Gaidig

In the bottle: It doesn't seem particularly fiery. Woody, perhaps. Green sandalwood wet with oil, ready to light.

 

On me: A little smokier, dryer. Like a cedar sauna, with a hint of pine boughs. Nordic.

 

1 hour+ later: Dry cedar, light smoke and wet rose? Possibly some kind of sweeter incense? Myrrh perhaps? (I have no idea what that smells like.) It lasted strong for several hours, then dropped off almost completely just before I went to note the scent down, so that's making it tricky to describe. I think I get quenched iron in there as well, like the smell of a blacksmith shop, if the smith were working over a wood fire.

In the bottle: Sandalwood comes out first, but I can detect the other scents as well, in a smooth flow. Warm, round, and a little spicy, this feels like a wintery scent to me.

 

On me: Amber and cinnamon dominate, while the sandalwood and patchouli fade into background supporting notes. It is somewhat foody, but also sensual. The black patchouli does not give the strong hippy patchouli note I feared. As it dries more, it is becoming more woodsy.

 

1 hour+ later: The scent has not really changed. It is still a delectable warm, spicy scent, with a woody background.

In the bottle: Cypress takes the stage. I don't really notice anything else.

 

On me: Cypress still predominates, but some of the florals come out, blended together nicely, with just a hint of the mint. This isn't a cypress swamp, it is much drier. This is the cypress lane leading somewhere mysterious. Not dry and dead. Alive, but not dripping with life.

 

1 hour+ later: A quiet, subtle scent. A walk in a wooded lane in autumn. The woods are open below the canopy, with little underbrush to be seen. The trunks soar up tall, orderly and branchless like columns in a cathedral nave, finally reaching out to meet each other near the bright grey sky. The wind is still and the leaves littered across the floor of the wood move to the breeze of your footsteps.

In the bottle: Rose and more rose.

 

On me: The leather comes out as a base note and makes it more sophisticated. Still, the leather harmonizes and melds with the rose, making it very hard to distinguish the two notes as separate entities. This is an apple-sized red rose, fully open and heady on the vine.

 

1 hour+ later: At first I thought it was fading, fast, but then suddenly it wasn't. It has very good throw on me. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but this is a sultry floral.

In the bottle: The almond and orange really stand out to me. I get a waft of orange Madeleine cake, with a sophisticated bitter edge.

 

On me: Unfortunately, it gets more sugary on me, and the rose comes out from wherever it was hiding and takes over as the main note.

 

1 hour+ later: The rose does step back and marry with the other fragrances after a short time. There is not much staying power on me.

In the bottle: To me, this is "perfumy".

 

On me: On me, the bad perfume smell goes away immediately, and I get a rich dark musky floral. I don't know which flower does it, but I get a Victorian feel from this. It is plush velvets, a roll-top rosewood desk, and a man writing with a nibbed pen.

In the bottle: Sandalwood takes the front with the jasmine. Not sure if I can distinguish any of the other notes.

 

On me: The sandalwood moves back and the jasmine and lily dominate with a spicy background from the cardamom and frankincense. I'm not sure if I can identify the moon flower, but in general I get a well blended floral scent from this.

 

1 hour+ later: The floral moves back some and it becomes more spicy and more balanced. Unfortunately, this doesn't have a lot of staying power on me.

In the bottle: Sweet, wet, and green, with a spicy finish. I am not really familiar with any of the actual notes, except olive, so I am not surprised that I cannot pick them out. It does not strike me as olive

 

On me: Barely sweet at all, more spicy, but sunny high notes rather than sultry low notes. I like this stage on me, and I think it would also be good on a man.

 

1 hour+ later: Stays fairly true to original drydown. Good throw. Sun shining down on softly glittering ancient sandstone buildings.

In the bottle: Laurel and bay with honey in the background. This is heady and a bit smokey.

 

On me: The honey steps up a little, and the scent is less green. The notes are more blended. It is becoming more like what I hoped for, but less incense than I expected. I had expected this to be the dark cave of the oracle, but it is the bright day on the field of Olympic competition.

