Lycanthrope

Whoa... So, when I first got my bottle of Candy Butcher, it was very thin, and had an alcohol-like smell to it. Also almost no staying power. I was curious if I had a true 'oil' (it evaporated off my skin like alcohol). This was the original release. What I did get was a buttery rich vanilla-cocoa, definitely like a candy bar, and I loved it, but thought I may have had a weird bottle. Then it got discontinued and all hope of getting original CB was lost. This release is definitely a darker chocolate, and then when it's on, for me it reads very husky, deep, earthy, downright evil. Not sure what makes it turn that way. Maybe the 'bittersweet' enabled some very creepy dark notes to creep in. It is very much like The Other Hot Chocolate (deep gritty, chocolate) but this one... I put it on today and I'm going to a LAN party later, and I'm thinking of scrubbing it off just because it has plenty of throw, and I smell so... ferocious. Purry, like, sex kitten ferocious. Whoops. It's nice. A little will go a long way. It's not a replacement for what I think the original CB was, at least for me, but it's its own scent.

This is just as I remembered it, even as a reformulation. It reads as a slightly lightning-kissed (without the sharpness of Lightning), atmospheric, sweet night floral (more... phlox and moonflower, not jasmine-heavy!) with a wisp of smoke. A smoky, hazy floral. When I first encountered Act I, I only bought one bottle, then I think the original was discontinued and I had been hoarding my lonely half bottle. I like this a lot, and those with the original will also find it extremely similar (at least on my skin!)

The scent of fallow fields, faraway conflagrations consuming dry, parched grasses, and crops failing under the relentless heat of a dying sun. Fleshy pumpkin again, orange meat and slightly spicy. A hint of the hay note, a little tiny bit of vetiver or smoke lingering in the background. Comparisons would be made to Scarecrow, which has a stronger cologne/topnote bite and definitely more hay. This is a pumpkin kissed a little bit by grasses and smoke. There's a huskiness to the blend, and while it is not SWEET, this is not a very dark blend. It is holiday appropriate. Not as atmospheric as I would have liked... That being said, this would be more a 'trick or treating' smell of lit jackolanterns in suburbia' type of scent!

Grey pumpkin husk and bruised violets blanketed by creeping white mycelium, black mosses, and toxic subterranean mushrooms. I love violets, but pumpkin goes horribly bad on my skin in most blends. Was most intrigued by this particular scent! Sprayed in the air and on a small corner of a blanket, this is definitely dominated initially by a squashy, yet warm pumpkin. It's not a cold one, I see the guts and stringy seeds. While violet is listed as a note, I'm not getting that the flower is a dominant player (wolf sad-face). There may be some slight coolness, but I still get a spicy, slightly fruity (blueberry? playing tricks on me with the violet?) pumpkin with a touch of creamy spice. I get a hint of the dry mosses (this is a little oakmoss tinge), but no particular strong mushroom scent. A slightly cool pumpkin scent. Not quite what I was expecting. I got too many of them, although I can anticipate using these as WONDERFUL Halloween party scenting. Wish there had been more of a pure violet but pumpkin trounced that idea flat! Puddin' put a note 'Violet Weenies!' in my order. See, if that actually happens, please go to your nearest ER to treat gangrenous priapism :|.

The number on my floral is 76. Wet: I've... smelled this before... it's very familiar. It doesn't smell like flowers. On skin: APPLE BLOSSOM, and a fresh, fleshy apple fruit. A little later: Oh, yeah, that's a bit of jasmine. Please don't amp! About twenty minutes: Oh, yeah... it's jasmine. Not a bad one, but I turn jasmine into single notes. It still has a hint of apple. So, like an exotic apple jasmine. Although the apple is really faint, I keep thinking of cutting open an apple and smelling the core, but sitting by a big jasmine bush. Very tropical. Sultry. What a random thing! I would usually never pick this type of scent.

Rain-lashed stone and fading summer flowers. This is pretty awesome. In summary, this smells like a damp, misty park in the morning, and sidewalk. Starts off strong on the stone note, which may be a bit off-putting, a very small hint of gravel and something akin to Maoi, that pumice note, but then gets a hint of brighter, stemmier/sappier florals. I think it may be a bit of dandelion and daisy. The overall effect is of a pleasant environmental aroma, without too much grit or dirt. Over time, the entire scent smoothens. Faint throw, but very unique. ETA: Several hours later, this is a sweet floral, akin to the drydown in Villainess's Jade, which is pretty awesome.

