Lycanthrope

I am a Leo. I don't know all the rest of my zodiac spread because... reasons... like not remembering what time I was born... but I am a preemie so I was supposed to be a Virgo. I've been doing all the Starstrucks - some good hits, some really weird ones, and then there's Taurus, which is like HAI I'M A BULL AND MADE OF ROSES AND YOU WILL SMELL LIKE ROSES (do you want to? no? MOO BAD). POW. Leo starts on me pretty much like a reddish spicy cloud, a little similar to Three Cocks but definitely a bit peppery and also herbal. I think it's the chamomile adding that weird type of grassy floral thing it does. With my skin chemistry it quickly veers towards carnation, a lush, Clemence-like carnation, with a dry backdrop and mild heat likely from saffron. On my skin saffron is a little funky but then also does not persist - it tends to retreat and just blur the edges of scents a little. In this case, the carnation showcases almost like a carnation SN to me with just a bit more complexity. I already got a few bottles since this is my birth sign. It's so very different from the past Leos! I think those had more walnut or something. Nuts. Hee. This is a desert warmed carnation blossoming in a handful of sand.

I'm so confused. On the skin, the salt note, I've determined, turns into a bit of corn-tortilla type situation. I've experienced this in a few other oceanic/ocean salt scents. It's different from the bladderwrack seaweedy salt, this is a warm, foody salt. I don't know if it's my chemistry or what. This is the same thing that happened to me with that Lilith scent I can't remember the name of for the life of me that featured a humpback whale or some type of marine whale-type crittermon. Also, tortillas. Happy tortillas, but same. After it dries down, it smells like a foody type of spiced bread. What. But, it's like totally BREAD and not like CAKE. I wonder if this is the saffron and nutmeg and the salt note + Lycanthrope chemistry reading as such. So, I'm not getting much ocean from this, and the sacred plants are very quiet - I think even the sage is processing to me as kitchen. Don't get me wrong, it's super comforting, but this is not too aquatic to me.

The Wickedest Street in the City. The romance of vice: red musk and bourbon vanilla with blackened amber, gunsmoke, honey, and a splash of rum. Oh! That's a lot going on all at once on my hair/skin. I guess I get a small hint of sweet red musk, a kiss of it like in Fenris Wolf and Scheherezade, but that disappears really fast under an upswell of ALL THE NOTES off the bat. I get a smoky amber that combined with the peppery gunpowder rises as a spicy, fiery resin. Rum is apparent as a hint of the Grog (but without butter), supported by a sweet sugar from the rum and the honey. I get the vanilla as more of a quiet supporter rather than a primary note. The red musk is lurking in the background, and this remains fiery, red, fierce. It's definitely not completely sweet though, since the spices keep it in the rich and complicated territory. I do like this. I may have to get another, although with short hair, and other competing hair glosses, one bottle may be enough! ... ETA: I bought another one.

Ok, Mugwort. Let's do this. Remember me from when I tried The Waters of The Well of Wisdom? That was mugwort, all the time, sharpened by aquatics and thyme and all the glorious muddy posterior? Hours of a slightly muddled, green-gray swirling aura of a mysterious slightly chewy, but stanky herbiness? Thankfully that is NOT what Cancer 2016 does on my skin. It definitely starts off heavy on the mugwort, where I'm thinking 'oh, gods, what have I done.' That does fade to a very nice, Faeu-Boulanger like misty violet. It's not really as swampy as that scent but the overall drydown is a light to medium strength pulpy wet violet. I think the sandalwood is a whisper, likely a backup supporter. Like an unobtrusive support column. The cucumber is not terribly green. It lends a bit of a fleshier wetness to the scent without resorting to Lightning or Tempest like wet/marine or ozone notes. Confederate jasmine does not go exotic like the true Indian Jasmines - so it's not amping in that way at all. It's a very serene, smooth blend, on me once the mugwort burns off in like 15 minutes. I like. Got backups.