 

1 hour+ later: Smokier, but still bright. Not much change from initial dry down. I think this will be a good scent to wear to work, as it is not as sultry as Athens.

In the bottle: Very sweet but also a tiny bit sour in a good way, like a Flemish sour, which happens to be one of my favorite styles of beer. There is something deep, but the honey jumps out at me, followed by the flowers, making this a bright scent.

 

On me: Out comes that sour that I like - the wine? -- and especially a spiciness -- myrrh?

 

1 hour+ later: Still spicy with a light sweetness and light floral. The floral notes remind me of Sea of Glass, but here they are accompanied by a spicy red wine. To me, this scent is a summer evening drinking red wine in the temple gardens.

In the bottle: The sandalwood and musk are strong, with an undercurrent of almond. It invokes a closed room with curtains drawn but fluttering and sandalwood burning in a brazier.

 

On me: The almond and jasmine come forward, blended together to create one scent that is both and neither. They do not step far forward, and are anchored by the woodiness of the oakmoss & sandalwood and the musk, like a girl dancing in the flickering light and obscuring smoke of the brazier.

 

1 hour+ later: I really like this. It is what I was hoping for from Scherezade.

In the bottle: A sweet floral with a warm, more sophisticated base.

 

On me: Sweet and floral with musk in the background. Possibly tonka. I don't smell the sage.

 

1 hour+ later: A bit less floral and more musky. A very feminine and floral sort of sensual. I could see this being very good when I am going '20s glam.

 

ETA: I do think it's sort of a watery floral, like someone said above.

In the bottle: Red KoolAid in the package before you add the sugar. I'm sorry, but that's what I got from the first hit. I smell something fruity and I can smell the cinnamon. I'm not sure I can identify the other scents.

 

On me: The cinnamon steps back and the vanilla and almond step forward. This has a spicy almond cookie scent. It is definitely foody on me.

 

1 hour+ later: Bitter almond and vanilla have a strong staying power. They were still there after many hours, but the spices eventually faded. I smell like a Madelaine cookie.

In the bottle: I definitely get the rose and maybe something woody.

 

On me: Lilac comes to the front. I get the feel of an old library full of hard bound books with thick rag-paper pages. A home library in some Victorian, where there are built in shelves along the walls, rather than stacks of books piled close. There is a table in the middle of the room with a centerpiece of dried flowers. A velvety chaise sits in the corner with a Tiffany floor lamp to read by.

 

1 hour+ later: As time passes, the rosewood and teak emerge. This room is definitely paneled and the table in the center has been polished. Now, the velvet curtains are pulled shut, and it is warm and dark in the evening. Later the blend is mainly lilac with the other notes in the background making it more sophisticated than a simple floral.

In the bottle: Lavender & some savory spice that gives it an herbal tinge. Unlike others, I don't really think it smells like rosemary.

On me: The lavender receeds and the blend becomes less sharp and astringent. It smells cool. On drydown, as my body warms it up, the smell warms. I smell like sitting in a dry cedar paneled sauna; the soft smell of dry wood and faint smoke. This is very warm and relaxing.

1 hour+ later: I went to sleep pretty quickly, but upon waking I smelled faintly the same as upon initial drydown.

Impact on sleep and dreaming: I used this the night before election day, hoping for better sleep. Despite sleeping for only 5 hours, I was quite rested and I felt that I remembered more dreams throughout the night. The thing that struck me the most was that when I woke up, the covers were pristine, whereas I normally toss and turn quite a bit.

In the bottle: Sweet berries take the front, but I can smell the amber and I think iris, with a hint of spices.

 

On me: My left wrist is very iris while my right wrist is stronger on the spicy amber. How odd. It is thankfully not as sweet on me. Not a very strong throw.

 

1 hour+ later: Very faint iris & amber with a hint of vanilla.

In the bottle: I recognize the jasmine, blended with some other floral notes and deepened by the musk & sandalwood. It is hard to pick out individual scents.

 

On me: Jasmine like crazy. Gives it a perfumy feel. Not much throw.

 

1 hour+ later: soft jasmine

In the bottle: Slightly sweet and also woody, like leaf mold. Damp earth in an old cemetery with drifts of decayed leaves and dried crumbling rotten branches.

