fiddledragon

I have to admit that much of the reason I wanted to try this one was because of Digger. Though Digger's scent would be musk and stone and dirt and pickax. But I'm a Rat in the Chinese zodiac anyway... In bottle: Spicy melon! This has a not-unpleasant hair-care product smell to it. It's like a really *good* fruity-fresh shampoo with a bit of a kick to it. On me: Melonmelonmelon...really nice melon. Yemaya was a bit too juicy-fruit on me, and too chilled. This is warm sun-ripened cantaloupe. There's a hint of pine resin as well, and the citruses are undoubtedly there somewhere backing up Madame Melon. Dry, the other notes come out. A touch of bitter kumquat, some creaminess from the coconut, a whiff of florals. Verdict: Yum! This is fruitier than I usually want to actually smell, but I'll certainly keep the decant around. It would be a great summer scent. If it wasn't an LE I'd buy five bottles and scent all my bath stuff with it :-)

In bottle: fruity, cologne-y. Lots of musk. On me: I'd swear there was *vetiver* in this! Is that the blackberry leaf, maybe? It's rather woody and smoky. Plenty of musk, a bit of myrtle, no lime, no lilac at all. In the drydown it sticks with that harsh green/woody note and the musk dries down a bit. There's something almost camphorous as well. It smells like really serious herb tea. Verdict: This one is interesting. Not what I'd expected...it might be nice layered over something sweeter. It has an appealing centered feel to it, though it isn't something I'd wear often. It actually reminds me of the medicinal quality of some of the TALs.

I don't think there's a thread on this already; my apologies to the mods if I'm wrong! I got a decant of U just a few days ago and evidently my skin likes balsam. A lot. U on me is pretty much single-note delicious sap-y balsam :-) Where else can I find this wonderful scent? Searching the BPAL website it looks like I should get my hands on some Bezoar, and it might be contributing to me liking No. 93 Engine, though that one's more herbal on me.

In bottle: sweet, sap-y balsam and hints of vanilla. On me: Oh, wow. This is faintly leather and faintly vanilla, but on me wet this is mostly amazing sap and tree and wood and resin and spice. This is what I keep hoping all those wood and earthy scents would smell like. This is like what I imagine breaking off a branch of a cinnamon tree would smell like -- the green woody sap combined with the spicy bark. The scent loses some of its juiciness as it dries, but it remains amazing. This will only get better once the vanilla ages up a bit. I definitely need to track down a bottle!

In bottle: Wheat and cucumber and hyssop. On me: Wheat and cucumber and sesame and hyssop and juniper. The wheat and sesame are very faint, but I can almost taste them at the back of my throat, sort of an after-scent. It's mostly a high, tart, perfumy scent, very different from what most people are getting. Part of it might be the spikenard? I amp hyssop beyond all reason, so on me this is basically Tzadikim Nistarim plus sesame crackers. Oh, and radish! That's what part of that sharp scent is! Great, I amp radish! At least the cucumber goes away after the first burst of freshness; it tends not to work on me. I think I'll keep this around and try it again in the spring, but it's more amusing than something I'd actually want to wear. I'm glad I got to try it.

(Resurrected version) In bottle: Carnation and something sort of medicinal. Hyssop? On me: Very Very Clovey carnation! My skin eats this stuff, so it's not very strong. There's a bit of something more complex under the carnation that I can't really put my finger on. Maybe some sort of resin, or perhaps it's the beeswax some other people are getting. Verdict: Quite nice, and I'll give it a full-body test to see what that's like, but I'm not really getting why this one is so popular. It also seems an oddly gentle scent for Hod. Oh well, if I swap it, it will make someone else happy :-)

For me: Dorian, TKO, Sudha Segara, The Malignant Dreams of Chthulhu in Love (of all things!), Crib Girls (specifically, it smells like hot lemon tea that's so comforting when I'm sick), and Eos.

I love sweet florals, too! Lotus is an incredibly sweet floral, so I'd definitely recommend Black Lotus or Blood Lotus. Tiger Lily has been discontinued, but you may be able to find it on the forums -- it's honeyed lily. Tamora is a sweet fruity floral. Litha is honey and assorted florals; another LE but usually pretty easy to find. Do you like lavender? TKO is all sweet marshmallowy lavender.

In bottle: Woah! Musk, a hint of cocoa...this is actually reminding me of Scheherezade at first whiff. And the oil is very, very dark and thick. On me: I smell like a cheap cigar shop Maybe it will sweeten up in a minute? Ah, yes, there's a bit of chocolate. Where the heck did all that sexy musk go? Even dry, there's just too much tobacco in this for me. I don't normally have a problem with that note, but here it's going dry and harsh. Try this if you liked The Malignant Dreams of Cthulhu in Love and can wear tobacco notes.

