septima_pica

O dirt, how I love thee...::rhapsodizes:: Really, Death Cap is almost too sweet for me, though. I lovelovelove the dirt note, of course, as I expected, but vanilla dirt -- wtf? I think I'll keep this imp for layering purposes, but I may or may not end up wearing it on its own. Maybe with Sri Lanka or Dee? ADDED 12/5/07: I've had this for a year now, and it's another one that got better as it aged. Just so you know. The dirt got more clayey (it weathered out! haha! /geogeek) and the vanilla smell is mellower and less over-sweet. It's a really warm, dry, comforting smell, and somehow mushroomier than it was before. I may actually start wearing this on its own, or maybe combined with Dee...hmm. Added 3/19/08: This is SO the best stuff ever. Muddy clayey mellow sweetness that has this amazing ability to damp out horrible powderiness that I always get from black musks, and all it adds is dirt -- never a bad thing. :-D

An expensive men's bergamot-jasmine cologne, identically and precisely. I don't even know what's so cologney about it; possibly the lavender? No tonka, regrettably. Pretty good, though, for all it's a traditional man's scent; it's just the wrong kind of masculine for me to wear. Too light. I'll stick with my Dee.

The overwhelming agony of passion crystallized into a singularly dark and magnetic blend: bittersweet neroli, black patchouli and black musk, gilded by apple, bergamot, blood red rose, teak, and vanilla. This is awesome when wet -- the apple works surprisingly well, the vanilla is appropriately subdued, and the complicated dark notes jumped out in the best way. However, after 15 seconds on my skin, *everything disappears*. The faintest ghost of vanilla musk lingers a moment longer, and then? Nothing. Well, maybe a slight suggestion of powder, but nothing else at all. Weirdest one I've had yet. Damn. ADDED 12/20/07: Oh, we had such hopes for this one! Octopod: Something bizarrely nose-twisting happens, and then black musk turns into baby powder. I have no idea what's going on in this perfume. The bitterness must be bergamot, maybe? Kalirren: Generally quite mild and pleasant. After some time, it becomes less bitter and more sweet. And then something babypowdery comes out and makes it too powdery to be good.

I was eager to try this one, but it's not quite what I was hoping. Barely floral. A touch of bitter. Mostly sweet copal and spicy -- lily spicy, if you know what I mean. I can't smell the cello-note of tonka at all, regrettably, although I can tell there's something lending depth to the sweet incenses. This is an impressively non-floral floral, more reminiscent of Anubis than of anything else, but in the final accounting I like Anubis better. Sheol, like so many other things, is just a bit too classy for me. ADDED 8/7/09 (aged): Wait, this has flowers in it? Fooled me. When it's wet in the imp, I can smell a tiny bit of the stargazer lily, but that is gone instantly once I apply it. I find that this smells rather like Gaueko without the lavender, actually -- it's got loads of smoky dusty incense, some sweet resins underneath. Definitely no flowers at all. If I were to try and predict the notes from how this smells on me, I'd probably say something like "burning copal and frankincense, patchouli, red musk, tonka". Impressions: dark golden brown, polished, almost temple-like incense scent, with hints of the dusty sweetness of decay. Exceedingly somber. I like this a lot.

Hmm, fruitier than I expected. Wet, this reminds me of something I remember smelling from my mom's yuppie-ish lotions; a bit soapy, quite fruity. Hm. I was hoping for something a trifle greener, but this is all juicy red-pink berries and soap. Damn. attar shanas, this one's going to you.

I've come to the conclusion that I just don't know how to treat a lady. Seriously. Hetairae? Medea? Black Lotus? Nope. Gomorrah? Barely, and the similar-but-less-ladylike Nemesis worked way better. And Scheherezade? I think I'm just better staying away from anything reviewed with of the following words: womanly, classy, expensive, sexy, elegant. I just can't pull 'em off, I'm too much of a scruffy academic timepunk bum. I smell the red musk -- hey, that's the one in Malediction, now I see -- and a little spice, but it just doesn't come out as complex as it could. I can tell there's something much more that might be there on someone else, but not for meeeee. No, the musk goes to powder-plastic (not horrendously, but still), and the incense and spices vanish completely, just like they did in Morocco. There's a pinch of the lovely spices, something akin to Sri Lanka, but it's so faint I can only catch it out of the corner of my eye. Bah! This lovely lady's going to someone who can bring her off better than I.