Limb-loosener. Ambergris, pale musk, peru balsam, golden amber, cedar, lavender, spikenard, narcissus, vanilla caramel, white sandalwood, and woodmoss. Bottle sniff. Sweet. Very faint. Seems kind of pale. It's funny 'cause the guy on the label has the 'i' going up a very particularly odd place! The label is also spelled 'Glukupikros.' Wet, this is still very light. Over time there is a tiny bit more of a sweet sharpness, definitely a pale musky sandalwood. There is not too much flagrant cedar, narcissus, or lavender... this is all very smoothly herbal with a touch of translucent musk. The vanilla caramel is perhaps what is giving this a little sugary sweetness, but by no means is it foody caramel. This scent is striking me as very androgynous, actually. Hrm. I'm puzzled by this scent, I thought it'd be more uniformly ferocious, given some of the notes in it - vanilla caramel, or lavender, for example, but again this is a very tight skin-scent which has hints of all of its ingredients, but doesn't really showcase any one of its components. If I'd have to sum it up, Glukuprikos is a slightly mossy dry herbal wood with light throw.

I used to have a Yankee Candle named 'Roses of Cliff Walk,' and that was very close to what I remember. It's very hard for any traditional rose scent to hit that because it's... um, a more grassy, slightly more upturned (? I can't describe it any other way) rose, lighter for sure, slightly spicy, but also the salt air made it smell a touch ozonic... But it never read to me as 'lush' or 'creamy.' So maybe trying to stay away from the pure Red Rose note Beth uses (that one is beautiful, but I always think of traditional roses when I smell them), and anything described as 'creamy.' Um... hrm... The sad thing is Yankee hasn't made that scent for a while, and I think my mother may have given away one of my old ones (the nightmare of a hoarder - let one thing go and then you crave it forever). I like Maiden, but that is a very carnation-y blend, however on me it's the lightest and least 'lush' rose possible. So, sorry I can't be more help. /rambling/ I wonder if you were to layer 'The Rose' with 'Cthulhu' or even 'A Fit of Artistic Enthusiasm' (more The Rose, less the following) if that would get the salty light rose going.

Doom unfettered, the ruin of hope: the tattered remains of Gelgja, smashed stone, feral grey musk, and blackened blood. This is a very strong, vetiveraceous rocky scent. The blood note is quite strong in this as a sour, metallic tinge over granite pebbles. There is a little musk but this isn't a sweet, singing one, but more of a thrummy, deeper one giving this a little bit more complexity than just ash and stone. It's extremely evocative and again, very granite-y rocky. Not like Black Opal rock shimmer, sadly, more like... um, gritty, husky pulverized rock. It's really not my style of scent, but if you go for the quirky and striking, this is definitely worth a try.

A luxurious, glamorous bordello and gaming house famous for its high-class ladies, high-stakes gambling, extraordinary service, and powerful clientele. Gleaming leather entwined with honeysuckle, ivory musk, and white gardenia. Whoa, so weird. This is sprayed onto a microfiber cloth as a 'linen spray' so I don't mix it up with the other scents. Definitely a dry leather, like... um, Dee leather, or White Rider leather. The florals are definitely present and quite skatole-heavy. Maybe the gardenia? There's also that sharp peppery-leafy sweetness of honeysuckle petals and the grassiness. Then, perhaps the musk (white, I think?) is adding another tone of sweetness. The effect combines at first into a very... um, kind of fecal/skatole burst off the bat, mixed with leather this is very scary. I also for some reason huffing the cloth get 'squash and garden leaves' but I have no idea why. Initial burst is off-putting. However given a few minutes to calm down, this is a leather-planty, yellow-gold light floral, slightly herbaceous blend. I can definitely get the honeysuckle and gardenia after it's calmed down from the leather blast. I like both, so this is improving on pleasantness as it has a moment to settle. Very... interesting... I don't dislike it, but that first blast is something to get over, lol!

