starfish327

in the imp: pine and thyme. thyme has a habit of ruining scents for me,i can't really wear herbs. wet: pine and thyme. it's a fairly assertive blend. it's very woody but oddly it's not very green on me. dry: the pine is still there, but it's definitely playing second fiddle to the thyme. way underneath there's a hint of lemon. i really don't like it when it's first on, but it seems to be mellowing out the longer that it's on. it's still very assertive, and while i'm not sure that it reads masculine on me, it's not really feminine or gender neutral either. it's hard to pin down. i may have to let this one age a little to see what the thyme does before i let it go, because the throw is much better than the close-up scent and i like it as long as the thyme isn't punching me in the nose.

this starts out being definitely a starfish-type* scent. it's very heavy vetiver (loves me dirty vetiver) with a sharpish edge to it- i get that from resin/vetiver blends sometimes. while drying, it sadly morphs into something flat and stale. i almost wrote this one off, because it doesn't play well at that stage. fortunately though after about 30 min- 1 hour it starts sweetening up and the black current starts coming through. the vetiver takes on the slightly incense-impressiony vibe that i get from the lab's vetiver. while i have heavy blends that i see myself reaching for more often, this does actually, scarily, sort of smell like how i see myself. *my mother refers to me as the ghost of christmases yet to come. i'm just as easy to hold a conversation with.

red lantern '06 a rather pleasant coconut cookie dough type scent. nice enough, but not really me.

march hare may end up staying in my imp collection simply because i keep sniffing my wrists, more than because i actually like it. in the imp: sweet, fruity. wet: sweet, fruity but almost creamy. i could swear i'm getting tea from this as well. dry: sweet, fruity, but in a dried fruit way, not fresh. i'm getting a sensation of a spice way, way in the background. it's surprisingly pleasant, but it's also fairly benign and cuddly.

oh hello there mr. slaugh, you're looking good today. in the imp: slightly medicinal. an odd combination of mint and root beer, but it works. really. wet: pretty much the same. minty root beer. dry: the tea starts coming forward. it actually reminds me a lot of laudanum, just without the anise/licorice. it stays slightly medicinal, but it makes me think of the pictures of men i kept finding when i was studying the 1920s. i have no idea why. it borders on masculine, but it definitely works for women too. it starts shifting away from mint and root beer to dry herbals and root beer. the slaugh are angry dead or angry fae, but apparently they smell really good.

2007 this starts out a sharp, high, screaming green note on my skin and then goes to soap. it reminds me a lot of an avon soap that my grandmother used to put out at christmas time that was green and shaped like a wreath. the pine eventually comes forward, but unfortunately it goes holiday scented candle on me, which i can sometimes stand but not in this blend. oh well. off to the swaps with this one i guess.

this was the bottle that was contending for first le bottle purchased unsniffed, but someone was kind enough to send me a tester. let me preface by saying that this is not a negative review, just not what i was hoping for. in the imp: a blast of espresso, heavy espresso, followed by heavy pumpkin spice. nom. wet: the same, with a dose of cream. it's very realistic and i'm excited because the cream isn't going sour. dry:...where'd the coffee go? seriously. i smell like pumpkin oatmeal. the coffee is gone completely, replaced by a strong grainy scent and the spices.

i will preface this by saying that i don't like foody blends. however, i will also say that for some reason i had to get a decant of this blend, it's been haunting me for about a month now. in the imp: a bright red cherry followed by the faintly plastic chocolate smell that i associate with the lab's chocolate note in the bottle. wet: wow, this is good. it's the same red cherry note from suck it and bloody mary followed by one of the best chocolate notes that i've gotten in a blend from the lab. dry: the lab's cherry note sometimes goes sweet-tart on me like koolaid (which is fine for me, i like that smell) but this stays pretty true to a candied cherry scent. the chocolate remains sort of an impression of chocolate instead of a full chocolate note but it does ground the blend. close to skin it reminds me vaguely of mason and jenkin's port jelly, and the throw occassionally goes a little cough syrupy. however, this is a gorgeous red sticky foody blend, and i think this will be put back onto my iso list because i'm going to need more for the winter.

