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CiaoBonefish

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Everything posted by CiaoBonefish

  1. CiaoBonefish

    Faith

    In the bottle, I smelled amazingly lovely violets sweetened with sugar. A little creamy, but not overly so. Just perfect actually. The violets are still crisp and flowery, rather than candied. Mmmm. As soon as I apply this, it sweetens even MORE. The creaminess becomes far more prominent and now I'm smelling candied creamy violet custard with way too much sugar. What. Happened? The crispness of the sugared violets in the bottle completely disappeared. I feel more like I'm smelling sugar violets than sugared violets. I thought I would love this scent, but alas it is too creamy and far too sweet on me. The violets in Faith don't hold their ground like the roses do in Hope, and unfortunately the sugar takes over making the blend EXTREMELY sweet. I'll give this a week or may be a few weeks until I decided to swap. I really, really wanted to love this one. If worse comes to worse I'll decant some and sell the rest. Sigh... Oh Faith. Why did you not work when I so looked forward to our relationship? It appears Hope has seduced me instead!
  2. CiaoBonefish

    The Snow Maiden

    This is for the '09 version. Wow. This is so awesome. I can't quite make out the individual notes apart from the spring berries, but I can tell you what this reminds me of: a more feminine, lighter, sweeter, Old Moon (I LOVE Old Moon by the way). In the decant this smelled promising, some kind of cold forest-y scent with berries and pretty flowers. It didn't seem very sweet, but was surprisingly sharp and green to my nose. Really pretty snow-forest is what I'm getting, but a snow-forest that is almost thawing for spring. I applied this and it instantly became less sharp and much sweeter. I get snow covered forests with spring berries peeping through and the first display of gorgeous daffodil and ylang ylang. As time goes by the flowers and berries get stronger until balancing out the green trees. So feminine but green and cold at the same time. Lovely! I can smell the spring turning into a frost covered spring! I don't think I'll be grabbing a bottle though because I have Old Moon, and feel it satisfies my ultimate snow-forest blend need. Gorgeous, gorgeous blend though. Definitely recommended! If it comes back next year, I may have to pick up a bottle
  3. CiaoBonefish

    Chimera

    The fiery, volatile scent of cinnamon, thickened by myrrh, honeysuckle, and copal. When I first tried this, I had to was it off almost immediately. The cinnamon was SO strong it pretty much went up my nose. Very peppery almost. I put it in my swaps pile without thinking about it again... until today that is. Today I decided to give it a try because I was craving cinnamon. (which I truly love, but I don't feel like smelling like straight up cinnamon really... it has to be blended!) I noticed that in the imp it was still pretty much pure cinnamon, but not the sweet candied cinnamon, but more like a stick of actual cinnamon. It had however, cooled off somewhat since my last encounter. I put it on, and with bated breath waited. At first it was the same cinnamon, but something instantly changed. Something was different than before! It started getting creamy rather than more peppery! I started to smell the myrrh and copal (I love myrrh!) and it really rounded out the scent nicely. The honeysuckle is nowhere to be seen, but on closer inspection, if I put my wrists to my nose I smell the faintest hint of sweet honeysuckle keeping the cinnamon from being too, too peppery. The overall effect is very much like hot creamy milk and actual cinnamon sticks, foody, but not too foody. Divine. I can't stop sniffing my wrists. Oh, Chimera. Why did you tease me so! I think I'm going to eat my arm! This smells AMAZING! If one month of aging made it go this lovely, I think we will have a very lovely relationship this imp and I. I also need a bottle now... AND this has shot up to my top 10 in scents. Delicious!
  4. CiaoBonefish

    Asp Viper (2006)