Hmm. This is challenging, because Purple Phoenix is a stunning violet-like floral. It's on me a little candy sweet and fruity, but with plums, and purple fruits, maybe blackberry? In the meantime it also has a very lilac-petally violet. I don't think the two come together easily. However, I'd recommend: For the lush purple florals: Morgause (caveat: incensy. Definitely not fruity). This is the first one that jumped out in my mind. I love it. It's definitely got some jasmine-like notes, which may be ok since you like Nocturne (that reads to me more tuberose). For Violet: Sybaris (caveat: vanilla and clove is a bit spicier. Not fruity). Nocturne (as you know! Tuberose is wonderful). Mokey (more lilac, and osmanthus, but still wistful violet). Bruised Violet Compound (more patchouli/earthy, opoponax is a chunk resin. Not as bright). For the plummy fruit: Try Bordello (caveat: sadly, not very violetty, but that same sweet fruit note). Those are GC. I think you may also like Melisande, the Puppet Mistress (sp, sorry, lol, it's from CD). Jasmine+violet+mimosa. Faeu Boulanger, if re-released with the Wunderkammer, is an airy slightly misty violet. Nothing But Death from a Halloweeny is chunkier, chewier dried fruits, + violet.

White peony and Florentine iris butter gilded by white ambrette, rice powder, grey amber, pale vegetal musk, and white chocolate. This perfume is very much fresh, melty chocolate as a top note from the bottle. It's definitely not a very dark chocolate, but I'm getting the milk/white or cocoa butter vibe from the initial blast. This reminds me very much of the No One Heard Her But the Sparrows atmosphere spray and this shouldn't be a surprise as it contains similar notes of white chocolate, iris, and grey amber! I'm actually not getting too much peony, which is sad. This reads to me, as a slightly dusty, foody chocolate-floral blend, very much like the atmosphere spray. This is wonderful, as it's a very nice spray, and now I can smell like it!

THE FUTURE BALL One day, Lilith digs up one of my old crystal balls and asks me what it does. I tell her that some people read the future in crystal balls, so she asks me to tell her what's going to happen tomorrow. "I see a little girl waking up and asking for spaghetti for breakfast." "I see a yellow building and a yellow toy bus." "I see a big brown dog. The dog is trying to steal a little girl's dinner." "I see a little girl surrounded by stuffed animals. Her mother is trying to get her to go to sleep, but the little girl keeps asking for more stories." This went on every day for weeks. She'd pull out the ball, and ask (demand) that I tell her what was going to happen to her tomorrow. Fun stuff, motherhood! Crystalline white musk, Somalian olibanum, smoky benzoin, Damascus rose, dark myrrh, sacred sandalwood, life everlasting, rock rose, and gummy bear fingerprint residue. A very complicated scent. Wet on my skin this goes directly to 'smoky resin' and does not pass go. I'm getting much of the sandalwood, myrrh, with an overarching golden resin note that must be the rockrose/costus. The immortelle doesn't add too much sharpness to this. I can hardly detect any white musk at all, and for some reason these gummy bears must be in some kind of resin-drenched cult (or made of frankincense) because I do not detect the fruity note that I would expect from BEARS OF GUM. Over time there is a transition towards smoky, spicy rose, a beautiful fragrance chord that Beth does very well. It remains on the skin a very ecclesiastical, church like aroma. It is magnificent. Like a slightly updated Penitence. My imp should last me, but otherwise if you like churchy resins and angels made of BEARS OF GUM, do try this.

LILITH'S BUBBLEGUM AND ROSES This summer, Lilith spent Tuesdays and Thursdays with us here at the Lab. One day, she decides that she wants to make a perfume for herself that all her friends can wear, too. We talk for a little while, and I let her smell some components before she finally decides that she wants her fragrance to smell like bubblegum and roses. Little lady, your wish is my command. Lilith's creation: a spray of pink roses, red rose petals, and pink sticky bubblegum! Sweet, sweet, gummy, sticky, chewy pink Bazooka Joe bubble gum at the top. No flagrant fragrant rose yet... I get a lot more spice than expected, almost a cinnamon note that is becoming stronger as the sweetness of the gum dissipates. As this goes on my skin, any rose that is present is only very quietly coming to the forefront. This is weird because I am a rose-amper. I'm actually getting more fiery spice. This is kind of like Sin, except with bubble-gum. It is a perfect spicy bubblegum / cinnamon bubblegum scent. I actually need a bottle. There are moments where I want to smell like this. ETA: about an hour out, it smells like tiny toy roses. /squee

