absinthetics

I have to say this has the ozoney and hazy quality that was also found in Thriambus atmo spray. Which I did very much like. Since there is gothy club mist in there, I imagine that's the same note.

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.

I just wanted to mention that wow! Has this aged awesomely. It is sweet and soft and pretty. Resinous and woody but with a soft sweet side. Lovely!

HUGE vetiver in your face when this comes out of the bottle. There's a sharpness to it like wine. And then it's smokey and patch. It's like an alcoholic vetiver first, though. There's a strong sort of BBQness that lies in the bacground. Burnt alcoholic vetiver. It is not patch-dirty but there is a 'great depths'ness of it. It's hard to explain. But for me, the vetiver is just way too much to really get into this scent. I have yet to try it on.

Ctfrancesca did an excellent review. The cream and even a little teak-yness of Glowing Vulva is in here. There's something woody but I imagine it is the leather note doing something a little non-leathery. You can smell the leather in the bottle, but on it fades into the background and gives that teak-quality. There's a little of that pencil-shaving smell. The leather stops this scent from being a fully foody scent. Really, it is hard to pull out a hazelnut quality to this. Overall, it is creamy teak with leather straps =D

I third or seventh or what have you. This is an amazing cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows. It is perfectly evil and tempting.. as it should be. This note does not change on me and it lasts a good while. This is somewhat like Sue's puppet show but even more realistic and with none of the other 'stuff' to make it non-foody.

This starts out a little 'dough'y but not as much as the original. Then a cinnamin burst comes through. I'm going to wear this today and update my review but I wanted to say that there was a cloying sort of dough/rice note in the original that I did not like at all. Really rubbed me the wrong way. I was hoping that this version had less of that, and it does! There is some baked goodness that I do like (I am quite the foodie) but there isn't the milk/porridge note that goes wonky for me. (Not just on my skin but out of the bottle.) I'll look up which of the last Lupers also had that note for me. More later!

WHOA Leather upon opening the bottle.

 

Leather and dust. There is an industrial side to this SN like the others for CBLDF. The smoke starts poking through in the dry down, and it is REALLY there. Think BBQ without the sauce.

Very bright apple note. So far the throw has been intense and the lasting power is up there with some of the best. The "snow" note here is a little pinesoly. It is super wintery in that way. Think of some Nuclear winter, that kind of thing that was not present in the release version.

 

Will add more as it dries down!

This really is exactly what it says. A brown, sugary gingery chai tea-ness but with a bit of kick. I do get a nice nag champa out of it but it settles down to more of what I expected. This is really beautiful!

Utterly amazing and slather/hoard worthy. Amazing. Love's Philosphy and Silver Haired bat meet some saffron and... something else. I thought this would be my second favorite out of this year's bats, but it is easily my most favorite. There's the sweet of Underpants but there is an herbal quality to this that makes this more wearable for the not-so-foody.

 

Incredible!

French lavender, spike lavender, and French lavender absolute, Roman chamomile, wild-harvested frankincense, styrax, bourbon vanilla absolute, bourbon geranium, ethically harvested Australian sandalwood, oudh, mugwort, and opium tar.

So, this one starts out with so much lavender. I really don't like lavender. It is strangely annoying to me, like jasmine. So, I am already a bit bias against this scent. However, the notes in the background are intriguing. You can smell the chamomile and frankincense. Those notes are very peaceful to me, and they don't calm the lavender, they kind of put a feeling of calm Behind the spike of lavender. Vanilla sweetens this calming heart of the scent. But this sweetness takes on a lot of the earthy tones of the sandalwood and oudh and opium. The sweetness is there, but it never bites you with sweet, because the rest of those relatively calm notes take that jab of sweet away. It comes close though, but never quite delivers.

 

If the lavender wasn't quite as heady, and if I liked it, the rest of the blend would be wonderful. It does calm down after drydown.

 

A beautiful, sweet white/amber scent. The leather mixes with the jasmine in such a way that the jasmine is almost non-existent while wet. I am not a jasmine fan, though I learned to like it in Miss Ida. If I had to say which jasmine is in here, it is more like the one found in Miss Ida. But I still can't really smell it, even as it dries. The tonka also mixes with the leather note in a way that smoothes out the scent. Though there is a little bit of that leather-whip like in De Sade, it is a whip smoothed in subtle tonka/sandalwood. In a way, these almost turn into an amber note, with a sandalwood undertone.

As this continues to dry, jasmine is really nowhere to be seen. This is a creamy tonka over a little bit of leather, wrapped around a core sandalwood heart. The vanilla makes the tonka pretty and almost foodie, but the ylang ylang and narcissus add something beautifully, maybe dangerously feminine in such a way that the scent is not really foodie. I would identify myself as a foodie, but I also love those creamy faux-foodie scents like Black Lace. I'd say that the sweetness in here is kind of that perfect tobacco sweetness type. Not saying it smells like tobacco, but rather that it goes "foodie" like tonka and tobacco can feel foodie to me.

Honestly, the scent is damn gorgeous, and I am bummed that I put it on at 7am before I go take a shower. I'm going to have to wear it through the day. For now, the scent stays close to the skin but it is still going rather strong. (Ugh, and as I edit this post, the vanilla is starting to slink out. <3) I'll update this post with just how long it goes strong later today.

If you close your eyes and think of a pretty, lethal, ninja-girl, this probably smells like the crook of her neck or her hair after completing her mission.

