forspecial_plate

Bess…..at first, this smells just plain weird on my skin. I can’t even make sense of it. Later, it settles down into something light, herbal, and slightly fruity. It’s not bad, really. Just not doing a whole lot for me. Reminds me of Himerus a little. Nope….this one’s just not for me.

I ended up wearing Doc Buzzard for NYE, just a couple teeny dabs and some in my hair. For Christmas Eve, I wore Premature Burial, which for me is actually really light and clean, kind of refreshing (especially considering the name and concept behind it!). It reminds me a bit of Demeter's Wet Garden, only better and longer lasting.

I've been meaning to complain about this for a while but was never sure where to do it. Let me just get it out of my system so I can move on. I get so irritated when I see someone post: "Oh, just buy the bottle! Even if you don't like it, you can always swap it later!" Um, I disagree that it's totally easy to just swap stuff away. I have had lots of good swaps, and even successful sales, so don't get me wrong. Also....I do not bump my swaps/sales posts a whole lot, not even once a week. Usually I'll give it a bump just to keep it from being sent to the post cemetery. So it could possibly be said that I don't try hard enough. BUT....... I couldn't even swap away rares like Vanilla Bean SN, Corazon, Ice Queen, Snow Angel......things I wanted to swap for stuff on my wish-list, which IMO is a pretty long one and not too narrow. And I don't think I was being too picky about what I would swap for. A single note for a single note......well, that's what most everyone else does, isn't it? A whole bottle of Samhain sat on my swaps/sales pages for weeks, until I finally decided I would rather just keep it. In fact, I took pretty much everything off my posts and even retired my swaps post. Actually I'm not completely bitter. Part of it is indecision on my part. I hate to get rid of something unless I'm absolutely sure it's not going to work for me (Pruno, Selkie, ahem....). I'm glad I didn't get rid of Samhainophobia because it turns out I really do like it. Also....I don't regret my purchases. I have found a new hobby and I feel more enriched because of it. : )

Pruno! The scent (well, one of two scents) that commemorated Paris Hilton's brief stay in the pokey. LE but not hard to find!

Wow, thread merged at lightning speed! I'm going to an impromptu lunch-time meet 'n sniff at Moonarcana's tomorrow, so I imagine we'll be testing all sorts of things up and down the arms. I'm looking forward to trying Emathides again because I know she has that. As for tomorrow night......well, I may not wear any scent at all! Lately I've been going 'bare' more often, something going on with my nose, I'm not sure why.....but scents have been getting on my nerves a little. I may dab on just a little bit of Djinn, since it's usually my going-out-at-night scent. We shall see. Also the party I'm going to is with a leather crowd and they discourage the wearing of cologne/perfume.....not that I've ever been much of a conformist.......but I know I would stick out like a sore thumb, so we'll see. If anything it will be something dark and/or smokey.

How about some Black Phoenix? It has hints of cherry and almond, and possibly a little booze as well. [i've never tried Fruitcake]

This smells mostly of caramel on me, and yet it's a dark scent, very heavy on my skin. Suffocating, almost. Actually the first time I tried this, I loved it. I thought I had found a new favorite. Then I wore it again yesterday and it creeped me out somewhat. Hard to explain but I got such a sinister feeling from this scent. I don't get it. Caramel seems like it would be somewhat cozy and warm, kind of sexy, right? This scent is like burning red eyes peering at me out of darkness. I can't see the figure these eyes belong to, and I'm not sure I want to. Something else I don't get, I read all the other reviews and nobody else smells lemon in this? To me there is something very tart underneath the caramel that reminds me almost of lemon.....almost but not quite. I think this contributes to the foreboding atmosphere of the scent. I don't smell mint at all, and the tobacco is very well concealed too. Usually tobacco stands out to my nose a bit more. Maybe the 'lemon' is coming from the other herbs, somehow. Overall.....I'm just not sure what to make of this. I want to love it, I really do. But I may have to wait a while before I can try it again.