Well... I think we're falling into the categories of getting beautiful subtle notes, and then the opposite getting surprisingly potent, off, husky, strong aspects of the notes. I'm with gentle-twig and Little Bird, in theory these notes should be gloriously beautiful on me, but when this touches my skin, it's like this interchange: Skin: Oh hai, I iz wanting the rich sweet burnished perfume? Oil: I am made of win please to apply Skin: OK then Oil: I am sekrit russian walrus and lounging on your skin all like barbed and with whiskers and much more potency than expected Skin: Oh no I am betrayed! Darn you and your baleful espionage! Oil/Walrus: *chortling like a walrus* *chortle* *jiggle* *chortle* Immediately the top notes for me are truly skatole-ish, and not in a good way for me. Over time the scent does round out, and on me goes towards a dry more black patchouli. I suspect the culprits for me would be tobacco if it's a variable or different tobacco note, and oudh generally is good but maybe parts of it didn't play well together for my skin chemistry. This is definitely one to try a decant first. I think I may be able to deal with the drydown, but I'm kind of scared that others may smell the ferocious skatole-like opener and it may linger more or be more apparently freshly encountering someone. I'll let it age and see what happens.

A crack in the door to the underworld: blackened leaves, woodsmoke and flame, dusty mullein, and apple bark against a backdrop of sepulchral myrrh. This smells very much like the October family of fragrances or Autumn Grove, but what a difference a little time to evolve provides! The smoke comes creeping up to the forefront and surprises you with a bit of a scorch, and the apple is not overpowering but does lend a tiny touch of autumnal fruit. It's very environmental and evocative. The myrrh is not strong, but this is a moody, sultry autumn spritz. Want more!

One little mistake upsets all our arrangements: sugarplums, red rose petals, and sweet red patchouli. For some reason, when I spray this, I get an awesome, blood-red painted rich music box, like made of mahogany, that has dried rose petals in it. The initial blast has a bit more of the fruit, but this mellows out into an extremely sexy, woodsy, voluptuous rose. It's super sexy. The red patchouli drips with a beautiful huskiness, and the rose petals don't overpower. It's still quite floral, though, so take that into account!

MARS LOUCETIUS Mars of the Thunderstorm A white tea chypre with rockrose, white sandalwood, and champaca flower. Partial to the pretty muscular guy, and there's... a very interesting scent here! It's very sharply cologney and masculine initially, although once it hits the skin, it starts to go immediately towards a very nice white tea, kind of like The Unsteady Governess, and then it goes more towards a slightly sweet costus (rockrose), with a little bit of dryness from the sandalwood. The Champaca is subtle but makes this not completely an absolute chypre, it adds a nice unisexuality to this scent. This is a refined tea. With a little bit of resin. Drying down on me the champaca adds a dryness, and once the tea settles, it's a little bit of a gritty (yet light, or white, if that makes sense) scent.

THE SHRINE WHERE SIN IS A PRAYER I have passed from the outermost portal To the shrine where a sin is a prayer; What care though the service be mortal? O our Lady of Torture, what care? All thine the last wine that I pour is, The last in the chalice we drain, O fierce and luxurious Dolores, Our Lady of Pain. Deep purple Syrah, calamus, myrrh smoke, hyssop, opoponax, bitter clove, burgundy pitch, opium poppy, and violet leaf. Yikes, this is an evil, rich deep wine scent, with lots of smoky evil. It starts off quite sharp, with the tang of bitter grapes, and then the clove and opoponax run away to make everything crackle with a deep blackness. There is a touch of dried, dead flowers and sleepy opium. My house is a tomb! Yikes!

