juniperus

Bottle: I must admit this is a no-brainer for me - I love frankincense and myrrh together and, once upon a time, when I used coals and resins in my practice, I used to burn them togethter often. At first sniff the frankincense dominates.

Wet: Frank is still ahead but graceful myrrh has a clear presence. my love for resin incenses is funny, considering I was raised in a protestant denomination that doesn't use incense instead of Catholic, Orthodox, or Episcopalian.

Dry: incense-y, but not dry. a little sharp, like the resin fresh from the tree, before it's dry and brittle.

Later: this remains oddly sharp. hmmm.

Bottle: sweet pea and vanilla are such a lovely combination!

Wet: sweet pea with a background of amber..I know sweet pea most intimately from my grandmother's backyard and the very old sweet pea bush there, but this isn't taking me there, it's charming, antique, and elegant.

Dry: the vanilla is taking over as it usually does, but the sweet pea is still holding strong. I'll hold out a little hope, for now.

Later: The vanilla is close to the only thing I can detect here, but it's such a lovely blend when it's not on my skin...

Bottle: sharp lavender, orange, and woods. the smell of a used bookstore filled with very old, forgotten books.

Wet: hints of the amber behind the lavender. ever smelled very old vellum...? this is something between that and very old, yellowed paper...

Dry: the patchouli has awoken and warmed - this is fantastic, a hippy-antique-y used book shop, you know - the kind with the fat tortoiseshell that has it's basket in a sunny corner...?

Later: this is evocative and fabulous - I have found another keeper, definitely!

Bottle: rose and lemon. Could be lots of foodiness here. I fear.

Wet: heavy rose, none of the apple, a hint of the lemon.

Dry: rose remains most prominent, and as much as I do well with rose as a floral the lemon is sweetening it up in a strange way..not unpleasant, but strange - clearly it's not just the rose, but the other notes don't stand on their own enough for me to tag.

Later: Still with the rose, but calmer. I think it's ok on me.

bottle: sweet cocoa, hint of spiced rum

wet: the same

dry: the tang of the blood is behind a more pronounced scent of rum. cocoa is warm and balancing the rum nicely

later: although I usually can't manage red wine notes this is surprisingly mellow and hasn't gone oddly sour. It's really rather pleasant on me - a nice surprise!

Bottle: spicy! not immediately foody - the depth of the spices (and lack of immediate sweetness) gives an almost resinous quality to the scent

Wet: anise, ginger, and thyme are forward, hints of allspice behind

Dry: still smells a bit like the inside of Penzeys, the thyme and anise particularly strong

Later: OMG, do I amp anise? rly!!?! I want to love this--and behind the anise there are all things spicy and beautiful--but the anise is aggressive. I'm undecided.

Bottle: foody, the cocoa and vanilla primary

Wet: the same, but with a fresh floral feel behind them

Dry: much more floral, the cocoa and vanilla almost entirely in the background with amber and leaves coming forward, giving an almost forest-floor sort of feel

Later: we have achieved balance between the subtle foody, floral, and the forest!

Bottle: soft pear, almost a hint of a scent rather than the scent itself

Wet: pear is no longer soft nor merely a hint--this is a pear that wants my attention

Dry: the vanilla has a muskiness behind it, now, and the pear is no longer 'O HAI I M PEAR!1eleventy!11!!!', although it's gotten sweeter.

Later: you know that sort of sharpness fo the skin of a bosc pear--not the smell of the flesh, but the not-quite-earthy undertones the skin has? this is now that--plus a s*hit-ton of vanilla, because I'm amping it to high heaven.

Bottle: bright and shiny and floral

Wet: the florals are still forward, but behind them is both sweetness and darkness (the latter moreso the tobacco than the gunpowder, I think)

Dry: that thing that my skin does, that amping of tobacco and sweet florals? ugh.

Later: and now the flowers are in that sickly-sweet-rotting-cut-flowers phase and appear to have been put in a room in which there were just two dozen smokers lighting up really stale cigs. Woe.

Bottle: metal and musk, sharp and slightly dangerous

Wet: more sharply metallic, but warm instead of cold

Dry: oh the musk, increasing the warmth (now red-tinged, not golden) and a bit of sweetness.

Later: this is really complex and interesting, but just not for me--it really can't pull off metallic to this extent, and it's got an edge that feels like stabbity between the eyes.

Bottle: complex, fresh, warm wood and pale green... like evening air afer a short, but cleansing, summer rain

Wet: I can pick out the vanilla and cardamom ifI concentrate, but still it's layers of browns and greens

Dry: golden and spicy overlays the fresh pale green of before - this is going from lovely to gorgeous

Later: the vanilla is coming forward (I amp vanilla), but it's not done so obnoxiously enough to bury the rest... if the vanilla calms, in time, perhaps it'll go back to gorgeous from lovely (again)

Bottle: rose and musk, lovely and warm

Wet: the rose really pops, the musk and amber are singular but complimentary of each other (like they're circling? I'm getting imagery here, not words)

Dry: the rose has mellowed some, but remains prominent... and the amber and musk seem to have merged together as warm bronze with the oak elements coloring its edges

Later: the rose is still really forward, almost drowning out the rest of the notes... very pretty and warm overall, but I'd really hoped for more of the musk and amber to stick around.

I know I reviewed this in, like, 2006. September is when I posted it in my lj, and at that point I was doing both simultaneously.

But it isn't here.

So here we go again:

Bottle: beautiful (and I have no idea how old this is, FWIW), slightly sweet. I hope the vanilla does not amp too badly on me, I could really love this one.