This is much lighter than I expected, and starts out with a *poomf* of powder. The powder fades mostly away after a few minutes, though. The vanilla aspect of this reminds me more of Underpants than anything else I've tried. I was a little afraid of the cotton note because I find that I don't like paper/cotton/linen notes. In this case, it's not very noticeable to me, unless that's what the powder was. I can pick out the tobacco, but I don't think I ever did smell the cognac. I think the Indian musk is giving this an exotic flavor, and maybe that's reminding me of the saffron note in Underpants (combined with the vanilla). This is a great scent that I will definitely enjoy wearing again. Very light and sophisticated. Edit: I tried this again and it smelled very soapy, almost as bad as lily smells. : ( Will probably trade my decant.

......the inner debate continues. I want Old Moon. I really do. All of this 'pining' I've been doing for a wintery/pine/fir scent (sorry, could not resist the pun).....and now people are saying this is the perfect one. On the one hand, I already have decants of Yuletide, Ice Queen, Death Of The Grave Digger, Jolasveinar, The Snow Storm, Mistletoe......Shivering Boy......Cloister Graveyard......in other words, many many wintery blends that I really like. More than I could use up in quite a long time. On the other hand.......that addition of 'lunar herbs and flowers' sounds soooo promising....makes me really lustful for Old Moon.......so I just don't know. I can't imagine that decants are going to be hard to find once people start getting this. But I haven't had a pending lab order in so long! Bottom line.....I have way too many bills right now. I just better sit this one out. : (

When first applied, this actually reminds me of candied cherries more than grape. I know this because I just made fruitcake yesterday and I sniffed the cherries. That's what Blood Phoenix smells like when wet, with maybe a hint of grape blended in. The very first time I wore this, right away it reminded me of Black Phoenix. Maybe that's intentional. However.....as it dries, a real incense quality comes out. I can't pin it on any one note, but it's probably the dragon's blood and/or poppy. I could possibly smell the opoponax in there. But really, none of these stand out in particular. It's a candy/red/incense scent that reminds me of Hellion, but more candy sweet than that scent, a little less smokey. It's pretty light, especially for a scent with red musk......which I couldn't really smell either, now that I think about it.

I've worn this a couple times now and it always reminds me of Chintamani-Dhupa. I tend to amplify sweeter notes so I was a little surprised that this smells so woody and incense-y for me. I honestly wasn't expecting to like it as much as I do. I'll happily wear this again! I wore it to work tonight and it was nice and soft.....subtle with wood and incense, and some sweetness from the foody elements. Good stuff.

I just realized I have 2 entries about custom scents that start out almost exactly the same! I totally forgot I had already written about that. *smacks forehead*

DSH Perfumes makes custom scents and ooooooh, how I'd love to get one. However, it's almost like getting a tattoo......it's kind of a big commitment and I would want to be sure I was getting the best one for me. [this is all hypothetical since right now I don't have 4 or 5 hundred bucks to throw around] My favorite scent is Djinn, but I wouldn't want another Djinn. The obvious choices would be resins, woods, musk.....smokey and incense.....perhaps opium. But really, do I want something obvious? Maybe I'd want a cleaner, fresh or spicey element in there. Ah dunno..... I even pulled up the questionnaire from DSH that she uses to get a handle on your scent personality. I like it because she asks some more abstract questions like what's your favorite color, what time of day/night do you like best. The questionnaire alone made me insanely curious as to what she would come up with for my scent. Then they send you 3 samples and go from there, I assume fine-tuning and whatnot. I know CB does the same thing, but after trying just a few samples from DSH I think I might like her style better. Nothing against CB but his scents are so light! I like them at times but as for a signature scent, something my very own, I think I'd want something stronger, more emphatic. Someday.....maybe........

