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This would be a great GC substitute for Al-Araaf, for you fans out there, or those who are interested in Al-Araaf. The scent itself is nearly identical, a slightly soapy smelling, graceful, curling lily. Not a funeral lily by any stretch. More like a sun-kissed Stargazer or... well... Tigerlily. Only this is a lot headier and less complex than Al-Araaf, in my opinion. I think it's a bit too heady and straight up floral for me right now. Maybe I'll crave it again in the spring or if/when I happen to run out of my Demon in My View bottle. B+

Jabberwocky does it for me, as does Grandmother of Ghosts. They might be good for you if Shroud doesn't happen to work with your chemistry. Other light, crisp, citrusy, herbal or aquatic scents might also help you. You may also want to try other blends with eucalyptus in them, that always seems to open my eyes. Loup Garou has some, as do others. I actually wonder if Numb or Cathode would work for you, too.

Economics, though, you may want to try Greed or AC's Money Draw.

I think some of the more "yellow" florals along with linen, aquatic, or "green" scents will also work great. Hymn, Empyreal Mist, Belladonna, Dirty, Shanghai, and Shroud just to name a few. I also like wearing more masculine scents when I have to go into a situation "balls out" as it were. Hades, Nyarlathotep, Iago, Coyote, and Black Tower are some of my favorites. On a guy, they're tres sexy. On me, they just smell powerful and decisive - sexy in their own way, but not in a way that would make you seem like you're trying to be sexy.

If you're trying to not make someone purr, I'd stay mostly stay away from foody, warm, incensey or heady florals, and you should be good.

I got this as a frimp and had to try it, even though dragon's blood and I just don't like one another.

But, holy cow, this smells just like a dragon! It's so bizarre. I let the boy sniff it and he said "huh... you know, you smell like a dragon or something."

It's hot, leathery, and I think almost a little scaly smelling. I had a friend who had a *lot* of odd pets, and this smells almost exactly like her Herp Room. No way I could wear it, unless I wanted people to believe that I was, in fact, the Lizard Queen. YMMV, of course, but this just smells too much like the Snake House at the zoo for me.

This is definitely my favorite of the Poe line, and I'm very glad I bought a bottle of it unsniffed.

I actually don't get a strong sweetness, just a very well-blended lilly scent. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was a single note of an exceptionally beautiful and complex flower. In color terms, I'd call it pink and white with a dusting of brown pollen. It's a little heady at first but it does mellow out. I'm definitely holding on to this for spring.

I hate to toot my own horn... but I have a tarot decant group thing... and that might work well for you. Tarot Decant Post The details are there. It may be possible to work something out for less than full decants as well, to save money ( I *so* know the woes of budgeting).

Ooh! I think I shall consider that. Though I did just shed a whole lot of money on the update. We'll see!

I have just recently tried The World and The Lovers, actually. They were both quite lovely, and I understand how they can smell alike. I got a bit of a sweet, candy-ish smell from both of them at first, like smarties, but not as much as, say AC's Joy Mojo. But The World definitely had earthy and aquatic notes besides, while The Lovers had a lovely, fae sort of floral thing going on. I don't think I'll be needing bottles of them, but the imps are very enjoyable.

Now I'm not so sure about The Chariot now. I love black licorice, but I've found that the smell of anise somehow makes my stomach turn nowadays. I think because I had a bear of a respiratory/throat thing a couple months ago and the tea I used to treat it had anise, slippery birch, and marshmallow root in it, amongst other things. Very distinctive smell that I can't help but identify with anise now. Smells like being sick! Oh no!

And I'm a little leary about The High Priestess now, too. Queen of Sheba was pure almonds on me, too. It's not bad, but I do worry that it takes over on my skin and nose when it's there.

But, ah, I still have to try them to know for sure. My curiousity shall someday be sated.