Hrm. Interesting. My favorite honeysuckle blend of all time is Liaidan and Curithir, probably because of its salty-aquatic ocean honeysuckle. I've really enjoyed BPAL's honeysuckle, and have been really disappointed when I've tried to pick up fragrance oils to try to en masse honeysuckle all the things. This is most definitely a sweet, yellow honeysuckle, for sure, when smelled from the bottle. On the skin, whoa baby, golden, singing, bees up in your grill honeysuckle. I remember Asphodel itself from the GC when it existed and for some reason that always read to me as 'wisteria,' although not quite. Hyacinth has also been a tulip-y, watery scent, although I can't really place what that smells like by itself. So, basically this is to my nose a very slightly snow-touched (extremely light!) wet lighter floral that is mostly honeysuckle. I think there's a little hint of sweet smoke but I'm not really getting too much vetiver, even with drydown. I think my skin takes the sweet honeysuckle note and runs with it. I think the honey is contributing to the sweetness but it's by no means really that apparent, not to me at least. My skin also tends to take honey and change it into a potentially sweet hot mess, and that's not happening (yet). As a guy, I don't really know if this is something I can get away with wearing a lot of, but it'll be a nice honeysuckle alternative as I nurse my last drops of Liaidan.

This is very nice. Each year with the Yules I generally find one or two blends that I stock up mightily upon, and this is one of the two (the other being Unmanageable Snowdrift). Wet, this definitely has a strong aquatic tone, and a similar 'icy' note as Moon of Ice, Cold Moon, in that it has a quasi-eucalyptoid topnote. On the skin, I do get a little bit of a green-tinged subtle jasmine, but what I'm reading is a kiss of blue lotus absolute (?!) as the main floral component. The jasmine does not arise to the surface like a diva, but the kind of lightly sweet but extremely hypnotic florals must be a more subtle, smoky blend. Agree that violet leaf is always a gritty green, slightly resinous type of scent as opposed to my favorite floral, violet (the voluptuous heady purple type), and it's really not terribly potent in this blend either. Over time, the aquatic note burns down and this turns into a very pleasant, close-to-the-skin subtle incense, without too much in terms of jasmine petal. You can still tell that it's a light floral incense, hugging close to the skin. I may be biased by the description but this is a blue smoke. I think a little bit of japanese koh incense, a single spiral of blue-tinted smoke risking from a charcoal burner.

A venerable, complex formula used for protection, guidance, and peace of mind. Nestled amongst my most recent order was a bottle of this, and I did a search through the existing blends and didn't find it, so I suppose I'm on the spot here. So, without further ado, Aegis, Twilight Alchemy Blend. From the name, I would assume that this oil is involved heavily in protection, be it from external malevolent sources, or perhaps a strengthening of one's resolve in preparation for a trial, be it mental, physical, or spiritual. I'm not certain how to use the twilights, but I will test a dab or two of this on my wrist before going out again today to class. From the bottle, Aegis smells slightly lavender-y, with a sweet, kind of musky, snappier floral, blended over something remniscent of Wolf's Heart, a sweet, neroli-esque base mixed with a touch of spiciness. It's a little peppery, a little gingery, but mostly very subdued. On the back of my wrist, wet, it's (whomp!) lavender, with perhaps a brush of peppermint and citrus peel or lemongrass, quite herbal and sharp. Over time, it grows more lemony, with a faint woodsy base. I do feel somewhat more grounded wearing Aegis. Longterm, it's very hard to pin down what is in Aegis, it's a slightly jasminoid, lavender blend layered very superbly with less bright citrus notes, and I swear there is a touch of that same tamarind note I get in Nephilim. It actually seems to get stronger as I wear it. I can see how this would be a very grounding scent. Oddly enough, I get hints of both 'air' and 'earth' with this on. If I had to compare this to any general catalog scent I'd say it shares qualities with Oneiroi but has more of a herbal/lemon kick to it. Over a longer time to dry down, the florals disappear and I have a slightly spiced, lemon-rosewood aroma. I'll have to try this out next time something particularly taxing threatens me. It does very vaguely irritate my skin, so this may go in my burner.