At first I get a strong blast of ozone. Ozone sometimes gives me this almost choking feeling....not a horrible thing....it's like when you have air blowing in your face and you get that reflex of not breathing in. I get that with Archangel Winter, just a little bit. This is one of the stronger ozone scents I've tried. After a while, the ozone settles down and the scent becomes sweet to me......it keeps reminding me of sugared grapefruit. I have been known to amplify sweet notes, though. Or maybe they just stand out to my nose. Anyway this reminds me a lot of Kingsport, except this is a dry scent. If this is snow, it's definitely not sticking together.....it's too cold for that! This scent lasts and lasts for hours on me.

Since it has so many of my favorite scents, I think the Salon is my favorite of all the scent categories in the Lab's general catalogue. In light of that, I went back over the reviews and picked out a few that I want to try again. Some of them I even gave unfavorable reviews.....but still, I dare say that my nose is a little more seasoned now, and I may actually like them more now. And there were a couple that I traded or gave away and now I'm kicking myself....especially since they were the nice Lab labels from the imp packs. I even considered getting more imp packs! But I think what I'll do is continue going through my current (huge) stash of imps/decants, pick out the ones I don't want, and try another swapping post. This one will focus on the un-impables on my wish list. I figure since they are slightly harder to come by, it will be more of a challenging hunt. I also still think I would do well to just get decants from now on, and only get a bottle if something is just screaming at me to love it. With the sheer number of decants I already have, it's absolutely silly to buy more bottles since it would take forever even put a dent in them. For example, I traded for a bottle of Midnight On The Midway, which I hardly ever wear, even though I do love it. It's a scent for very particular moods.....when I'm feeling somewhat confident, sexy maybe, but also classy and refined. I could never wear it to work, it's just too emphatic. At work I've been wearing F5, Usher (bpal's Usher, not the commercial cologne), and sometimes CB I Hate Perfume scents......although now I can't remember which ones. Accords, I think....Snow and maybe Lava Rock. Tonight I didn't wear any kind of scent to work. I don't want to offend anyone so when I do wear something, it's very lightly applied.

Today I broke out my first bottle of Snake Oil, since it's officially a year old now. What I noticed most is an increased sweetness. Also it smelled different on one forearm than on the other, like I didn't roll the bottle enough or something. It reminded me a lot of frankincense, which I don't think I've ever noticed about Snake Oil. But basically.....it just smelled really good!

As far as I know, Libra is not in my chart, although I could be wrong. I was really just attracted to the notes listed here, although it had the potential to be much too sweet. Fortunately that isn't the case! I have discovered that I like rose sometimes, and that's mostly what I smell in this scent. The supporting notes add a nuance of sweetness, especially the cherry which does peek out in little flashes. But really, rose is the star of the show here. And that's a good thing! I've only tried this once, and I imagine that with repeated wearing the other notes will make themselves known. I will enjoy getting to know this scent.

Well, I've worn this enough now that I should be able to give my impressions. I'm getting mostly sweetness from this scent. I don't know what it is. I'm familiar with the smell of chamomile, or at least the dried herb. That doesn't seem to be quite what I'm smelling here. Whatever it is reminds me of cotton candy or some kind of sweet marshmallow root. It's more herbal than a really sugary scent, but there's definitely a lot of sweetness. Perhaps fig is doing its thing here, like it did in Lucifer (which is much sweeter on me than I expected). After a while the clove comes out, but not too strong. The mixture of sweet and spicy says 'autumn' to me. Overall, I do like this. I think of herbal meadows, not 'green' really, but more of an autumn golden scent. It's almost like a lighter, sunnier Samhain or Samhainophobia. It seems suited to rituals, or meditation. I took a chance because if this weren't my sign, I probably wouldn't have gone after it. I'm glad I did. Edit: I wanted to add that I can't pick out dandelion very much if at all in this scent....at least, not like I know it from One To Tie, Two To Win. This is totally different from that scent on me.