    I was excited to try this blend because I've heard of it as a softer version of Snake Oil. Snake Oil is lovely, but a bit much for me for everyday wear (I'll have to try it aged, hopefully that brings out the vanilla more). In the imp this smells glorious! All delicious almond a slight fint of snake oil underneath. This isn't the cherry-ish almond note that I get from Dana O'Shee either. It's more of a warm sweet well rounded almond like in Bastet. I'm pretty positive the myrrh is adding to the warmth and rounding out the scent beautifully. On my skin this blend goes slightly smoky as snake oil does for me and becomes deeper as the scents blend seemlessly into each other. As the hours go by, the scent is still going on strong! Average throw but GREAT wear length. Also the blend gets smokier too as the almond slowly fades without ever fading completely. So gorgeous! It never gets off my skin either! I really love this blend. It was kind of a stealth favorite of mine, and I didn't realized how much I loved it until yesterday. I'll have to acquire a bottle of this eventually before the Carnaval leaves town! ETA: I get no mandarin in this... which I was actually quite happy about hahaha.
  5. CiaoBonefish

    Endymion

    I'm currently wearing this, and It is just lovely. In the imp I am getting pear, but wonderful fresh juicy pear. Mmmm. Tasty. On skin this sweetens very much so, but not in the cloying kind of way. It's more of a crystalline sugared like sweet to my nose. The white musk and rose are just adding on to the pear and making it slightly powerdy, but not overly so. It's EXTREMELY feminine., so it is hard for me to believe that some think its more masculine! Overall it dries to a wonderful crisp pear, rose, and white musk scent. I'm not a huge fan of lily of the valley and glad that it doesn't make a distincy appearance, but I'm sure it is adding to the flowery element in this blend. It's really pretty, but I think I prefered the juicy pear scent in the imp (juicy pear? I mean come on! Delish!) That being said I will keep the imp! You never know when the urge to smell pear-y and rose-y will come over you (and this is one fresh rose scent if there ever was one)!
  6. Bumpity bump because I'm looking for a delicious creamy black tea scent with mint. Specifically ONLY black tea with mint. Green tea and mint and honey scents are nice and I've looked over them to see which ones I want to try, but they are raly fresh and I'm in he mood for creamy. What I'm really after is something that smells like milk and STRONG black tea with honey drizzled and swirled into the mixture and a spring of mint on the side adding to the sweetness and freshness, while it still being a pretty creamy tea blend. No nuts or spices really, please. Any thoughts?
  7. CiaoBonefish

    Hemlock

    It's strange because I was craving mint tea today, and more specifically, something that smelled like it. I decided to look through my imps to see if I had anything that would satisfy my need. After realizing my imp of Dorian had somehow broken in half?!?!?! I gave up on trying to layer stuff. Then I was looking for something new to test and I found a battered imp of hemlock someone had frimped me in a forum purchase. I decided, hey? Why not? It's GREEN! In the imp this smelled almost exactly like Vick's Vapo Rub but a little more pleasant. I was intrigued because scents usually sweeten and mellow out on skin so it really did seem a bit promising. I put it on... Woah! Liquorish? Where did you come from? I've never smelled Hemlock trees before so I can't really compare, but I'm getting a oh so slightly liquorish FEEL to it. It doesn't really smell like liquorish, only slightly emanates it in an herbal way. I've come to realize that herbal blends really like me, and I really love them. There is a dash of lemon in the mixture too keeping everything fresh. Overall: Delish sweet slightly liquorish-like herbals, dowsed with cool rainwater, soft soft SOFT mints (hardly there), and a dash of lemongoodness to keep everything fresh. Reminds me very much of what hemlock would smell like (in my mind anyway). Oh I really love this. Reminds me of mint tea, but SO MUCH BETTER! I suppose this will be added to my ever expanding bottle list now... it'll have high priority though
  8. CiaoBonefish

    Ultraviolet

    Oh my goodness. This scent! In the imp (which I recieved from the Lab in my last order) it smells like violets and mint and eucalyptus, literally. Now figuratively, I am getting the image of fresh cut violets covered in a delightful frost. It is sweet and crisp, but lovely and fresh/green at the same time. I'm liking it so far. On my skin it stays the same. It really truly does. The only thing that changes over time is the mint and eucalyptus get softer and softer, but this happens extremely gradually. The minty coolness never really goes away though. Seeing as this scent doesn't change much on me, I don't have much else to say haha. I do however love it. Minty violets? What isn't to love? I like to wear this on days when I was to feel crisp and fresh. Beautiful blend and I will be getting a bottle eventually.
  9. CiaoBonefish