Hah! The first burst of this smells like gin. Cute. Within thirty seconds, though, the cypress has spent its fury and begun to blend with ginger -- hey, that's the first time I've actually smelt a BPAL ginger note, and it's niiiiice. And there's the patchouli, nice and woody and vaguely reminiscent of perilla leaves, and the fig sweetening everything up like whoa...and there's tonka, low-pitched and indescribable, but still one of my very favourite notes. Woot. Wow, this is a really complex scent, in the best BPAL tradition, where I can find all the notes out -- a bit sweet fig and some unrecognisable other sweet note, a bit woody-piney with the cypress and patchouli, spicy ginger and deep rich brown tonka -- and still I can back off and recognise how all the smells go together, and be amazed at how they come in one by one like a fugue. I don't even think this is evoking a single scent memory for me, but it's marvelously complicated and dark. Doesn't smell so terribly vengeful, I must admit, but I still love it. Many thanks to the people who pointed this one out to me -- it's like Gomorrah except way more my style. Awesome. I may need a bottle of this one too.

This one's just a little too sweet for me, I'm afraid. It's got the lovely honey from Athens, but that plus fig and ylang-ylang just makes this waaay too sweet to be controlled by the other notes. I can't even smell the patchouli or clove at all. Pity, 'cause I was hoping those would mend it. As it turns out, though, this is just too feminine for me to wear, although in an impeccably classy way. Oddly, there's the same slight lily smell that I get from Anubis; it's not listed there either. I wonder what it is? And now, 15 minutes in, there's a hint of clove. Not enough, though. Bah. Still too sweet-floral for me. Looks like Athens will be my honey scent, since the incense there can at least beat the honey into submission and keep me from smelling quite this sweet.

Whoa, serious patchouli here. The patchouli's the good kind, though -- this is strange because previously I'd found that black patchouli was the rich-smelling one on me, and that the red smelt unaccountably unpleasant. In this case, though, the vetiver and red patchouli seem to beat each other down well enough to let the cedary smoke through. I like this a lot; it's dark and thick and viciously acrid. I'm currently on a hunt for a signature "tough bitch" scent, and although Dracul went treacherously black-musk-powdery, this one seems to be holding. I'm not sure if I smell more like a biker or a hippie, though...will have to seek opinions.

Hades is *sweet*. Like sweet floral soap. The cypress is there to begin with, but vanishes fast, leaving behind something that smells a lot like a high-class soap and makes me sneeze. Whoops. Oh well, I'm glad to have tried it, but the cypress is too evanescent and the narcissus too insistent for me to really love this blend.

Whoa, hey. I just got this because I was curious about the cumin, but it turns out I like it much more than I expected. It's the right combination of dark (the tobacco and balsam) and sharp (fir and clove and mint). The fir's got that almost citrusy smell that some crushed pine-needles get, and the black musk is doing a wonderful job of not getting all powdery on me the way it did in Iago. Or maybe it's just being covered up by the pine. In any case, it's much more awesome than I thought it was going to be, and also seems to go well with Death Cap. This is like Bess but meaner. I like it. If it stays this good, it may become my standard Tough Bitch scent. Edit: Damn and double damn. Powder again. Looks like I need a different one. Nothing else has cumin in it, though, does it? ::swears at black musk:: Edit again: Hah! Problem solved -- I used it to scent my mink oil for leather treatment so that my leathers all smell of tobacco and fir and orange-blossom. Super tasty, and no trace of nasty powder. (Octopod's review. This is too...butch...for Kalirren.)

I've practically OD'd on Paracelsian alchemy recently, so I'm curious as hell about this one. ::applies::: ::falls over:: WHOA. That's *burnt*. A blast of smoke like a campfire being extinguished with water, then a burst of something weird and ozoney -- like burning plastic maybe. Oh man, this is so incredibly evocative I can't even figure out how it was done. It even *smells* pointy! How is this even possible? This scent is a bravado coloratura piece, what my old piano teacher called a fireworks show. It's like a Liszt fantasia: its purpose is not to be aesthetically pleasing so much as a shout of "Check this shit OUT!". I approve wholeheartedly. I'm keeping this one for sure, but I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with it.

