absinthetics
-
Content Count
1,982 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by absinthetics
-
-
I do get the impression that this is primarily saffron. It doesn't last all that long on the skin but the saffron note is delightfully complex. I've been looking for a saffron heavy scent for a while and this definitely...well, just wow. I can't wait to age it.
-
With so few notes I was curious to explore what complexity Beth had mixed in here. And it is surprisingly complex. I love both of these notes, and honestly they both shine. The Chrysanthemum note is like the Tea atmo from a few Halloween's ago I believe.
-
This scent is gorgeous. The sweet, creamy, spicy assuages my foodie desires...but I love lilac. And the touch of lilac in this is subtle and just utterly beautiful.
-
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. -
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. -
Blinding white in the noonday sun: white mint, eucalyptus, glittering elemi, white tea, silver fir, and camphor.
Bright! White! Not as shocking as I thought it would be, in fact there's more tea than mint and eucalyptus. I don't get any fir from it, which I like. I don't know what camphor smells like, though. -
Swirled grey and purple in the gloaming: snowdrifts shadowed with opium tar, wild plum, Siamese benzoin, champaca resinoid, muguet, and carnation.
The snow in this is dry and dusty. There is no mint note, nor pine. It is a darkish scent, definitely purple. The champaca note is a bit bitter and I don't smell any of the carnation until the dry down. It's a little green and odd as it pops out with the wild plum and opium tar. -
I wanted to review the 2015 version because my mother is Latvian and she told me all about the background of this, and how to say all the words =D I will say the main citrus note for me is the blood orange. It's lovely!
-
For the 2015 version, it is definitely pink, even a little juicy. The grapefruit is relatively subtle. It's sweet and creamy for a floral. It's rather..yummy!
-
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 -
Poor Monkey
in Yules
This is definitely a skin scent, as said above, and the creaminess of it is rather surprising. I guess it's the fig and lotus milk. The vanilla is foody if only because of the cream note. This is a great scent!
-
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. -
Drunk Uncle
in Yules
Wow! The alcohol note in this is strong! There are other foodie notes in here that I am trying to discern as it dries down. Maybe some cake....
-
Day-Old Ham
in Yules
Wow. This is absolutely true to life. You can even smell the salt of the ham and the juices are a little less juicy because, well, it's a day old, right?
-
Je veux, pour composer chastement mes églogues,
Coucher auprès du ciel, comme les astrologues,
Et, voisin des clochers écouter en rêvant
Leurs hymnes solennels emportés par le vent.
Les deux mains au menton, du haut de ma mansarde,
Je verrai l’atelier qui chante et qui bavarde;
Les tuyaux, les clochers, ces mâts de la cité,
Et les grands ciels qui font rêver d’éternité.
II est doux, à travers les brumes, de voir naître
L’étoile dans l’azur, la lampe à la fenêtre
Les fleuves de charbon monter au firmament
Et la lune verser son pâle enchantement.
Je verrai les printemps, les étés, les automnes;
Et quand viendra l’hiver aux neiges monotones,
Je fermerai partout portières et volets
Pour bâtir dans la nuit mes féeriques palais.
Alors je rêverai des horizons bleuâtres,
Des jardins, des jets d’eau pleurant dans les albâtres,
Des baisers, des oiseaux chantant soir et matin,
Et tout ce que l’Idylle a de plus enfantin.
L’Emeute, tempêtant vainement à ma vitre,
Ne fera pas lever mon front de mon pupitre;
Car je serai plongé dans cette volupté
D’évoquer le Printemps avec ma volonté,
De tirer un soleil de mon coeur, et de faire
De mes pensers brûlants une tiède atmosphère.
– – –
More chasteness to my eclogues it would give,
Sky-high, like old astrologers to live,
A neighbour of the belfries: and to hear
Their solemn hymns along the winds career.
High in my attic, chin in hand, I’d swing
And watch the workshops as they roar and sing,
The city’s masts — each steeple, tower, and flue —
And skies that bring eternity to view.