... As I finished this .. I realized something. In early 2011, I was asked to dream up signature scents for myself. When I finished this review, I went to look them up in the email I sent to a friend. This is what I sent:
"Those are some ideas. ...Though, I have always wanted to do a scent that would work for a (now bare with me) a pretty, seductive, Elven ninja assassin girl. I was a bit disappointed with the how much super-leather and pine were in the RPG scents. That's just not my thing. I realize this girl would wear leather..but I didn't want to smell it much! This would be dark, incensy but with something underneath that was warm, infused with heat and old books (dust, church incense, oak, tonka), but something effervescent and timeless and glowing (vanilla, white sandalwood, white ginger, amber). A skin musk, with maybe some teak, something bright and etheral (no citrus though) but also herbal and rich, but this has to have something sharp in it, maybe a dark chocolate note or dirt. Maybe some fig and/or apricot here." Other than the last part... Beth made my dream scent. Damnit.

An amazing scent. I use this and India Ink to do most, if not all, of my art work. I had to have it. It smells like paper but there is a light floral aspect to it. I am going to layer them together and see what happens =) There is a bit of a chemical note to it that I can't quite put my finger on as well. It is a VERY unique scent.

I just sold my bottle of the Hag... and as I put it in the envelope I got to smell it and WOW!!! It smells amazing! the rum has really come out, it's this dirty, dusty, vetiver infused Red Lantern. I regret selling it already.... What a lovely aging process! This is why I find it so hard to part with things!

Sandalwood, to me, reminds me of pencil shavings. And since art is my hobby, I like that scent. I would honestly say that the white sandalwood here quietly tones down the rose. ...This scent reminds me of a lightly rosey version of Intrigue. I love Intrigue, I have a cobalt 10mL from '06 that sits in my GC box and this smells more like the newer imps that I get sometimes. After this dries though, it does become dusty. It's dusty in the way that Havisham was. I guess I would say this is Intrigue + Havisham. This is very proper and ladylike if you can envoke that idea. I love reading Victorian novels so I love that I have a bottle of this to dab on when reading.

GRR's review is perfect. I ignore lemon verbena scents for the most part. And jasmine to be honest. And it is amazing how both of those are just...Not here! I seriously have an issue with jasmine...

 

This is a beautiful vanilla with gardenia scent. I am seriously amazed how the jasmine is really not there, it usually screams at my nose. (I can't drink jasmine tea without my tongue feeling weird and funny.... it's not an allergy it's just a very keen dislike.) As I wear this and type, the jasmine does begin to come in, but it is so smooth and creamy with that vanilla and gardenia. I really love this scent. I think that this scent is a true representation of Beth's sophisticated way of blending. It's amazing.

 

I think foodie people who don't only like foodie scents (they are willing to go elsewhere) ...will think this is amazing. Hoard worthy, even.

 

 

(The jasmine is indeed coming out more.... but the way it works with the vanilla... I love it.)

 

 

Amazingly, I am off to see a Fiona Apple concert... and I have chosen Miss Ida to be my scent for the evening. If that doesn't say a lot, I don't know what does!

First you get the rose, it is not a heady rose, but a rather floppy, big petaled rose that isn't too in-your-face. Fig is the second note you get when it's wet, but the fig just grounds out the scent to an earthyness as it dries. For a little while it is a somewhat dusty-scent, very subtle. But as it gets drier, on my skin, the honey begins to chime in. It is that sweet honey from the single note.

 

 

Right now, the rose is fighting the fig and I find it hard to smell them both at the same time, it's more like if you look for the rose, you smell rose, if you look for the fig, you smell fig. Very interesting!

I don't know if I can improve on GRR's description. The peach is very present. I picked up extra bottles of this specifically because of this peach note. It's a big candy-ish, but a very high-end peach candy that I can't put my finger on. The amber is there, warming it just a bit. I was hoping for more carnation but I am getting mostly freesia out of any of the floral notes.

 

This is a sophisticated but sweet scent. I think this will be the second most wanted out of the NYCC scents.

 

As it dries down, the woods do pop out.

Patchouli is the first thing that hits my nose, wet. And behind it slips honeysuckle and the vanilla. This is a different vanilla than a lot of the vanillas in foodie scents.

 

 

As it dries, there is a sharp amp of sweet on my skin, perhaps the honey part of the leather. The leather is all but not there in the beginning but as it dries, it peeks out from behind.

 

 

This is a warm, foodieish scent that has an incense quality due to the patchouli. I wouldn't call this a straight up foodie scent though. It's a little bit what I wanted Dolly Kei to be.

 

 

More later on the dry down!

I don't think I could do another review that was any better than the two that are already here. I will add Midnight Mass as another similar scent, and I am a huge fan of MM. There is something a little more earthy and dark in there, but for the most part it is very similar.

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.

This is a zinger of a scent. This is a citrus blend of lemon and mint that is somehow warmed up a little. It's cold and hot at the same time. It is Very bright and if you are half a sleep and take a good whiff of it, it will put you back in the game!

Considering the fact that I always do science experiments, I'm excited to review this one.

This scent is very...generic though. It smells like a few different shampoos that we all know, combined. It seems that the ballpoint pen ink (i love writing things!) and the science fair experiment kind of tame this bright apple/fruity shampoo aspect. The linen and soap do the same, in much the way that you would expect, but unfortunately they both add to the "generic" aspect of this. There is a touch of "perfumey" edge, but for the most part it is a nice, clean soapy apple. Wear this if you need someone to absolutely know that you use great hair products and just took a shower =D

After it dries down a bit the tame/linen...somewhat dry/husky background do come out a bit.

The GC Wanda is very Wine to me. I've a bottle if you like!

 

Along with Loviatar, she has become something of a Patron Goddess of all Dominatrixes, Wanda is the breathtakingly beautiful sable-wrapped marble queen of Sacher-Masoch’s fantasies. Her scent is a deep red merlot with a faint hint of leather, sexual musk and body heat over crushed roses, violets and myrtle.