This was a scent that I was all OMGWTFBBQ over when I first got it, mabe in part because I had a lot of bad luck with imps previously. But I haven't worn it much since then. I think damp, cool, leafy green is a good way to describe it. In certain frames of mind it can smell like soap to me, other times not. But I'm not going to swap it off just yet. This really should be worn in spring or summer, I think.

Ah! Here it is! I've been looking for a pine scent I could get behind and I thought the search was fruitless until now. Before reminding myself of what's ACTUALLY in it, my impressions were pine/cypress, not too pungent or "ouch", just right, with light spices and possibly ozone. There's a dark, airy quality to it, what I thought the "lightless fir" would smell like in Nocnitsa. Then after awhile it mellows down to what I could SWEAR was myrrh, but I suppose it isn't! It's all warm and creamy.

Absolutely beautiful. This is my pine scent. Thank you!

It's funny, most herbal or piney scents smell the same on me. Just generally green and a little antiseptic.

But Belladonna has more going on for me. There was the eucalyptus rush at first, but the florals really come into their own during drydown. Smells like a mild, light purple flower, maybe a well-behaved jasmine? I really picture a light purple woman wearing grean leaves, like in one of jewelbug's hamadryad icons, when I smell this. Fresh and springtime-y. I'm holding on to this one.

Well I love Earl Gray tea, so I had to try this. Yeah, not working on me. It starts off barely there except for a piercing, crystaline, chemical sort of smell. Like a Lemon Pine Sol or hairspray or something. Not a "get it off me! get it off me!" scent, but almost. Like inhaling broken glass. Very strange. That was for about 10 minutes, then nothing. Sorry, Severin! No room in the inn for you tonight.

I think jewelbug has expressed the rootbeer experience I had at the beginning of this scent. It's weird, but nice, and I like it. It quickly mellows to a warm, snuggly scent. Excellent for late autumn and winter. Myrrh is taking the lead for me, as it always does, but the spices and sassafrass are still there, giving it a vaguely Old West feeling. Mmm. This would smell divine on Doc Holiday.

In fact, yes! The creamy sweetness combined with the sexy masculine scents makes me think that this is sort of like Dorian set in the Wild West. The scents themselves aren't identical, but the concepts seem very similar.

Keeping this impy for sure.

Yes, yes, YES! Very lovely, very sexy. I agree that it smells a little sweet and honeyed. It's a little saucy but clean, and very warm. Definitely a golden, radiant glow of a scent. This is actually how I wanted Penitence to smell, oddly enough! It's graceful, sensual, and very awesome.

I think I detect a little bit of soapiness, but I don't care. It's less soapy than most smells go on me, and it just smells too darn nice. I really wish I could make a bubble bath or shower gel out of this. Mm mm!

I think of this scent as a sexy, matte black dress that hugs all your curves. Starts off with a rush of violets (smelled like lilac to me), but once that calmed down, there was just this clean, dark (not an oxymoron! really!), chic scent. I think Audrey Hepburn could rock The Raven. It's feminine, sly, classic, and distinctive. It stays pretty close to the skin, too, so you won't worry about knocking people out at a party.

I think it might smell a little too "socialite" for me to buy a bottle of, but I'm hanging on to this imp!

I don't use CCNow -- I don't think they support Canadian orders. I order with PayPal, so the shipping notice was directly from the Lab.

 

I'm not panicking yet, just getting mildly nervous.

Ah, right, I see now.

Yeah, the lab will hopefully be able to set things right.

Whoa! Interesting! At first blush it seems to be another green, herbal smell. But this has lots of stuff going on. I can sense the ginger and the fig in the background. I think Shanghai, Yggdrasil, and possibly Hamadryad lovers should take heed of this one. I agree it would make a great summer scent or bath products. It smells a little soapy on me, but not in the way most things smell soapy. It doesn't smell like something has "turned" soapy in as much as this would be a great smelling soap, if that makes any sense!