    The Lights of Men's Lives

    In my last order, I must say this was the imp I was most excited about trying. I would have gone ahead and ordered a bottle, but I was iffy and wanted to test first. When I opened the imp I was overcome by this slightly tangy scent I can only accuse concentrated beeswax of being. Honey is like this in the imp too, to me, but the beeswax was less strong and creamier. No smoke or anything really, but definitely wax and honey. Mmmm. Tasty. On my skin this sweetens up right away without being overly sweet like honey can sometimes be (I don't mind sweet but very honey-ish scents I have to apply lightly so they don't overwhelm me) and the creaminess of the wax comes out. Wow. This smells beautiful! ... however, It is a pretty simple beeswax scent. I wish I could smell the smoke and some variation in the waxiness if that makes sense. Some ash from the wicks of long blown out candles? Smoke from the burning ones? I feel more like I'm smelling a cave of candles belonging to children. It's lovely, but I would love some more depth. All in all. I love beeswax, and will probably end up getting a bottle of this because a. I love beeswax... b. It is a very comforting scent. c. I love the idea of the scent although it didn't smell quite like I wanted it to. d. FABULOUS for layering. e. This fades to a very yummy creamy beeswax skin type smell. Like me, but better!
  10. CiaoBonefish

    Wings of Azrael

    Frimp from lab! This smelled rather sharp and acrid almost in the imp. I could vaguely sense some violet but it was very myrrh-ish to me. Not all that appealing yet... I guess we'll have to wait and see. Applied it stays more or less the same and then changes dramatically. The violets are moving more into the background while Juniper is stepping forward. I love juniper but generally in woody blends. Wings of Azrael does not come across as a woody blend or a particularly cold cold one I can't say I like the juniper really. Now The Myrrh shakes its head and woah myrrh and juniper with light violets? I love myrrh, but this getting weird... Now I'm smelling some lily of the valley which I was hoping I wouldn't have to smell... I don't really like lily all too much. In the end this is predominantly a myrrh, lily, and juniper blend with a touch of cypress coming in at the end. The violet sadly has disappeared. It is slightly astringent so I can't say I love it. I think I may need a lighter hand with this one. It's pretty but the lily and its astringent nature make my nose tingle. I can attest that this smells very much like the angel of death, or at least how I envision it to: Bitter sweet. Wondrous depiction but the bitterness is a bit much for me so off to swaps!
  11. CiaoBonefish

    Bliss

    In the imp this smells like hazelnut, lots and lots of it, and not the sweet kind too but the hot nutty kind. Can't say I really love it so far because really heavy warm nut scents make me feel suffocated. On my skin it stays hazelnut-y for a bit but then morphs to straight up milk chocolate. Delightful! I'm really enjoying this now, but... there is a catch. It stays so close to my skin that I have to literally press my nose to my wrist to smell its chocolate-y goodness! Sigh. It doesn't last that long on me either I may keep the imp but the search for a lovely chocolate scent that doesn't disappear on me continues!
  12. CiaoBonefish

    Black Opal

    After trying both Obatala and Spooky and having the coconut note morphing into wet dog on me, I was very wary of Black Opal because it was recommended to me as a watery coconut blend. I did order it in my imp pack though, so I felt I needed to at least give it a short skin test to make sure. So glad I did. I remember opening the imp and thinking hmmm that is coconut but more it has a crystalline quality along with something deep and dark (but clear at the same time?) I liked it because it intrigued me. Confused me even. On my skin it stays pretty much the same, but then I start smelling this sweet vanilla that everyone has been talking about, and wow. It is gorgeous. The sweet creaminess of the vanilla morphs so spectacularly well with this deep crystalline mineral cool scent. Two of my favorite kind of scents are crisp/cool/crystalline ones and creamy warm ones. This is the marriage of the two! This has average throw on me but lasts a really long time. It fades predominantly the same as it has been smelling but the vanilla becomes more and more apparent without taking over though. It really only morphs on application. Oh! And after it was on my skin I couldn't really smell coconut anymore which makes me wonder if there even is coconut in this blend or if it is just playing tricks on me. Regardless. I love this scent! So glad I gave it a try! EDIT: If black opal had a scent, this would definitely be it!
  13. CiaoBonefish

