For me, Alone dries down to this lovely dusty patchouli-and-cinnamon, like the inside of an incense box. But it has this odd vastness to it, as though the incense box was in fact an incense cavern.

Then, about four hours after application, it mysteriously disappears as though it never was. It's not hanging on my skin or in my clothes. That's never really happened to me before.

This is definitely a very solitary scent, and one that fits best on days when I really do want to be alone. It would also make an amazing room fragrance if I ever get a diffuser.

A lot of the forum reviews called this foody, but on me it really wasn't. There was warm vanilla, and then spicy ginger, but with a dark undercurrent of something that I don't really want to call animalistic muskyness, but sort of is. I guess it's the oud? It does smell something like what you get breaking open old, rotted wood. Which makes it sound bad, but I don't mean it that way. I guess it's the rutting cats.

I like this because it's complicated like that--on the top it's all warm and comforting, underneath there's this primalness. Lovers with Rutting Cats is the third Shunga I've tried, and so far I've loved them all.

A lovely fresh, softer, cleaner Snake Oil. Almost the 'summer version'. Starts out mint, then goes to a nice, astringent tea with a little vanilla, then dries to a gentle vanilla backed up by a little mint and a breath of spice. This isn't a very Snake Oil-y snake on me Delicious!