Wet: sinuous...I can almost feel the steamy heat of the jungle in the warmth here. really lovely - why did it take me so long to try this?

Dry: so far the vanilla is behaving- miraculous that is, let me tell you.

Later: the vanilla is likely louder than is should be, but since is hasn't completely taken over I'll call this a success.

ETA: Aged, this is AMAZING on me. Fresh it's less so, so I buy ahead and hold on to them awhile.

Bottle: sharp lavender swirled in blackness.

Wet: both darker and sharper, the the added sharpness is something coming up behind the lavender that I can't quite place.

Dry: oh sharp, oh ouch, oh headache!

Later: no, no, no, and no again.

Bottle: hazelnuts and honey

Wet: the same, with a dryness (no other way to describe it, really) underneath I suspect is the hay

Dry: I still can't quite find the berries, but the hay is more hay-like in teh way it's getting in my nose. I hope this aspect goes away.

Later: ouch, headache. ouch.

Bottle: orange, bergamot, and the edge of frankincense behind.

Wet: sweeter and less sharp. I can just catch a hint of lemongrass.

Dry: much the same, but with a hint of ginger.

Later: it's lovely, cool and sweet without being foody, and the frankincense is balanced perfectly... and of course it's one for which I didn't buy a whole bottle.

Bottle: incensey cake...like the inside of a can that had cake in it, then patchouli and nag champa sticks.

Wet: more incensey than cakey, and something very sharp and aggressive is charging forward.

Dry: the sharp note is getting stronger and, oddly enough, the cake is back.

Later: sharp and bitter and sweet and... very, very wrong on me.

Bottle: Clove oil and pine sol. Like my kitchen after I've cleaned and I'm baking these little clove cookies my great-grandmother used to make...

Wet: the same

Dry: more pine bough, now (less chemically), with a hint of the sweetness of the clove behind.

Later: more clove, and still the pine remains more like a tree than a bucket of mop-water. It's interesting, but meh.

Bottle: Translucent- a hint of chrysanthemum, and cold.

Wet: Lovely, fresh chrysanthemum, right out of the florist's cooler

Dry: Deeper, warmer, rounder, and more golden... but still chrysanthemum at the core. This is really lovely!

Later: The aquatic/snow note has come forward and so has the headache. I am SO bummed!

Bottle: Immediately complex in odd ways... indescribable. I both want to yank my nose away and smell more to see if I can figure out what's there.

Wet: Patchouli and ginger, hints of oakmoss and resins behind.

Dry: More bitter, smokier... like an exotic scent-shop that has been around so many decades that the ceiling, walls, and floors exude spices and incense.

Later: Much the same, but deeper and darker. Interesting. It works, but I'm undecided whether it works WELL.

Bottle: oooh daaark. chocolate fudge and a hint of prune are all I can identify easily.

Wet: there are hints of biter herbs behind the fudge. interesting. (here's hoping my personal notes of ill-omen don't come out and play nastily! tobacco and cypress, I'm looking at you!)

Dry: the herbals are getting feisty. uh oh.

Later: Rotting vegetation, motor oil, and a hint of ashtray. I don't know whether it was the hemp, datura, snakeweed, or hemlock, but something else is adding to the badness that is cypress and tobacco on me. Hope springs eternal - but, really, I should know better. Cypress is a bitch.

Bottle: sweet, complex, slightly floral, complex... did I mention complex?

Wet: more floral, still sweet, still complex. none of the resins apparent.

Dry: the sweet is clearly fruity, now, and the floral has stepped behind lemon and pomegranate; the hint of darkness behind these is patchouli lingering - no resins have come to the fore, yet.

Later: now I can catch a hint of the resins, but they aren't taking over. the fruit hasn't gotten oddly-sweet on me (a pleasant surprise) nor have the florals taken over. this is amazingly complex and balanced, and truly breathtaking.

I'll second Mouse's Long & Sad Tale.

My daughter is about to turn 13 and my son is 7 -- both have had their own stashes for a couple of years.

Emma loves Alice - in addition to Mouse's Long & Sad Tale, you might look at a lot from that collection, I think most would be light enough for a young teen.

I brought Saturnalia for Droxy for her muggle!Snape a la Seven Preposterous Things. It smells as bad on her as it does on me - all motor oil and dead things. Perfect! ROFL

I'm also cosplaying at Azkatraz, as Rowena Ravenclaw. I've tossed around a few different ideas for a BPAL scent to match her, but I haven't settled on anything yet. I'm thinking something scholarly and dignified, but still very feminine. Any ideas? I know we talked about Dee as a good scent for Ravenclaw house (and it really is), but it's kind of masculine for the character I have in mind.

 

I'll put on my thinking cap about Bathsheba Babbling, an Alecto scent without vetiver and Jupita's suggestions!

The Raven, lol.

Dee is very nice, but I agree it's too masculine. I would say Clio (I love it, I wish I could have gotten a bottle before it was discontinued!) would be a feminine example of the best qualities of Dee.

Aeval, perhaps? I imagine her smelling fresh and clean and feminine (in addition to parchment. lol), some one who takes walked through the fields to clear her head after study, carrying the scent of local flora on the hem of her gown. Too bad there isn't a Welsh scent.

Bringing Bathsheba & Yggdrasil for Bathsheba

Bringing The Coiled Serpent and Bloodlust for Alecto. Nemesis would be perfect, but I don't seem to have it. ANd gods know I can't wear Alecto without choking y'all - I do bad things to vetiver.

(plus a bunch of the snake pit, snake oil, black phoenix, fenris wolf, the lion, sin, a couple of dragons, and who knows what else. also bringing big bag of imps that don't work on me, sharing the love.)