 

On me: Sandalwood and cinnamon. Amber? Spicy and autumnal. Hot tea with a stick of cinnamon. Not at all like in the bottle.

 

1 hour+ later: quality potpourri

Note: Late in cycle. Imp straight from the Lab, but about eleven months old.

 

In the bottle: This smells much sugarier than pomegranate. I should know, it's my favorite fruit. This smells like SweeTarts to me.

 

On me: I'm getting some more of the booze now. As it dries, the sweetness is falling back. (Thank the Goddess!) It's still sugared, though. Not a lot of throw. And not sultry. Crisp, yes.

 

1 hour+ later: This doesn't scream "pomegranate" to me, icon_sad.gif . it's pretty sophisticated for a sweet scent, and it's kind of pomegranaty. It's very light, but it does last a long time.

Note: End of cycle. Imp straight from the Lab, but about eleven months old.

 

In the bottle: I get vanilla and somewhat peppery carnation, maybe sage.

 

On me: This pretty much disappeared on me/became a second skin with no distinguishable notes. I can tell that it's there, but it's only a tiny bit more vanilla and maybe musk on the right hand and carnation on the left hand than my actual skin.

 

1 hour+ later: Slightly sweeter & muskier second skin. Still there many hours later. For some reason it sticks around longer on my left hand than the right. Go figure.

My first response is Anne Bonny.

 

It smells like salty teak to me. You said you wanted pirate as well as salt, and Anne Bonny smells like a sailing ship.

 

My BPAL experience is limited so far, so that's the only one I can point to. And there's no leather in that.

Note: Late in cycle. Imp straight from the Lab, but about eleven months old.

 

In the bottle: I am not sure what vetiver smells like, but I am getting something green, and musk, and poppy, I think. Cherries.

 

On me: There's the honey & vanilla. They're all I smell now. I didn't smell them in the bottle. At this point, it seems like it could become too sweet before long. I have yet to smell the clove, or the wine, really. As I type, the honey is already backing off. I am smelling a green sharpness, now. The cherries are gone, I think. It seems to be going light & crisp.

 

1 hour+ later: Now I've got the honey & vanilla, plus some green crispness, and a faint hint of musk. These last two keep it from being too cloying. It doesn't have a ton of throw -- or I've just gotten used to the throw -- and it isn't as dark as I expected. It's rather mild, and personally I like it, though it wasn't what I was expecting.

Note: Late in cycle. Imp straight from the Lab, but about three months old.

 

In the bottle: Dragon's blood, bayberry, & juniper jump out at me. I don't get the leather, though there is a brightness. It is rather potpourri like at this stage.

 

On me: I think that the leather & hawthorn are coming out. I have no good way of identifying the blackthorn. I'm getting a slightly forresty mulled cider effect. The metal has gotten sharper.

 

1 hour+ later: It had decent throw for a little while, but now most of it is gone. Now it is mostly dragon's blood again, I think, with a little leather and metal. Not terribly exciting, but nice and clean in a woodsy sort of way, like a wood maintained by a forrester, not a rolling around in the dirt sort of way.

Note: End of cycle. Imp fresh from the Lab.

 

In the bottle: Definitely smells like insense. Do I detect the dreaded patchouli? Musky as well, I think.

 

On me: I definitely get what I would define as a perfumey feel out of this. Perhaps that is the reaction I have to red musk. I can't seem to pick out individual notes.

 

1 hour+ later: I am catching the spices & I think I can identify the saffron, though it is not as bitter as the mehndi on my left hand. At this point, a few hours later, I have lost the throw, but I like the scent.

Note: End of cycle. Imp fresh from the Lab.

 

In the bottle: Very sweet. I think the crocus and perhaps the snowdrop are coming out the most. It smells very much like the taste of honeysuckle nectar.

 

On me: The sweetness dies back some & I get more of what I would deem an aquatic feel. The crocus is definitely still speaking up, but the rest more smooth & unidentifiable.

 

1 hour+ later: I think it sweetened back up a little, but crocus stays as the top note. It doesn't have a ton of staying power, but it does get a little more throw than it has initially.