    Wulric, the Wolfman (2006)

    This is the first Carnaval Diabolique scent that is truly bottle-worthy for me (granted I've only tried 8 of them hah)! What really made me want to try this scent was the story/description. It sounded sinister and lovely? I find something oddly appealing, gruesome, and whimsical about a wolfman playing a blood soaked piano. In the decant this smelled rather nutty and a little tart/bitter; go cocoa, vetiver and sage! I can still detect hints of french vanilla creaminess and lavender sweetness. Mmmm. Tasty. A bit too nutty for me right now, but cocoa usually does that: smells nutty in the imp/decant/bottle and like cocoa on my skin. Friendly and cuddly with a mean streak. yes. yes. YES. On my wrists the scent morphs in about five minutes or so. The cocoa starts smelling like cocoa and NOT a nut! The vanilla and lavender emerge more strongly making everything creamy and blend together. The vetiver adds an interesting deep dirt scent that surprisingly just melts in PERFECTLY. Ahh I'm starting to smell some musk now (just a touch)! No longer really tart or bitter, but it isn't overly creamy or heavy (Tiresias was overly sweet and too heavy for me because of the caramel and patchouli, Wulric seems to be juuuust right). Dry its melted into the wonderful scent of deep warm fur and a sinister deep smile, chuckle, large teeth. This embodies the Wolfman perfectly. Delicious, seductive, gruesome. Beth you've done it again EDIT: for booboos.
  14. CiaoBonefish

    Old Moon

    In the bottle it is all evergreen with juniper and some snow crushed in for good measure. Mmmm. Tasty. Rather sharp and nose clearing though, kind of like icy rain. I'm a huge fan of crisp and cold scents so I'm loving it right now. On my wrists the evergreen takes the tiniest baby step back moving the juniper forward (but only slightly!) and now a surprising sweetness comes into play. I can't smell anything super berry-ish or flowery, but I have a feeling this combined with the juniper is making it sweeter. Dry it is the same scent as it was wet on my wrists... but better! The scents have all rather morphed together into something beautiful. What kind of image do I get from this? I picture myself walking through the mountains in very early spring. When the mountains and snow don't know that their time is up; they cling to the ground trying not to melt away in the sun. Now I'm walking into an evergreen forest adorned with juniper and winter berries are crunching under my feet. I jump around in the snow creating slush under my feet. All the while my cheeks are red with the icy cold. Ahh. So pretty. One of my absolute favorite snowforest blends and one of my favorite bpal's ever!
  15. CiaoBonefish

    Spooky

    this smelled of win... in the bottle. It was actually pretty darn wonderful in the bottle. All coconut and butter with some sugar and a teensy bit of rum-delish! Then I put it on... wow. Something in this blend really doesn't love me. I'm getting watered down coconut with the slightest hint of wet dog. The wet dog scent slowly fades leaving me with a questionably weak coconut scent. Not very appealing. :/ Well. I'm sure someone on this forum will want it so off to swaps!
  16. Looking for delicious chocolate mint scents (that preferably are not LE!). Any combination of chocolate and mint would be great, but I AM looking for one on the creamier side
  17. CiaoBonefish

