absinthetics

Gurjum balsam, rose geranium, opoponax, violet leaf, brown leather accord, and patchouli. This is a gorgeous scent that morphs into so many beautiful qualities. The rose and opoponax are at the forefront with the violet leaf giving it a bit of a bite. The brown leather is barely there and sits in the background giving it a mellow backdrop with the pathchouli. For a moment the rose comes forward upon drydown, but it is slowly occluded by something almost a little spicy.

SNOW-FLAKES Out of the bosom of the Air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, Over the woodlands brown and bare, Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow Descends the snow. Even as our cloudy fancies take Suddenly shape in some divine expression, Even as the troubled heart doth make In the white countenance confession, The troubled sky reveals The grief it feels. This is the poem of the air, Slowly in silent syllables recorded; This is the secret of despair, Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded, Now whispered and revealed To wood and field. The radiance and desolation of winter. Crystaline, brital, beautiful, unique. In the bottle: Delicate, the most ephemeral mint. (But with something fruity sweet just lingering on the outskirts of oral perception.) Wet: The notes are so very very hard to pick out. Their is something Juicy hiding in there, and something sweet. The mint nearly disappears on the skin. It's a perfect winter scent without the pine and even without the mint. The mint disappears to leave just that subtle chill that makes this a gorgeous winter scent. I have to admit it reminds the nose of Snow White. That juicyness is still in there... whatever it is. Drydown: There is a mysterious sharp note that blooms later, it takes this to neither floral, nor fruity... It is not accosting either. It's just... pretty. This scent is .. magical. I can barely pick out any note, but the way the smells mix together.... Huzzah. Well done! Trully a piece of art.

PRINCE LÍR "Heroes," Prince Lír replied sadly. "Heroes know about order, about happy endings – heroes know that some things are better than others. Carpenters know grains and shingles, and straight lines." He put his hands out to the Lady Amalthea, and took one step toward her. She did not draw back from him, nor turn her face; indeed, she lifted her head higher, and it was the prince who looked away. "You were the one who taught me," he said. "I never looked at you without seeing the sweetness of the way the world goes together, or without sorrow for its spoiling. I became a hero to serve you, and all that is like you. Also to find some way of starting a conversation." Chivalry, love, and sacrifice. A noble cologne touched by a sweet sadness: vanilla fougere, bright citrus, juniper berry, ambergris accord, and basil. What an amazing scent. Mostly I am picking up juniper from this scent, which is made a little harsh by the citrus notes. However, I wouldn't think 'citrus!' when I smelled this bottle. It's almost like a bite at the back of your nose, but not in any way orange or lemon. I'd almost say that this scent smells like leather. I looked for it in the notes but it's not there, and I'm honestly surprised. This smells like a knight going into battle. Like oiled grieves and a hyped up male-ness. There is something soothing and pretty about it, but I mean male-prettiness, grace, glowing.... it's warm in a way that it's well-worn but somehow bright. I think this is the mix of sneaky citrus and the vanilla Fougère. A work of art! I want to cuddle up next to Prince Lir so he can keep me safe at night.

Cacao, tobacco absolute, Chilean coffee bean, osage-orange, and ebony. You do get a deep understanding of the cacao note the second you put this under your nose. I think it's dancing somehow with the coffee bean, that isn't quite coffee. There is a dark smoothness to this scent that is very elegant. I don't know if it's specifically the ebony, or ebony + the tobacco. The orange is just the slightest bite to the nose in the bottle, but really comes out more when worn. So far, I think this is the most bottle worthy scent in the butterflies.

Gleaming black and iridescent green: black patchouli and vetiver with green amber, oudh, tobacco flower, elemi, and champaca. There is something sharp and un-gentle about this scent, and it remains rather cold and hard. I'd say stony but it doesn't feel earthy or even dry. It's like wet black marble. None of the notes really pop out, certainly not the champaca. If you don't like green notes, don't fear, as I don't get a green feeling out of this at all.

