Lycanthrope

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.

From the bottle this is a soft, unobtrusive, downy lavender. On the skin it immediately blooms with a bit of woods, and a little grittiness from the moss. By no means is this very powerful in terms of grassy or herbal. The orris is probably keeping this mix dry, as it dries I can get a little bit more of the lavender returning as like those fresh crushed florets between the fingers... like a hint of green, spike lavender, or something... With time the lavender settles and then this whole mix of 'white night florals' sidles up all like 'hey, babe. I'm a hot chick in a wedding dress. It's all like, sultry and stuff. Even though you're in a onesie pajama, let's do this.'

So I get a slightly woodsy, rich, dry and moderately dusty sweet lavender supported by a chorus of white floral.

It's nice! I'll have to try this as a sleep blend. It's very relaxing and reads like a Somnus blend.

ETA: Over time I get a really weird association with LUSH's Alkmaar line. No clue why.

Super tropical!

I get mostly a brown, furry, fuzzy musk (of course!) and it's very heavily tinted with a tropical coconut. It's definitely a meatier, creamier coconut (so, like truly an oil, as opposed to fakey artificial sunblock smell). I get the verbena and lemon as a bright sunny tone, and since it's not on my skin it doesn't amp. The citrus lends a very tropical drink feel, so it's like a colada (but no pina?) The clove makes everything cuddlier, and I think it's the slight smoky sweetness I get at the end of the musk. Carnation is probably there, but I'm not reading that as forwards. I like this very much. It'd be perfect for early spring, summer...

NATCH.

Whoa. Like, this was totally unexpected for a Halloween update. I was thinking, beaches, pumpkins, blood, musk, yeah, Weenies!

This instead is like a sprayable spring storm in the mountains. It seems light but there's a lot of complexity. Right off the bat from the nozzle it reminds me a touch of something piney, tree-like, resinous. In a way it's like Fae Forest but not nearly as lush, it's more the snap of lightning and rain spray over pine needles. The oak is not overpowering but it lends a very true forest-y feel to the spray. Moss is detectable as a roughness around the stormy rain. There's an element like Danube or Amsterdam in the moist aquatic tones. The violet is present, but it's not a violet-forward scent. They peek around, and with the moss and oak, really lend this a wild feel. I let it sit around in my bedroom for about half an hour, and it remains a complicated, airy, but extremely evocative outdoors scent. It lingers in the air like mist after tumultuous weather.

Good god. I just bought four more. I haven't done that since Snow Bunny.

If you love Fae Forest, Arkham, lighter versions of Black Forest, etc... you owe yourself this spray!

This is similar to Jailbait and 'Lilith's Bubblegum and Roses' but has a much more fruit-forward tone to it. Definitely the top impressions are a wet, juicy, genuine Bazooka Joe like bubblegum. I think there's maybe a touch of a strawberry feel to it but I mostly get the uber-pink type, and I'm not getting much of the fleshy drydown in things like Strawberry Moon(s) of past. This has a little less spice to it but it still has the traditional bubblegum/tutti-frutti mild cinnamon vibe, but I don't think it's true cinnamon. Not getting burning.

I'm really looking for wind or ozone, but I'm not finding it very prominent in Pop!. This is a magnificent candy/gum scent, and I love the picture (I wonder who the lady next to Lil is... she has been immortalized onto perfume!). I'll be satisfied with my stash of Lilith's Bubblegum and Roses, but this is also a charming alternative.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

Sweet, sweet on the skin off the bat. Vanilla leather. This is a deeper more fleshy leather. Then, very rich black musk. I amp black musk on my skin. I can tell this would be a very potent, musky leather cloud around my hair. I am terrible at identifying ambergris in any scent (even the ones with it like listed as the third ingredient of three items), but I guess that would add a waxy richness and slight saltiness (I do get that but it's not bad). In the end, a rich, black musk vanilla with maybe a twist of spanked leather and sweat-salt. I could probably as a guy get away with this but I would feel like this would go on a more ravishing gentleman than mild-mannered me.

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.

This is soft, and shiny, but subtle. Kind of like actual pearls! I have short hair, so I tested this on my skin (even if you're not supposed to). The tiare (pikaki?) and orchid rise to the surface and this is reading tropical very quickly to me, but the kind of fleshy tropical that you think of in rich tumbling leis of ivory petals. I definitely get fig as the next player, a fleshy sweetness, ripe, rich. Vanilla and benzoin play together as adding a hint of sugar beneath the now tropical flower-fig combination. Amber is probably there burnishing everything and grounding the other scents in a very quiet way. Definitely a classic white floral, with a bit of modern fig and vanilla to stabilize the high flower. I probably can't get away with using it, but it's beautiful!

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!

So, right off the bat, for those of you jonesing for the House of Mirrors like Carnaval Noir original line (gah! How long have I been collecting!), this is not quite it in balance, although it definitely has similar elements of polished sweetness and a kiss of aquatic-floral-ozone. This is primarily vanilla-forward with a backdrop of amber, the good, sweet, rich, honeyed type. I get not as much smoke, so it's not reading so much incense as it is resin. I get a tiny touch of muguet like Sea of Glass (one of my favorites), but is indeed a sliver and not very strong overall. It is there, though, and there is the peep of glinty aquatic peering through that makes this not entirely a rich foody amber. I like this a lot, but I'm also partial to the ozonic, light florals like Sea of Glass. It's remarkable. I hiked back to the con and got three more.