Wow. Wet, this is *bitter*. I can't even figure out why, it's just bitter like overbrewed tea. Calms down once it dries a bit, and I start to pick out notes: the bitter is maybe citrus rind 'cause it smells like Valencia marmalade, the roses are fresh and remarkably subdued, and there's the rosemary. I got this for two reasons, those being the historical concept and the rosemary, and now I'm getting them both. Thank goodness the grape note is behaving itself; I didn't really see that until now, and grape has this habit of going nasty on me. I can smell it lurking, and every now and then it becomes dominant for a disconcerting Sweet-Tarts moment, but the other notes quickly subdue and muffle it until it behaves itself and goes back to smelling like white grape juice. It's a fresh green scent, not frivolous but dignified; it reminds me more of the Huntington Gardens than of anything else, right now. That's *good*. Not much throw, but when you get a whiff of it it goes right up your nose, making up for that fact. This will be nice for summer -- it's bright and gardeny but sufficiently not-girly that I'll still wear it. Nifty. Also, so far Athens and Bess have both liked me well -- maybe I do well with historically-inspired scents? Whoa, rock on. I *like* that trend. Edit: Wore this today; I applied it about six hours ago and it's still going strong. It's blended so well that I can barely figure out which notes are lingering the longest, although the orange-flower and rosemary are certainly still there. Should try this in a spray, 'cause it just seems like that sort of scent. Definitely still Huntington Gardens though. Verrry glad I tried this; I don't like the girly scents but still want a few light ones, so the bright bitter dignity of this one is just right, and makes Bess similar to Nosferatu among my favourites.

Immediately on my skin, it's a bizarre mixture of pina colada and soap. Within the first 30 seconds, though, that impression goes away; I'm left with a faint impression of coconut and a stronger one of (hallelujah!) tonka, which is so wonderful I keep sniffing myself over and over. And there's the tobacco, creeping up over the tonka and making me mourn for the fact that anyone smokes cigarettes when real tobacco smells *this good*. I'm not getting any impression of chardonnay or rum at all, and barely any leather -- it's all tonka, tobacco, and faint coconut which is a little unsettling but ultimately pleasant. I generally dislike foody perfumes, so I was worried about the coconut, but here there's little enough of it that it just smells decadent. I like it. Definitely a clubbing scent; I didn't have that category until I smelled this, but now it's defined. Maybe I'll wear it to Hex tonight for the 6/6/6 event, if I don't go with Gomorrah. Also, this combines *really* well with Laudanum. Myrrh and tonka, sassafras and tobacco, nutmeg and coconut -- hot like whoa. I think I'm going to go with this for tonight. I'm not sure yet, though, whether I'll wear Perv enough to justify owning a bottle of it, or whether I should just constantly keep an imp around.

Ahhh. I like this. I thought I might. I really like the Lab's fig note, but it's always been too foody in the blends I've tried. Here, the (I suppose) "herbs" dry it up enough that I don't smell like dessert, and the fruits are still rich and black and stickylike they should be. It's a *languid* scent -- hot and lazy-eyed and dead sexy, delicious but not really foody, with very little throw so you'd have to smell it up close. Gorgeous. I just don't know if I have the balls to pull this scent off, though. It might be the wrong sort of sexy for me. I'll just have to see how much I end up wearing it, now that I finally have a wearable dark-fruits scent.

Ahh, nice. See, this is what I was wanting from Anne Bonny. The myrrh and patchouli, as I thought they might, work together marvellously -- the myrrh being sweet and wet, and the patchouli dry and bitter. The ylang-ylang is a little odd, as it seems to waft an extraordinary distance, and when I smell it I feel a little light-headed, which is interesting. I seem to remember getting some sort of lotion bar from Lush that must have had a lot of ylang ylang in it, 'cause it's seeming familiar. Too bad the clove doesn't make an appearance, though.

Something about this is a little funky. I smell the currant and myrrh which make it sweet, and the incensey herbal smells, but somewhere in there a floral is spoiling it. I suspect it's the poppy, which is an unpredictable one on me. So -- nice, but nothing to write home about. Just a bit too feminine for me, and with a funny funk on the drydown.

I found Amsterdam and The Apothecary most like what you describe -- though for sheer greenness, Envy is probably stronger.

Super-caramel coconut is the first impression, followed by the yummy pipe-tobacco smell and the funny powderiness that opium always gives me. I'm actually pretty sure it smells exactly like it's supposed to on me -- the amber isn't even acting up and getting that creepy amber funkiness that O and The Lion gave me. You know, this is really *nice*. I usually don't think foody scents smell good at all, but this one does....Oh crap, here comes the amber. ::cringes:: After a few minutes it's calmed back down and smells altogether pleasant. But...it's just not me. I mean, it smells good on me, just like some kinds of clothes that I don't wear -- it's like a corset, something that would suit me pretty well except for the part where it doesn't fit my personal aesthetic. Oh well. Someone else will appreciate this more than I do.