Lily of the valley, patchouli, copal, violet leaf, ambrette seed, Cyprian bergamot, chocolate peppermint, and tobacco absolute. Ooh! There's the bergamot! Bam! Next come patchouli and violet leaf. After this assaults your nose with citrus, you get the ghost of lily in the valley, fluttering haphazardly by just like a ...Bernardino dotted blue butterfly. The chocolate and tobacco may round this out to give it a slightly earthy-etheral feel to it, but that original tang in the bottle really gets you. I'll post a wet review for this one because I really want to know where it goes next.

In the long, sleepless watches of the night, A gentle face — the face of one long dead — Looks at me from the wall, where round its head The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light. Here in this room she died; and soul more white Never through martyrdom of fire was led To its repose; nor can in books be read The legend of a life more benedight. There is a mountain in the distant West That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines Displays a cross of snow upon its side. Such is the cross I wear upon my breast These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes And seasons, changeless since the day she died. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Cypress, Spanish moss, and clove bud with labdanum, Italian bergamot, and white tobacco flower. This is a woodsey, slightly citrusy snow note. It's rather jarring and there is definitely something earthy in the background

A room of cobalt hues, shadowed, with walls adorned innumerable pinned butterflies and moths. Lilac water, fossilized black amber, lily of the valley, violet leaf, and oakmoss. This room is dark, dusty and somehow sharp. The amber really doesn't come through, nor does the lilac. The violet is the most prominent floral note. But over all it is rather old and dusty and it does feel like there is something heady and formal about it as well. Old world, for sure.

Our therapeutic, anti-inflammatory blend of lavender, gingergrass, clary sage, eucalyptus, turmeric root, ashwagandha and peppermint will help relieve muscle strain, cramps, and fatigue! Rub it out and get yer ass back into that ‘Con! You can clearly make out almost all the notes in this scent. This will grab you very fast with bright eucalyptus and lavender. I would say that Lavender and the mints are what show up the most. It is rather antiseptic smelling and medicinal.

WITCH-CURSED CASTLE You whom Haggard holds in thrall, Share his feast and share his fall. You shall see your fortune flower Till the torrent takes the tower. Yet none but one of Hagsgate town May bring the castle swirling down. Beyond the town, darker than dark, King Haggard’s castle teetered like a lunatic on stilts, and beyond the castle the sea slid. Drinn stopped him as he raised his glass. “Not that toast, my friend. Will you drink to a woe fifty years old? It is that long since our sorrow fell, when King Haggard built his castle by the sea.” “When the witch built it, I think.” Schmendrick wagged a finger at him. “Credit where it’s due, after all.” “Ah, you know that story,” Drinn said. “Then you must also know that Haggard refused to pay the witch when her task was completed.” The magician nodded. “Aye,” and she cursed him for his greed – cursed the castle, rather. “But what had that to do with Hagsgate? The town had done the witch no wrong.” “No,” Drinn replied. “But neither had it done her any good. She could not unmake the castle – or would not, for she fancied herself an artistic sort and boasted that her work was years ahead of its time. Anyway, she came to the elders of Hagsgate and demanded that they force Haggard to pay what was due her. ‘Look at me and see yourselves,’ she rasped. ‘That’s the true test of a town, or of a king. A lord who cheats an ugly old witch will cheat his own folk by and by. Stop him while you can, before you grow used to him.’” Drinn sipped his wine and thoughtfully filled Schmendrick’s glass once more. “Haggard paid her no money,” he went on, “and Hagsgate, alas, paid her no heed. She was treated politely and referred to the proper authorities, whereupon she flew into a fury and screamed that in our eagerness to make no enemies at all, we had now made two.” He paused, covering his eyes with lids so thin that Molly was sure he could see through them, like a bird. With his eyes closed, he said, “It was then that she cursed Haggard’s castle, and cursed our town as well. Thus his greed brought ruin upon us all.” In the sighing silence, Molly Grue’s voice came down like a hammer on a horseshoe, as though she were again berating poor Captain Cully. “Haggard’s less at fault than you yourselves,” she mocked the folk of Hagsgate, “for he was only one thief, and you were many. You earned your trouble by your own avarice, not your king’s.” Drinn opened his eyes and gave her an angry look. “We earned nothing,” he protested. “It was our parents and grandparents whom the witch asked for help, and I’ll grant you that they were as much to blame as Haggard, in their way. We would have handled the matter quite differently.” And every middle-aged face in the room scowled at every older face. One of the old men spoke up in a voice that wheezed and miaowed. “You would have done just as we did. There were crops to harvest and stock to tend, as there still are. There was Haggard to live with, as there still is. We know very well how you would have behaved. You are our children.” Weed-strewn oak, opoponax, wet stone, creaking redwood, and desolate olibanum. Wow. I literally said 'wow!' when I smelled this scent in the bottle. It's perfect. It's deep, dark and terrifying without any sort of dirt note in it. It's terrifying, and woody. If you close your eyes and imagine the place and then smell the scent you would be instantly transported there. It's foreboding and heavy. I'd recommend this to anyone who would like to create the scene in an RP session with the RP scents. It calms down when you wear it, but it lurks for a long time. This and Hagsgate are incredibly complex.