    Lady Una

    This is the scent I was super excited about and it does not disappoint! At first I was expecting something like tea with berries and honey, so when I opened the decant and noticed a very green smell I was kind of upset. Green scents don't smell all that great to me most of the time because they NEVER get sweet enough for my liking, but I was not going to give up on Lady Una. I took another whiff of the decant and i could definitely smell the tea leaf and blackberry leaf. The blackberry smelled pretty fruity but not overpoweringly so. I'm pretty sure the greenery was coming out because the tea and blackberry scent is coming from their leaves. No hint of vanilla or honey yet. I applied some on my wrists and woah. The effect is almost instantaneous. A sudden sweet powdery and slightly creamy vanilla honey comes into the mix. I'm guessing the honey is slightly powdery on account of it being honey musk. The blackberry lightens and sweetens but only very very very slightly and the tea acts and vanilla act as a kind of base for everything. As the hours go by the scent gets sweeter, warmer, and more sensual fading beautifully into a light sweet honey vanilla skin musk. Positively beautiful. Way more sensual than I was expecting but delicious all the same. If you're thinking this scent is foody, you may want to think again. A light green and musky powdery sweetness prevents it from being so. Ahh I love this. Not exactly what I was expected but beautiful nonetheless. To fully appreciate this you really have to wear it from its life/application to death/fade. In short. Lady Una is a sensual ravishing I'll probably need a bottle eventually. I have a feeling she will age beautifully!
  18. CiaoBonefish

    Pink Snowballs

    Another Yule I have fallen in love with! A lovely Moryssa on this forum sent me a bundle of yule partials to test and I'm so glad because they are my favorite bpals thus far! Moryssa told me she wanted to send me snow white but when she realized she didn't have a decant she sent pink snowballs instead because they're very similar. I actually had received a decant of snow white from kmasden earlier so I could compare them. I had already tried snow white and didn't fall in love so I didn't really have too high hopes for pink snowballs. I opened the decant and lo and behold it smells jut like snow white to my nose, BUT along with snow white came a creamy deliciousness that was well VERY inviting. I don't even know why but I felt drawn to the scent. I applied some to my wrists and instantly noticed something different something I wasn't expecting. I liked it! After wearing it for a while, it grew on me, grew on me so much that I was trying to casually position my wrists by my nose so I could smell it and not look like I was trying to smell the perfume oil o my wrists. Ahhh. It smells like creamy snow with sugar and creamy vanilla goodness. I also smelled something feminine and sweet. Now I realize it was the roses, although it is very fait it still never truly disappears. Just stays in the background being beautiful. I decided to whip out snow white again to compare them (I have them both on right now), and when compared side by side, pink snowballs is much softer, creamier, and whoa roses. They were faint before, but when compared to snow white they are really prominent. That doesn't make them bad or anything, but it smells more creamy sugar soft rose floral now compared to snow white. It is crazy how scents can morph depending on what scents are near it! That being said, Pink Snowballs is essentially a wonderful creamy vanilla snow saturated with sugar and with a faint hint of soft roses, lovely and soft. I think I will definitely get a bottle of this
  19. CiaoBonefish

    Lick It Til It's Sticky

    I recieved a decant of this in a bottle from Moyssa (THANKS and I loved it IN the bottle. It wasn't a super sweet peppermint, but it was still very pretty. Sophisticated peppermint may be? Not really picking up on the sugar too much, unfortunately. Also picking up on something slightly green and almost dirt like? The dirt scent isn't bad though, its interesing and I like it. When I put it on my wrists it was still fairly peppermint-ish, but an undercurrent of... what is that... musk? moss? something warm and green with skin musk is what I smell... What? There is no in musk in this oil that I know of... is my nose losing it? After a while something in it amps on me. Oh no! No more peppermint! Why did you have to go away! Now I smell kind of musty skin musk... I don't like it really. The green dirt scent also amped on me about a billion. Had to wash it off. Something in it just does NOT like my skin. Pity... I do love peppermint. I'll probably keep the bottle to just sniff it time and time again because it is very pretty INSIDE the bottle hahaha.
  20. CiaoBonefish