So far, out of the new Salon blends, I like this one most. It's interesting that some are comparing it to Voodoo Queen......it reminds me a little of Doc Buzzard. Well, more than a little, actually. It's somewhat sharp and woody, and a bit resinous. It's emphatic.....you definitely know it's there! I think I can smell all the notes except orris. For the first 10 minutes or so I really loved this. Then after that I thought it was a bit on the sharp side, and the clove was trying to take over but never quite did. I agree with all those who said this will age well, and this is my most likely bottle candidate of these.

I love this scent. I thought it would be juicy somehow (maybe because of the name?), the same way that Nocnitsa smells 'juicy' or fruity to me. Not so with S.P. This is a dry pine that comes across as sharp and slightly soapy, but in a good way. It's a comforting smell to me. It reminds me of the woods in some BPAL aquatic blends, minus most of the aquatic, but perhaps there's still a bit of salt air left in there, giving this a bracing, eye-opening quality.

This wears a bit harsh on me, but I guess that's the idea. It's a bitter, hateful scent after all! I was very attracted to the notes but I'm afraid the clove is just a bit strong. Clove does that to me sometimes (but not every time). Overall this reminds me a bit of Djinn, oddly enough. However, if Djinn is like fire, Troll is like fire that's been doused with rain. Oh and one thing I learned from the Smiling Spider....if the clove is too strong, wait a couple months and try again. I ended up liking that one a lot more after some aging. Hopefully that will happen with Troll, too.

I have found that rose is a note that I quite enjoy sometimes, it (usually) doesn't turn to soap on my skin as it does for other people. I couldn't wait to try this and Peacock Queen, I was really curious about how they were different. Here's what I found..... Basically, Peacock Queen is rose, and Rose Red is rose plus other stuff. I read some of the other reviews, but still this smells somewhat different than I was expecting. I smell rose plus some cool, frosty condensation, and also a bit of a green smell, but *not* like the 'crushed green stems' smell that I get from other bpal scents (Orpheus for example). No, this is closer to the green note that I smell in Snow White. As a matter of fact, for something called Rose Red, this smells more green than red to me. Bottom line......I like this! I think I like Peacock Queen just a little better. I may end up getting bottles of both.

This smells good, I wore it to Thanksgiving dinner. It is what it is.....smells like gingerbread. To my nose there is the slightest scorched element, like the cookies are slightly crisp on the bottom. I have very little complaints about this scent. However......I have to admit, Shub-Niggurath has spoiled me somewhat. Gingerbread Poppet is similar but less complex, and doesn't last as long or have as much throw. I bet if someone were heartbroken by Shub not working for them, they might do better with Gingerbread Poppet.

My first impression was 'lotus!', but that could be the sugared plums. It has a fruity sweetness that's almost like candy, kind of the way lotus smells to me. But it's the long dry-down that really impresses me about this scent. The fruit note deepens, and the 'candy' aspect fades. This scent might start out almost whimsical, but on the dry-down, it seems to mature and deepen. I know I talk a lot about 'masculine' and 'feminine' qualities of scents. I realize this is totally objective. Today I was thinking.....I really should stop worrying about whether something is feminine or masculine. If it smells good to me, why not just wear it?? Midwinter's Eve is almost a womanly scent in my opinion, but I like it. And if I like it, I should just wear it! Why make it so complicated when it's not? Same goes for Snow White, which I find a bit girly, but I really like it, too.

I was really looking forward to trying this, with some trepidation, not being sure if it would smell good on me. Good news, it does! Right away I recognize the chrysanthemum from Mum Moon....a note that I really love. Other than that I just can't pick this scent apart. This scent reminds me of a sound. It reminds me of the clear, deep tone of a bell. I'm not sure why, but it does! Also, I know this sounds lame, but this reminds me of a really high quality candle....the kind you smell in the store, and really want to buy, but it's too expensive. It's very floral, but I can tell there's more going on than just flowers. I think I did smell the sage a little bit. After a while, something threatens to turn soapy but it doesn't get out of control. Overall.....this just works! Really nice scent. Edit: dangit, that lily does come out soapy on me after all. It's not horrible. Could be one of the scents with lily that I can actually wear.