The last fleeting moments of sunset, casting a perfect, magical, golden light across a damask-adorned dining room, bathing a father and daughter in an enchanted glow. This really is a golden, perfect scent. But it is warm and golden in a way that isn't sharp or bright, but warm and soothing. There is a vanilla softness to this that also illustrates a warm luminescence. There is also a richness to it that deepens the vanilla in a way that grounds it and doesn't leave it too etheral.

Golden amber, juniper berry, white sage, leather, cardamom, and black pepper. I'm still waiting for this scent to dry down and hoping the golden amber is a bit more prominent however for the most part this is a heavy juniper berry blend. The leather and black pepper make it an equally dark scent. I can't really discern white sage at this point but I think it blends in with the juniper berry in a fascinating way.

HAGSGATE “When those words were first spoken,” Drinn said, “Haggard had not been long in the country, and all of it was still soft and blooming – all but the town of Hagsgate. Hagsgate was then as this land has become: a scrabbly, bare place where men put great stones on the roofs of their huts to keep them from blowing away.” He grinned bitterly at the older men. “Crops to harvest, stock to tend! You grew cabbages and rutabagas and a few pale potatoes, and in all of Hagsgate there was but one weary cow. Strangers thought the town accursed, having offended some vindictive witch or other.” Molly felt the unicorn go by in the street, then turn and come back, restless as the torches on the walls, that bowed and wriggled. She wanted to run out to her, but instead she asked quietly, “And afterward, when that had come true?” Drinn answered, “From that moment, we have known nothing but bounty. Our grim earth has grown so kind that gardensand orchards spring up by themselves – we need neither to plant nor to tend them. Our flocks multiply; our craftsmen become more clever in their sleep; the air we breathe and the water we drink keep us from ever knowing illness. All sorrow parts to go around us – and this has come about while the rest of the realm, once so green, has shriveled to cinders under Haggard’s hand. For fifty years, none but he and we have prospered. It is as though all others had been cursed.” An accursed bounty: rich black soil and hay, cucumber, tomato, red lettuce, summer squash, black eggplant, arugula, grape vine, artichoke, and a tangle of herbs marred by an undercurrent of vetiver, patchouli, and black moss. An evil, wooden gate a midst a deeply wooded area. The wood is old, gnarled and worn with time. This scent is woody but green. The lettuce, tomato and eggplant make this a sharp, interesting blend. They come out brightly when worn, but in the bottle they make this a cloying green scent like none I have smelled before. Though there is a dirt/soil note it's not dominant either in the bottle or dry-down. This is much more complex then something like Premature Burial. There is an herbal note like Marshwoman's Beer. The vetiver and patchouli add to the depth of this scent but they are not something that would ruin this for people who dislike those notes. Overall this is a VERY interesting scent! Recommended for RP scent people, you could create an interesting place with this.

Five honeys with vanilla orchid, gardenia, dragon's blood resin, gingergrass, and turmeric. I expect this to be one of the favorites from this series. In the bottle: Honey, orchid and gardenia. There is a heaviness in the background that could easily be the dragon's blood resin, made even deeper by the gardenia. On: the dragon's blood comes out more, and this deepens. The honey is still delightfully there but the flowers are coming more to the foreground. After 20min: lovely honeyed vanilla orchid and gardenia. Only a hint of the dragon's blood in the background that gives it some depth. Beautiful foody floral.