    When the Winter Chrysanthemums Go

    Oh My Goodness... I recieved a partial decant of this from Moryssa (THANKS YOU ARE TOO GENEROUS!), and I am in love. This is actally my first bpal love to date. I'm pretty new to bpal and was almost getting a little discouraged because I had yet to love love a scent. I've found many pretty, but none I instantly fell in love with. That has changed now When I first opened the decant I smelled something crisp and may be ever so slightly minty with a light floral I am guessing is the chrysanthemum. I thought it was absolutely beautiful and eagerly appied some to my arm. I was intrigued because the scent in the decant reminded me slightly of Evening Cicadas and Red Peppers. I don't know if anyone else got his, but I definitely did. What realy excited me about the scent is its crisp nature. It reminds me of the time between winter and fall when its quite cold, but the world is still colorful with reds browns and greens. You're walking outside and suddenly a soft wind rushes past. The air is dry, no humidity. That crisp weather would smell like the crisp-ness of this scent. I love it! On my skin the crisp-ness becomes more prominent and the mint fades ever so slightly without truly going away. The chrysanthemums become sweeter and warmer, the amber is finally showing up and it is DIVINE. Very much like summer warming the crisp day (still no humidity!) I find this to be a very crisp sweet and light minty-ish floral. The overall effect is definitely soft snow with an undertone of minty ending with lovely warm amber chrysanthemums. Needless to say I need a bottle... or may be two? EDIT: I've been wearing this constantly and it just gets better and better I will say that the throw isn't as strong as some of the other bpal scents (delphi and berry moon would last forever! i couldnt use a different oil until I had taken a shower hahaha). Nonetheless I still love it. If the throw was any strong I think the scent would pobably get too strong and may be bitter. I've taken to carrying the decant in my purse in case I need to (or just want to) reapply
  21. CiaoBonefish

    Mama-Ji

    I recently purchased some neil gaiman decants off of ebay to try, and I am so glad I did! Mama-Ji was one of the decants included. I was sniffing the vials and wasn't really putting any one (already had on and was enjoying cheshire cat). I accidentally spilt some Mama-Ji on my finger as I was opening the decant and... Woah. My nose instantly picked up on the smell of Paan (or Pan). It is an indian/pakistani/middle eastern desert-ish "palate freshener." We eat it after meals sometimes (personally I can't stomach it but I love the smell.) It smells of slight mintiness which is the betel leaf along with fruit preserves, syrups, coconut, and various spices in a combination called meetha paan (sweet paan). Mama-Ji smells JUST LIKE PAAN! I'm amazed how authentic it is and how wonderfully exotic and sensual. After a while the mintiness subsides some, but otherwise this smells exactly like the decant on me: sweet, minty slightly, flowery, with a touch of coconut and lots of sweet herbs. It is really important that the herbs are sweet. If they weren't I don't think it would smell like paan. I think I NEED a full bottle of this.
  22. CiaoBonefish

    Monster Bait: Tokyo Stomp

    In the decant this smelled heavenly! Like vanilla with buttery chocolate and a slight hint of mint. I felt like I was in the kitchen baking vanilla and chocolate swirl cookies! In the background I could smell something slightly like play dough, but I didn't really mind it and thought that it would probably go away on skin. On my skin it stayed more or less the same amazing scent, but after a while I noticed the play dough smell becoming more and more prominant. An hour late it is all butter, play dough, and some cocoa. I wish the mint had stuck around and this hadn't turned so play dough-y on me. Its a nice smell, but a little too warm and BUTTERY for me. It feels like that kitchen from before has become more hot and stuffy. Dang that skin chemistry for amping that silly play dough scent! EDIT: Wow. Tried it the other day and the buttery play dough scent is gone and has taken on more of a smokey quality. I can also really smell the mint now! I'll wear this when I want to feel warm and delicious. AHHH I want to eat my arm! Smokey vanilla + dry chocolate + butter + mint = LOVE. I'm tracking down a bottle!!!
  23. CiaoBonefish

    Nuclear Winter

    I must say this does not age well! I bought this from the sales thread and wow all i can smell is this crazy perfume-y grandma smell. It's sharp! I smell pine and may be some spearmint with an herbal undertone and a spritz of lemon juice which would be lovely... if it wasn't for the crazy grandma smell I'm getting! I put it on my wrists and waited. Wet it is still strong. An hour later its muted but the grandma tone is still slightly there. After a few hours the grandma scent has left and I am left with a cold herbal green floral scent with a slight minty feel. BUT. i almost have to press my nose to my wrist to smell it. So sad. This also didn't last as long as I expected. ...I think overly green scents just go grandma on me in general. Pity.
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