Seance is probably my favorite scent, so I just had to give her sister Ouija a try. What I got was a teeny tiny sliver of rosewood, maybe a single rose petal, and a slight dusting of soap. So very faint! My nose has to be practically touching my wrist to be able to smell it. I think my skin is in a perfume-drinking mood lately, though, so I might give it a try in a week or two.

I'm getting a little worried about my Carnival Noir order. I received a shipping notice on Oct 9, saying that the order had been shipped out on Oct 5. Now, I am in Canada, so I expect things to take longer to get here, but it's going on 4 weeks now. Not since it was ordered (that was two months earlier), but since it was supposed to have been shipped!

Make sure the shipping notification was a Click-N-Ship and not from CCNow. I got a "shipping" notification from CCNow for my first order and got very worried when it didn't show up a few weeks later. But, from what I could ascertain from my emails with the lab, it's essentially just a "We got your order!" notification. Real shipping doesn't come until the Click-N-Ship. So if that's the case, you'll probably be okay. But, yeah, if you wait for a few days for an email response they should be able to straighten it out for you.

I just found an imp labeled Hamadryad that is absolutely, positively The Hesperides. I've smelled several samples of each. But s'okay - I like em both!

You know, come to think of it, I thought I smelled apples in my imp of Hamadryad, but it was more of a general fruity crispness in the background, not as strong an apple smell as Hesperides seems to be. But I always have considered them sort of sister scents. Maybe just because it's easy for me to confuse their names.

This is minor, because it's just an imp, but I'm perplexed.

R'lyeh - all the reviews put it as "evil grapefruit in deep, cold, rushing water" with surprisingly little variance. I put mine on and it smelled like Big Red gum, or maybe red hots. Cinnamon and sweet. Hours later, it had calmed down and I got a little more aquatic notes, I think, though it may have been wishful thinking. And I still smelled cinnamon and spices. It smells great! Though I'd want to make sure I was buying the right stuff if I bought a bottle of it. I got it in a swap, maybe I should hunt down the person I swapped it with...

Huzimuh? Is this right? *sniffs*

Well, wet, all I got was Big Red gum, or perhaps a red hot: cinnamon and sweet. Now that it's drying, it's calming down to reveal some more aquatic notes, I think. But it's still retaining the spice. I get none of the grapefruit or other cold notes. Bully! At least I like the way it smells dry, though I was kind of gunning for the cold aquatic thing.

Well, I have been trying on a lot of scents today. I'll try it again another day. Hm! *sniff* cinnamon!

Hmm, if you don't like patchouli you should probably stay away from The World. It has just about everything in it and a strong earthy component (duh) that I'm pretty sure is patchouli. Sorry, I haven't tried The Hermit so I can't help you there.

That's helpful, actually! It's hard to pick one when your likes/dislikes have become more cemented. I'd also consider ones other than those two. After reading up more on the tarot, The Chariot, The Magician, The High Priestess, and The Star also sound very interesting philosophically, though I haven't learned about the enumerated cards yet.

I got this because I love narcissus and thought it would be a great, dark, sexy floral. What I got smelled foody somehow, but I didn't know what food. I let the boy have a sniff and he said "mm! Thai food!"

He's right! Thai food! Ah! Well, okay, it smells like this specific dish I get with beef, ginger, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, all that good stuff. It smells meaty, but not like a slab of raw meat. Meaty like a mushroom is meaty. How very odd! Once it dries, I get more of a vanilla smell. But it's too foody for me to wear without getting the overwhelming desire to reach for a Singha and some jasmine rice.

I got a fine, herbal/spice soap for about 15 minutes. And then *poof!*

I really wanted that smell in soap form, though! That could smell great!

I second Dorian. It seems to be a vanilla/musk/(black tea, for me at least) smell that almost everyone loves. I think it's a safe bet.

I love Zephyr, myself, but I get more of a soft sandalwood/musk smell than a sweet smell. O, Antique Lace, and Snake Oil seem wildly popular, too, though I haven't tried them myself.