Wild strawberries, strawberry flower, strawberry blossom honey, vanilla-infused sugar, early summer grasses, and milky dandelion sap. What a beautiful moon! Wild, ripe strawberries, the extra red ones! And you can smell the tang of the 'leaves' (which i imagine is the summer grasses). The vanilla infused sugar smells like a bowl of cut strawberries dusted with sugar just before you pour the cream on. At the end of it all you really do smell the dandelion. This is my most favorite moon lately, up there with Pink Moon this year. (Yes, my foodiness has come out.) I can't even express how, once you get past the ripe strawberry scent, there is even that...center of the strawberry scent...which is slightly muted but just as juicy. So great! This and one other bottle actually leaked in my order >.<; but I can't say it wasn't an amazing smelling box!

Saffron, pimento, cardamom, beeswax, cajeput, tomato leaf, geranium, and pink pepper honey. What a great scent in the bottle. The first impression is the honey, saffron and cardamom. The beeswax lies waiting in the background and there is a tang of tomato leaf. I would say this is a pink and green scent. Very interesting!

A dark scent, sultry but sullen: tobacco absolute, birch tar, blackened clove, whip leather, and spiced rum. This is a dark scent that settles more around the blackened clove and birch tar. The spiced rum and tobacco give it a hazy, slightly sweet quality but overall it's rather dark and murky. For now, as it is wet, it's more sullen than sultry. After settling, this scent gets a bit more foody, with the spiced rum and blackened clove giving it a warm, spicy bite to it. The leather sort of comes in waves, almost totally gone sometimes, and then sneaking back in... like a whip. >.<; =D It's a little more sultry now.

Apple and white mint layered with tobacco flower, pink pepper, white jasmine, bourbon vanilla, orange blossom, and champaca flower. I picked up an extra bottle of this at NYCC. The jasmine and vanilla and orange blossom are just so sweetly pretty in this scent. The mint and champaca give it this interesting ethereal quality. Somehow it ends up a bit juicy and sweet but not too much. The apple is also not overpowering.

II est amer et doux, pendant les nuits d’hiver, D’écouter, près du feu qui palpite et qui fume, Les souvenirs lointains lentement s’élever Au bruit des carillons qui chantent dans la brume. Bienheureuse la cloche au gosier vigoureux Qui, malgré sa vieillesse, alerte et bien portante, Jette fidèlement son cri religieux, Ainsi qu’un vieux soldat qui veille sous la tente! Moi, mon âme est fêlée, et lorsqu’en ses ennuis Elle veut de ses chants peupler l’air froid des nuits, II arrive souvent que sa voix affaiblie Semble le râle épais d’un blessé qu’on oublie Au bord d’un lac de sang, sous un grand tas de morts Et qui meurt, sans bouger, dans d’immenses efforts. – – – Bitter and sweet it is on these long winter nights To sit before the fire and watch the smoking log Beat like a heart; and hear our lost, our mute delights Call with the carillons that ring out in the fog. What certitude, what health, sounds from that brazen throat, In spite of age and rust, alert! O happy bell, Sending into the dark your clear religious note, Like an old soldier crying through the night, “All’s well!” I am not thus; my soul is cracked across by care; Its voice, that once could clang upon this icy air, Has lost the power, it seems, — comes faintly forth, instead, As from the rattling throat of a hurt man who lies Beside a lake of blood, under a heap of dead, And cannot stir, and in prodigious struggling dies. — Charles Baudelaire, translation by Edna St. Vincent Millay A new interpretation, inspired by Millay’s translation- A soul, cracked across by care: blood and ruin, smoke and sorrow, incense and ice. This scent is dark, with dark incense. The Ice is that of black ice, and the smoke is definitely in the background, but not too burnt smelling. I don't smell any "blood" and the "ruin" is just this overall sharpness. Very intriguing scent.

White sandalwood, opium tar, tobacco leaf, and white amber. This is a gorgeous scent. I would say that all of the notes are equally represented both wet and on the dry down. The sandalwood and opium tar are more prominent but in general I find tobacco leaf and white amber to be more subtle scents. The throw is excellent and the scent sticks around for quite some time. This is definitely a sandalwood heavy scent.