Whoa. I mean, I should have known, my archnemesis mugwort would be here, all twirling her mustache like 'yeah, I have a mustache, what of it?' while looking down over the top of her wire rim glasses. Her nineteen-point-three cats are milling about, all enjoying the musty stagnancy that is mugwort on Lycanthrope's skin. So, as most of the mugwort blends, please take with a grain of salt - it's like rose, amps to crazy high heaven on me, while browsing for Braun beard razors through amazon.com. I really wanted to find some of the other notes in this blend, so I let the oil sit on my skin for a good thirty minutes. There's so much promise in the note list. I love tuberose, and bourbon vanilla usually drives scents into enough of a sweet-foody category that I'll love it regardless of whatever else is in the blend. I actually don't get very much smokiness, contrary to what you'd think from the tobacco and opium notes. What's even weirder is that I don't get any fruit/plum notes, which usually also at least give notes a brisk fruity kick. I have a feeling that Paysage is remarkably well blended but deceptively smooth given the many 'spiky' or potentially potent notes. Over a bit of time, even through the muddy butt that is mugwort on my skin, and bear with me, it's like the quietest components of each of the notes whispers. Like a purple sigh of plum rind. The quiet waxiness of tuberose. Vanilla dust. Even the smoke notes are like extinguished incense. After thirty minutes, it's like the resonance of a fragrance remains in the air. It's actually pretty beautiful but I can't do the mugwort, and what does dry down is sumptuous rich, like the kind of sumptuousity that I don't really reach for. Like a velvet pillow embroidered with a cat and a Braun logo (free with purchase of beard trimmer, special discount for mustachio'd supervillainesses).

This is pretty similar to one of the Frankenstein releases a few years back, The Country of Eternal Light, with a few differences. Whereas the Country of Eternal Light was still a sweet, bracing, bright mint with the sweetness of peppermint and a similar drydown, it had a little bit of rockiness and 'lichen,' lending a tiny gray-green twinge. I love it, of course, and have stockpiled so much of that, but I had to go ahead and get more of Unmanageable Snowdrift. It has a similar sweet, very bright mint (mostly peppermint, but probably some spearmint too). It dries down as Little Bird mentions into something like Lick It with much less vanilla or sugar. It's still herbal sweet, not sugary or foodie sweet, which is fine by me!

I always tend to be a bit spastic with violet scents. My favorites would be orris-y/violet-y blends like The Darkling Thrush, and Sybaris, scents that really bring out the powdery, sweet and candy-like aspects of the flower. There are a few violet blends that seem to be a more forceful, less floral type of violet. Brusque Violet comes to mind, since the resinous opoponax turns it from being sweet and delicate into a much deeper, darker thing, but then turns woefully on my skin into a sourness that I can't get away with. Certain times resinous violet works such as in Nothing But Death, but I think that was tempered with some more sweet fruits. This plum I get is definitely dark, dry, like a prune, and the benzoin resin must be driving this into the more sharp and dirty category. I can tell there is amber but it's not glittering like in some amber blends. Overall on my skin this does have a faint top violet note, but reads more as a deep slightly sour resin. The plum again gives it a rindy quality I just can't quite sit with. I don't think this is one of my violet successes, but that's ok! So much more to try

Wow. This frankincense sparkles. It's a beautiful, crisp, soaring frankincense. I love how it glitters. Meanwhile, the ambergris makes it rounder and grounds the glitter. I'm trying to figure out the misty florals... I wonder if it's a touch of tuberose, maybe, because I'm getting a similar feel to this tuberose-winter scent (A Cold, Clear Winter's Day?). It gets a little bit sugary near the end, so not sure if that's the ambergris doing what it does on me like a sweet musk. I like it. I'm not sure I'll wear too much because on dry down, like most top notes in perfumes, this goes to me like a sweet soft floral (not my style!) but I think I'd love to slather it when it's snowy out, or foggy.

The spirit of the full moon is capricious, intense and passionate, yet still distant, aloof and cold. Luna herself governs glamours, bewitchments and dream-work, innocent wonder, transient pleasure and delight, the Moment, impulse, mystery and veils. The Blue Moon is one of her rarest manifestations, and this scent is formulated to encapsulate her most complex and profound nature: Mugwort and bay, for psychic sensitivity... Myrrh for protection and purity of spirit... Lotus root for true dreaming... Clary sage for euphoria... ... within a crystalline prism of white vegetal musk shimmering with damp violet leaf, tranquil styrax, green tea absolute, and palmarosa. Bottle sniff: Wet, definitely a tiny hint of the mugwort (frightening for me, since... mudbutt, on my skin chemistry). I smell more green, leafy things, and probably a little sharpness from the palmarosa. On skin: Oh, yeah, mugwort, but then it segues into the bay, and then the usual muddled dirtiness of mugwort lifts, and I'm getting more of the freshness of tea. The herbalness when wet is very much the clary sage. There's probably a hint of sweetness from the lotus but it is not bubblegum sweet. As it dries: I can feel and sense more of the myrrh that does ground a lot of the airy / ethereal notes. There's still a very nice but extremely herbal nature - definitely mystical, melded herbs. Over time, it stays predominantly a green-ish, leafy, herbal, bay/gritty mugwort blend on me with a nice ground of resin with the styrax and myrrh. It's much less smooth (at this point fresh from the Lab) than the other Blue Moon incarnations I've tried before, and definitely smells magical. It is not my favorite of the Blues, and for me does not smell Blue, but it is very nice and reminds me of a TAL type blend.