I just got this! After a really rainy Denver week, this is helpful to smell a slightly dry, reddish wood (like Fenris Wolf, but more flowers... a bit softer around the edges). That's wafting from the bottle. On the skin, it has a very similar reddish sandalwood vibe, but then the myrrh starts to turn it more... 'voluptuous' for a better word, and then the scent goes definitely towards a sweet, deep, vanilla-like (but not cloying!) sweetness. It starts moving more towards a very intriguing, non-sugary and definitely non-foody vanilla. A gourmand, supported by the woods to make for a very wonderful, less masculine but still UBER CUDDLY Fenris Wolf. On me, Snake Oil has a bit too much exotic flair - this is still heady and commanding, with that red-musk feel, but I don't get actual red musk. So... um, it's hard to put this completely into words... It has similar traits towards Monster Bait: Underpants (vanilla sandalwood?), because lurking under the very slight, but burnished woods, the fundamental song is a harmonious woods-vanilla richness. As it dries down, the richness improves, and it doesn't morph quite as much as Fenris Wolf or Jupiter (BPAL) moved on me - those were strong dry red woods that dried down drier. This is like a heavy bass note or chant slowly reverberating down to your nasal core and harmonizing, spreading, enveloping, singuralizing and becoming a full, rounded EXPERIENCE, a scent that hits all the chords so right you can't tell one note from another, until it's just MMMMMMMMM. As it dries down, the Oude woods enrich, and, wow, like seriously, I can't believe how good this is. It melds with my (male) skin chemistry SO GOOD. I smell like... SO GOOD. I would be in trouble if like, for example, Chris Evans sauntered into my house and was like, HEY BABE. I SMELL LIKE SINUS AMORIS, LIKE SRSLY. I would also accept Jeremy Renner, although I'd expect him to smell more ... woodsy. Of course if they both were wearing Sinus Amoris, like, they could totally fight, shirtless, over me, and I would be like MOAR SINUS AMORIS, throwing it onto their unnaturally buff bodies, and wondering if I would go more for classic scruffy or the hot dad Renner effect. And they would smell awesome, and it would totally be the WORST MOVIE PLOT EVER. So, um, this time, hoarding instincts, you win. I already checked the website for the slim chance that this was still up (no such luck). I would have bought many more Evans.

Snow-blanketed granite enveloped by a sea of spruce and pine. If you love atmospheric, pine forest scents, this is an absolute stunner. It starts off with loads of spruce, with a hint of coolness from the snow. The spruce is magnificent, just like a fresh cut tree hauled into the room. The stone note is not terribly strong, but there is a touch of Beth's sweet snow note that is peeking through marvelously. I spray just a touch of this and instantly, I have the holidays surrounding me. A perfect christmas tree scent, wild, true, and marvelous. It does start out a bit auto-freshener with the spruce but give it some time to develop and bloom. It's a perfect, quiet, Grimm's fairy tale snow forest!

The solemn twilight of the year. Ruptured in transit - 3/4 bottle left but I could smell it all over the USPS package! Intially has a blast of leaves, like Autumn Grove, the 'fallen leaf' note. I can also detect the slightly sour, bitter moss note. Underneath this all is actually a deep, romantic cedar scent (Himalyan?) that represents the thick, gnarled roots. The cedarwood is so relaxing that even after the top notes have burned out I keep sniffing the blanket corner that I sprayed this on for a sweet, deep, woodsy, environmental note. Similar vibe to Grove, but less super-leafy. Very nice. Please don't waffle on this if you like dry, realistic forest floor notes, given the cryptic description!

KRAMPUSUMZÜGE Dirt-spattered rags, rusted chains, and dry switches against a backdrop of black fir and snow. Straight up from the bottle, this smells sweet, piney, and just a hint of that first bit of leather - the airy topnote, without the thrum of the deeper, animalistic hide notes. The 'dirt, rags, and metal' are subtle, so this isn't spiked with vetiver or loaded up with dirt like Graveyard Dirt's note. Spritzed, this is a very cool, only slightly menacing pine scent, and dries towards being more of single, sweet spruce/pine aroma with a detectable but not overpowering burst of leather. The leather deepens as it dries in the air. What I'm left with is a very nice, Yuletide scent, that is mostly a cool, crisp pine with a whisper of playful menace.