Oh man! Heh, it's just like those candles, you know? The kind that everyone has at Christmas, because they make the whole house smell amazing? Yeah, that's this. Cinnamon and clove and stewed prunes, plus a sharpness that must be the flowers. I didn't even ever think about the smell of chrysanthemums, but it's reminding me so much of all those little flower-shops in subway stations where they're always selling them... Reminds me more of Carnal than anything else -- except more like a scented Christmas candle. I mean, I'm not sure I actually want to smell like this, but it's still pretty astonishingly evocative, and it's a really *good* candle.

Whoo, *floral*. Sweet, heavy, sandalwoody flowers. Reminds me a little of my grandmother's perfume. The jasmine, for once, does *not* overwhelm everything else, though I can smell it -- this is the first jasmine blend that hasn't gone totally nuclear on me. I think I like it. The sandalwood keeps it from being *too* floral, and I really do like jasmine when it's cooperative. I'll have to see how often I actually end up wearing it.

I swapped for this because I wanted to try civet. Unfortunately, I don't smell it at all. Immediately: loads of opium with some musk. I would almost swear there's some dragon's-blood involved here, 'cause it seems to have that same powdery undertone. Nothing yet that could be civet. Dried: This is a furry scent, somehow -- a warm, sleepy, heavy smell like a none-too-clean animal pelt. It also -- yes! smells like bad breath, just a little. That must be the civet thing, then. Huh. There's not enough of it to be obnoxious. Well, now I know. This scent has some throw, too. The overall impression -- I smell like I put on some opium-type perfume, had sex, then wrapped myself in a dirty bearskin rug and fell asleep. Bizarre and evocative, and could probably be devastatingly sexy -- but not on me. Oh well. Still glad I tried it.

Try Dee -- the pipe-tobacco in there is similar to that in Herr Drosselmeyer, plus leather and yummy tonka. I also hear that the tobacco note in Perversion's pretty nice, but I haven't tried it.

Wait, how the hell have I not reviewed this yet? ::baffled:: Nyarlathotep was one of the first scents I bought, admittedly mostly because of the name. It remains one of my favourites, though (embarrassingly) I lost the imp for awhile and have only just started using it again. The procedure of sniffing while reading Wikipedia has suggested to me that the "black ritual incense" may include myrrh, galbanum, frankincense and/or benzoin-resin. I choose to take this as further evidence that myrrh loves me. On the other hand, it could be kyphi, which I've never smelt -- although Nyarlathotep certainly doesn't seem to have wine, honey, or raisins in it anywhere, and that would still entail frankincense and myrrh. At first I thought that quasi-citrus smell was citronella, but upon consideration I suspect there's vetiver in it, or else some close relative like lemongrass -- it's citrussy but not quite like an actual lemon. In any case, this is absolutely awesome. It's got a quality simultaneously of engulfing blackness and blinding yellowness, and the ozone cuts through like the smell of an approaching storm. (Is that the Black Wind? Hee!) It's a vaguely menacing scent, though a pleasing one -- I don't think I've ever smelt another perfume with anything near this combination of notes. It's simultaneously dark and bright, ancient and futuristic, and it jolts me into consciousness and sharpens my mind like a good argument or faraway lightning in the sky. This is pretty much as close as the scent medium can come to evoking Nyarlathotep, and it's truly impressive. Some friends and I have been really into transhumanist ideas lately. When I'm in that sort of mood, I'll probably wear this -- 'cause I tend to associate scents with eras, and this is the closest thing I can think of to a transhumanist perfume.

Y'know, I think I've been wearing this now regularly since the last Will Call and haven't reviewed it yet...I wonder why not? Anyhow. I wasn't expecting anything in particular of this one, but smelt it in the bottle and thought it was pretty nice (through my Will Call-numbed nose). Then I brought it home and stashed it while I went through some of the others. I finally got around to trying it a couple of weeks later, and immediately began wearing it regularly. On my skin, Anubis is smoky-sweet and sacred, with the overwhelming golden glow of late afternoon sun in the desert. Myrrh is hugely present, of course, indescribable and wonderful as always. Honey isn't listed, but I still smell it -- and there's something else I can't place immediately, like crushed daylilies maybe. Some of the herbs or incense, I think, are also reminiscent of Nyarlathotep, another of my favourites. This is a scent for summer, not for cooling yourself off, but rather for when you want to go out in the flaming sunlight and embrace the heat of the day. I absolutely love it. I just have to decide whether I need this *and* Athens, or whether one spicy honey-myrrh blend is enough.