very very faint (at least to my nose) mint and sugar, with a touch of something that's going to plastic. the mint and vanilla get increasingly strong as it's on, but it reminds of the long dry down of lick it till it's sticky.

wet and in the imp, this does slightly like stereotypical department store perfumes- it smells like the stuff my grandmother used to send me at christmas when i was a pre-teen. not necessarily too mature for my tastes, just in your face sharp florals and whatever department store brands use to mimic 'green'. it does start to pull back to slightly less sharp and rounder florals and herbs, but it's still pretty dominate. i think that this would probably be quite pretty on someone who's chemistry can handle ozone/water and florals better than mine, but i'm not doing this one any justice.

I'm thinking Lyonesse for you! It has a kind of watery feel without being a sharp aquatic, and I think the rich amber smells would satisfy the earthiness in you. Okay everyone, do me if you can. I am straight up weird. I'm an INFJ, which is the rarest Myers-Briggs personality type (and trust me, I wish I weren't). I'm well-liked but an outcast at the same time. I'm deeply attracted to sensual and beautiful things. I love colors, smells, tastes, and sounds... I'm also an intellectual. I'm applying for a Ph.D. in history and women's studies this fall. I love art, and I love everything that is old-fashioned. I am obsessed with animals. I need a lot of "me" time each day and I hate crowds. I have an eclectic taste, scent-wise. I'll try anything. For me, it's about chemistry more than notes. defututa. it's a very pretty,sensual blend on me that's sort of outside the range of what most people are drawn to but is still well liked, and it actually strikes me as vaguely intellectual.

in the imp: sharp, tart cherry wet: in your face cherry koolaide, with a bite of something behind it. feels sort of woody but also sort of spicy (and my chemistry seems to want to turn everything to wood this week, so take it with a grain of salt). dry: this is a slightly more grown up suck it. it's the same sweet-tart bright red cherry note, but there's a darker, richer cherry just behind it. i think that the cream in this is making it a richer blend, but i'm not reading cream at all (which is good, cream tends to go bad on me). this is a very pretty candy style blend that's actually fairly adult on my chemistry. i bought the decant on a whim and i'm glad that i did.

in the imp: light smoke, something sweet and nutty wet: wood...and cigars. though only in the throw. close to skin it's wood and smoke dry: this keeps morphing. first i get the wood and cigars, then i get smoke. then i get nuts, and now it's something sweet and vaguely smoky.

okay this sounds like fun...maybe. i'm roughly 5'5" of eastern european/germanic/slavic descent and rather round. i'm an almost cliched aries- i have a fast temper, i do tend to think about myself first automatically (but not necessarily act on that thought), but i'm also driven to learn and i'm passionate about community involvement and the like. i'm a true academic. i'm literally not happy because i'm not in school right now. i need that level of social interaction and mental stimulation. however, i prefer to study weird things- i went in to school orginially for epidemiology and ended up with a master's in alternate family structures. i don't handle hot weather well. fall's my favorite season, with samhain and yule being my favorite holidays. i love goth and horror cultures, though i don't dress goth at all. i'm addicted to carbs and diet soda. i love to knit and i collect sheep.

*2007 blend in the imp: aquatic and greens. not my favorite combination of notes wet: this starts out as a very green aquatic. it smells more like the middle of july than august. i do hope this morphs, because while most aquatics amp painfully on me and this one doesn't, i swapped for this one hoping that i would get something like dry leaves. dry: this does in fact morph, and the longer it dries the more it becomes a slightly spicy dry leaf note. i was thinking of swapping away this decant but i found that the longer i wore it the more i liked it. the only real downside i have with it is that it was a very close scent; i'm not sure that i got any real throw off of it. i would like to see how it layers under a blend like yorick, something with a fairly heavy dirt/loam note.

in the imp: the lab's snow note wet: yep, the lab's snow note. it's pretty much a single note at this stage. dry: wait, where is the candle? i keep smelling a candle- archangel winter keeps morphing between a straight up snow note and a blown out candle. it's very odd because it's either all or nothing with both stages, completely candle wax and smoke or completely snow. it's one of the more wearable snows that i've come across from the lab (it's not as pain inducing as snow maiden or ded moroz) but i'm not sure how i feel about the candle stage. i like the smell, just not on me i guess. this is going to get another wear because i can't figure out if i like it or not.

