Duck Mountain

Oh, cripes.

 

Well, I was digging around in my imp box--more like imp suitcase--and found a decant of Candy Butcher that I must've picked up on one of my buying sprees (yes, I have a problem). Now I sort of wish I hadn't.

 

Because this is very, very beautiful and now of course, very rare. It's a sort of perfumey chocolate that reminds me of what B&BW tried to accomplish with their Tutti Dolci Chocolate Fondue, but better.

 

It stays more or less the same from wet to dry to faded, but that's not a bad thing in this case; all it means is that you get to savor it for longer. This is just about the perfect blend that doesn't give the impression you've just rubbed a chocolate bar all over your skin. Gorgeous.

This is all dewy, clingy petals with a hint of greenery - I can't pick out notes very well, but this appears to be the sort of floral that somewhat works on me. Not as well as Arkham, but the absence of jasmine in this is already a plus. I'm not sure how often I'll wear this, as it's almost too heady and perfumey, but it's quite pretty.

Very bright and fruity in the vial, turns into faded spice on my skin.

 

The guava seems to stand out in the wet stage(s), later on it flits nervously between peppery coconut and violet-and-caramel.

 

If you're like me and usually can't stand violet, you might give this a try - it's very light and tempered by the other notes to boot. It still smells the same as in other violet-containing blends I've tried, it just doesn't smack me in the face right off the bat.

 

Overall impression: It's nice, but I won't need a bottle and may even swap away the decant. I'm glad I was able to try it, though.

I'm having a hard time with this one, since by all accounts the notes should all work on me - and do, satisfactorily - but it's not as incredible as I was hoping. This may be due to the fact that I'm congested at the time of writing, but I did want to get my first impressions down before I forget.

 

Wet - Kind of sweet, almost cocoa-y.

 

Dry - The amber turns a bit powdery and comes to the forefront, and it loses the hint of sweetness. Really not able to detect much else - a tiny bit of carnation, maybe, but this isn't the amazing sandalwood-amber I thought it might be from the description.

 

I'll definitely retest this when I can breathe properly, but whether or not it works, I'll probably hang on to my decant.

Much prettier in the vial (soft warm rose), on my skin it becomes much heavier on the frankincense - not that this is a bad thing - but then the whole thing becomes very sour / bitter.

 

Not much to say except it just doesn't work on me.

Floral on the imp, and even more so on my skin. Definite no-go on this one, which is a little disappointing admittedly, since all the notes sounded so good. I get the wood and amber later on, but by that time it's faded so much I'd have to reapply, which would kind of defeat the purpose.

 

I don't know if aging will help, but this is so boring on me anyway that I'm not keen to wait.

I was a little congested when I first tried this, but as far as I could tell, it's Exactly What It Says On The Tin. The frosting is more prominent than the cake by far, but both are present and accounted for - now, I can't claim to be good at picking out notes, but SO and Dorian at least are so distinctive that it doesn't take much. Snake Oil provides a resinous, syrupy base, with the vanilla from Dorian and something else I can't put my finger (nose?) on, if for no other reason than I'm just not that familiar with Constantine. But, there it is.

 

As a foody/resin/musk lover, this is gorgeous. I think it calls for a bottle (if possible).

I wanted to love this - not so much from the description but from the notes.

 

Imp: Creamy spicy goodness.

 

Wet: Agh, the booze is here with a bloody vengeance - certain types of booze go to rot on me and this seems to be taking a turn that way.

 

Drydown: So the whiff of almost-rancid-wine has (thankfully) just gone - but now I'm getting a lot of cinnamon. Overwhelmingly so.

 

Dry: More cinnamon. Slightly tempered by the milk / honey, but not enough.

 

Final verdict is - nothing noteworthy. It was delicious in the imp, but very meh on me. A scent locket might work. I also think this would be nice over Hand of Glory.

Phew, finally dug this out to test.

 

Bottle: Sweet, refreshing, but warm - in a 'having melon sorbet after lunch in the middle of a flower garden in full bloom' sort of way.

 

Wet: Okay, so much for that.

 

Drydown: As I suspected, violets all the way. It's not as imposing as other blends have been - maybe, due to it being violet leaf, which I don't recall trying before.

 

It morphs a tiny bit once fully dry, but mostly straddles the line between 'rargh violets' and 'powdery rose', and occasionally just fades into nothing.

 

I'm sure it's nice on whose who have chemistry that doesn't amp florals unpleasantly; I should be so lucky. This can go to a new home.

Testing an aged imp.

 

In the imp / wet: Dry powdery bubblegum, straight out of the package.

 

Drydown: For a few minutes, I get a blast of syrupy lollipop flavor. Almost too strong.

 

Later: A surprisingly pleasant cherry and cinnamon scent. Doesn't seem to be able to decide if it should go plastic or not, but thankfully seems to be holding. I can sort of imagine the perfume mentioned in the description, but it's a reach, not something that's made explicit (to my nose, anyway).

 

This is not the fresh fruit you'd get out of, say, Yemaya or Fruit Moon, but it's not bad, just a bright, candy-sweet scent. It could be more, but not on me.

 

I'll probably hang on to my imp but wouldn't order more.

Veil was part of my recent 'give the florals a chance' campaign.

 

Unfortunately, all it does is remind me of why I boycotted them in the first place...in the vial, it's actually a mildly warm, balanced blend. Nothing stands out and it's pleasant though not noteworthy.

 

On my skin - not so much. After the first few seconds, it turns into a sharp, heady, bitter violet-lilac concoction and I had to wash it off.