Sweet, through the mist, to see illumed again
Stars through the azure, lamps behind the pane,
Rivers of carbon irrigate the sky,
And the pale moon pour magic from on high.
I’d watch three seasons passing by, and then
When winter came with dreary snows, I’d pen
Myself between closed shutters, bolts, and doors,
And build my fairy palaces indoors.
A dream of blue horizons I would garble
With thoughts of fountains weeping on to marble,
Of gardens, kisses, birds that ceaseless sing,
And all the Idyll holds of childhood’s spring.
The riots, brawling past my window-pane,
From off my desk would not divert my brain.
Because I would be plunged in pleasure still,
Conjuring up the Springtime with my will,
And forcing sunshine from my heart to form,
Of burning thoughts, an atmosphere that’s warm.
— Charles Baudelaire, translation by Roy Campbell
The pale moon pouring magic: Tunisian opium and mugwort with blackened bourbon vanilla, tuberose, glittering white musk, datura accord, wild plum, and tobacco absolute.
This scent is absolutely gorgeous and will certainly be a hit for years to come. The burbon vanilla has a lot of burbon in it which is really magnified by the tobacco. The Plum is barely a fruit note while the datura does temper it so it's not that foody. Excellent! -
I LOVE this colour. It stays for quite some time. Mine came off a bit darker than the picture above. I had to get this because, well, you know... Dream.
-
The color of past glories awash in rage and terror: brick-red shimmer flecked with deep bronze.
Excellent deep red that is kind of a mohagony brown with flecks of a coppery gold and bright crimson (more red than gold). One coat on this one works well but I did two! -
Gleaming metallic gold flares of a powerful imagination. The gilded sheen of a muse’s kiss, the glimmering, vivid glow of a story burning to be told.
This is a metallic nail polish that clearly has some yellow to it, but resides in between a silver and a sunlit yellow. One coat does the trick!Edit: Wow. I have had this on since the 22nd, and it is now the 28th and it HAS NOT CHIPPED! This is some crazy dark magic! WOW!!! There is some wear at the tips of the nails, but I mean... I have not been kind to them. I go to the gym every day, and I have cooked for the holidays and it has stayed on!
-
Soft wings fluttering erratically – ceaselessly – in a trembling, slate-blue gloom.
This blue is powdery but not periwinkle. I don't get violet at all, but there is a dark blue that is muted by a dark but powdery grey tone to it, It is very true to the picture you see. So far the staying power has been decent! -
The spirits are done with your shenanigans and wish to depart: a poof of frankincense, myrrh, Tolu balsam, and rose.
A dusty, incensy rose that is not very overpowering. It smells like a spirtualist's shop. I imagine that it is the balsam that really brings these scents together. Don't be afraid of this one if you don't like roses. I'd say this is floraly but mostly incense.
-
This is a sugary lemon blend that really doesn't last very long. It's not a biting lemon, it's somewhat warm.
-
What zank said! The cognac is very present in this. I love it.
-
Heady jasmine drifting through the air, eclipsing the scent of a rapidly-drying bloodstain and the smoke of a snuffed beeswax candle.
Jasmine Jasmine Jasmine. It's hard to smell much else. The beeswax may temper the jasmine from being too sharp or biting, but for the most part it is very faint. -
A solemn, pale child standing amongst snow-laden tombs as wet flakes descend from a leaden sky.
Earth, moss and stone. The snow note here is neither minty nor piney. It is merely cold and almost like the absence of warmth itself.
La Prostitution et la Folie Dominent le Monde
in Lupercalia
Posted · Report reply
I can't get enough of this scent. I generally do not like jasmine, but I am an avid foodie and I do like some of the softer jasmine blends. This jasmine note is soft and pretty and the vanilla makes it this creamy sugar that is just the right type for me to handle the jasmine here. I am really glad that I went out on a limb to try this. I'll probably be picking up a few more bottles, I was truly surprised by how great it was.