hellfire is gorgeous on my skin. in the imp, it's a sweet, leathery blend with a touch of tobacco. wet it's very traditional male cologne, but it dries down to a sweet, spicy blend. it smells like unbrewed chai, and it's gorgeous- in fact it's almost the perfect spice blend that i've been looking for. so of course i'm allergic to it.

the dodo starts out as the lovely, head shop-y patchuli like blend on my skin and then settles into a sweet red musky scent. i like both stages extremely well, though i think i'm going to try to layer this with the caterpillar to see if i can hold onto the heavy incense quality that i get when this is wet.

i think that it would be too harsh to say that i'm disappointed in kali, because that's not exactly true. however, what i get out of kali is about 180 from what i was hoping to get. in the imp: chocolate and something i'm reading as cherry. it's dark and rich, and i'm hoping it stays like this. wet:...wait, what? now it's traditional perfumey, white musk and florals. as it is, the florals are behaving and the white musk isn't getting sour. dry: all i get is the honey, rose, and tulip. it's very light and feminine, and very springlike. it reads to me as similar to queen mab- it doesn't smell like queen mab, but it has the same feel. i'm hanging on to my imp to see what another skin test does, but i have a feeling that i'm going to end up putting this on the swap pile as just not being 'me'.

if you're looking at your order through ccnow and it says shipped, it means that it's been harvested- which means they pulled it for filling. if you haven't received a cns yet then it hasn't actually shipped yet. eta: reading comprehension, i have it.

just out of cursiouity, how long does it generally take customer service to respond to emails? i emailed a question about my last order (mainly if i even did it right) three days ago and i still haven't gotten a response. i know that this is a really busy time for the lab, and i don't want to send another email if this long of a wait is normal. i'm known for jumping the gun and doing things like half an hour before they would have been done anyway. eta: and nothing like maintaining my long standing habit of jumping the gun...i got an email today!

i've been wanting to try this one for awhile, but i don't play well with either ozone or metallics, so i'm not holding out much hope for this one. in the imp: i actually don't smell much of anything. i get a very faint cologny ozone if i try hard. wet: all ozone and metallics. and it's making me sneeze. dry: when it first starts drying, i get a lot more of the notes- i get smoke, leather, and something faintly green. however it then morphs back to a rather flat ozone and metallic before it dies out completely. and it's making me sneeze again. i like the theme of this blend, but i can't handle blends that make me sneeze...

in the imp: dirty leather. this just feels dirty. it's nice, but it does remind me of a tack store. but i tend to not really like anything in the imp either. wet: the leather is still the prominent note, and it feels like the leather in the traveller- which could be a problem. however, it stays pretty tame and stays essentially just dirty leather. dry: it does get sweeter and lighter as it dries, but it stays a pretty heavy blend. the leather still stays the first note, but it does start to pull back. i get a hint of the clove and the musk as individual notes but everything else just blends. i do have to agree with the cowboy imagery mentioned upthread- this strikes me more as rural than urban fantasy. but it's not bad. it's not the stellar win i had hoped for, but it's far from meh and i'm thinking that aging this will help in the long run.

in the imp: really really faint. if i try hard i can grab at the amber, and something sweet. wet: wow. okay. this is completely different. this is actually fairly strong on me. it's sweet, almost honey sweet, and spicy. i wouldn't call it incensy though, this smells more like bengal than say dracul in feel. the amber isn't going powdery on me like normal. dry: this is a blend that smells like something i'm familiar with, but i can't figure out what it is. the sweetness pulls back a little and i get hints of the saffron and the cedar. i'm not familiar with golden musk but it does have a musky edge to it, but it's not rough or animalistic at all. wow this is not what i expected at all, and i'm much happier with it than i thought i was going to be.

block buster is without exaggeration the only thing that i've found that can pull me out of a panic attack.