This wasn't listed in the notes, but I get a lovely anise scent from Tabella. It's all gentle herbal anise and beeswax on me.

On me, this is a very light rose with a bit of amber and straw. Sadly, this rose is not one of the ones that plays well with my skin.

On me, this is mostly lavender and fennel, with a hint of vanilla. It's definitely the same vanilla-lavender as TKO. Dorian and Snake Oil are nowhere to be found, which is just fine by me, since Snake Oil doesn't really like me. Very pretty, but I can get almost the same effect from TKO.

I'd been scared off by the caramel in this, but I got a lovely little tester-imp in a swap! On fresh, it's a sharp herbal scent that's almost like caraway or fennel bulb. There's definitely honey and apple blossom (which is lovely on me! I'll have to remember that...). As it dries down, the sharp scent reveals itself to be caramel, of all things. It's not going all overpowering and sweet (Red Lantern was *scary*), but instead seems to be that sour, sharp, almost burnt part of caramel without the sugar. But not in a bad way; just unusual. This still is a little odd and herbal for my taste, but I'm very glad I got the chance to try it.

In the bottle: Honey with some floral and nut notes. Maybe this won't be all marzipany? On me: Ack! Wacky sharp sweet scent of weirdness! I think one of the honeys is going off? The almond is behaving itself nicely and is a sweet raw almond scent without going sugary. I'm not getting the fruits at all, and only a light veil of jasmine. As it dries down, the sharpness fades but doesn't disappear entirely. The almond and honey make a sweet but somehow not at all foody baklava-ish scent. But that weirdness...is this what people describe when jasmine goes bad? I think it might be! But...jasmine, we were such good friends. We worked so well together, even though you scare other people. Really, just because almond isn't waving around the giant marzipan hammer this time doesn't mean I'll leave you for them! Meh. Into the swaps pile you go...

March Hare is very spiced-orange on me, and Al-Shairan is spiced peach in a very similar way.

I find that white honey is a bit lighter and "cleaner"; it's less likely to go sour or boozy on me. That's my favorite of all Beth's honey notes. (There's a whole thread on honey somewhere around here; you should check that out!)

In bottle: SALTED. CHOCOLATE. FUDGE. With just a teeny hint of musk. On me: The chocolate fades away almost instantly. It's incredible how strong it was in the bottle, yet how understated once it hits my skin. I'm not really getting the bright aquatics other people have mentioned, which is good in my case, since they normally hate me. As it dries, I get some musk and incense...the resins go sweet on me, as they usually do, which melds perfectly with the chocolate. This is actually kind of like what I'd hoped Kali would be -- dark ritual chocolate. It's incredibly well blended. I get a very faint hint of something salty and vaguely vegetably, but overall it's chocolate incense. This is Bliss in stiletto heels. Amazing. I mostly got this because it was one of those things that I just had to try. Chocolate scents are usually fun on me, but not something I want to wear everyday. I can't wear aquatics. And yet this work so very well.

Interesting...I definitely get what people mean when they describe this as a "smooth" scent. At first this is tart and floral and the patchouli does a bit of that weird nutty thing it sometimes does on me. Once it dries down, the rose-infused amber takes over and leaves it a very refined floral. No fruit, no patchouli, no spice. Weird. It's almost like a lighter version of Rose Cross. I think I'll keep this one a while and let it age to see if the other notes develop a bit more.

That sounds almost exactly like what you'd get if you layered TKO and Rumpelstiltzchen on me, actually.

Amsterdam is a lovely light fresh floral scent. The tulip note is gorgeous!

I was worried that the rose would do horrible things, but instead it vanished. I get maybe a hint of a powdery rose, and the rest is faint creamy coconut and something that smells vaguely like sex. I was hoping for roses. I did not want strange coconut sex. o_0

Green! Sweet and green and grassy. It dries to a slightly less juicy grass, but this is pretty much all grass on me. No hay, no flowers, no puppies. Oh, well. Grass scents tend to take over on me.

Fruity! This is definitely a bubbly, fizzy, juicy fruit, but not overly sweet. And oddly, nod as foody as some fruit blends. It really does smell kind of like flavored selzer. This would be a lovely bath oil or linen spray. I get a lot of pineapple at first, then it dries down to a very nice tart apricot with a floral edge.

I've only tried ELF and Yggdrasil and the common adjective that strikes me for those two is "clear". They're both fairly light scents (at least on me; both of them are pretty complex!) without being sweet or floral or stereotypically feminine. Other light resin scents like The Lion might be a good match.

Does anyone have recs for a GC equivalent of Tarot:The Heirophant? I haven't come across anything else with that sort of resin-marshmallow note.