HUNTERS IN THE SNOW The scent of a calm, grey winter’s day: bare trees and cooking fires, thick blankets of snow, and icy, frozen rivers. Wet: Smells masculine to me, an assortment of woods (I'm not very good at picking these out). The snow hits when wet, but is minor and overpowered by the woods. Dry: Didn't try - woods don't work for me, so no dry test was done. This was off to the swabs/sales for me. Courtesy of the wonderful mellifluous. Sweet snow topnote is present. There must be a little bit of grey musk in this as the air smells slightly resinous and chilly. Just a hint of a smoke from the fires but no spicey warmth from that directly. The trees may be a hint of birch or a subtle woodsey note. The rest of the scent is very ozonic and marine in that it is a mix of powdery snow notes, ice, and the icy rivers. It's pretty amazing, I have to say. Smells like outside and camping.

White rose, lavender, kush accord, oudh, opium poppy, white musk, and shamama attar. This is mostly a pure herbal lavender when wet, but the drydown is a sweet, creamy woodsy note. It's the khus, I believe, that lends it an overall incensy vibe. The rose is not overbearing, and the drydown is a hint of the balsamic lavender over this very calming wood note. I hope that the LEs that are opening up the new Somniums will remain, because I can see this being quite a nice sleep blend for me.

Rub onto your palms and dab onto the base of your throat to sweeten your words, increase persuasiveness and command of language, and to infuse your voice and manner with grace, charisma, and power. Eloquentia IV is a slightly lemon-y scented oil with a leafy green overtone. It does remind me of a slightly less sweet Chakra (throat) scent in that it has a slightly mentholic rubber-airy scent. The definite tone is pleasant but not really perfumy, color is gold yellow to my very mild color association. I am not a very persuasive person to begin with. I wore this twice and I at least feel less 'blocked and shy,' but I'm not absolutely certain it caused any particular change in the usual way I come across. I am by nature pretty easygoing and people do listen to me, so... maybe this is just an augmentation of the norm.

The blood of the gods cascading onto earth and into sea: salt and sinew, venom and flame, and bone shards scattered across the gore-soaked soil of Óskópnir. Yup, whoa, yikes. This thing scares me. It's definitely got a strong blood note, as well as that strange combination of dry, salt, white, and crusty that happens when Beth does bone, which is so scary. This does not smell like Gore-Shock, so no meat, no ham, but it has a very strong presence that screams "Battlefield." There's grit, and a touch of rich loam, so I'm getting a bit of that Graveyard Dirt base, and, dry, dry salt, smoke, white white bone, desolation, death. The color I see is white speckled with little silver flecks. I have no idea why. Yet through this all, it's immensely wearable. The throw is more manageable as an ashy, high pitched vetiver, so I could actually probably get away with smelling like this. Yiiiiiikes. /runs

HUMANITAS No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. - Aesop Carnation, black cherry, wild strawberry, helichrysum, and frankincense. Shea oil, olive oil, mineral oil, apricot kernel oil, fractionated coconut oil, rosehip seed, evening primrose oil, vitamin E, Helichrysum italicum, isopropyl myristate, glycereth-7-cocoate (derived from coconut), oleth 3, and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume blends. From the bottle, Humanitas is a very strong, fruity fragrance - so much dark, sweet, overpoweringly sweet cherry, and a hint of strawberry. Applied directly to the skin it is a powerful, super-strong cherry. Artificial smelling... at first! In the water (and also on the skin longer) - it appears to transition away from cherry as that note lightens, and the carnation and frankincense peek through. The oil continues to transition towards a much more 'Ysabel' like bath oil fragrance, sweet, bright resinous kissed carnation. The strawberry lends a small amount of cold juiciness and pulpiness to the blend and it smells quite nice. Overall, soft, gentle, definitely 'a kind act.' I like it.