Sweet, sticky, cyanidic almond right off the bat, but this swerves away from the pure almond very quickly with a mid-note rise of the florals in a very subdued way. Lace under a fluffy white gown? The florals are very exotic - and this is probably what I am getting now as the almond is segueing into the background - oh, and there's the honey, but it's like honey rubbed into a cedar chest, since I can get the hint of cedarwood. The cedarwood though is... kind of buttery, since I can also get even with the light exotic florals the kiss of almond. This really reminds me of a less WISTERIA'D Cordelia, which is one of my favorites. This may be more sweet and soft, lightly floral due to the honey and the peony/orchid. I do get some ylang ylang but to be fair most of Beth's ylang blends on me I have a blind spot for picking it right out. This is the one I bought a few bottles of right at the table. I think I will like them a lot, since even with all the sweet and floral notes, I read this is a woodsy foody, which sounds weird, but is very unique. I like unique! I really get the 'Colorado Bordello' feel from this, probably the cedarwood talking. Over time, this has gotten more honey-ish, and the cedarwood has retreated. I think the orchid is also rising, since this is reading as 'O' in familiarity.

Immediately, a flush of bright champagne note, a bubbly sharp and dry grape-y scent, very alcoholic. Similar to fresh Bon Vivant. The note does die down a bit after application and some time for the scent to settle on the skin, but the predominant crisp 'yellow gold' of the champagne lingers. As that top note dissipates, there is a slightly deeper yet still not very heavy base of a cool leather (not terribly brawny), and the patchouli and amber are not very strong. This reads as a fruity, fresh, slightly bright leather scent (think White Rider). Though rose is in the note list, I don't actually get much at all! Since I am a rose amper, this may be circumstance versus a very small amount of rose actually in the blend. Deep inhale, I do get some of the lighter patchouli, yet still tons of the champagne fruit note. While fresh and forward, this is not the kind of scent I tend to gravitate towards, since piercing fruits give this wolf a bit of a headache, but if you love teh bubbly notes, this is a good one.

I get a hint of the sweet vanilla-carnation-lavender right off the bat, which is my scent cue for scents like Hod, Bow and Crown of Conquest, and Dolce Stil Nuovo. But! Boy! The vetiver-limned aspect is definitely present since I get a husky vetiver chomp at the first bit, and it's not subtle at first! It's like two different personas trying to fight to the surface - the restrained prettiness of the vanilla-lavender, bridged with husky vetiver musk, combined with the carnation. Tobacco makes its appearance as a very rich, potent smoke, and it's a very good tobacco indeed. Polarizing for me since I can't tend to pull off tobacco due to skin chemistry. It's not a cigarette tobacco, but the tobacco leaf type of richness. The floral blend lends this a type of strong femininity (scent wise!) which really fits the character of the blend well. This is a feisty no-nonsense-but-still-rocking-the-perfumes type of scent. Drydown this is definitely not your sweet, sleep and relax type of vanilla-carnation-lavender blend, it retains its purposeful grittiness. As time passes, the vanilla-lavender rises to the surface and I get glimpses of TKO sweetness.

 

ETA:

It is interesting to see what skin chemistry does! I'm a single guy in my 30s, and to me, TKO has always read as vanilla-lavender forward. When I'm wearing Laura Belle McDaniel it does have a bit more husky tobacco. I thought maybe I was crazy because the reviews below mentioned that this did not have strong resemblance to TKO. So, I wore it a few times. Scents in the family of TKO, Hod, Dolce Stil Nuovo, all seem to light up the same notes for me - the whole creamy vanilla lavender + carnation spice that reads to me as 'lavender vanilla!' I still get that same feel, although it appears it's not everyone's experience.

Peppery florals right out of the bottle and on my skin. Whoof! Gunpowder dry! But those white florals are there, kind of like in Tissue and other comparable gardenias. And then, the gardenias bloom and I have gardenias starting to rise above the initial dry pepper. There is still a marvelous lushness for this white floral. I can't get away with shoving flourishes of gardenia into everyone around me, but if you can get away with that kind of behavior, please, obtain Kate Fulton. Especially if you love gardenias, since this reminds me of walking by those bushes when I was living in the South. In the end it's mostly a bouquet of gardenias, kissed by pepper.

Sweet this is nectar-sweet, peach-juice drippy peach. After it is applied to my skin, the vanilla creeps up to make the peach more foody and dessert-y. I do get a touch more of the rose as the rest of the blend starts to solidify and back off from PEACHFACE'D to a fruity, floral scent. I can't always yank bergamot out of a crowd, but this is still very 'orange' in scent. I am a jasmine amper, but I can't really detect the usual flashy, takes no prisoners jasmine that is in some other jasmine blends I have (Corinna I'm looking at you). I have to say the tobacco is not terribly apparent. Over time, this remains mostly fruity, with light floral support, and maybe a touch of rindy bergamot citrus. Dominantly smooth, vanilla-kissed peaches.

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.

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.

Starts off smelling a little bit of a sweet, sugary musk, with a small hint of something almost a bit caramelized. This turns out to be somewhat darker around the edges as the castoreum accord brings in a little grittiness. It's overall a sweet, slightly honey scent (!) with only a touch of shadow from the castoreum.

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.