lapetiteflower

Y'all...this is so, so good. It smells strongly of the crumbly amber resin that you can find in the incense section of witchy stores, but spicier. If you love In Templum Dei, you will probably like this one as well. I tested it last night, and wore it to work today, and couldn't stop sniffing my wrists.

 

 

Testing fresh from the mailbox...at first it has an almost aquatic-ness to it that made me go oh noooooo...but it quickly dried down to a glorious scent...spicy, warm, dry, and perfectly Fall-ish! I may be getting more bottles of this one, it is that good.

Wet and several hours out of the mailbox: It's something dry and biting...

After a few days of settling: Wet, it's still got that dry bite, but as it dries down it's all heeeeey Dark Queen of the Night! A blend of almost-wet-fresh-but bordering of drying rose with a delicious layer of clove against a backdrop of sweetened tobacco. Glorious!

First to review! This one is lovely, everything in it is evenly blended together into a sweet, warm, incensy scent. If you are a red musk aficionado, or are looking for a new scent in the same vein as Scherezade or Third Charm, you need to grab a bottle of this one!

 

 

crisp, almost green leaves...it's the same leaf note I get in Noh Mask with Maple Leaves. Drying down to something warmer, less wet and green smelling.

I've got White Witch on now, post shower....initial thoughts, it's in the same vein as Third Charm (which I adore!), it's a fruity incense...like the corner of your favorite head shop where they have the Gonesh stashed, and the strawberry and the more resiny incense smells are all mingling together? If you aren't into fruit scents, though, don't let this scare you...I'd categorize it more as leaning towards an incense blend with a lightly sweet fruitiness.

This one is beautiful...soft incense, just a hint of spice. Stays close to the skin, so I keep raising wrist to nose to inhale. This one may well be backup bottle-worthy.

Wet: Very aqueous and leafy.

 

Drydown: lovely Japanese incense! This is light, and sweet, Japanese incense...it will make a wonderful hot-weather alternative my usual dark, heavy resin-y favorites.

when first applied it is teak and woods...it brings to mind ouija. as it dries it goes through a soft caramel/tobacco phase, reminiscent of aged red lantern and finally it settles into a gorgeous spiced labdanum scent.

 

very sweet ...like vanilla jellybeans and cotton candy, but perfumey, not foodie. a very white, creamy scent. i'd like to let this age and see how the benzoin and frankincense develop. like the red rose this is very well blended and no single note really stands out.

it's very well blended so you can't pick out any single notes so much (for those who fear musk, fir and tobacco!), but it is clearly a spiced rose scent...soft rose oils blended with incense. not a wet rose or a fresh rose, but the smell of rose perfume oil. a dark and decadent rose. my daughter walked past me just a bit ago and asked if i had incense burning...she sniffed both my arms and said it was the red rose that she smelled!

 

 

this one is my favorite out of my decants i got, and the one i will definately get a bottle of. wet it is reminiscent of O, upon drydown it is a lovely blend of beeswax candles, warm sweet sandalwood (not the dry pencil shaving sort...this is smelling more and more like a sandalwood blend i wore about 17 years ago that the guy i was dating at the time said smelled like trouble...in a good way) and something (saltpeter?) strange lurking in the background that teases my nose. plus the concept of the hand of glory is cool, in an oogy sort of way. i've been thinking of how to make a faux one to add to my home decor...

this smells like hell. kick-you-in-the-head death-by-vetiver with rot and something medicinal lurking underneath. once it dries down (for a long, long time) you get more of the incense...a dark, infernal incense tinged with brimstone...that isn't entirely unpleasant. but would i really want to suffer through that i've-rolled-in-wet-dead-things smell to get there? i think not...

So, I tried it out today (right after I read the forum, in fact), and put on The Smiling Spider and swiped some Snake Oil on over it. At first, I wasn't sure how well they were doing together on me, but then the clove really came out in a way that pleased me.