HARVEST MOON Harvest Moon is celebrated in almost every culture, and the bounty of the season is marked in a myriad of ways. Harvest Moon touches the Equinox, the festival of Janus, the culmination of Homowo, the “crying of the neck” in Cornwall, and the Women’s Festival of the Moon. This is a day that celebrates abundance and beauty, fertility and progress, and the light of this full moon blesses new undertakings and reunites lost loves. The Harvest Moon, by definition, is the Full Moon that falls closest to the Autumnal Equinox, and thus, it shares some of that Sabbat’s characteristics. This Full Moon was thus named because it rises within half an hour of the sun’s setting, in the Northern Hemisphere, and at this time farmers are able to work longer into the night by the light of this Moon. As the year draws to a close, the Full Moon rises an average of fifty minutes later each night, with the exception of a few nights surrounding the Harvest Moon, which only rises 10-30 minutes later. This moon is also, to the human eye, the fullest and largest of the year’s Moons, hanging gloriously huge, yellow and low in the night sky, and many lunar illusions play tricks our eyes at this time. The Harvest ushers in many celebrations, including the Equinox and the Festival of Janus, God of Doors. Janus is the Roman Lord of Gateways, beginnings and endings, and transitions. Thus, the Harvest Moon is a time for blessing new ventures, the onset of new and progressive phases in one’s life, and rites of passage into adulthood. This time of year also marks one of the Festivals of Dionysus, Lord of Ecstasy and the Vine. This Harvest lunacy combines the autumnal scents of dry leaves, warm, brown spices, white oak, Himalayan cedar, Russian sage, red apple, sweet black plum, juniper berry, clove, saffron, verbena, and yarrow with Dionysus’ sacred grapes and ivy, the amaranth and lingum aloes of Janus, and a gentle breath of Harvest Festival woodsmoke and sweet red wine. Wow! What an amazing Lunacy. This is an example of why Lunacies can really surprise and amaze me still. In the bottle it is glowing warm, the dry leaves, saffron and brown spices are really amazing. There's this buttery wonderfulness that is not foodie per se, and nowhere plasticy. The fruits I was hoping to come out the most were apple and plum. Though apple isn't your typical apple note the plum is there. But it slowly settles down as it dries. On the skin, the clove comes out a bit but mostly as a heat in the background. This is not a boozie scent, nor an overwhelming wine. It's almost like a halloweenie that got lost. In the end, the hay and woodsmoke creep up, taming the fruits.

It’s nature. A savage world of little things dying or eating each other right beneath our feet. Flora and fauna, man and beast entwined in a cycle of endless brutality: soil and rot and the heat of rage, blood-smeared musk and sharp decay. This scent is sharp and biting. There is the deep scent of the grave but there is also something warm and wet in it. It's a fascinating blend. There is a dry and dustiness to it too.

His eyes were the same color as the horns of the Red Bull. He was taller than Schmendrick, and though his face was bitterly lined there was nothing fond or foolish in it. It was a pike's face: the jaws long and cold, the cheeks hard, the lean neck alive with power. Dry cedar, bitter balsam, and ashes. Overall this is a startling dry scent. You could almost leave it as its notes-- it smells like ashes and cedar. The cedar isn't sharp like cedar can be. It's the dried, splintery kind that you can't activate with sand paper. There is a bitter quality to it that speaks of something else, un-nameable, in the mix. I can't imagine this being a person, more like the withered, husk of what a person once could have been. In keeping it in mind that this is King Haggard, it makes me kind of sad. If a scent could be lonely, this would be the one.

Teak, ebony wood, osmanthus, patchouli, red sandalwood, vanilla orchid, tonka bean, tobacco, wild musk, spikenard, and sugandh kokila. Right out of the mail, the patchouli is strong in this one. Straight up Banshee beat patchouli but without the creaminess. I would say the second note is the teak. On the skin, the sandalwood and tobacco make a play but the patchouli is still quite strong. The notes I smell the least are the vanilla orchid and tonka.

Glistening red apple and a drift of dark, smoky black copal, saffron, galbanum, sweet orange rind, and myrrh. This is very much like black apple however the sweet orange rind and saffron pop up and make it a totally different scent. It's dark but sparkling.