What is this? It starts off very green and grassy, with a bit of a sharper leafiness (maybe the myrtle). Definitely more the plant honey myrtle as opposed to actual honey. Very weirdly, two hours in, and this is going very musky on me. Like, a relative of red musk but less rich, yet, all at the same time, not as work friendly as I thought. So, it started off fresh, leafy, and turns rich, lacquered faint woods, like... what I would imagine aspen tree wood would smell like, bright, golden, yellow-ish green, a morpher. It -is- very similar to Laughter of Loki, same green musk note, just stronger than I expected and differently sensual.

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, for psychic sensitivity... Calea Zacatechichi, yarrow, and mastic for divination through dreams... Frankincense and hyssop for complexity, wisdom and noscere... ... with a potent lunar-charged, oneirongenic blend of blue musk, exquisite woods, moonflower, evening stock, Madagascan ylang ylang, Florentine iris, Greek cypress, green tea absolute, palmarosa, cucumber, rose milkweed, Clary sage, lavender, lemon balm, and passion fruit. I have been looking for the elusive cucumber-tinged, original Blue Moon but haven't found it quite yet. That said this is very pretty. Starts of with a heavy cologne bite that scared me a touch, likely it was the blue musk and tea, clary sage, doing a little oddness. There are so many components and initially the blend is a touch sharp around the edges but then becomes a very indescribable, soft, hazy scent. I don't know, but Blue Moon hasn't ever been 'blue' in color to me in terms of scent association. Not terribly lemony. Misty. Reedy? And like... glowy. Beautiful, and I wish I'd ordered another one. But not moistly cucumber, which I was kind of hoping for.

I did a cross-country move back in... um, 200...9? I had an overnight in some place called Grand Lake, and even changed a Travelocity booking because I didn't trust the hotel, cuz, you know, BPAL. Everything still smells great, even my *cough* 2005 Snake Oil 10 mL It is even better because it stood up to those Nebraskan (theoretical) ruffians!

Pale, elegant lily blossoms gilded with snow and lightly brushed with sugarcane. Because I'm weird. I ordered this because I love lily, but only the stargazer type. Not knowing which type was a risk, I suppose. Smelling from the spray top (see above), I definitely get Beth's frosty, slushy snow note (a la Cloister Graveyard in the Snow, Dust of Snow, etc). I spritzed a bit of this into my palm and spread it to smell it. Initially it's a very sappy, petally, clear, very white lily petal, and I'm definitely getting more of a Stargazer / oriental lily vibe versus muguet/of the valley. The sharpness almost has a boughy, evergreen like quality to it but that may be the snow note playing tricks on me. As it has a bit of time to calm down on my skin, which is in moments (like 3-5 minutes) the sharpness is gone and it rises to the surface as an ethereal, ripply fabric-like cold lily, and most definitely the cold, slushy snow note I love in many blends. There's almost a trickle of water in this. It reminds me partially of Sea of Glass without being as frankly rose-y. Which, OMG. Why did I make that comparison, now I need it forever. On distant drydown there's a little sugar, but it's by no means caramelized like Sugar Skull (that type of sugar goes really wrong on me long term). So, scent wise, this is a beautiful, not overtly floral but still extremely charming winter lily, which could be worn in winter for sure but may also make for a ravishing summer, iced flower scent.

IN THE DARKNESS THEY MURMURED AND MINGLED And they laughed, changing hands in the measure, And they mixed and made peace after strife; Pain melted in tears, and was pleasure; Death tingled with blood, and was life. Like lovers they melted and tingled, In the dusk of thine innermost fane; In the darkness they murmured and mingled, Our Lady of Pain. Labdanum, black plum, black currant, violet, and champaca flower. Burns great, and has great throw cold, too. Smells like a brown-golden resin, and juicy, dark berries and plum. The violet is quite apparent and is adding a subtle powdery velvet scent. If I sniff hard enough, the champaca adds an incensy element to the entire thing. On fire, this is resin/fruit dominant, but you can still tell the violet is there. I love this! MOAR! ETA: My candle appears to be tunneling real bad - I did burn it out the first time, but maybe it's dense perfume oils? It has a good rim of 1 cm of wax all around and the wick is drowning / shrinking independently. Hrm.

It smells like... the dirt component of Down the Rabbit Hole atmosphere spray, including the grassiness. There is a subtle background like Coyote, but not that strong. It's very nice! I love DtRH spray, so this is perfect for light wear. I am glad I got two bottles.