 

 

*nods* good stuff, isn't it? i generally put the snake oil on first and then the spider on top...that seems to give a bit more clovey goodness. it's become my default my boyfriend is coming to spend the night scent (that or scherezade...)

as a longtime lover of the clove ciggies (alas i don't smoke them as often anymore...but i adore the scent!) i have to cast my vote for smiling spider....when i first tried it the first thought in my head was ooooh!sexy goth bois and clove ciggies! and right now my favorite layering combo is the spider with snake oil.

embargo + smiling spider

embargo +sin

embargo + scherezade

embargo + 3 year old snake oil

 

can you tell what my favorite villainess is?

wet? it smells like buttah. as it dries down it smells just like vanilla vodka (i may try layering with boomslang and see if i can make a chocolate martini !) later stages lean more towards a spicy/smokey/snake oil type of scent.

i got a frimp with my midnight kiss and decided to give it a go...

 

wet in the imp? sweet, cake-y, foody.

 

on the skin? lemon furniture polish.

 

do. not. want.

Yes. Count Dracula smells EXACTLY (well, almost) like clove cigarettes. It's got the clove, plus a bit of smokiness. I put it it on a jacket a while ago and when I pulled it out I thought it was the one I'd worn when I saw a friend who smoked tons of clove cigarettes. Plus, Count Dracula is an awesome scent period.

 

After that, I'd try Three Witches. It was also heavy clove, but not as smoky.

 

 

even more clove cigarette-ish than count dracula is the smiling spider

yes, the patchouli is down and dirty patchouli. kick you in the face patchouli~i think i need to let this one age and mellow. definately a dark brown scent. as it drys down it gains a sweetness though, so very promising....

i get no forbidden tomes out of this, much to my sadness, but it is a warm and wonderful incense and skin-musk scent. have you ever held your arm over the smoke coming from your favorite incense and then smelled the skinandsmoke combination you get? that is what this smells like...it's warm and close...like being wrapped in a blanket, reading in an old library by stained-glass lamplight, with a fire burning, snuggled on an old velvet couch with your love...

damn, it's making me want to have wild, passionate le sex on the library floor. not the public library, mind you. the haunted mansion library. *bites lip and heads for cold shower*

 

several weeks later:

 

after ageing a bit and settling down, now when i put it on i get that initial blast of skin musk and incense and as it dries down i'm finally getting dusty books and incense. it's glorious! this has become my default bedtime scent!

what an oddball this one is...i do get the leaves and the cold wind, and when i stepped outside on the balcony into the cooling night air that cold autumn scent is amped. the smokiness is very subtle in this one...i wish there was more smoke...there is a man-fume -ishness to this too...like wearing your boyfriend's sweater on a cold october night (from what i can remember of getting to wear boyfriend-sweaters *snort*)

at first i'm getting vetiver. vetiver generally scares everything else away when it hits my skin, though this is a more mellow than normal vetiver. as it dries down it turns into glorious golden spices and dry crushed leaves...there is something subtle underneath that brings to mind scherezade...it must be the saffron. this is a light gold scent, definately the clear winner out of the bunch that i ordered...i may have to spring for a backup bottle on this one. oh, and as it's transitioning from sorta- scary vetiver to glorious spices there is a brief period of bonfire smoke....

it starts out a nice juicy red...not really fruity, just wet and red. then it morphs to a spicy, peppered rose and on drydown it is a dry, dry erm, words elude me. it smells like dried bones and dried powdered roses and darkness and attics and really, it's a good smell.

 

and now, halfway thruogh the day it has sweetened back up and is less dry...getting more of the soft whisper of rose...

this smells like dark purple. dark purple clouds. dark purple velvet. dark purple incense. actually it smells just like some incense i've had before...i think it was one of the gonesh scents?

 

this is a very very rich scent, but well blended so that i can't pick out any one individual note. as it dried down, i thought that it smelled like i had imagined gypsy queen to smell like (before i actually got a bottle of gq!)