So, um, I don't know if I maybe I'm just weird, but it smells like cucumber and the airy/sappy 'green' part of a leaf, then on me it's slightly sweet, then ziploc bags / freshly crinkled saran wrap, then... fades... to something slightly powdery sweet, with a little sappiness still left behind. It really does smell like plastic, maybe a little of that note in Torn Candy Bag bath oil? It's a little, on me at least, stomach turning, but only because it's smells so genuinely like tiny wisps of stretchy plastic. My curiosity got the better of me on this one! I'll keep it though, because, HOARDING

An omnipresent feature of haunted antebellum mansions: drooping, moribund tendrils hanging solemnly from ancient oak and cypress branches. Mmm, I can definitely tell that this is blended into some of my favorites, like The Apothecary, Bayou, Jazz Funeral... But the single note definitely does not play well on my skin - it's sharp, earthy, but more of an airy, dry, clod-of-dirt type of smell, and then the single note spirals higher and higher, being a sharp, biting presence. Not grounded. Which is kind of like spanish moss! Drydown is slightly lemony, but only a touch. I've never smelled true spanish moss up close, but this evokes the dangly gray bits. I got two bottles, and may be able to dirty up some scents with it, but it's not purely pleasant, if that's what you are looking for.

A scent that glitters with the coldest white musk; hollow, sharp, and brittle. A challenge! I rise to the occasion to try to figure out this white musk scent! Wet, piney, slushy, Beth's snow note (Cloister Graveyard, etc). On, definitely a strong burst of juniper, which rapidly steps a bit aside as not to be overpowering, and then maybe a hint of ozone, and then, magic, it's a less intense Nuclear Winter, it's the snowdrift of Talvikuu without reading first-forward as a pine scent, it's the snow cresting the slopes of Snow Bunny, it's Skadi's breath of cold ice without the berries... Close to Ice Queen, in terms of how it glistens. On drydown, it adopts a very tiny smidge of that beautiful Dorian white musk sweetness, but by no means is this sugary-sweet. The wintertime needles and plant notes behave masterfully in this and unlike things like Winter-Time (too spearminty on me) this stays smooth, close to the skin but remarkably wearable, so very pretty. This is so much more than just a white musk single note (but it is also NOT a single note white musk), and it is perfect. DEAD. ON. Winter.

Perfect red roses, warm amber sunlight, and the sweet honeyed carnation of friendship. Wow! I totally ordered this thinking it was a perfume, but it is totally not. However, still awesome. This is a very beautiful, intensely sweet and quite amber-y mid-range rose floral. Spicy carnation, kind of like a richer Maiden. This does veer towards stronger territory and is a touch powdery, but bizarrely when I spray it, I get LUSH Alkmaar as my recurrent 'I know this scent!' deja vu. On a piece of fabric, I can detect a rich, deep lush rose, balanced very well by a sunny amber. I don't get much orange or citrus so the 'sunlight' is maybe still just the amber, and in terms of sweetness it's likely that a well-blended honey note is what is sending this into sugary-sweet territory. The carnation is detectable on drydown as an exquisite spicy sweetness and depth, which tingles at the last whiffs of the spray. The pretty 'Spanish Red Carnation' vibe is present, in that the carnations I smell are the rich, very spicy type (not the slightly sharper 'pink carnation' that I recall from other carnationy things). It's very nice. Very sweet, floral, spicy tea rose without being "tea rose" SN, similar to Maiden, but with hints of things like Lugubre Gondola for the rich amber. Definitely something I would see myself using more in the summer or fall.