 

Then I spilled the imp all over myself, my desk, and the floor. Evidently I'm being chastised for having an 'oh god hissss get it off' reaction to the lab's floral blends - not my fault, I'd like them if I could!

98% of the time, jasmine in any amount is a no-go, but I tried this just out of curiosity.

 

No surprises here - it's cloying, headache-inducing, clingy attention-seeking jasmine all the way through with a whiff of other florals beneath.

 

The roses and musk sounded nice, but alas never made an appearance.

Testing from a very aged imp:

 

Wet - Mainly pineapple and banana. Refreshingly sweet with a dark, viscous undertone.

 

Drydown - The freshness of the fruit is fading. Somewhat disappointed.

 

Dry - Coconut with a hint of the pomegranate and...patchouli? It's probably just the chili note.

 

Overall it gives me the image of a deserted beach being stirred up by a hot, dry breeze. Feels kinda devious.

 

It's very interesting, I think of this as a darker blend, sticky-fruity yet dry and musky. I think my imp will be enough for now, though - I wish the wet stage hung around as it dried.

Oddly enough (for me), the amber is strongest wet, and vanishes into an ozone-verbena drydown with a tiny whiff of sage. It's not too sweet, very pretty and calming. I get a more 'white' feel than 'green'.

 

Later, the amber peeks through again, but very faint. Still, mostly dominated by verbena, and the ginger was a no-show.

 

Not much throw, either. Overall, I like it a lot, but it's not a high priority. If I didn't already have such a long wishlist, I might just consider a bottle, or maybe a backup imp.

TwilightEyes - Thank you so much. I am just terrible at picking out notes, so I couldn't bank on a sniff-test being accurate enough to determine exactly which pumpkins I have.

From wet to the dry stage, it was like a big tarnished vase of roses that had outlived their glory days and turned slightly sour. At the tail end, I caught a whiff of incense with what seemed like a cream note. This is quite nice - eventually. It simply takes too long to get there (on me, anyway).

Thanks, AEris! I just checked the BPTP site and figured it out. For some reason, I always convince myself that the scents I hear about here and there are LEs that have already gone.

My eyesight's going a bit - are the two bottles posted above (Summer Summoning & Pancake Breakfast) JBA scents? (Can you tell I haven't been keeipng up... )

 

Also, I have a Pumpkin Patch set that I'm unsure of which year it was from. The labels are shiny, and there's a small number tag on each. I tried looking at the Reviews topics, but none of them had pictures. I think it's 2006, not sure though.

Wet: Yow. Bright and fruity.

Drydown / dry: Not much of a change. Still quite sharp, but with a faint hiss of amber/cardamom beneath.

Summary: Dark green with a sticky shot of incongruous bubblegum - this one's not a morpher. A definite hint that you can look, but you shouldn't touch.

I've never used up an imp. For bottles I plan to keep, I just put my wrist over the mouth and tip the bottle up, then rub onto my other wrist, hair, whatever. So, if I were to use one scent a lot, I guess I might go through it very fast...I switch too often though.

 

I do have the same problem as ghoulie - I found an old imp of Glitter, eagerly applied a bit, stuck my wrist under my nose and...nothing. It was almost like an unscented oil.

The bottle: Whoa, this thing is super full. Did someone have a whoops? Ah, well.

 

In the bottle: Dust, or fresh-turned soil.

 

Wet: CINNAMON RARGH

 

Drydown: Slightly milder, but MORE CINNAMON (and cassia).

 

Dry: Cinnamon with a vague backdrop of not-cinnamon.

 

If I didn't know better, I'd think this was a SN that someone had accidentally dribbled a bit of something else into. Perhaps aging will calm it a bit, so I'll keep the bottle. It's not bad, but I was hoping all the notes would come through, rather than one being amped to high heaven while the rest sat in the time-out corner.

Where do you find out about forum only scents?

 

I actually put in an order for a bottle of Dorian.....crossing my fingers. Im sure ill love it...Im a little worrried about the "victorian fougere" bit.../that usually has lilac or somethingin it......

 

They ought to all be under the Announcements subforum.

 

If you don't like Dorian, trust me, you will have no problem getting rid of it, so I guess that's the good thing about it.

 

Zarita would certainly fit the image, but it seems awfully floral. I've never tried it, so I couldn't vouch either way. Eat Me is a nice 'dark' foody blend and Imp is bright and sweet, but musky too. I know there must be at least a few more that would be appropriate, but I just can't think of them right now.

 

Oh, if you like roses you could try Two, Five and Seven - it's a bright fresh rose scent, but if you wanted to make it more sinister I'm sure you could layer it with something else.

This is strong on me upon initial application, like knock-your-socks-off strong, almost entirely wood and possibly patchouli (though I have a difficult time pinpointing patchouli, in general). More than that, the imagery is amazing, because as strong and cloying as it is, it's particularly sinister. I think that's fitting.

 

When it dries, it gets milder and sweeter and much more wearable. As much as I love the wet / drydown stages for the vivid picture it paints in my mind, the drydown is what I'd rather wear for a longer period of time. The woody notes are still really prominent compared to everything else, but thankfully also much less sharp.

Yemaya is nice and tropical-fruity.

 

Tamora and Aglaea are sort of subtle sweet scents.

Vampy - Exactly what I think! D:

 

Thanks for the suggestions, y'all.

 

I did do searches for stuff that contained those notes, but heavy florals tend to go cloying and/or sour on me--I was sort of looking for things that maybe weren't necessarily very floral, but have the same 'feel', or something non-floral that people who like florals would still enjoy... Did that make sense?